Raindrops on a wet Friday out of MtLawleyShire

This was at Easter, on Good Friday and I was in the city at a convention.  But before I went in, there was a chance for photos.

The street trees are paperbarks and their blossoms were out.

 

 

The rain clung to the delicate leaves:

 

and dripped off the bark:

everywhere there were raindrops: on the thick steel railings outside a cafe:

 

on a window:

gathered in a telephone cover in the footpath:

the city itself had almost disappeared in the light rain, even though I was standing in amongst the buildings:

and the river was a myth:

It was lovely 🙂

 

 

 

MtLawleyShire on an outing to the city

On a hot day, I met friends in the city.  As I waited outside the entrance to teh underground train station, I was intrigued by the reflections and shapes around me.

Taller buildings reflected in the round front of the modern styles around the entrance:

 

reflections and touches of colour:

 

across the road, blocky and odd shapes against a sky of cloud and light:

 

inside the modern building: yellow lighting:

 

contrasts on the exterior:

inside, where we had lunch – more of that lighting and a wall of bottles:

 

and a ceiling of colour:

 

This is looking up through all the hanging pieces to the glass ceiling and the shadowy shapes of the buildings soaring up into the sky beyond:

Outside again.  City laneways:

 

Another laneway:

 

a conjunction of city architectural styles, the first being intriguing light:

 

 

Slices of city:

a touch of art deco:

grace and plane tree leaves:

that graceful building from different angles, with all the different skyscrapers behind:

 

 

 

& a black and white of that lovely old building:

blocks on top of the imperialistic post office building:

It was a fun day where consumerism was indulged in – to great and long-lasting effect 🙂

MtLawleyShire’s day in the city

I went into the city to meet a friend, and of course, took the camera with me 🙂

Old Perth – the bricks and sandstone, the variety of shapes and handsome windows:

Museum & the back of the Battye Library

 

sunlight and shadow and reflections in windows – The old Police Courts

 

PICA and outside the Museum

 

on James Street

the green and the shade of the summer plane trees add the illusion of coolth:

The modern city of blocks and lines, glass and concrete and interesting reflections, angles and shadows:

 

 

This is my favourite shot:

and there is a Christmas sense to it all: decorations on the streets:

 

& in the Museum where Betty the raptor is slightly less dignified 😀

 

 

MtLawleyShire on an outing

Saturday – an outing to see the Giants in the CBD.  I thought I had it all organized, but the bus went a different way.  I hadn’t seen this on the maps.  So I had an extra walk.  Passed this beautiful tree unaffected by the growing crowds:

A rose outside a Greek Orthodox church and a lion guarding a closed restaurant:

 

Then I was in the crowds.  I had missed my best opportunity to see the Giants.  The crowds were incredible – and I don’t like crowds, being rather small.  But I wish I’d taken photos of the crowds.  1 million people visited the city during this 3 day event and the afternoon I went? In this one small area?  100’s of 1,000’s.  And I was one small member of that crowd.  I couldn’t see over or through and the best photos I got of the Little Girl was as she was going up the steep slope of the Horseshoe Bridge:

 

I escaped the worst of the crowds to catch the train to Daglish.  Inside the station, it is still possible to see the old style of the building:

and I did love the geometry of the modernistic ceiling:

On the walk to my friends’ place, I was struck by the light coming through leaves:

 

It is a very leafy area and there will be another post of all the trees along the railway line, but here are some details.  Berries on a moreton bay fig tree and the surprising colour of blossom on a young eucalypt:

 

The banksias are getting ready to burst into candles:

 

It was really too windy for photographing flowers, but I couldn’t resist this grevillea in someone’s garden:

 

And this – a cassia fistula the flowers cascading in the light:

 

 

Finally, after a lovely evening, although I got home when it was dark, I was still greeted by a Fattee Cattee – all purrs and cuddles.  So here she is before I left, being affectionate at me:

Quite an exciting weekend.  I hope you enjoyed this little taste of it.

