MtLawleyShire Sunset 23 October 2013

& there’s the last – taken last night.  The pattern of clouds was reminiscent of bushfire, though I am not aware there were any (MtLawleyShire in Perth is on the other side of the continent from the terrible fires in the Blue Mountains in NSW).

I hadn’t expected anything remarkable apart from its beauty:

 

The sun above the clouds was all glare:

 

Then it sank behind a film of cloud:

 

 

 

 

And then – it sank between one cloud bank and the rest:

 

 

 

going

 

going

gone

leaving colour smeared across the sky

 

 

and colour faded, leaving space for night:

And now I must return to self-imposed silence as I get on with finishing the PhD.

I am looking forward to catching up on all you blogs 🙂 & so is the sunset-lit Fattee Cattee

 

 

 

 

 

MtLawleyShire Sunset: 13 October 2013 – by Van Gogh

I had to post this – it was so unusual, so stunning, I wanted to share.

This sunset started out in an unspectacular fashion and continued as though there was a painter in the sky wielding a mystical brush, swathing a patch of sky in swirls of colour:

 

and here come the swirls and sweeps of brushed on colour as though Van Gogh stepped up:

 

 

The swirled about light of the sun!

 

 

 

 

 

A different painter stepped onto the stage for the last of it:

 

 

MtLaweyShire Sunset Monday 21 October 2013

I know I said I wouldn’t be posting for a while, but there was this sunset – actually, there have been 3 and I’m posting them a little out of order.

This one, last Monday, struck me because of it’s amazing delicacy:

 

 

The way light was split almost on an axis into night & day

 

 

 

& the clouds themselves were amazing:

 

 

The colour change change teh atmosphere of it completely:

 

 

It looked like a painting:

 

 

 

And pink spread far and wide, even south – this is looking down William Street towards the city with night creeping behind.

Out of MtLawleyShire: Matilda Bay & apologies

This will probably be my last post for another little while – so much study, and I am getting there!  And then I will spend happy hours catching up with all your posts.  There are so many I wanted to look at but they come so this and fast!

But this was a visit to Matilda Bay this week – the day after I went to Kings Park and the weather had turned gloomy and colder. There were almost no flowers, just these – a white non-native where last year there had been massed ground covering Grevillea. Very sad to see places fall into neglect.  And the flowers of the cape lilac tree, filling the air with subtle perfume.  These trees are also regarded as ferals, but they are delicate additions to a landscape of leaves.

 

There don’t seem to be any cygnets on the Swan River this year, but the family from last year is still here.  I have played with these photos – I might use them as cards.  What do you think?

 

 

 

 

 

I caught a raven, on the grass, then in the huge old cypress, cawing to other members of his family:

 

 

and trees: the contrasts with brilliant Spring leaves of plane trees against the native greens in the darkening day,

 

 

 

And here are clouds gathering across the Swan, and a rain cell dumping its load over South Perth and parts east towards the hills.

 

 

Now this guy? Not hovering over Matilda Bay – he’s hovering over the roofs of MtLawleyShire, near my own little house, reminding me to get back home and onto the computer and WORK! A sparrowhawk. Not a great photo, but still – I am happy with it. He wasn’t just hanging there!

I hope you enjoyed this little excursion.  I will be back, and looking forward to catching up with you all.

🙂

Out of MtLawleyShire: Kings Park #3 – Trees

The real wonder of Kings Park is not the gorgeousness of the wildflowers – the beauty of Kings Park are its trees.  I took quite a few photos, because I cannot resist trees and these are some of the most beautiful in the whole city (she says, having not really been everywhere…)

But I know some of you (and Bulldog in particular) will enjoy this post.

They are everywhere, the trees – viewed through a Victorian era tea pavilion to the city beyond

 

Magnificent and ancient conifers:

 

 

 

  

Trees frame the city:

 

 

 

 

Flowering bottlebrush look beautiful against massed greens

 

 

The occasional oak in new bright green is startling against the more subtle blue-grey greens of native trees:

 

 

especially in contrast with the always ancient looking peppermint trees – & this one tossing in the bright warm wind that day:

 

 

but the real beauties are the wonderful eucalypts,growing in natural settings throughout this ordered part of the park, backdrops to large lawned areas and planted areas of the Botanical gardens before the wilderness starts:

 

 

 

Along the edges of the cliff, framing views of the river:

and these – grown in avenues along the road to commemorate fallen soldiers:

 

 

 

I love the trees, and wish I could’ve got better views of the avenues of tall trunks, white in the light.  But there was very heavy traffic, people everywhere.  Maybe when the school holidays are over…

I hope you enjoyed this last post from my visit to King’s Park 🙂

 

 

Out of MtLawleyShire: Kings Park Wildflowers #2 – en masse

It’s very difficult to get the wide sweep of flowers – Kings Park is in the middle of the city, but it is a large part of wilderness apart from the planted areas. And these fields are ‘planted’ so some extent – sweeps of wildflowers that wouldn’t fit in my little camera, but hopefully you get some idea of the sweeps of colour that are possible.  One day, I would love to see them in the wild where they can ‘paint’ great swathes of landscape in brilliance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and then there are the massed kangaroo paws:

 

 

 

 

 

the colour of these spaces is wonderful.

