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.

A little walk in MtLawleyShire – flowers, trees, sunset and moonrise

Another little walk (to get cat biscuits and bread) & in the hot windy late afternoon – so much beauty which was unexpected.  I had thought most roses would be scorched by the sun & I didn’t expect all the trees with blossom!

Roses – sweet things amongst sun-scorched ruins of older blooms:

 

 

pretty pink ones:

Ones like vanilla ice cream with raspberry topping (as a friend described it) and lovely yellow:

gloriously sun-kissed :

and rich, beautiful red:

Grevillea:

 

Frangipani:

native eucalypt blossom:

 

 

Trees:

this is a pigeon-berry bush – yes, bush.  This particular specimen is over 100 years old and has been saved by people who have also saved a lovely old heritage listed place, turning it into a family hoe complete with 2 dogs & a gorgeous garden.  The strange shape is apparently quite strong, though it has lost some branches.

 

My lovely friend, the lemon-scented gum:

A tree in someone’s backyard now visible because three old houses on William Street were demolished – there will probably be boxy ugly flats with no gardens at all erected.  I am glad to see this tree and even gladder it is safe in someone else’s backyard:

 

Peppermint tree & ancient eucalypt – the one with the soft fluffy yellow blossoms (those I always associate with May Gibbs Snugglepot and Cuddlepie)

Tall trees growing straight on a street verge:

  

Jacaranda in sunlight and pied beauty on the corner of William Street:

 

Sheoak leaves against the sky:

Sunset: quiet with wind calligraphy written in a light pen:

 

 

the clouds low on the horizon looked like a wave of flames – presaging the heat gone & to come the next day:

 

 

 

And then, the moon:

 

Finally, last glow of light in the sky

yes – it was a busy little afternoon walk 🙂  I hope that this has not been too many photos…

An evening walk in MtLawleyShire – and Jupiter!

I went for a walk down to Beaufort Street a couple of days ago, but haven’t had a chance to post – working and so on.  And I am still not used to the settings on my camera – or checking them before I take photos, so these roses are in light too low for crisp detail.

The first of these seems to have light inside it & all I can think of is that it caught the light of the lowering sun.  The 2nd is just a pretty bud.

 

& these – the orangey one is overblown, but still beautiful, considering that most roses I saw that evening were scorched by the hot sunny days we’ve had recently.

 

A tree loaded with pomegranates – ripe-looking pomegranates.  Maybe I should’ve nicked one or 2!

Late afternoon light on the branches of a lovely tall gum on William street, and the second photo is of my ‘pied beauty’ friend, also on William Street.  These 2 trees are almost opposite one another.  One is a sort of street tree, the other grows in the grounds surrounding a block of flats.

 

On a side road, this tree, spindly and untidy, soars gracefully into forever and light behind a box tree adds mystery & magic:

 

The wonderful shapes of the lemon scented gum street trees: they keep them lopped so they don’t entangle the power lines.

 

And then – I saw a pair of galahs – they started far apart, but then began to groom each other:

 

 

 

I finished my shopping and began walking home.  Sunset glow was visible ahead of me, behind the rise:

At the top of the rise – William Street, the glow was broad:

 

To the east, the pastels were beautiful.  The second of these is the same tree that up above has light on its trunk:

 

And although there were no clouds, nothing to differentiate the sunset, I had to take photos of that tree:

& finally – lastly – the moon.

 

It turned out to be  the piece de resistance!

I caught – without knowing what it was – the occultation (or the beginnings of) the moon with Jupiter.  I actually got Jupiter in my little camera!!  OK, very small, unbanded, totally undetailed Jupiter, but it *is* Jupiter!

🙂

 

A walk in the heat in MtLawleyShire

It’s the 2nd day of a heatwave where not once day will dip below the old century, & today it will go well over.  I didn’t set off as early as I wanted to due to various hold-ups, so only walked around where I lived a few decades ago, and though the heat is too much for any flowers, I found a rose or 2 unspoiled by the fierce sun:

 

and trees 🙂

I was taken by the patterns in box tree bark (& thought of Wanderlust Gene as I did)

& here, the papery bark of a paperbark tree:

 

 

this particular paperbark tree is in a very unphotogenic spot – no matter the angle, the tree is diminished by cars or badly designed modern housing (in what used to be a heritage area).  So, this is all I could take.  I will keep trying.

