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 goes to the city

This post is all buildings – OK, a couple of trees and some green, but mostly buildings.

Perth is a young city with a fairly well-established disregard for its heritage.  Old buildings are in scant supply and many old houses are being bulldozed to make room for environmentally ill-designed housing and loss of established gardens and mature trees.  But these photos concentrate on the centre of the city, in the ‘cultural precinct’ where the mix of old and new is sometimes stark and other times lovely.

This is, I think, the tax building, squaring off in monotones and sharp lines behind the bell tower of an old convent (I think)

 

 

north down William Street is this building, and in its context.

 

The buildings around PICA, looking north away from the city with a huge hotel complex, and towards the city with its skyscrapers:

 

PICA – these buildings are amongst my favourite:

 

The brutalist Alexander Library and a corner of it with a small hotel nearby:

 

& that small hotel cried out for this treatment – it’s a black and white box;

 

though balconies add some texture:

the james Street avenue is filled with new summer green.  We will need that shade this year!

 

another favourite: a slice of the old police courts which now form the admin part of the art gallery (very un-photogenic building, the art gallery)

And here are some shots of the newly cleaned and revealed Battye Library and the Museum buildings:

 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed these.  Next – city flowers.

 

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

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:

Mt LawleyShire at year’s end

Dearest People

1st – happiest Christmas to you all: & here is the Christmas New Moon, gilded by sunset

I have completed & submitted my PhD so I am free to return to photography and blogging.  YAY!!  I submitted on the 12th of December and there were very few photos for several months before that, but there were some.

Roses (stunning dark rose)

birds (New Holland Honeyeater singing in the evening)

 

bees (on lavender)

babies (cygnets at Hyde Park)

 

some rain in the garden:

 

and of course, the Fattee Cattee who kept me continuous company

I will be back with this year’s wildflowers

🙂

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’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 🙂

MtLawleyShire’s Hyde Park – early Autumn

Yes, these photos were taken in May, I am ashamed to say.  And here it is, almost July before I post this selection.  Oh dear.  This will be a first post in a series of Autumn at Hyde Park posts.

Ot was a cold clear day with the sky as blue and clear as possible.  The night of these photos was, for Perth, very cold.  We had very cold days and nights towards the end of May.

First, the ‘sentry tree’ – I love this guy

 

Along the walkways towards the ponds

 

 

It’s not quite difficult to get photos as they’ve lopped off all the lower branches, but for this year at least, there is still this lovely view of plane trees reflected in the pond in all their autumnal glory.  Next year, the native saplings planted along the edges will obscure this view, so enjoy.

 

 

 

 

 

These trees are just gorgeous in their gold:

 

 

 

& I love the revealed strength in the great trunks:

 

 

& the fall of golden leaves – manes of light:

 

 

leaves catching the light:

 

 

& this: love this weird tree & its reflection in the still mirroring water of the pond

 

Leaves against darker native foliage:

 

 

 

 

& this one: plane tree leaves against the sky.

More Autumn & Winter photos coming

🙂