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.

Far from MtLawleyShire #4: Views of Araluen

The last of the posts of Araluen.  these are photos of views of the park – though it was a dismal (but delightful) day.

I saw many birds: fairy wrens – the boys in their iridescent blue, the girls in their soft browns, New Holland Honey eaters amongst others – & this little fellow: a robin in a wintered tree.  So suited to the European aspect of the gardens.

The bridge over the pond was closed, so I could only get these photos of the – um – whatever it is.  I love the trees around them.

 

 

From the tearooms – you can see wattle gleaming amongst the sombre greens.  The twisted wood is wisteria – huge and only just starting to bud.  It would look beautiful in full flower.

 

did I mention it rained?  The 1st of these photos is my favourite.

This was my attempt to capture water running through a rocky stream bed.  I need more – much more – practise at taking those photos (fast or slow shutter speed) to catch moving water:

And this was at the entrance to the gardens 😀  It was too cold to worry about snakes, but should I go there again, before summer, before the flowers fade, then I will bear it in mind.

One the way home, we decided to try a scenic route and got delightfully lost.  And as we descended the hills, the Swan River coastal plain with all its city was laid out before us, including the eruption of the CBD of Perth with its skyscrapers.  Much hilarity was caused by me trying to get these shots through the windscreen.  Every time I thought I had it, round a curve we’d go, or a tree would obscure the view or she’d go over a bump.  But I got these.  And the last (& best) is proof there was some sun on the day.

It was a lovely day.

I hope you enjoyed these posts.

Far From MtLawleyShire #3 Trees

Trees.  The Araluen Botanical Garden is surrounded by them.  This is the third of four posts on my expedition to the Gardens.  No tulips this time, but flowers are still visible.  This post is devoted to trees.

Just before you get to the carpark, there is a bare patch because it’s a rose farm, but that’s not visible from the gardens.  Mostly they are native Australian trees with the odd plane tree or European spruce.  Basically, if the branches are bare, it’s not from around here.

And here are 2 examples: ghost-pale against the darker greens – though in the 2nd photo, some of those greens are conifers and it was raining too much t go and check what kind they were:

 

the brilliant gold of flowering wattle lifts the subtle greens of the West Australian bush

 

in some areas, the fact that it’s a park, not wilderness is visible

 

 

in some areas, it looks like pure wilderness 🙂

 

 

this massive tree on the lawns, with neighbouring ghost gum and the background of ghostly deciduous waiting for spring’s touch:

 

and some of the shapes made wonderful silhouettes:

      

MtLawleyShire and a Landsdale sunset

Landsdale is a long way from MtLawleyShire – approximately 20 kms.  The difference in the topography is notable, as was teh vantage for the sunset: wide open, flat, reminding me that I was much closer to the sea than in MtLawleyShire.  It allowed, though, a glorious sunset view, despite the fact I stood on a major road – so no, I couldn’t really avoid the lightpoles, but they do add a nice perspective.

These straight trees caught the lowering light nicely

but even better were the clouds as the lowering sun blasted gold all across the horizon

 

  

the light coated trees behind me in that darkly golden light

  

and then the sun caught up with itself and the end of day:

 

 

 

 

and gone

 

in other directions, following the road, the skies changed, but the vast emptiness of it almost defeated any sense of colour

 

 

 

In the west, the golden echoes of light intensified clouds

 

it was possible to see virga

 

the sky beneath the clouds was as clear and clean as glass

the light began to fade and withdraw

 

leaving the hint of deep burning embers down on the horizon

A wide, uninterrupted sunset, not something MtLawleyShire is accustomed to.  I hope you enjoyed it 🙂

Outside of MtLawleyShire: railway line trees

MtLawleyShire, as an area (though occasionally, it is also this person – just to confuse you 🙂 ), is leafy with lovely trees and gardens.  It is an old area, the trees are large, but it is a regular suburb with roads and parks and houses.  The railway line is some distance from my normal routes, and getting near the city, is bridges and buildings without a great deal of space.  Further west, on the oldest rail line – Midland to Fremantle (which also goes through the eastern edges of MtLawleyShire) there are areas where the buffer along the tracks has been allowed to be itself.  Urban bush.  Managed, no doubt, and therefore not ‘pristine’, but nonetheless – a touch, a taste, of bush in the middle of suburbia, so this is what the railway side of the road looks like:

 

I don’t know all the trees.  I recognized this one though – a massive peppermint tree, its huge girth giving an indication of its age:

These are either lemon-scented or ghost gums – or perhaps something else entirely!  Beautiful though:

 

 

especially this one – so straight! It makes me think it’s a ghost gum:

A massive moreton bay fig – known as the strangler fig, it is definitely an interloper that has been here a long time.  It makes me thing the area is managed because otherwise, there would be many of them, and it is dotted with berries:

 

this Norfolk pine soaring above everything renders the lightpole redundant 😀

Cheating a little – this paperbark was in someone’s garden – over the road from the urban bush, so not really straying 🙂 But of such a size! It had been there a long time:

the first of this group is so reminiscent of something you’d see driving something other than the city – trees against the sky.  The other 2 are trees I see frequently, even in MtLawleyShire, and I think they are actually west Australian natives:

 

I have no idea of the names of these trees, but they are lovely:

 

 

and this one – the last of my photos – just magnificent!

