MtlawleyShire’s Illawarra flame tree

The Illawarra flame tree is native to the tropical areas of the eastern coast of Australia.  they are now grown in other parts of the world because of their beauty, especially when flowering.  There are many throughout Perth as well, and I find them unremarkable for much of the year, but then, in summer, they explode into outrageous scarlet.  This is the largest individual in my area, and it’s on the edge of Hyde Park.

against the clear, hot blue sky of summer, the scarlet of the flowers is so clear, stark & primary:

in detail the complexity resolves into simple flowers, millions of them:

and through sunlight, that simplicity becomes additionally beautiful:

It was windy when i took these photos and the indistinct flowers, blurred with endless movement, adds an unexpected softness:

against green the scarlet gains richness

and even shadowed they remain wondrous against the blue sky beyond;

Simple scarlet bells:

no matter which way you look at them, they are lovely and startling

against the sun, and sun coming through the flowers, the trees attain a fairy-tale like appearance, barely real.

But they are 🙂

Flowers from MtLawleyShire

I do love photographing flowers.

Petunias rom my garden – the purple ones are amazing, though they are now suffering from the heat:

 

 

native hibiscus in my garden:

I love frangipani – such simple flowers, so elegant to photograph, so perfumed and lovely:

 

wild iris or dietes can be stunningly lovely

a type of bottlebrush-type glower and something I always thought was a jasmine, but now know it’s something else (which I can’t remember)

 

I have no idea, but they are pretty:

roses:

  

And this year, I missed the best of the Illawarra flame trees in Hyde Park – last year they were out at the end of December.  Not this year.

And it was a really windy day too, and I was in a hurry because I had to get to work, but they are still astonishing:

  

 

the single flowers are soooooo tiny!

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 🙂

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.

 

MtLawleyshire playing with leaves, light and colour

And, apart from playing with light and colour, I should add – a problem.  I know the solution, but it’ll take time and quite a bit of money.  No, not a camera – glasses!

I was told last year that I needed glasses & fairly urgently, and promptly forgot.  But then – I got my zoom lens and – oh dear.  I got such terrible eye strain that I couldn’t focus the camera properly and even when I switched to my little point and shoot, it remained.  So a few scant photos of honey eaters in the flame tree from yesterday.  At least it makes sense of the strange headaches I’ve had over the last week.  Sigh.

This wattle bird was the only decent photo I got – & as you can see, am still learning apertures and so on.  But at least you can see the bird with his glorious yellow underneath.

These two of a singing honeyeater came out OK

 

 

and this:

 

This one surprised me when I downloaded the photos.

 

But the flowers drenched in sunlight came out OK.

 

The rest are black and whites – all the photos that sort of failed but I think they are redeemed with the black and white:

 

 

 

 

 

This one has come cloud darkness which kinda works.

 

The one with the flying wattle bird works better in black and white than it did in colour!  And the one next to it is the same – there is a honey eater sipping nectar that didn’t come out well in colour (though I think it needs a wee bit more light):

 

 

 

I experimented with flowers

 

And Jacaranda tree:

 

and finally – clouds:

Two photos of the same cloud, but I wanted detail of that lower raggedy edge:

 

Finally, some portraits of the lovely Fat one:

wanting lemon grass – not the camera!

more content in her favourite chair:

a series of portraits in her favourite chair:

 

 

She puts up with the camera in her face 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

& sometimes, there is an affectionate glance:

Next week, I’m finding an optomertrist & then – new glasses instead of the readers I’ve been using for years and years….

 

 

 

MtLawleyshire’s flame tree & honey eaters

Yes, it was sunny enough for photos, but it was windy too – and the singing honey eaters were more interested in lying and fighting than feeding this afternoon.  But I go some good shots.

First, though, just the scarlet flowers against the blue sky – so striking:

 

 

soaked in sun against the trunk of the old flame tree:

 

Or against the green of a neighbouring tree:

Finally, I got some shots of the wee birds:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this one – I was lucky enough to get 2!  Before they started quarrelling, that is 🙂

And this little one perched on a century old flame tree cropped so much it had no flowers:

 

 

 

 

 

Quick shots of MtLawleyShire’s flame trees

It was a stormy morning and an afternoon of intermittent wind and grey and sun.  There was no sunset, and no moon.   But there was some sun, so despite teh wind, I went out to see if I could get any shots of the birds in the flame trees.  I hope I’m not boring you with these, but it only happens for a couple of months of the year, and only when teh weather is OK.  I don’t know if there will be flame trees at my new address, wherever that will be….

