MtLawleyShire sees Dolphins at Matilda Bay

So there we were, my friend and I, at our favourite table overlooking the Swan river with uninterrupted views to the city on this hazy, humid afternoon.  The boats in the yacht club against that sky were intriguing with the heavy shadows and the bright light:

 

Then the surface of the placid river was disturbed

 

Was that a fin?  No!  Two of them!

 

Dolphins!

 

I like this one:

 

And here – you can see a face 🙂

they were rounding a shoal of fish and the birds were there too:

 

 

It seems to me there was a little argy-bargy going on every now and then:

Then they were swimming away and out of sight:

and the birds followed them

I wish Id had my zoom lens on but there wasn’t time to change.  Damn it.  But it was lovely and such a special experience 🙂

Next: birds

MtLawleyShire’s raven portraits at Matilda Bay

There are many birds at Matilda Bay, and I love them all, even the seagulls with their pristine feathers and terrible table manners 🙂  But perhaps my favourites are the ravens.  Some I almost know by sight now.  This one with his repaired wing is one I have photographed many times:

this one was near the carpark against the light:

 

My friend with the repaired wing at the tearooms:

 

Another one perched on the sprawling roots of a Moreton Bay fig tree at the end of the carpark:

 

This fellow was sitting on fence posts by my car:

You lookin’ at me?  Well, yes I am, actually ’cause you’re beautiful!

 

Then he answered a group of his friends from trees across the road and he was gone:

Now – how did this young fellow get in here? This juvenile magpie should be with his mum in the previous post 😀

I hope you don’t think I’m overdoing the ravens.  Next post – the delightful surprise.

🙂

MtLawleyShire at Matilda Bay

It was hot and humid at Matilda Bay, and the city was shrouded in a mixture of humid haze and smoke from ever-present bushfires when viewed across the river:

Light on the plane trees made them appear almost autumnal:

 

but I can assure you, it was anything but!

Walking to the tearooms for lunch with a dear friend, I passed a convivial duck:

a magpie with a juvenile whining and begging for food:

A gracious view of the river framed by two old peppermint trees  – and a smaller one that looks almost delicate in the light:

 

A shade-giving Moreton Bay fig leaning towards the water

and then these – cypress and others as I approached the tearooms:

 

As I walked into the tearooms, I was greeted by a magpie lark:

Then I was joined by my friend.  As we chatted, a flock of short-billed corellas swooped by, calling and screeching, in threes and twos:

 

 

and in a larger flock, swooped over the river to join a larger flock to roost in one of the larger trees on the other side of the tearooms:

 

From under the plane tree, the view across the river was serene, despite the haze.  We saw dolphins, ravens, watched the antics of the seagulls – all of which are included in the following posts.

It was time to go, so I said goodbye to the trees, including this graceful moreton bay fig:

 

Smiled at a seagull appropriating a seat, although he wasn’t gazing over the river as people usually do, and here’s a wee bottlebush flower.  There were bees, but I wasn’t fortunate enough to catch any.

 

I hope you enjoyed this little stroll.  Next post: raven portraits, then the dolphins…and more birds 😀

After the 2nd Feb storm: sunset over MtLawleyShire

The storm left the sky with a magical  architecture for light and the lowering light to play in.  And did it play!  After all the grey and darkness, the lightning and winds, the lowering sun amongst all the shapes and shadows of clouds was magical.

There were washes of gold:

 

A kind of heavier cloud like an embroidered edging against the smoother gold:

 

 

and the lowering cloud brought something with it – a darkening of a clearer evening sky

I loved the contrasts of gold and grey:

 

In other directions, high winds played with less substantial cloud:

 

then in the west, the sky exploded into flame and gold

 

 

 

 

but always that cloud, restricting it all

 

Flame and colour almost obscured the hint of clear sky down on the horizon:

 

and that cloud keeping it all from the evening sky remained:

Colour spread to all points of the compass: south behind the city and the chimneys of the old house:

 

and down William Street towards the city:

 

 

This is north-east (ish) or maybe it’s actually north 😀

 

and as the sunset faded, it sent out waves of colour across clouds coming in from the north and the east:

 

the colour deepening into pinks and a sky turned pastels with coming night:

 

In the west, there was a final glory:

and this:

till the darkness overwhelmed almost all of the cloud play

leaving the clear-washed sky below to farewell the tempestuous day:

