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 🙂

MtLawleyShire’s Hyde Park – Trees

I’m not sure there will be a Hyde Park calendar for 2016, but if there was, it would include some of these photos which are mostly of the park’s beautiful trees.  A most loved place, and definitely loved by me.

Trees form the park, the paths, the sense of being far, far away from the middle of a large city:

There are the Moreton Bay Figs:

 

living sculpture of woody coating unseen muscle:

 

they act as frames for the park’s restricted yet expansive vistas:

The plane trees are beautiful in all seasons,

 

but so gorgeous in Autumn:

 

 

 

The jacarandas:

 

The plane trees are frames for the ponds:

 

Then there are the trees on the islands in the ponds:

 

There are the ancient and massive:

 

there is a sense of wilderness:

& above all, there is a sense of the magic, the wonder, the mystery of light and shadow within trees:

  

It is one of my favourite places in this city.

MtLawleyShire’s Hyde Park

Walking through the park on a warm sunny day, even if windy, is a lovely experience.  And although Spring, the plane trees are barely coming into leaf so you can still see the grace of their essential selves:

 

I wanted to see if the Hyde Park swan family had cygnets yet, but there was only this one.  By himself.  Where is his mate?  On the nest? With very young cygnets perhaps?  🙂  I do like the way he comes out of shadow, in these photos:

 

Sunlight falling on bright new leaves on the eastern island:

highlighting the way in through the cloud blossom tree forest:

 

I love this old tree:

and the mighty Moreton Bay figs dappled in sunlight:

 

and views of the park with the wonderful trees backlight by bright green leaves on native trees:

 

 

 

finally, at home – this pyrocumulus (cloud born of smoke and heat of bushfire) in the southeast – hopefully not a portent of the coming summer

Flowers and bees in MtLawleyShire

Yesterday, it reached 32 degrees.  Spring had truly sprung.  It was the earliest date for such a high temperature.  the sun was bright, but sadly, it was also incredibly windy which meant it was not ideal for taking photos of flowers.  But I got a few – & some with bees 🙂

Small Grevillea with a busy little bee:

 

 

and this is a hoverfly, resting on rather than hovering above, a bright yellow daisy:

 

More Grevillea – the everyday ones, orange ones, the magical pale ones and the rare ones:

 

 

 

 

 

the brilliance of blue leschenaultia on roadsides and in Hyde Park:

 

Geraldton wax, marigold and a rose unblurred by wind:

 

Hibiscus and a lovely fluffy looking flower:

 

blossom on a tree in the park

wildflowers:

 

and I just love these tiny, flamboyant bottlebrush 🙂

MtLawleyShire’s early spring wildflowers

It is Spring.  there is no denying it.  It has been Spring for a few weeks really, a short, not-wet enough winter, with little run-off for the dams.  But the flowers are coming out.  So I went walking around the neighbourhood and down to Hyde Park.

There aren’t flowers everywhere yet, but they are coming.

Grevillea are around most of the year, but they are even more lovely with all the new green everywhere, whether in people’s gardens, growing over the walls and fences, or in the middle of roundabouts:

 

 

 

and you find them in roadside native gardens – I love these pale creamy ones:

 

and these Grevillea in a playground:

 

 

The street bottlebrush trees are coming out and other trees have blossom as well:

 

and this rare loveliness – a native hibiscus in someone’s garden:

In Hyde Park, there is a native plants section and here, the flowers are coming out.  They are not massed clumps of colour yet, but for individual photos, there were enough:

Leschenaultia with its startling blue:

Various myrtles – I love the myrtles:

 

 

& I love these: pink fluffballs

Banksia. these I think are called Candle Banksia:

 

the remains of a different variety are almost as spectacular as the flowers:

 

Gold ones:

 

 

multi-coloured ones:

 

 

small Grevillea:

 

different bottlebrush:

 

kangaroo paw just starting:

Purples and mauves/pinks:

 

and this: a stunning creeper – it  apparently grows very well in gardens.  I am tempted:

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!

Dragonflies in MtLaweyshire

The delights of getting to grips with a new lens.  OK – it’s not a brilliant lens, and its macro isn’t noteable, but still – I caught some dragonflies – especially ‘in the act’ which meant they stayed still for more than a nano-second!  These are all taken at Hyde Park

 

and hovering!

This one was hovering next to me

and a little red one on the small sandy shore of the western pond at Hyde Park.

 

It’s Spring in MtLawleyshire

🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MtLawleyShire – Happy New Year, Apologies and an Illawarra Flame Tree

Happiest New Year to all of you.

I haven’t forgotten you – but there is not, at the moment, time to read all your posts, or in fact post much myself.

But this I wanted to share with you. I took these photos on New Year’s Day and haven’t had time to return.  The tree has probably stopped flowering now, which is sad.