Next post – trees!  🙂

MtLawleyShire goes to the city

I met a dear friend for lunch in the city – a rare outing for me.  At the moment, the Perth Festival is on so there were many more people and activities going on around me.  This massive moreton bay fig near the art gallery was sublimely unfazed by all the activity around it:

and the graceful architecture of a bygone age, the lovely eucalypt near it were likewise untouched:

 

It was a little breezy for flowers in the city orchard, but I was able to get a few:

 

 

the view from the walkway to the railway station is somewhat unappealing:

and then, from the elevated walkway above Forest Place, a glimpse of the Diver, sleeping – one of the Giants, marionettes that visited Perth and walked the streets for three days to open the Perth Festival.

 

a wee rabbit in a shop window display – it just looked so wistful

delicate foliage and graceful architecture:

 

modern glass against old facades:

 

straight and soaring:

detail of shopfront decorations – reflections of plane trees in the mall are glimpses in this:

blocky architecture:

 

and the old Trades Hall on Beaufort Street – more old architecture.  I’m not sure which I prefer, the black and white or the green – which it is & it looks charming:

 

Other things – a blue dragonfly in the city wetland:

a very strange character – really quite large – near the Art Gallery.  It looks like a big pink faceless bunny:

and this – larger than anything else (except for buildings) – in the museum: a claw about to descend ‘pon my head!  😀

It’s OK – I’m still here 🙂

I hope you enjoyed my little wander around the CBD of Perth (well, a section of it).  🙂

 

 

MtLawleyShire and the architectural

Just before I go into work in West Perth, I like to walk around and take photos of the predominately modern architecture around this western part of the city.  I then play with the images, accentuating the intersection with the built environment and the sky, with light and shadow, and the flat planes and lines.

the first of these is a concrete wall around a stairwell

this is light on the western wall of a building

architectural features look strange when highlighted out of context

 

accentuating shadows make the mundane appear forbidding

 

removing details renders reflections surreal

two views of the same structure

 

perspective and sliced reflections

hanging in space

 

and sometimes, colour enhances the stark appearance, especially with summer’s primary lack of nuance

         

Out of MtLawleyShire: Early morning in the city

Monday morning, Jan 7.  Up very early – it was too hot to sleep anyway – and just as I stepped out to catch the bu? Thunder & rain.  The thunder went, the rain didn’t.  It was already over 30 degrees and raining.  It wasn’t cool in the slightest.  It was like being in the tropics!  Much as I love rain, this was a little disappointing – no photos of the flowers in the city orchard this morning!  Would I be able to take any photos at all?

When I stepped out of the air-conditioned bus in the centre of the city, it was like stepping into a hot, dripping wet blanket.  YUCK!

But – there were photos to be taken.

These tall buildings on the corner of William & Hay streets leaned together under the heavy skies like conspirators, and their customary proud gleam is dulled in the heavy light of rainy early morning

 

I risked getting wet – & worse, my new camera getting wet – to get this shot:

As I walked down Hay Street Mall, I noticed things I’d never noticed before.  Many, because of the rain, I couldn’t photograph, but these 2 I could: an artfully painted wall at the entrance to an otherwise dingy alley, and a detail on the wall of Piccadilly Arcade.

 

The view down to the end of William Street – which has lost its beauty because of the unpopular work to remove open space from the river front and add more corporate high-rise – is silenced by rain and filled with reflections on the road rather than the buildings.

I found a cafe that was open (my normal cafe is closed until the end of January) in Hay Street Mall.  I tried to capture the wet reflections and the rain.  The green of the leaves is intensified – washed free of the fust over the last weeks of very hot days.

 

& as I took photos of corners saw something I hadn’t noticed before: a remnant of older architecture:

 

looking east up Hay Street is all quiet reflecting roads and grey skies and looking down Barrack Street to the river and the ‘Bell Tower’ is just greyness, except for the washed green of leaves.

 

Then it was time to head for the college.  I played some: a reflection in a shop window: mask over the building across the road.  It didn’t really work as the building is too blurred, but it intrigued me nonetheless.

 

 

& this building, normally so stark and white against the sky, is as grey as the sky, it lines not as stark.

It was a strange morning, so hot, so humid, and this was Monday.  I am posting on Wednesday, and it only began to cool down last night.  We are in for a horrendous summer.  As I drove past Hyde Park yesterday afternoon, I saw that one of the ponds is almost completely empty of water.

Global warming is going to have the most heartbreaking effects.