I hope you have enjoyed yet another MtLawleyShire sunset 🙂

Flowers in and around MtLawleyShire

Just out and about:

Roses, glowing in a smokey sunset

 

White hibiscus, shadow-sharp

opulent orange hibiscus – I love the deepening of colour inside the flower:

 

Pink bottlebrush and the always lovely frangipani:

 

A pretty azalea and a little purple flower – these are in West Perth:

 

Grevillea, glowing in a smokey sunset:

 

A Grevillea flower in the act of unfurling:

and no, not flowers, but trees. The first is my favourite on the side of the freeway, the other one of my favourites outside work in West Perth:

      

Yes, I love photographing flowers.  I hope you enjoyed looking at them 🙂

A sky of mourning over MtLawleyShire

A sunset mired in the haze of bushfires several hundred kilometres from the city.  The light was strange, and later, constrained to merely the sun itself.

The smoke haze blew in from the south and stretches up to Geraldton, hundreds of kilometres of the north of the city.  Suburbs, houses and streets were filled with it, and the smell of smoke is disturbing, regardless of knowing the fire itself is some distance away.

As the sun began to sink towards the horizon, the light changed and made a lovely glow on the tortured branches of this solitary gorse:

The colours were wrong for so early in the day:

 

Sunset shades well before sunset and the sun a glowing orb:

 

It was really difficult to adjust the camera’s light levels, but I got some nice effects:

 

 

Then the sun began to sink into the thicker layers of haze and took on a reddish aura:

 

 

From a distance, the layers of haze were visible:

It sank further and became crimson:

 

 

the crimson deepening as it sank into an ashy ending of day

 

till finally, there was merely a sliver of crimson, a barely visible wound in the smokey gloom.  No reflections, no glory

just emptiness and the remains of great forest trees hundreds of years old, rendering all the endangered animals and birds homeless, without food, without hope.

Even the waning moon was bloodied by the death of forests:

though later, she rose above it and shone clear through the clear ceiling of sky, leaving the polluted atmosphere of summer behind.

It will be the same this evening.

MtLawleyShire’s flowers after the storm

With the rain came the opportunity to catch raindrops on flowers and grass blades.  It was dark though, and still raining and windy, so I wasn’t thank successful.  I got some though.

Basil flower:

 

Lemon grass blades:

 

raindrops caught like gems in the delicate spines of a native hibiscus:

 

and on the jasmine: tendril and leaf:

 

Finally, in the garden, a row of drops on a rose leaf.

Later, in the outside world, on a frangipani:

on bottlebrush and bottlebrush buds:

 

Roses:

 

(though this one escaped)

Finally – on a tiny bottlebrush (or is it a type of Grevillea?)

 

 

 

And last – a bee looking for somewhere not drowned to find some nectar

I hope you enjoyed my flower photos 🙂

Next post will be the post-storm sunset, which was magnificent.

 

Stormclouds over MtLawleyShire: Mon 2nd Feb

It was a fantastic storm – the first of many during the week, culminating with a fantastic storm on Wednesday night, though there was another on Thursday but I was working.  Monday’s  storm was a fantastic opportunity for cloud watching – and the rain was delicious.

The sky first filled with mammatus clouds stretching out to form cirrus hooks:

 

Then you could see the storm front approaching – a denser form with darkness beneath it:

 

 

 

a bird flying to safety and details of tossing clouds:

 

It gained more definition

 

It was impossible to get it all in the frame

  

the details were incredible:

 

and as I watched, the left hand leading edge began to swirl:

 

I was watching a storm cell form:

  

Then the right – I watched another storm cell form to my right:

 

 

 

The leading edge of the storm over one of the gracious houses remaining on my street:

It was a tide of storm looming over houses

 

It really did resemble a huge wave about to break over the world:

 

Much as I didn’t want to, there was the camera to think of – and lightning – so I retreated towards my driveway.  The cloud loomed over  the roof of the flats behind my fence:

 

and this is from my courtyard before I went inside:

A while later, I went back outside, clouds moving away:

It moved south-east, rain still pouring down.  I don’t know if it reached the area where the bush fires are:

 

Their purpose spent, the clouds had lost coherence and definition

remnant always look wonderful:

 

and the fleeing remains were great subjects for black and white:

 

Fattee Cattee you ask?  She was sufe inside in one of her alternate dimensions.

I love storms, so hope you enjoyed this post & that I didn’t post too many.  🙂

Next: post storm sunset, followed by flowers after the rain