I came across a lovely Grevillea with a few flowers:

& the gnarled, scrappy, scratchy, untidy peppermint trees.  Their girth, their relative lack of height in relation to their girth which increases as they get older somehow add to their attractiveness for me.  And the scent of them 🙂

Intricacies of age:

 

This little guy popped down onto grass in front of me.  Hopping all over the place.  I was lucky to get this one, almost unblurred shot!

A streetside Plane tree – all cropped on one side.  It looks so peculiar! Esp compared to the grace of the unpruned box tree:

 

A gardenscape:

White tree limbs against a sea of wind-tossed foliage and a tree dark against the day

 

Young lemon scented gums:

Against infinity and the blasting brilliance of midmorning sun.  That deep blue sky is not enhanced.  That’s the colour it is at the moment.  It means extreme UV ratings and a fierce light.  And heat.

A few blocks on is this tree – a survivor of car crashed and urban vandalism.

 

& finally – these two grace the Bowling club grounds:

  

I hope to go walking very early tomorrow morning before the heat so – hopefully, there will be more.

Hope you enjoyed 🙂

 

Mtlawleyshire’s Hyde Park

Hyde Park was drenched and wet and wonderful, although, as you will see in a later photo, the water is in a terrible state.  But Autumn has almost finished and winter is in the exotic trees.  Australian Natives, however, are just drinking the water in.

 

This is a tree in the Australian native section of Hyde Park.  I love the contrasts of greens and the brown of the trunk.

The oak tree hasn’t yet lost its leaves which is strange, but it looks wonderful against the autumn colour:

I’m not sure what this tree is, bit I love the way it almost seems to dance:

There were swamp hens everywhere, but they rarely stay still for photos!

 

and ducks – I am always struck by the beauty of these:

 

The contrast of conifer and deciduous plane tree is beautiful and I love the shapes of some conifers.

 

I really should find out what this tree is – so straight & tall –  & I love its bark:

 

The water, the reflections are lovely, but on closer inspection, parts of the ponds are not healthy at all.

 

But the plane trees & their leaves – beautiful:

 

 

 

Then the Moreton Bay Figs:

 

on the edge of the park – daffodils flowering – in June!  This lets you know how warm it was, earlier in the month ( these photos were taken around the 9th of June)

On the corner of the park – an almost dead conifer made a wonderful straight line with a skyscraper in the city (maybe 10 – 15 minute walk) and a telephone pole:

Across the road, a liquid amber in dull colour:

my lemon scented gum:

& then I walked home the long way around and saw some galahs:

 

a hibiscus in a neglected garden

& a cat watching me from a lane

and that’s it for the time being.  I have many more photos to post, so maybe I will post some tomorrow, if I get the time.

I hope you enjoyed it.

Keira 🙂

Quick post: flowers, cat & the aftermath of storm in MtLawleyShire

Yes, I am studying, but damn it – that flower is still flowering, my cat is still gorgeous and we (finally) had some rain – & a storm!

First, the zygocactus: I have tried for different angles, but it’s difficult and I’ve had varying success 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

Not all the flowers are out yet, but there are enough now to take more than one flower in a photo:

 

Gum nuts on an old gum and another with lovely flowers

 

Daisies and a small white flower on a bush – highly perfumed.

 

a wall covered in brilliant orange-flowering creeper

Young trees in the car park. reaching up to sunset light – & the last one is a lemon-scented gum, young and lovely.

 

Sunset from Beaufort Street

Beaufort Street in sunset light & then the dark of evening

 

snatches of rainbow after the storm with its welcome rain

 

and sunset moving into the aftermath

& finally, 2 portraits of kitty – one made glossy by the strong sunlight (& she was full of purrs), the other – the dark hunter.  She was intent on a little lizard – & I caught the little lizard so saved it from her great plushie-paws.  She didn’t really mind 🙂

 

OK, back to study for me… 🙂

close to home in MtLawleyShire

No great walks over the last couple of days, and I didn’t mean to take photos, but – well, how could I not: sunsets and cats and flowers and trees in flower – and my favourite lemon-scented gum ….

