Trellis in South Bank

South Bank Parkland,
originally uploaded by BrisbaneBryce.

Across the Brisbane River from the CBD is the arts and culture district known as South Bank. One of the notable features away from the river is a trellis that's several hundred meters long. It is framed by metal sculptures of constantly varying shape linked by wires. Flowering vines have been planted all along the trellis and have been growing for years.

The last few days here have been in the high 20's (that's mid- to upper 70's Fahrenheit) with high humidity. We've gotten some weather in from the tropics, up Darwin-way. While it's almost always shorts and t-shirt weather, this week has been light t-shirt and minimal clothing. Ahh! It's just turned Spring in the Southern Hemisphere. Already, the locals are whinging a bit about how hot the weather is. I had a chat with a shopkeeper who was very satisfied to be in a shop with aircon. He told the story of a few summer ago when it was 33-34 in the summer time. He regarded it as quite hot, and when on to tell the story of some folks down from Darwin who were walking about in long sleeves and coats. Darwin, for those of you not familiar with Australia, is the capital of the Norther Territories, one of the Australian states. It's much nearer to the Equator, and is truly tropical. Brisbane is only sub-tropical, and more temperate. No water problems up there, and typically 5 degrees warmer than Brissie.

It was a beautiful day today and I had a lovely walk along the river. This trellis is very beautiful and provides lovely shade.

Give life

Give life,
originally uploaded by BrisbaneBryce.

Street box

box,
originally uploaded by BrisbaneBryce.

Street Boxes

Electrical Box, Ann & Wickham,
originally uploaded by BrisbaneBryce.

In any urban area, one of the common problems with any large, regular, or flat public space is graffiti. Tagging. Someone always has paint or a marker and will sign their name. Less common are writing walls and thoughtful public art. Sometimes public art is sponsored. Near my house in San Francisco, the city sponsored a massive public mural -- it took the artist nearly three months to paint. One of the reason sensible cities sponsor or encourage writing walls and public murals is to discourage trash graffiti.

In downtown Brisbane, on of the most common features is electrical junction boxes, typically located at intersections. So often fixtures like that are grey rectangles with so many layers of paint it is almost funny. Some local art group, or maybe several, or perhaps spontaneously, have taken to painting these street boxes. Great stuff, colorful, and rarely tagged. I'll be posting more, some without comment. I've taken to snapshotting them with my phonecam and putting them on my Flickr site.

The Trees of Brisbane

tree at night,
originally uploaded by BrisbaneBryce.

The Brisbane City Council has an interesting habit of lighting up trees. This one is along the river, near Park Road in Milton.

River Fire

Formation over Brisbane,
originally uploaded by BrisbaneBryce.

Tonight, Brisbane celebrated River Fire. It turned out to be an amazing event, punctuated by some awesome effects. This is a yearly festival on the first Saturday night of September. Tomorrow happens to be Father's Day here in Australia, so it's quite festive in town.

Just at sunset, four vintage fighter planes flew in formation over downtown Brisbane. This one passed not more than 300 meters from my balcony in the Aurora, which is just a block from the river. Startling. Nice.

At 7PM local time, the real festivities began with this unbelievable flaming jet that passed over the river and heading West, not more than 300 meters from my building. Truly astonishing to hear and see this bright trail of flame in the night sky seemingly just outside my window! What followed was nearly 30 minutes of fireworks up and down the river, from Story Bridge all the way down to Victoria Bridge. Those beidges mark the beginning and ending of the Central Business District, or CBD. The amount of smoke from all the fireworks was amazing...it blanketed my entire neighborhood. And the end of the fireworks were marked by a tail of fire coming from a jet. The other great effect of the night was a seeming waterfall of sparks rolling off the center of the Story Bridge. Beautiful.

What a spectacle! This is an event not to be missed if you are ever in Brisbane in late August/early September.