There were mostly singing honey eaters there today, all thrusting their heads into the flowers to get at the nectar:

 

 

 

 

 

Some are quite acrobatic:

 

these two, while not all that clear, intrigue me – something about the ‘design’ of the flowers and twigs:

 

 

& this one:

 

& this one – upside down and shot in a moment of sunlit stillness:

 

 

& here are some flowers – they are so striking

But, given the weather, there were many that just weren’t right, so I played, although some of those above made for black and white fun too:

 

 

 

I am missing my sunsets and a chance to go and play with the ‘big’ camera with the new lens.  Maybe tomorrow…

& I really do hope you’re not getting bored…

                   

 

MtLawleyShire’s flame tree, birds and Black and White

I have a new lens for the “big” camera.  No – I don’t know how to use it yet (& today was no good at all – storms and rain & wind 7 thunder & working).  But yesterday, I did play a little.  Can’t focus yet properly and, annoyingly, I see better through the viewfinder without my glasses, but it does cause horrendous eye strain. Now what am I going to do about that!

But, as there were both hits and misses, I played with black and white a little again – and sometimes played with those photos that did work.  I will leave it to you to decide which you think is more effective.

Flame tree flowers in scarlet against grey – & the black and white version

 

 

Flame tree and a singing honey eater – & the black and white version:

 

A wattle bird

   

& a wattle bird again, on his own:

 

Now for some black and white.  For various reasons, the colour versions of these just didn’t work.

 

 

 

 

 

I like how the branches turned out in this one:

 

This I added a yellow tinge to:

 

 

This flower worked well-ish…

Some singing honey eaters – more or less buried in the flowers drinking nectar:

 

& these two little guys were quite visible:

 

 

Finally, a gerbera from Amelia’s garden and a wee New Holland honey eater on a wire:

 

I am enjoying this play with black and white.  Not sure what I’ll do with them, though friends suggest wallpaper, prints…

I will have to see what happens…

 

MtLawleyShire visits Matilda Bay

On this dark wintry afternoon, I was at Matilda Bay and, as always, it was richly rewarding.  Where we usually sit, my friend & I, is beneath the flame tree.  Unlike those trees around the corner from my home, the Matilda Bay flame tree is not showing full flowers.  It is more reticent, perhaps because it is near the water so it’s a little cooler.  But there are one or two, and buds that are showing signs…

 

 

 

 

 

There were, of course, birds:

Willy wagtail in the flame tree & a raven – not at the same time

 

Swans & ducks on the river:

 

the ubiquitous seagull

but it was a dark day with storms threatening from all directions (& eventuated the moment I stepped in my house on my return!):

 

 

the clouds & bared winter trees give some delightfully spooky shots:

 

& wonderfully evocative cloud forms:

 

Then, as always, there were the trees.  This is 1 or 2 plane trees – magnificent & I couldn’t find the right angle, but so pale and beautiful against the buildings of the University of Western Australia, and the building storm of sky:

 

 

 

& this amazing tree:

 

glorious on the edge of the road that skirts Matilda Bay:

& 2 of my favourites in the reserve:

          

It was a cold, shivery wonderful afternoon & now it’s dark and raining hard and my little courtyard is flooded.

Time for dinner 🙂

 

Flame tree flowers in MtLawleyShire

Yes – the flowers are opening.  No, I cannot resist photographing them.

Birds are not visiting yet, except for one lot.  But soon, I hope the honeyeaters flock to the scarlet offerings of nectar.

Beginning to open:

 

 

 

 

More definitely there:

 

 

Against the deep blue of a dersert winter sky:

 

 

 

   

 

the symphony of fire begins:

 

 

 

 

 

Soon, the symphony of scarlet flame will cover the whole tree & it will be full of nectar-loving birds.

I can barely wait!