I don’t know what to say about Hyde Park. It hurts every time I go down there. This should be the start of the most beautiful tome, but the place is a ruin. Certainly opportunities for taking photographs is very limited.
You are not allowed into the native area:
The beauty of the plane trees has been compromised by the lopping of all their lower branches:
The island where all the bottle brush flowered?
Do you remember this? (last September)
Now it looks like this:
The graceful avenue around the ponds?
Many of the paths are compromised – behind this hoarding is a huge trench where they are laying pipes. I was told they were intending to establish a reed bed to clean the water as it flows down the hill when (if) it rains, but I don’t understand what the pipes are for:
And it is not just the plane trees that are being lopped:
But I found a few angles:
A small moreton bay fig
Trees as frames
An unspoilt corner:
A heron in one of the ponds:
Finally, some plane trees in the strong, hot light of a supposedly Autumnal sun:
It hurts, seeing the park in such a state, and I am not the only one horrified by what is happening. I have been told the works are not following the guidelines laid down by the conservation society and I will be following that up over the next couple of weeks.
& I took some other photos here and there:
a lovely pink rose & red roses in a roadside garden:
Cloud blossom on a tree in William Street – with a bee!
Galahs on a telephone pole in the evening:
And finally, a hibiscus flower caught in the lowering light of a hot day:
bit of a mixed bag, this post, fill of as much ugliness as beauty.
I am so saddened by what is happening in Hyde Park. I don’t know that I will be producing a calendar this year 😦