“Old and rare books!”, we gasped in reverent unison,

as we swerved off course, making a bee-line for the shop window.

“Don’t open ’til ten”, a chap behind us on the pavement drawled, the smoke from his early morning cigarette curling around his smile. He’d obviously seen our type before.

My niece and I were in Melbourne, relishing some girl-time. The day before we had spent a wonderful day at the Melbourne Museum, where we immersed ourselves in a shared love of all things scientific –

the wild,

the weird,

OK then, the weird…

..and the seriously mind-boggling.

This day we would spend the morning traversing Melbourne’s laneways, indulging our love of shopping, architecture and art,

and the afternoon marvelling at the mysterious workings of commercial harbours (Melbourne’s has quite a colourful history but I doubt that any internet resource can provide an as wry and amusing and account as our ferry driver did  :lol:).

But about that bookshop – we made a mad dash back before closing time
and what a treasure trove it is – an extraordinary collection of enthralling books,

watched over

by the largest collection of owls I’ve ever seen –

they are everywhere, roosting in glass cases,

on pelmets, in windows and on bookshelves,

and have been mysteriously multiplying for the 47 years that Kay Craddock, the bookshop’s owner, has been in business.

But Old and Rare Books was nearing closing time and we were fading fast – a love of chocolate chocolate addiction is in our genes and we hadn’t had our Koko Black fix for the day,

so, after a quick purchase for the love of my life, we exited this wonderful place.

My niece and her husband were with us for three weeks over the 2012/2013 Festive Season: a wonderful and extremely precious time. We don’t know when we’ll see each other again; we live on different continents. But a myriad of shared interests and the deepest bonds of love keep us connected.

😀 😀 😀

More about Melbourne

Food recommendations from our trip:

Koko Black (of course!)

City Wine Shop (don’t let the name fool you – this establishment is not all about wine: their food is quite delicious – and their desserts are sublime!)

Longrain – the duck salad (which we shared) was superb, as was the banana and lime sorbet- yum, yum.

And for excellent photos of Melbourne, head over to Leanne Cole’s blog – mine can never do Melbourne justice the way that Leanne’s most certainly do.

For more entries to this week’s photo challenge, see The Daily Post.