Heartbreak after a little walk in mtlawleyshire

It was only a little walk today – to the post office and back, but of course I took my camera.  It was a strange day – clouded and far too warm for this time of year.  Everything is out of sorts.

First, before I left, I had a wonderful surprise this morning: my magnolia flowered.  I have been watching this flower form for what feels like ages and this morning it opened, filling my courtyard with its beautiful perfume

 

and its glowing heart:

I caught the sunset as I walked down Beaufort Street, the colours behind the city were soft, almost beguiling:

 

behind trees as I walked home:

and the colours in the east:

The trees were lovely.  These are in the carpark:

 

This tree is behind a brick wall in someone’s garden:

and I met some friends on the way home:

This fellow was very personable and came up for cheek rubs

This one was very shy but wanted to talk.  Then someone came up the road and she scampered back inside before we got to the cheekrubs:

This young fellow I have known since a tiny kitten and he is very playful.  He wanted my scarf 🙂

 

and of course she was waiting for me when I got home:

Lots of purrs.

But now – the heartbreak.

This is a picture of a diseased lemon scented gum – or maybe a young white gum.  It is one of the three, growing tall and graceful in the carpark.  This one looks to be as tall and graceful, and it is, but – for this.

Later, this evening, there was a program talking about the deaths of trees all over the world.  In all the great forests.  And here, in south-western Australia. Last summer, it was so hot, so dry, that trees that have stood for hundreds of years died in a few weeks.  These are some of the toughest trees in the world and they are dying. They are so weakened by drought, by the rise in temperatures which in Perth and the south-west is faster than most other places, that the trees have reached their limits.  The forests are dying and with them, the beautiful birds and animals.

And it is here, in Mt Lawley.

I am very sad tonight.  All over the world, the trees are drying.  All trees, no matter what type – in the Amazon, in Turkey, in Greece, in the great forests of the Canadian and American Rockies – all types of trees, all dying.

Here, it is all types, and those that aren’t dying are not producing seed and they are no longer growing.

A world without trees. How can we even begin to countenance that?

Beyond and above Mtlawleyshire

What a day I had today!

It started with the cat on the pergola roof grabbing some sun.  It was a cloudy sort of day and though there was no rain forecast, it felt like it really might.

Then my friends picked me up for a dinner at a surprise location – the revolving restaurant at the top of one of the taller buildings in Perth: St Martin’s Tower.  Oh!  I was a little scared. I hate lifts and it was all the way up the top.  But we got there and then?

Oh.  Goodness!  I have never seen Perth like this, apart from when I leave on a ‘plane, and even that is usually at night (not that I do it often anyway).

I have tried to organize the photos, and I know they aren’t very good, and most are unclear.  I had some fun with the difficult reflections from inside the restaurant as well, but it does give you an idea of the sprawl of Perth, the most isolated capital city in the world.

So first – city buildings….

This blue building made a nice frame, looking down on the Barrack Street Jetty with the Bell Tower visible in the 2nd one.  Perthites are divided on what they think of the Bell Tower.  I think it is a complete waste of money, though thee are many who like it.

 

 

This is the beginning of my own William Street:

Beaufort Street, from the city to the north:

Some lovely parts of the city.  The first is St George’s Anglican Cathedral and buildings over the road from the Supreme Court Gardens and others.

 

St Mary’s Catholic cathedral – it’s tucked in near the Royal Perth Hospital.  It’s old for Perth, as is St George’s, both being built in the mid to late 1800’s.

Governor’s residence and gardens and the Perth Concert Hall.

 

Very tall buildings that seemed to be all reflections (I later found out it was the Exchange building)

   

 

The art gallery, the library, the central Plaza. I have set a novel around all this.

Views of Kings Park and beyond, and rain veils!

   

 

The river es ever present & the shots don’t do it just – window reflections, my lack of ability and sometimes, my wonderful little camera is really just that – too small.

In the middle photo you can see Fremantle Ports waaaaay in the distance.

  

River and suburbs stretching south and south-west.

 

Hyde Park in the midst of MtLawleyShire.  This is the inner suburbs and onwards, looking north.  Uncounted miles of them!

 

  

Looking east:

 

 

Looking west:

 

I know there are some photos I have forgotten to include, but I think that’s most of the clearest ones.  The reflections, the strange lighting all made it quite challenging.  It was a wonderful experience, though.  And then it was time to go.

Back on the ground.

I hate those long lift trips, but I must admit, it was worth it. The food was lovely, the service very nice, and we had laughs, the 3 of us, frequently because of me standing up and taking photos instead of eating.

It was strange seeing the buildings from the ground:

 

And the highly reflective blue building assumes an entirely different aspect from the ground:

and a lovely old building I think is a pub:

 

 

& some trees & a little city art that has always intrigued me.  These are the Supreme Court Gardens that we saw from waaaaay above, but not the sad Moreton Bay fig.  It really doesn’t look happy, not even with a little editing/enhancing.

  

 

And I get home to find that someone else was having her very own rooftop moment:

MtLawleyShire’s smallest park?