There are several of these trees growing around the perimeter of Hyde Park, but I have never seen one in full flame before.  The Illawarra Flame Tree, or Kurrajong, is native to the east coast of Australia, but is grown in many places because it is a stunner.  It needs water when young, but manages droughts when fully established (which is good because we’re headed straight into one).  Like the jacaranda, it loses its leaves, then flowers, though recently, the flowering times have become erractic due to the changing climate, some flowering as late as April.

For me, the spectacular colour – enhanced by the bright sunlight – is almost unreal.

I first saw it as a blaze of scarlet amongst the sombre pines

& here it is – blazing in the sun, against dark green and summer blue sky, the red of already shedding flowers adding unexpected colour to the ground

Looking up through the blanches is a strange sensation – it feels like faerie, unreal

 

The contrast against the darker foliage in the park was astonishing:

   

and against the sky:

 

the flowers themselves are rather lovely:

but the best of it was in the sunlight playing amongst the fall of scarlet:

 

These 2 are my favourites:

 

I hope you’ve enjoyed these photos.  I miss you all and look forward to catching up properly ina  few months time when I have submitted my PhD.

Keira

MtLawleyShire’s Hyde Park flowers

These were taken last week – this week’s weather was not conducive and due to work and university commitments (presentation) I didn’t have tome to explore further.  Tomorrow won’t be much better – storms and winds and rain!

So, here they are – some wild flowers, & other delights, like ducklings and the Hyde Park Swan family 🙂

Before I got to Hyde Park, I passed the flame trees – these are the last of the flame tree flowers.  I will miss them so much, unless where I end up has flame trees.  I hope so.

It’s so long since I’ve been to Hyde Park, and Spring is touching it, though the trees aren’t out.  Some of the flowers are though:

gorgeously delicate & brilliantly coloured – the 2nd is commonly known as the ‘bacon-and-egg’ flower

 

I love the pink and gold of this variety of bottlebrush

 

I don’t know what this one is, but I love its geometry & colour, its singularity.

 

And the blue of these!  There weren’t heaps of them open, but when in swathes, they are amazing:

 

Now – these are flowers of a different sort: the Hyde Park Swan family sunning themselves on the grass

 

 

Cygnets preening:

 

cheeky willy wagtail & a swamp hen

 

 

an ibis amongst the foliage:

a rare native parrot (there were a pair of them) in a plane tree:

& a small family of ducks (I hope they are wary of the swamp hen)

 

the ducklings are so cute:

 

then it was time to go to Beaufort Street to meet my brother (over from England) for coffee, but on the way: wildflowers growing on the street verge

 

 

a lemon Grevillea:

 

a lily in a garden of shadows:

 

I just love these:

 

Onto Beaufort Street: these bathtubs are a wonderful addition to the streetscape – 2 planted with flowers

& one, outside a cafe, with herbs

In the evening, I caught sunset glow:

Then evening with Venus and the moon:

 

Finally, after coffee with the brother, walking home in the dark – an experiment that worked: rose with flash:

I hope you have enjoyed this brief taste of Spring and as I write, the rain is roaring and pouring down, over-spilling from the gutters and flooding the courtyard.

No photos tomorrow.

 

MtLawleyShire’s imperfect trees in Hyde Park

Yes, they are trees in Hyde Park – & it’s not so much the trees that are imperfect (how can trees be imperfect!), but the photos.  They were taken on a dark day and therefore were not crisp, sharp or otherwise perfect.  In fact, woefully imperfect.

So,I have played with them a little.

If it is not too much trouble, I would value your opinion on whether these photos are acceptable.

This was a shot of a group of trees.  I liked the framing, but there wasn’t enough light.

 

One of my favourite trees.  It’s in a  spot that doesn’t get heaps of light & there are many photos of this tree I am not happy with.  So this time, I played with it a little.  I kinda like the effect.  What do you think?

 

Same type of tree, but a different one.  Again, it grows in an area where light seldom comes in strongly.  I’ve usually avoided photographing it because of that, but this day, I did.  It looks proper spooky now.

 

A group of Moreton Bay figs.

 

An oak that grows along a path, usually in shadow.

 

Another oak, usually comes out much clearer, but the day was grey and clouded.

 

One of my favourite trees in the park, and usually comes out well as it is nicely positioned for sunlight.  Not this day though.

 

the path from William/Vincent Street corner into the park.  These didn’t suffer too badly as the sun was shining when I took these photos, but I played with them anyway.

 

 

This is another path and it is always dark, but I love the shapes of trees and the light on the tree at the end.  I like the effect.  It intensifies the darkness & adds mystery.  Do you agree?

 

Please, I would really value your opinion.

Thanks 🙂