Whoa, Melbourne is truly unpredictable! Over the weekend, it was like this:

And yesterday it turned cloudy and just now, there was a tempest outside. And back to clear blue skies with beautiful sunlight...and it's cloudy again as I type these words...

Unpredictable indeed...

On a side note, spring flowers are in full bloom now! There're lots of them growing along Royal Parade - the small ones growing on the grass - and they typically bloom in the day and wither at night. The next day, the cycle repeats.

Here are some of these flowers, taken around college and Royal Parade:

Just outside the library in college, there's a rose bush, and it's starting to bloom again! I noticed these multi-coloured younglings growing just outside the door of the staircase. I think they'll be fully pink by now.

These pictures were taken on Sunday - when the sky was completely clear and the sun was shining ever-so brightly. It was a perfect day for us all.

I spotted the yellow flowers in the carpark in college while walking along the corridor to Steph's place, and I decided to head down to the carpark shortly after. It was amazing...

And one portion of them actually grew in an S-shape!

These flowers are seen along Royal Parade. They're really easy to spot, but very hard to take pictures of, as they grow amongst long leaf blades. And they're small. I had many (many) failed attempts, but this was one of the best ones I took. Should bring Helios the dSLR and attempt to take these shots...

Lots of dandelions too!! I like the yellow flower growing behind the dandelion (you can actually see through this dandelion as it's "balding") too!

Another attempt of the tiny purple flower.

More flowers growing outside Janet Clarke Hall. There's like a flowerbed in Janet Clarke Hall, leading to the main entrance. One day I should really sneak in there - but that's trespassing. Ah well...

Big yellow flowers growing just outside Wilson Hall in uni...

And purple flowers just next to the yellow ones...wonder what species these are...

Ah yes - a picture of one of the trees along Grattan Street! I didn't use any polariser or anything, and the sky turned out THIS blue!

The "yellow flower behind the dandelion" that I mentioned earlier. This is a solitary one, growing just outside the music faculty. There're heaps of them, but this one's the best.

And that concludes the spring flower photo-taking along Royal Parade! I then went to the Astor Theatre to watch Amadeus with Steph. Amadeus revolved around Mozart and his rival Salieri, but most of the plot was quite fictional. We had good champagne too (which briefly reminded me of Strauss' Die Fledermaus).

Oh, and we spotted this pussy cat in the cinema! Steph knows him pretty well, but this is my first time seeing him. I think his name is Marzepam or something...and he's really friendly, though he didn't really talk much...

Right! I'll post more pictures up in the very near future! Till then, see you!! :D

Whew! I've been practicing excessive piano everyday for the entire week! It did pay off enormously yesterday, but when I was practicing "The Cat and the Mouse" (by Copland), my left fingers accidentally slammed hard into the keyboard during a glissando, and now they're horribly battered. And of all things, I'm left-handed. They're looking a bit better today, though Anna told me to avoid playing too many glissandos. Oh well, I'll focus on Bach and Beethoven then.

Injuries (or Min-juries) aside, we had a small mooncake festival celebration in college the other day. There were heaps and heaps of flavours to choose from, and I think each one of us consumed at least 2 pieces of mooncake...

And here we go! Mooncake from the city...

It was pretty dark, so one of our buddies brought a clip-on light...pretty innovative...

And we had candles too! Someone actually had a blow-torch and he had to re-light the candles a lot, coz the wind was pretty strong (and chilly). Eventually we started using the blow-torch to melt the candle wax and create patterns in the wax...

We went indoors soon after and had some strawberries...I think it's strawberry season now, and the strawberries I tasted so far were really sweet!

And of course, we had a game of pool...

And one of the pool balls got replaced by a ping pong ball...

And ALL the pool balls then got replaced by mooncakes!!! We called it mooncake pool.

We had to be very gentle though...

And we had other snacks before the party ended, and I watched The Notebook for the very first time that night. It had a really tragic ending and the music was gorgeous, but the story was pretty good.

Right, that's about all for now! I'm geared up for a less epic weekend - doing lecture summaries, practicing more excessive piano and preparing for many more assignments! Can't believe one week of mid-semester break has gone by - just like that!

This is going to be a very cat-heavy post........

Nawwwww...Phoebe looks like a cuddly little kitten in Steph's arms...............

Unfortunately, Phoebe wasn't as outgoing as Jessie, so I didn't manage to get as many pictures of her.

Last weekend, I took quite a number of pictures of Jessie. I've taken heaps of pictures of her ever since I first visited last summer. Jessie's warmed up to me considerably, and she even responded when I said hi to her:

Me: "Hi Jessie!"