The first walk I saw some roses in people’s gardens:

 

and then discovered this in a hedge of mexican rose flowing over the fence of a lady’s garden.  I know her and her little dog to say hello to.  One of her neighbours saw me taking photos of this flower and told me its name was ‘Dutchman’s Pipe“, then turned it around to show me why – you can see the shape of a pipe at the back of the flower.  He then found some seeds which I will plant later.

 

While we were talking, this sweet little tabby purred around my legs but it was too quick for photos of its very sweet little face.  I only got this one:

I walked home in time to catch sunset clouds and the glow in the western sky:

 

 

In the last of the light, I saw this wonderful wattle bush in full flower.  The perfume was wonderful.

Coming home was this: the eastern sky filled with reflected sunset pastel colours:

and here she is – waiting for me to come home:

Today I went a little earlier.  I was a warm day, not one cloud and the sunlight was bright.  All the street trees on William Street looked glorious – the paperbarks or cloud blossom trees.  You can see why it’s called cloud blossom.  I love the way one is almost growing around the speed sign.

 

I managed to take some close-ups of the blossom:

 

And then, no apologies – I took photos of my favourite tree – growing outside where I used to live.  The great glorious lemon-scented gum:

The tangle of the long thin outer branches, the strength of the core internal branches:

 

The wonderful chaotic tangle of it:

Branches compartmentalising the sky, looking like elbows:

 

The strength and size of the trunk and main branches:

 

and this – this looks just like a hand:

Further down the road, still outside where I used to live, is an ancient Grevillea – with a scarlet flower:

Further down, people had roses in their gardens:

 

and here is a lovely young gum on the street verge.

And couple of trees had gum nuts (its flowers had been yellow) and red gum blossom.  I love these 🙂

 

Walking past one place with a huge frangipani tree in flower, there was one dropped on the pavement:

and over the road, a driveway almost swallowed in white Bougainvillea:

I went to my favourite cafe – it has a bookshop next door.  I took a photo of Beaufort Street from inside, but it was too dark to be really successful.

     

Beaufort Street, looking towards the city.

Then I met my cousin who gave me a ride home, so there were no more photo 🙂

Out of mtlawleyshire #2: Trees in the University grounds

Here is the 2nd of the posts from my little outing yesterday to the University of Western Australia.  I can’t include all the photos. – there’s too many.

All these are from within the university grounds, and only a small portion of the grounds at that, but I was still spoilt for choice.  And it was raining, raining, raining!

First, a massive conifer – the detail of the trunk attracted me:

 

Then a massive tree I saw from a doorway:

 

It is really a huge tree:

the colours of bark in a group of trees outside the faculty where I met my friend:

 

2 trees: the one behind is a scribbly gum – more on them later

just love the alien look of this

a series of tall, wet gums:

 

   

 

Now the lemon scented gum.  Of course I would take photos of this lovely tree.  Though I was hampered by rain threatening to fall on the lens of my little camera.  I’m quite sure that would be disaster!

 

 

Trees and foliage from across the lawn

: 

 

The moreton bay fig.  I love how they gleam in the wet:

 

 

Now – the scribbly gum.  It gets its name from the bark which is, I read somewhere, caused by little greeblies munching through the bark – obviously not harming the tree, just giving this bark the look of having been scribbled on.  When I next go to the uni, if it’s a fine day, I will take more photos.  I love rain, but it does – well, it hampers some activities.

 

 

Of course there are plane trees, most around the internal carparks.  But the detail of the trunk, with the gloss of rain shine, brings out the most wonderful colours and reminds me I must go down to Hyde Park again before too long.

 

These guys are everywhere, especially around what used to be known as the Arts Department (where I did my Masters).

 

detail of a beautiful trunk.

These were taken from across an oval while the rain was pouring down – though you can’t see the rain.

 

The most untidy of all the trees: stringy bark!

 

just beautiful trees:

 

and home – well, it was still raining so she was inside on the armchair amongst the books

There are so many photos I didn’t include.  Heaps.  And now I’ve run out of time to do another post, but they will remain on my computer for use another time.

I hope this wasn’t too large and that you enjoyed it.

