Birds in and around MtLawleyShire

Working & my eyes means I can’t take advantage of the flowering trees at the moment, which is a great sadness.  But on my walks, I’ve managed to catch a few:

A cuckoo shrike – famed for swooping upon cats (though my own beloved Fattee Cattee hasn’t had the pleasure of that)

the colourful, lively and very feral, invasive rainbow lorikeet at Matilda Bay.  When they are around, the native birds with their wonderful songs, are in very short supply.

 

a seagull at Matilda Bay:

a wee New Holland honey eater.  They have the sweetest song, these little things, are so fast and flighty!  It always feels very special when I manage to catch one:

 

the red wattle bird in the flame tree – it’s been so difficult to catch them recently:

 

now for the singing honey eaters over various days:

wind ruffled on a wire just outside my house:

in the flame tree:

 

 

& these 2 photos are my favourites:

 

There have been more birds since I took these.  I shall include them in another post 🙂

Trees in and around MtLawleyShire

I haven’t been to Hyde Park since they mutilated all the plane trees – I can’t bear the thought of knowing it’s spring and not being able to see the buds coming on the brnaches, or see the gracious gorgeous sweep of new green leaves almost down to the ground.

I might go down in a month or so, but it will be to see the wildflowers.  I won’t go to the sadness of the ponds.

But, despite a lack of time & my eyes, I have been photgraphing trees

The sheoaks are in flower – this is one on the edge of MtLawleyShire.  I must photograph the ones outside the post office.  They are looking glorious at the moment.

This tall young thing is on the edge of a carpark – & can’t you just tell our summer is just around the corner but the blue of that sky.

details of wonderful branches in a park on teh edg of MtLawleyShire:

 

Branches from the same place, and in the second, a wattle bird in silhouette:

 

A view of all the trees in this park, which is on the intersection of two major arterial roads:

a close-up of bark:

A strangely bent peppermint tree at Matilda Bay:

on the edge of the Swan River & over the road in the University of Western Australiua’ carpark:

 

not a huge post, but I know there is at least one who will appreciate them 🙂

Flowers in and around MtLawleyShire

It has been a while since I have posted – several problems.  One is the workload – I just run out of time. The other is my eyes and my ability to focus.

Yes, I have my new glasses, but they are multi-focals, and it could take up to 3 months to become accustomed to them.  My eyes get very tired with all the reading and writing I’m doing, and I am not able to use the zoom lens at all.  I am having trouble focusing on things even using my little point and shoot.

It is very frustrating.

However, in this post, you will see what I’ve done with some of those badly focused photos.

But, this post is mostly flowers I have taken over the last week.  It is moving towards Spring – early, perhaps, but what else can we expect in this era of unstable climate.  And though I dread the approach of summer, Spring is always beautiful.

A golden banksia and a yellow daisy taken on a dull day and filling the lens with captured sunshine:

a ref hibiscus small with winter & a bottlebrush flower – with bee!

 

 

Purple daisies & a red gerbera

 

 

a little pink flower & freesas – I must go walking to find more beds.  I love the perfume of freesas.  The ones in my garden aren’t out yet.

 

 

a clump of everlastings

A hibiscus from another bush & a Grevillea:

 

 

Now – blossoms – they are getting thinner and in some trees, there are more green leaves than delicate flowers.

Almost blossom, some lit by sunset:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

plum & other pink blossom:

 

 

 

 

This is a variety of jasmine.  This is the first year it has glowered this way, all over the gate to my little courtyard.  It will also be the last year as I either have to leave it behind or pull it up from the ground and hope to transplant it – wherever I end up…

 

 

 

A native plant of some kind with clouds of wonderful tiny white flowers:

 

flame tree flowers.  These are also getting thin.

 

 

But also it is coming close to Spring, there are not many roses.

This is a tiny white rose.  It was a dark day and the photo was very grainy.  So I played.  I cropped and darkened at first, then looked at the full sized photo and decided I liked the effect where the rose is almost the only colour.  I hadn’t intended the effect, but I kinda like it.

       

This rose was very washed out so I played with the light, and again, like the effect.