Jessie: "Meow!"

Usually she does not say anything, and when I first met her, she was pretty jumpy...but she let met take pictures of her...

I went again in April and Jessie was still the same, although she warmed up a tiny bit more. She still let me take pictures of her though...

And of course, last week, I did an unofficial "photoshoot" for Jessie!

And here she is, sitting in the garden, in one of the sunnier spots. She looked pretty surprised when she saw us, but she didn't react much.

Later on, she "migrated" to a small corner. This is the same corner where she sat when I photographed her in April. But this time, the picture qualities turned out differently - because of the 70-300mm telephoto lens.

She doesn't look too impressed here. She must have been thinking, "Go away! Don't disturb my privacy!" But she sat still, and didn't do much. I really love her calmness!!!

She lightened up considerably when Steph and I paid her a visit later on...and gave her scratches behind her ears (which she really liked)...

And there she is, in Steph's arms...

She went indoors later on, and hung around us. But she wanted to go outside shortly after, and I was like, "Say please, Jessie!"

She hesitated for a while, then said please! :D

She's such an adorable and lovable cat!!

Oh, and this picture was taken just before she said please.

I've never had cats before, but Jessie is the friendliest, most mature and most awesome cat I've ever met. I really enjoy taking pictures of her and hope to do so again in the near future. Oh, and I simply adore her little tuxedo patch......adorable!!!

Right, that concludes the segment on last weekend! Do stay tuned for the next post and thanks lots for viewing! :D

This post is going to be so image-heavy........

Right...here's part 2 of my epic weekend in Warragul and Trafalgar! I just realised that I had heaps of pictures of spring flowers, and even more of Steph's cat, Jessie, so I'd just post the spring flowers in one entry and Jessie's pictures in another.

The rose that Steph's mum gave me: I took this picture about a week ago, and now I'm letting it dry so that I can keep it for as long as I like. Hopefully the dried flower will last. It's not totally dry yet but it's still very beautiful, despite its crunchy leaves (yep, the leaves are pretty much dry now), and I'd probably trim it before putting it into a container along with other precious posessions.

Half my folder was filled with pictures of spring flowers, ranging from cherry blossoms (they were blooming very beautifully in Warragul, and unfortunately the ones in the city are long gone) to daffodils to roses to tulips......spring is a very beautiful season indeed.

The moon - taken around 2pm. I love my telephoto lens! I think this was at maximum zoom already, and yet the moon was so clearly seen. I do like the way the clouds help in the composition of the picture. I was pretty lucky too - a few minutes after this pic was taken, dark clouds came in and the moon was soon hidden from view.

Cherry blossoms. The entire tree was just filled with these gorgeous pink flowers, and all the branches were filled with nothing but flowers. It was so mesmerising.

More cherry blossoms near Steph's place - these trees were rather sparsely filled with blossoms compared to the ones I mentioned earlier, but they still looked good. Once again, thanks so much to my telephoto lens for allowing me to take such shots.

Daffodils growing in Steph's garden.

I don't remember what this pink flower is called, but according to Steph's mum, it is massive. Unfortunately it has not opened yet, and will open in a couple of weeks time. Oh well...

More pink flowers just outside the kitchen. I can't remember what these are called too...but they're definitely not roses. Or maybe they do belong to the rose family?

Later in the day I wandered down the street to have a closer look at the cherry blossoms, and I spotted some more pink flowers growing on a highly unusual tree. The branches were drooping down instead of pointing upwards and outwards, and these were also filled with quite a number of flowers. I don't think these are cherry blossoms though...

Oh yes, and it was already dusk by then, and the moon was much more prominent. It had also rained just before I ventured out, so the sky had cleared up considerably by then.

Spotted some birds perching on the trees...

And white cherry blossoms! This is probably my first time seeing white cherry blossoms...usually I spot pink cherry blossoms. I wonder if there will be more flowers blooming now...

Some other pictures of the surrounding trees - they were still bare, despite the fact that it's mid-September.

Rose bush back in Steph's place....

Tulips in Steph's neighbour's flowerbed. Their flowerbed was really well-kept and there were lots of lovely flowers surrounding the tulips too.

Yet another shot of the gorgeous pink flowers I took earlier. I love the arrangement of the petals!

Rose bush in the foreground and the moon in the background...

And a final shot of some bare branches illuminated by the setting sun.

That's about all the spring flowers I took in Warragul! In the next post, I'll post the rest of the pictures!

Oh, and say hi to Jessie - the beautiful cat on the main page of my blog! :D Will post more pictures of her soon!