Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
According to the people who were already here for many thousands of years before “European settlement”, southwest Western Australia has six seasons.
Each is determined by what is actually happening, rather than by a calendar’s fixed dates.
Currently, in and around Perth, it is very evidently Djilba – the first of two “Spring” seasons.
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Photographically speaking, Pelican Yoga – whether at home or interstate/abroad – generally inclines to wild places and/or to plants and animals that naturally occur in the relevant locations.
This post is an exception.
Its photos were taken over the last several years in assorted, “not especially remarkable” locations within the Perth metropolitan area.
In every case, I was standing on a paved or “sealed” surface.
All key species pictured are “strangers”, present only via humans having introduced them to southwest Western Australia, post-1829.
One CommentSouthwest Western Australia’s flowering, feathered and furry members of the first two categories need each other, vitally.
Could their survival prospects have anything to do with the third category?
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Our planet has just two white-tailed black cockatoo species.
Both are endangered, and their only “home” is in southwest Western Australia.
My beloved and I live within a very few minutes flying time of the centre of this region’s one metropolis.
For some months of every year, we see and hear one of those two species almost every day – on most days, more than once.
All photos were taken in Blencowe St, West Leederville
Comments closedAll photos copyright Doug Spencer, taken on recent walks on local streets and footpaths.
The lovely, spacious musical bonus comes from the northern hemisphere…
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Kathryn Schulz’s superb essay is called What Do We Hope to Find When We Look for a Snow Leopard?
Although not primarily about snow leopards, it particularly refers to a 1978 “classic” – Peter Matthiessen’s The Snow Leopard – and to a recently-published book by a Parisian who also pursued an ardent desire to encounter a snow leopard, on “the roof of the world”.
Comments closedMost mallee species are eucalypts, and more than half of Eucalyptus species are mallees.
Their generally modest height and oft-“untidy”/“shaggy” appearance blind some people to mallees’ beauty, their great diversity, and their oft-astonishing buds and flowers.
As with so many Australian species, the closer you look, the more spectacular, surprising and glorious they are.
One Comment..is by no means uncommon in Perth, but this one delivered something amazing.
The photo above shows Lake Monger Reserve’s southernmost section – its faux “European” part – where exotic trees and lawn predominate, still.
The image below looks to the lake’s longer, eastern shore, where an ongoing rehabilitation process has re-established more appropriate riparian vegetation.
There, “local” plants now predominate. They – along with other measures to reduce eutrophication – are key to Lake Monger’s recently-improving health, after circa 170 years of seemingly-irreversible, human-induced decline.
Comments closedThe Australasian Darter – Anhinga novaehollandiae – is our single member of the Anhinga genus, which has just four species.
All of its members are commonly known as “snake birds”.
You could consider their “snake” as a spearhead, with a brain-powered, spring-loaded, feathered shaft.
The shaft’s spring-loading is via their neck’s unique hinge mechanism, at the 8th & 9th vertebrae.
Comments closed…as chosen by other famous musos.
In most cases, the article will take you directly to Dylan’s performance of the relevant song.
Would Mick Jagger make an interesting choice?
What about Gillian Welch, Tom Jones, Marianne Faithful, Billy Bragg or Judy Collins?
Would some/none/all have anything interesting to say about his or her choice?
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