Some black and whites

 

 

But, after playing with the rose, I decided to try the same effect with other photos that didn’t work because of lack of light.  in some, I used a softening filter because of lack of focus, in others, I didn’t.  Some I might try again – what do you think?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here are the first of the wildflowers for which Western Australia is famous:

 

 

No, not a flower, but isn’t she gorgeous 🙂

A brief sunset in MtLawleyShire

Only a brief walk this afternoon – rain & going out, but there was enough time to catch momentary lowering sunlight on the almond blossom:

 

 

This photo works better in black & white – it suffered from low light:

 

 

I love teh way sunlight catches the flowers – especially against the grey sky:

 

A tree striped with rain

 

Early evening moon, in clouds & then momentarily in the clear:

 

 

 

Sunset – it started watery gold

 

 

& ended with a brief magnificence:

 

 

before fading to barely a glow:

 

Then I went to dinner with some friends & played with the light: picture of a water feature in their back garden and a close-up of the water.  Not something my little camera does awfully well, but it came up OK-ish 🙂

 

 

& here, the moon in her proper dark:

 

Finally – sleeping earlier in the afternoon, my lovely Fattee Cattee 🙂

I will post some more of other shots taken out & about in MtLawleyShire

Weekly Photo Challenge: One Shot, Two Ways

Now this was a hard WEekly Photo Challenge: One Shot, Two Ways.  So, it’s a bit late – just sneaking in, I think!

Yes, I have lots of shots of sunsets and the moon and birds and flame trees and flowers – but to get the one shot from 2 different perspectives isn’t something I normally do.  Sunset timing doesn’t allow for it, moon shots tend to look exactly the same (difficult to get another perspective from here of the moon), flowers are usually taken over people’s fences and it would be rude to actually invade people’s gardens….you see my problem.

So, below are some offerings.  I don’t really have that many, but here is a scattering of some that I think fit the bill.

Two shots of a flower – one in with its fellow, the other on its own (& the perfume was heavenly):

 

The moon – two shots about half an hour apart:

 

A singing honey eater on a wire: calm one minute, wind ruffled the next:

 

Two shots of the one flower drenched in sunset light:

 

Two shots of a rainbow over MtLawleyShire:

 
Does this count? A photo of Fattee Cattee taken in low light and then played with in black and white:

 

Almond blossom: the top of the tree against a grey sky, but touched with sunset light:

 

Clouds on a stormy sunset:

    

 

singing honey eater in the flame tree – feeding one minute, sitting thinking of flitting the next:

 

en fin: two shots of the same view/moment of sunset, looking like something out of Dante’s Inferno:

 

I hope you enjoyed them, and thanks, Madhu from http://theurgetowander.com/

for convincing me to enter this Weekly Photo Challenge: One Shot, Two Ways.  Oddly, I didn’t find many other entries to link.

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International Cat Day in MtLawleyShire

Oh dear – I didn’t even know this day existed.  I have missed it in my own hemisphere – but it is still the 8th of August in the Northern hemisphere.

We are both, Fattee Cattee & I – having an after midnight snack: me with (slightly burned) raisin toast & her munching biccies as I prepare this post.  Many photos you will probably have seen before, but maybe not all.

I don’t have photos of Dara, the first cat I ever knew, a Siamese; or Ryn, who followed her – another Seal Point Siamese who taught me about cats, or Boris.  Ah Boris.  My old Black Girl.  Soul Mates we were and I miss her terribly, even know, many years after she died.  Or little Harimou Betina (it means ‘tiger the girl, or tigress, in Indonesian and she was a stripey faced, astonishingly beautiful little cat with abyssinian-like fur, ticked like a rabbit’s, and GT racing stripes and a jacked-up arse. Very oriental in build), usually called Hari – the wee Burmese-cross who taught me to laugh again after Boris died, who taught me play and was killed when barely 4 by a car.

Then there was little ShortBlack, who I took in when he owner went to England.  I have photos of her.  These were taken when I got my first digital camera, in 2007.  I don’t have many, but these two, taken when she was already very ill, are my favourites.

 

 

I love this one too.

 

 

 

Cats I meet on my walks:

This little shy person you might’ve seen in a recent post

 

& you are probably familiar with the playful young Charlie from my sunset photos

 

 

As you might be with this stripey – and very affectionate companion to my sunset photography:

 

but the rest are all Fattee Cattee:

Yes, you’ve seen them before, but I just love these two 🙂

 

 

 

I love this windblown photo:

Favourite chair:

 

sleepy girl:

 

 

 

In this, she seems annoyed I chopped her ear off.  I don’t blame her, and I was annoyed too!

 

 

 

 

An early photo of Fattee Cattee: Yummy tummy slothy Plushie:

 

at ease in the courtyard:

 

 

 

 

She can be soooooo cute!

