I originally posted about our local bus stop here.

On a recent walk, I met the man behind the aesthetic upgrade. Turns out he is on a mission to bring a little splendiferousness to our suburb.

We chatted for a while, and spent some time vacillating over the correct shade of grey to paint the stalks of a large bouquet of mushrooms that were now in process of manifesting on the wall of the bus stop.

Did you know they are called Amanita Muscaria? I tried to impress him.
They are actually mildly psychadelic.
Oh. He replied. Mildly unimpressed. Do you think I should add some more white?

I’ll call him Dave, because he doesn’t ask for permission to do these things (nothing would ever get done), he just gets on with it.
Dave retired after running a local retail shop for many years.
He has cycled all over the world and seen a lot of stuff.

He told me that he is getting a little old for the big riding trips now…so he and his wife are settled in Canberra. And he now spends some of his time attempting to bring a little beauty into our suburb.
One object at a time.

He has already installed two ‘free library’ boxes in the area… and as well as working on the bus stop right now, he is ‘improving’ the old dilapidated sign on the main road that marks our suburb.

Its a sort of community un-vandalism if you like. Is there a word for that?

“See that telephone exchange box?”, Dave asks.
Just up from the bus stop. A big ugly metal cylinder sticking out of the ground.
”That will shortly become a robot”.

Immediately, I can see that the telephone tube wants to be a robot.

Looking around over the course of the day, I could now see a lot of things that wanted to be other things. Better things, more splendiferousness things.
It just takes someone with a little creativity, community spirit and flair.

Go Dave.