This post was to remind myself of my love of trees, and I hope you enjoyed it.  Bulldog, my friend – I hope this made you smile.

Next post will most likely be back in MtLawleyShire, and quite possibly, yet another sunset.

MtLawleyShire and a Sunday afternoon walk

I have a sunset to post, from last night, but it is going to take a while because it was spectacular.  Today, the sunset was merely glare in a featureless summer sky, but before that, there were flowers, bees, trees and birds

Flowers:

In sumptuous shadow and flowing light – hibiscus

 

 

the outrageous and glowing colour of bougeanvillea:

 

catching the light in the wind:

I walked past a beautiful rose garden:

 

 

 

a tiny, richly glowing geranium outside a picket fence:

Grevillea:

 

the flowers of a tallow tree:

Coral gum blossom – one with bee 🙂

 

 

a raven in a carpark, calling out to his mob:

Favourite trees:

the piebald one on the corner two blocks up

The lemon-scented gum:

      

and a tall tree down near Beaufort Street:

a tree of a different kind – & can you see the moon in the wide empty sky?

then it was time to go home –

Next – bees and blossoms.

Then, young moon and sunset.

I hope you enjoyed this post 🙂

 

MtLawleyShire at Matilda Bay

An afternoon at Matilda Bay with a dear friend – not a cloud in the sky but, thankfully, it wasn’t too hot.

The light through the trees on the banks of the Swan River was magical:

 

trees on the edge of this vast expanse of the salty river always intrigue me:

The Matilda Bay Cafe isn’t just a haven for humans – the ubiquitous inhabitants, the seagulls.  Squabbling, fighting, flying, thinking – I can’t help liking them:

 

and they are beautiful, like all birds, in flight:

 

 

 

and there was another in the skies:

 

We were blessed by a glimpse of the endangered and beautiful Black Cockatoo.  They have come up to Perth as their remaining habitat is destroyed by logging and a drying climate:

 

just a glimpse of the pretty yellow bottom of a wattled honey eater:

and the river was graced by its most dignified inhabitant:

  

What magical moments will my next visit hold…

MtLawleyshire visits wintry Matilda Bay

Well – *I* visited Matilda Bay, not all of MtLawleyshire, but you know what I mean.  Last month, July, was wet and cold – in the depths of a beautiful winter.  And what a day.  They were forecasting rain, but what happened was a cloud descended.

This photo shows the city – not in focus because I was focused on the 3  flying corellas.

In fact, it wasn’t raining when I arrived.  There were crowds of corellas:

flying:

and feeding on the foreshore of the Swan River:

 

There were swans:

 

even grooming swans have a certain elegance:

then, in the cafe, I watched the city disappear

and then it was gone. I looked out over a river that vanished into infinity:

 

the cloud covered all – the view from the cafe was made magical by a cloud taking a break on the ground:

slowly – very slowly, it lifted and the city began to reappear:

 

the clouds passed to the west:

& the sun came out. Everything was covered in gems!

 

 

the corellas basked in the light

finally – my favourite photos of the visit.  A companionable little willy wagtail who sat beside me outside the cafe.  He didn’t mind me pointing the camera at him.

 

and in one shot – between pressing the button and releasing it, he opened his beak.  He looks angry, as though he’s squawking all sorts, but no.  Almost as though he was yawning, maybe asking for food.  I can’t believe I got the shot!

 

I hope I haven’t overloaded you with photos – & also hope you enjoyed these snips from a magical day for MtLaweyshire at Matilda Bay

🙂

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

Out of MtLawleyShire: Matilda Bay & apologies

This will probably be my last post for another little while – so much study, and I am getting there!  And then I will spend happy hours catching up with all your posts.  There are so many I wanted to look at but they come so this and fast!

But this was a visit to Matilda Bay this week – the day after I went to Kings Park and the weather had turned gloomy and colder. There were almost no flowers, just these – a white non-native where last year there had been massed ground covering Grevillea. Very sad to see places fall into neglect.  And the flowers of the cape lilac tree, filling the air with subtle perfume.  These trees are also regarded as ferals, but they are delicate additions to a landscape of leaves.

 

There don’t seem to be any cygnets on the Swan River this year, but the family from last year is still here.  I have played with these photos – I might use them as cards.  What do you think?

 

 

 

 

 

I caught a raven, on the grass, then in the huge old cypress, cawing to other members of his family:

 

 

and trees: the contrasts with brilliant Spring leaves of plane trees against the native greens in the darkening day,

 

 

 

And here are clouds gathering across the Swan, and a rain cell dumping its load over South Perth and parts east towards the hills.

 

 

Now this guy? Not hovering over Matilda Bay – he’s hovering over the roofs of MtLawleyShire, near my own little house, reminding me to get back home and onto the computer and WORK! A sparrowhawk. Not a great photo, but still – I am happy with it. He wasn’t just hanging there!

I hope you enjoyed this little excursion.  I will be back, and looking forward to catching up with you all.

🙂