And so are the trees, but you will have to wait for another day.  It is time I went to bed 🙂

I hope you enjoyed my so short few hours walking in the flowered places of Kings Park.

 

Out of MtLawleyShire: Kings Park Wildflowers #1

I finally got to Kings park early this week – on a sunny day that was, sadly, very windy. Many of my photos were spoilt by the wind shifting about flowers and leaves.  But I did get some shots evocative of the beauty of the wildflowers that paints Western Australia’s wild places in the festival held at Kings Park every year.

Because I was so late going this year, many of the flowers were either finished or almost.  But still, there are a few 🙂

I have split the post into individual flowers (this one) and massed flower displays (next one)

The first thing I saw made me laugh with delight – an old rusted out Holden, an iconic car in Australian culture – planted with wildflowers.  Quite delightful.

 

 

I don’t know many of the flower’s names, so shall just post with comments.

Kangaroo paws:

This is the most iconic of the kangaroo paws – the red and green

 

 

 

pink:

these ones:

 

and red!

 

& my favourite – the south-west Kangaroo paw:

 

Banksia:

 

eucalypt flower – it makes gumnuts and was the last left on the tree:

Bottlebrush flowers – the first is a round fluffy, puff-flower-ball at the junction of two small twigs.  Utterly gorgeous.

 

 

I don’t know what these are but I love their delicacy. There’s 2 different types, and they are at the end of their flowering, so I was lucky to get them:

 

 

I call this red fluffballs – they are tiny.

Rare Grevillea – not the best photo, but it was soooo windy.

 

I don’t know what these are, but I like them.  The green ones are like pom-poms.

 

 

the ‘bacon and egg’ flower and – well, I don’t know what it is

 

little white ones

    

A branch of Geraldton wax flowers and a type of little ‘paper’ flower.  They can be dried and will last forever without losing their colour:

 

 

I hope you enjoyed looking at the flowers 🙂

Next post: Kings Park wildflowers en masse

 

MtLaweyShire’s Wildflowers in the rain

There’s a small park on the edge of MtLawleyShire, on it’s – um – northern, or north-western borders (the borders are somewhat variable and I think, once, this park would’ve been just outside the borders, but no longer!) and there are some pretty wildflowers there – but this week, it rained, heavily, was a dark and gloomy sort of morning, but still – flowers.

My camera would not stay in my bag.

So, wildflowers bejewelled:

Fringed bottlebrush:

 

I was fascinated with the way the raindrops hung on the spines:

 

What I call pink fluffballs, but with the raindrops (giving you a clue as to their real size) they go from being pretty to stunning:

 

 

 

A Banksia – I love the flowers grow on the ground in some of these, and a secret Grevillea:

 

and trees, darkened by rain:

 

  

Spooky tree in the gloomy light:

 

& a wee friendly light willy wagtail:

 

Native wildflowers in and around MtLawleyShire

I must get to Kings Park for the wildflowers, but for the moment, in my little ‘shire’ there are wildflowers in gardens and parks:

Orange kangaroo paw

 

 

 

 

Pink bottlebrush:

 

 

a variety of native wildflowers from a park:

I think this is called a candle Banksia

 

these make me think of custard:

 

Pink & fluffy & delicate purple:

 

 

like a pink cushion:

 

rare Grevillea in shadows and a fringed type of bottlebrush:

 

 

white:

      

& these gorgeous little things:

& the scarlet bottle brush:

 

 

 

Spring around MtLawleyShire

Flowers everywhere.

September was the wettest month for over 100 years in Perth, which means I haven’t been able to see any wildflowers yet.  But there were the occasional walks around my little ‘shire’ and there were gardens filled with flowers.

A rare grevillea at Mt Lawley campus of Edith Cowan University, between falls of rain and just before the big wind storm started (it lasted 3 days!).

Kangaroo paw about to burst open into flower

 

 

Street side gardens:

 

 

 

Marigolds in someone’s garden (the owner of this garden is a lovely old lady with the sweetest old dog who often shares her powered chair)

 

 

a purple iris in one of those gardens, and buds on a tree (no, I don’t know its name but love the colour):

 

Hawthorn, I think (sweet-smelling), in someone’s garden:

in my sodden little garden: Geraldton wax & the first of the lemon-scented geranium flowers:

 

 

 

& the sweetest flower of all:

 

 

I will have more flower posts…