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Trains, planes and buses
Two weeks ago the public transport authority moved a whole bunch of goal posts.
While the bus services to some of my lurking grounds are now a lot more frequent, I still had to do some major rearrangements.
Unless I don’t mind a 20 minute walk from the train station that I used to go to in order to get to the plant nursery, I now have to catch a train 10 minutes earlier and get the new bus at the station where I get off which is on the new airport line.
I tried it out on Friday and figured that I may as well cross a few more bus routes from my “To Do” list. One of these is a circular route that goes to the domestic terminal of the airport. The last time I set foot near the place was way back in February 2002 when one of the sons of my Fairy Godmother came to visit.
There has been assorted developments and a few mining booms since that time. Fly in Fly out work is a big thing and a major source of custom for the domestic airport.
It was completely unrecognizable from its former state.
The other thing I noticed on these new bus routes are that there are so many new suburbs and housing estates in what used to be bushland or farmland. Most of the houses have black tiled or tin roofs and take up pretty much the whole block that they are built on.
One of the suburbs has a gorgeous playground and quite a lot of established trees but this was the exception not the rule.
The houses are all packed in like sardines and before the recent changes to the bus routes and the opening of the new airport line, the bus service to these areas was so appalling that a car was essential.
Not least because it often takes 5 years after a new suburb is established before they finally get local shops. No such thing as walking to a corner store to get bread and milk.
After the airport round trip which brought me back to the same train station the bus departed from, I figured I would try another bus instead of going for the quick twenty minute trip to the city by train.
It was a pleasant change to travel through suburbs where many of the houses were built in the 1960s but sad to see how many of them looked so sad and neglected with tall grass and weeds everywhere.
I guess the owners are waiting for rezoning so they can knock them down and put 3 houses where one used to be.
I have definitely refined the art of bus hopping from when I used to do it when living in Hamburg. I learned pretty quickly only to choose bus routes that terminate at train stations since so many of them ended up in the outskirts of town with nothing but a bus shelter marking the end of the route. I would then have to wait for the next return bus travelling the same route which was sort of pointless unless it was a scenic one.
Today I got a train going south in order to visit Castaways - an annual sculpture by the sea event where all the artworks are made from recycled material.
It is always fascinating and much better than the long running and much more famous official Sculptures by the Sea at Cottesloe Beach which is full of pretentious monstrous carbuncles made of aluminium or steel.
It was pretty much the same thing from the train window. So many soulless new suburbs with sardine tin houses, no trees, no gardens and no shade for the sizzling summer.
It makes me appreciate my precious weeds and trees a whole lot more.
I think there are more trees on my small 360 square metre block than in the whole of some suburbs.
There were 6 trees on the block when I moved in. Now there must be at least 12 more that are as tall as the house and another 8 that are about half that.
Many of the trees I have planted are bird magnets. Unfortunately, the almond tree that I planted on the day of Petunia’s funeral back in April 2018 departed this mortal coil during one of the several week long streaks of 40 celsius in January this year.
Same thing happened to the macadamia nut tree in another heat wave back in 2012.
If it’s not sizzling 40 celsius spells then it’s randomly falling branches from the neighbour’s gum tree that nuked some of my bigger leaf babies.
But I still keep planting because gardening is always a work in progress. You win some, you lose some and you learn by trial and error.
Officially since the spring equinox in September, my tree planting season is over but of course I keep giving in to temptation.
Especially acacias and grevilleas which not only look gorgeous but lure in so many interesting critters.
The annual Garden festival is on next week. It is normally held in April or May but was moved due to Covid restrictions at the time.
All the newbies will be out buying plants not realising that these days only succulents have half a chance of surviving summer if they haven’t had the winter rains to get settled in.
While the bus services to some of my lurking grounds are now a lot more frequent, I still had to do some major rearrangements.
Unless I don’t mind a 20 minute walk from the train station that I used to go to in order to get to the plant nursery, I now have to catch a train 10 minutes earlier and get the new bus at the station where I get off which is on the new airport line.
I tried it out on Friday and figured that I may as well cross a few more bus routes from my “To Do” list. One of these is a circular route that goes to the domestic terminal of the airport. The last time I set foot near the place was way back in February 2002 when one of the sons of my Fairy Godmother came to visit.
There has been assorted developments and a few mining booms since that time. Fly in Fly out work is a big thing and a major source of custom for the domestic airport.
It was completely unrecognizable from its former state.
The other thing I noticed on these new bus routes are that there are so many new suburbs and housing estates in what used to be bushland or farmland. Most of the houses have black tiled or tin roofs and take up pretty much the whole block that they are built on.
One of the suburbs has a gorgeous playground and quite a lot of established trees but this was the exception not the rule.
The houses are all packed in like sardines and before the recent changes to the bus routes and the opening of the new airport line, the bus service to these areas was so appalling that a car was essential.
Not least because it often takes 5 years after a new suburb is established before they finally get local shops. No such thing as walking to a corner store to get bread and milk.
After the airport round trip which brought me back to the same train station the bus departed from, I figured I would try another bus instead of going for the quick twenty minute trip to the city by train.
It was a pleasant change to travel through suburbs where many of the houses were built in the 1960s but sad to see how many of them looked so sad and neglected with tall grass and weeds everywhere.
I guess the owners are waiting for rezoning so they can knock them down and put 3 houses where one used to be.
I have definitely refined the art of bus hopping from when I used to do it when living in Hamburg. I learned pretty quickly only to choose bus routes that terminate at train stations since so many of them ended up in the outskirts of town with nothing but a bus shelter marking the end of the route. I would then have to wait for the next return bus travelling the same route which was sort of pointless unless it was a scenic one.
Today I got a train going south in order to visit Castaways - an annual sculpture by the sea event where all the artworks are made from recycled material.
It is always fascinating and much better than the long running and much more famous official Sculptures by the Sea at Cottesloe Beach which is full of pretentious monstrous carbuncles made of aluminium or steel.
It was pretty much the same thing from the train window. So many soulless new suburbs with sardine tin houses, no trees, no gardens and no shade for the sizzling summer.
It makes me appreciate my precious weeds and trees a whole lot more.
I think there are more trees on my small 360 square metre block than in the whole of some suburbs.
There were 6 trees on the block when I moved in. Now there must be at least 12 more that are as tall as the house and another 8 that are about half that.
Many of the trees I have planted are bird magnets. Unfortunately, the almond tree that I planted on the day of Petunia’s funeral back in April 2018 departed this mortal coil during one of the several week long streaks of 40 celsius in January this year.
Same thing happened to the macadamia nut tree in another heat wave back in 2012.
If it’s not sizzling 40 celsius spells then it’s randomly falling branches from the neighbour’s gum tree that nuked some of my bigger leaf babies.
But I still keep planting because gardening is always a work in progress. You win some, you lose some and you learn by trial and error.
Officially since the spring equinox in September, my tree planting season is over but of course I keep giving in to temptation.
Especially acacias and grevilleas which not only look gorgeous but lure in so many interesting critters.
The annual Garden festival is on next week. It is normally held in April or May but was moved due to Covid restrictions at the time.
All the newbies will be out buying plants not realising that these days only succulents have half a chance of surviving summer if they haven’t had the winter rains to get settled in.