Brigatti Gardens.  I can’t find why it’s there, or the reason for the name, but it’s obviously been there for a long time, this pocket-sized park with huge trees.   It holds a small children’s play set, but that’s all.  It’s well kept and neat, & while I’m not saying Hyde Park is a tangle, it has the islands in the middle of the ponds which give it an unmanicured heart.  These tiny gardens are really that: a calm and tended garden.  It’s maybe the size of an old house block (they are much smaller these days), in quiet streets down from the trendy section of Beaufort Street – we could call it ‘upper Beaufort” as opposed to ‘lower Beaufort’ where the supermarket, post office and theatre are.  Ha ha… No.  I like both ends of MtLawleyShire’s Beaufort Street.  ‘Upper’ is in Highgate which is where this pocket park, Brigatti Gardens, is.

Not all the trees in these Gardens are plane trees or Morten Bay figs, but most of them are.

This is a detail of bark from a tree I don’t know: 

And this one remind me of a tuning fork:

But mostly, it’s plane trees, Morten Bay figs and small garden areas planted with the distinctly non-native Agapanthus.  Of course, the trees aren’t native either – plane trees aren’t native to Australia & Morten Bay figs are originally from the east coast: Queensland & NSW, but they do well here too.

So, this post is all trees with smidgens of sky and hints of road, cars & surrounding buildings.  But it’s the trees I am concentrating on.  Rather nice houses line the surrounding streets & as I walked around, I thought how lovely it must be to live with the sound of the wind rustling through the leaves and tall branches.  And the birds that must live there!  Honey eaters and magpies, magpie larks and willy wagtails.  I saw not a one while I was there.  It was strangely quiet, empty, with only the rustling trees whispering their ancient sweet nothings to me.

First, the Morten Bay Figs.  There weren’t many.  They are huge trees and this is not a huge park, but there were enough 🙂

Branches:

 

 

Leaves:

 

 

the massive trunks:

 

 

Plane trees:

 

 

Branches:

 

 

 

Mingled leaves and branches of both plane trees & Morten Bay figs:

 

 

and finally, a b&w of a looping branch:

For such a little park, there were many angles and many details that delighted my little camera.  I hope the results delight you 🙂

Keira.

quick photos

I’m not well, so no long walk in the park or anywhere else today.  I sat in a cafe on Beaufort Street briefly and took a few photos of a sunset swallowed by blessed clouds.  We might get some rain tomorrow – a light morning shower.  But the really good thing is that rain is forecast from Sunday to at least next Friday.  The bad thing is that I might be in hospital and will miss walking in the park with rain dripping off leaves, listening to the ducks quack as rain dimples the surface of what water remains.

I am glad I took photos of the cloud blossoms when I did and I will post them soon.

For the moment, just these, and I played with the editing suite a little …

I loved the look of the clouds building behind the buildings opposite the cafe, & making the photos black and white gives the clouds surprising power.

 

This photo, of clouds behind the city, was not altered, only framed.  But it is so grey apart from that patch of pale sky.

This is an old building so I made it into an  ‘old looking’ photo, and actually, the bricks in reality are only a little darker 🙂

And now – a couple of sunset photos.  I didn’t feel well enough to chase up and down street corners, and was a bit late for the subdued nature of it, all swallowed by clouds, blessed clouds 🙂

The colours aren’t altered, all I have done is frame them with a border:

   

Just a short post.  Hopefully, I will feel better soon.  Now I must get back to work.

Enjoy.

& I forgot!  Oh – how could I forget – Of course she was waiting for me while I photographed the sunset, but it was windy so she was all blurry, so I played with her photo too:

A short walk

No time for Hyde Park yesterday, but I walked from Mt Lawley to Highgate where I met a friend for coffee – & that meant I  walked past flowers & trees.  And sunset on the way home, a beautiful sunset, structured by clouds ( a rare thing in our world), though rain is looking less likely now, and in fact, the temperature’s going up again this week.  Last night was not cool.  While I was working, & we’re talking midnight, it was still over 20 degrees.  Some Autumn this is!  It was certainly a warm walk down William Street, & although I was running late for my coffee-meet, I stopped along the way:

  

   

  

With native trees, there are no signs of Autumn.  They’re evergreens so there is no appreciable Autumn today 😦

   

And this one is my favourite tree in the whole area – a huge lemon-scented gum:

  my little camera can’t get all of it in, but I love the main trunk with the primary branches looks like a hand.  It is a beautiful tree.

I walked a route I often go if I’m visiting the Highgate end of Beaufort Street which is to turn off William Street opposite Hyde Park.  It felt wrong to not be going in, to not enter the leafy tunnel of the Morten Bay Fig trees, but the street I turned into is lovely with them – & its own tunnel.

 

They are amazing trees, the Morten Bay Fig.  THey are actually a ‘strangler fig’, native to the (sadly diminishing) rainforest areas of Eastern Australia, and now you find them everywhere that is warm enough – which Perth certainly is!  They are famous for their ‘buttress roots’ and next time I’m in Hyde Park, I will take some photos of those, because the trees in the park are much older than the ones along this street. But young though they are, they are still not small.

    

 

light at the end of the tunnel: Beaufort Street.

Beaufort Street looking towards the city

and looking north-east, away from the city:

I will post the sunsets another time.  They were pretty good.  The colours were spectacular.

I hope you enjoyed my short walk.

Keira 🙂

Forgotten things

 

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.