Keira 🙂

Between the river and the university

Today I went to visit my old professor at the university of Western Australia.  It is Western Australia’s oldest university & has the most beautiful grounds, filled with huge trees of all sorts – my favourites and others.  So you can imagine – yes.  Photos.  And oh dear.  I took over 200 – in 2 hours!

I can’t post them all, & many aren’t suitable anyway (rain is not good for little cameras – or Keiras!), but even so – there are too many for one post. so I am going to attempt to group them.

As it was raining, some of the photos were hurried & blurred.  But many were OK, though I fear there’s not too many that are brilliant.  However, even in this first post, there are different trees.

First – along the river.  The university is on the banks (sort of) of the Swan River, and I parked in the Matilda Bay carpark.  The city was barely visible through the mist of rain:

trees against the river:

 

Peppermint trees and a tall gum:

 

Moreton bay figs in the rain:

 

 

 

 

Then the area between the road and the university, filled with all sorts of trees – almost wilderness:

 

These two are trees I haven’t come across in mtlawleyshire, but of course, the university is a long way from my little shire 🙂  I love the colour of these and I really will, soon – I promise – get hold of a reference book so I can figure out what trees these are

 

 

 

 

The first of the next two photos is, I think, a stringy bark, as the bark hangs off in strips like strings.  They can be very untidy!

and look – more rain coming:

I will do the next post tomorrow – in the grounds of the university.  And this is despite the rain.  And no – no kitty for this part of the post.  How can there be?  And the end of this post, as far as the pictures tell the story, I am still at the university 🙂

Mtlawleyshire, night and fairy tales

I walked down William Street today, on the way to meet a friend for coffee.  It had been strange day – all day it had been cloudy, as though the air itself was brooding.  No rain, just heavy air and a silence despite the sounds of traffic.  She wasn’t happy to see me go.

I was surprised to see the cloud blossom trees in flower – different trees this time

 

 

Some flowers, a little closer.  They are just a little too high for me to get a good shot without zooming (I am rather small)

 

This one had grown to envelope a telephone pole 🙂

 

The first of the next shots is the last of the wattle, and this brilliantly red tree caught my eye amongst all the green street trees. One day, I will go down that street. So much green!  All those trees!

 

And here is my old friend, the lemon-scented gum that is so massive you can’t fit it into a photo without standing almost a block away.  It is one of the largest trees in the area, and that includes the Moreton Bay figs of Hyde park!

 

 

I love how the great branches taper through the chaos of smaller branches into the delicate tangled tracery of thin long flexible twigs which is where most of the leaves are.

 

And now, Hyde Park.  I hadn’t realized how dark it was  when I got there, and my little camera doesn’t do well in low light.  So, many of the photos were blurred. As a result, I had some fun 🙂

These first 2 are from when I walked beneath the trees and too shots of the branches against the canopy.  There was enough light between the leaves to confuse the camera’s sensors.

 

Then the Moreton Bay figs.

 

This next one intrigued me with its almost fluted pillars:

here they are a little closer:

 

 

The next shots I took were all blurred.  I played when I got home – with the images:

 

   

I took a shot of the water, but I was still too far into the trees

This is what it actually looked like when I came out from under the trees: the water green with algae.  It has been very warm the last few days, and warm nights as well.  It is not good for the water quality, as there is now so little of it.

But I didn’t stay. I was running late for my coffee date, and the light was no good for taking photos, so I left, but not without taking some more.  And when I got home, none of them were any good.  So I played and discovered the secret fairy tale world within Hyde Park:

 

I will have to discover more of this world, I think 🙂

Over the road from the cafe is a florist, and I found these: Banksia flowers:

 

I will have to find trees somewhere for you.  They don’t grow in Mt Lawley Shire – I have to go further out, or maybe King’s Park.

Finally, the cafe – and here is a corner.  I like all the lines and wooden boxes and cups (for me to have my coffee in!)

Here are some shots of the city from the cafe.  It is a different perspective from the post I did above the city – those 3 buildings I last saw from above!

And here is Beaufort Street looking north – the way I went home.

I hope you enjoyed my little walk.  Next time – my magnolia flower.

Keira 🙂