 

cheeky & playful:

 

 

 

On (one of) her favourite chair:

 

 

 

Taking up all the space on my bed!

 

Pretty Plushie amongst the garden flowers (most of which she squashed – she was so fat!)

 

 

On the roof of the little shed caught in sunlight:

Potted kitty

 

 

The reason she is called Fattee Cattee: she got rather fat due to scavenging around the neighbourhood for a few months after she moved in:

Always gorgeous

The reason she got her name: sleeping with the plush toys:

First photo of the new member of my grieving household (a week after little ShortBlack died):

A very young Fattee Cattee, before she had moved in, and probably barely 1 year old.

 

And now, she’s trying to get on my lap or is actually telling me it’s time for bed – which it is.

I hope you forgive this indulgence, a celebration of the felines that share my life, especially little ShortBlack & Plushie.

 

Sonel’s Black and White Photo Challenge: Textures

THis was a difficult challenge and I’m not sure I’ve done all that well. I might try again later as I’m sure there are some I could’ve included but haven’t.

http:/sonelcorner.wordpress.com/2013/07/29/black-and-white-weekly-photo-challenge-textures

 

The texture of the underneath of a mushroom:

The texture of pattern made by flowers:

a Banksia

the centre of a daisy:

 

A rose petal:

The texture of bricks in a fence – or is it the texture of play? Charlie the cat lurks in the gaps, waiting

 

This really is the texture of bricks on a pavement outside a cafe in Beaufort Street, there’s the texture of teh individual bricks and the texture they make of pavement:

The texture of light and shadow on trees:

 

 

The texture of light and shadow of a tree against the sky:

The texture of buildings against a clouded sky, or is it the texture of Perth – all soaring buildings as it strives to make itself feel important?

 

The texture of delicate light and dark and patterns made  from a close-cropped pic of a bird’s feathers:

The texture of light on water:

 

 

The texture of light and dark with light on water and in reflections:

 

the texture created on the sandy bottom of the Swan River made from water movements, and the delicate tracery of leaves and other dragged objects:

Then, there is the texture of friendship, but that would blow this post out to infinity, so I will stick to this one photo:

I hope you enjoyed them 🙂

 

 

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MtLawleyShire sunshine while it lasts

Of course I love winter, but the sunshine this weekend has been a boon in regards to catching honey eaters in the flame trees (& getting the washing dry) although my eyes didn’t help – many a photo on today’s little walk was out of focus.  But not all.

A red wattle bird and a singing honey eater – the only honey eater I managed to catch this afternoon.

 

striped in shadow:

 

 

2 wattle birds in the one frame (one photo more successful than the other):

 

  

 

In the east, clouds were building along with a thick warm wind:

 

 

 

The difference in the sky was notable, but the light on the flame tree flowers was lovely:

 

 

 

As I walked down the street, I took some photos of a bottlebrush bush – it is made of all the spent flower spaces.  They probably have a technical term, but I don’t 🙂  They add a fascinating personality to the tree and wonderful patterns against emptiness.  I will try photographing them again when I have my new glasses.  Focusing was difficult here.

 

 

To trees – a pied lovely on the corner of William Street and a tall tree in the ground of an apartment block.  Not the prettiest photo, but it is a lovely tree:

 

 

 

Down a lane, another flame tree, but it was too windy to try catching teh flighty singing honey eaters who were everywhere, teasing me 🙂

 

 

Over a high brick fence, I saw a bud bigger than my hand and the flower.  The photos don’t really give you an idea of the size, but it’s very large!

 

 

Two galahs in bright sunlight, grazing on a street verge:

 

 

Brilliant colour in a garden in heavy shadow:

 

 

Sweet peas that were teh only grace in a new house for which they tore down something old and graceful with a garden & trees and erected a grey and white box that they will have to make livable with air-conditioning.

 

 

 

The almond tree blossom: this photo was too dark so I made it darker 🙂

 

Pink & white beauty in one photo and a snatched glimpse of a honey eater at dusk in the other – they do love the almond tree:

 

Some black and whites:

  

 

 

Then it was suddenly sunset:

 

 

 

But the aftermath were the best of it, I think:

 

  

 

 

I go for my eye test tomorrow.  I am looking forward to being able to focus when I am trying to take photos!  And to the rain (‘heavy at times’ say the forecasters) that will last a whole working week.  So, there won’t be many photos, which with my eyes, is probably a good thing 🙂

& as I get ready to publish this, the wind is howling outside my windows, making the night restless…

 

A short walk in MtLawleyShire

It’s a while since I’ve bene walking – the damn flu really knocked me about and it will take a while, I think, before I’m properly back on my feet.  That plus the need for glasses is somewhat curtailing my photo-expeditions, and means I can’t keep experimenting & learning with the new dSLR.

