Oh dear. I’d forgotten all about this blog, & really I should be cooking dinner. I’m back from my walk down to Beaufort Street & back: emergency rations of milk & baby spinach & tomatoes without which I just cannot have dinner. And I took photos of sunsets and roses outside of people’s gardens (though one old guy, not seeing clearly enough till he got closer, was perturbed enough to yell out at me as I took photos of roses on the street verges. I felt weird, but I guess he felt like an idiot) and said hello to cats lazing on paths in the cool of the evening.
It’s not been overly hot the last couple of days – no bad thing after yet another heatwave, and in March! 2 days of 40 degrees. The rest of the country is experiencing rain and have had cool summers, but here in Perth, it’s been a stinker. The only reason it’s been bearable, that things are still green, is that last year, we did have some rain. So there is still water in the Hyde Park ponds and there are still ducks and coots and swamphens and sacred ibis as well as the occasional heron and a few spoonbills. The swans have gone though.
This is one of the swamp hens on the scummy edge of one of the ponds, almost lost in teh glare of sunlight. It was a hot sunny day. March 3rd. 2012.
But back to Beaufort Street. It’s changing. Soon the familiar blue topped corner of Planet Video will be gone. How long has it been there? Well, not quite as long as I have lived here, but as long as VCRs have been currency. THe business will be squeezed into the space used for rentals and upstairs from that, and the bookshop. I don’t know what is happening with the cafe with its shorter opening hours. It’s no longer open from mid afternoon on. No evening hours at all. Such a shame. I really liked it. There are places closing, places that have been closed for at least a year, businesses moving out because of exorbitant rents, and all that is moving in are restaurants, cafes and foodie places. Expensive shops. Expensive apartment developments, high-rise & exclusive, cashing in on the funky area. And the more they do that, the more it will change and the character everyone wanted to share in will be gone. It will end up like Subiaco which is pretty much a non-happening place unless you want to shop for high-end clothing, jewellery or shoes.
I’ve just noticed that there’s all these links appearing down the bottom of the page. Amusing – especially as the Hyde Park link is for London, and this is so far from London! OK, Perth’s little Hyde Park does have a few oaks, but that’s about the end of it. The swans, after all, are black.
but here’s a photo of Perth from Beaufort Street from the cafe I go to most when I want to sit and write.
sunset behind the city, 10 March 2012 It can look pretty sometimes. I would love a bigger camera, though my little Canon is pretty good.
Sunset on the same day, the actual sunset, this is facing west, taken from William Street. The colours were lovely.
mtlawleyshire 