But today was a sunny day, and warm enough for a T-shirt and a light jacket rather than being rugged up.  It is forecast to rain next week, so I thought I should take the opportunity.

First, I visited the flame trees, but they were full of parrots, which meant there weren’t going to be many honey eaters or wattle birds.

 

The parrots are feral – non-natives that were released from an  aviary and now they out-compete all the native species.  They are quite  aggressive to the honey eaters.  But I got a wattle bird & some honey eaters.  Two singing honey eaters:

 

 

a red wattle bird:

But the flame trees are beautiful in the sun, the way the scarlet reflects the light into gold:

 

 

 

& the trees themselves are quite glorious, though this photo does it no justice:

It is a strange time of year – a lot of flowers considering it is supposed to be the depths of winter, but here and there, spring-like flowers are in evidence. A bottlebrush flower on a tree that was covered with older flowers, and the beginnings of the flowers on this orange vine:

 

Lantana flowers coming through a fence, though they seem to flower all year round, & I don’t know what the yellow one is, but it’s pretty:

  

These daisies are normally more evident in Spring:

 

 

This white is a largish bush with long spines for leaves and it is covered in tiny white flowers – very ethereal looking:

  

A Grevillea – they seem to flower all year:

and I found some unpruned roses:

 

 

Then there were all the trees in the neighbourhood.

Trees are disappearing as people get rid of back yards to put up more houses, or tear down older houses and use all the land for units with no room for gardens.  We are lucky that not all the trees are gone yet.

A huge paperbark:

 

Sunlight through the leaves of a large Jacaranda street tree:

Trees growing along the driveway of a house,and behind someone’s back fence:

 

Seen from a distance over the roofs:

 

 

& this is the same type of tree as grow in West Perth: tall and straight, this is older than the West Perth street trees, & so beautiful:

And then there is this tree with a wonderful story-book like quality of illustrated complexity.  It should be in a wild wood and huge instead of merely medium size and against a wide empty blue sky (no – there was no sunset tonight):

 

Yes, I did do black and whites, but they are for another post.

And finally, 2 more photos – one a nervous little person beneath the wonderful, story-book tree, and the other?

 

A sun-drenched Fattee Cattee waiting for me when I got home 🙂

 

 

I am looking forward to my eye test & then getting real new proper glasses to replace the readers I have been using for years.

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Foreshadowing

This week’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Foreshadowing presented quite a challenge.  What, I thought, amongst my recent photos of cats, clouds, sunsets & flowers intimated foreshadowing?

Then I had a thought – all things imply action and even inaction foreshadows a counter-action – so…

Fattee Cattee’s expression, her position on the floor looking up at me at my desk foreshadows her leap up onto my lap & then the desk to interfere with my typing:

It is Winter in the Southern hemisphere, and if we’re lucky, we get rain.

A definite foreshadowing of a wet night on the way

Foreshadowing storm and wind – an afternoon at Matilda Bay before a wonderful storm:

 

Foreshadowing rain and storms in MtLawleyShire:

 

 

The last of leaves foreshadowing the coming of deepest (& sadly all too brief) Winter:

 

A new moon foreshadows teh coming of the full moon:

 

These guys – ravens – foreshadow many things:

 

Whether fiery or quiet, a sunset foreshadows the coming night:

 

Foreshadowing the arrival of midwinter: flame tree buds:

 

 

And here, just into August, flower buds foreshadowing the end of winter:

jasmine buds & lavender flowers with a bee:

 

And – shock horror – just last night: buds on a MtLawleyShire almond tree:

And finally – how could I resist:

Foreshadowing a leap off the compost bin in disgust because there is no lemon grass (she’s addicted)

Foreshadowing purrs:

& this final photo, titled: A Portrait in Darkness’ foreshadows the kiss I am about to drop onto her furry delightful head:

 

I have enjoyed this challenge, and while some of the photos may be familiar, I think many of them will be new to you.  I am looking forward to seeing other interpretations.

& please forgive the appearance of the Fattee Cattee:-)

(For some reason I can only ever link to 10 posts – I know there are more…)

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