Category: Western Australia

Wireless Hill – feathers & flower spikes (#2 of 3)

Published October 31, 2024 by Pelidoug

Wireless Hill – feathers & flower spikes (#2 of 3)

They are not at all closely related to Banksias, but so-called “grasstrees” – which are neither trees nor grasses – also sport spectacular “spikes”.

Each such spike is occasionally “clothed” with an enormous number of flowers.

A “grasstree” flower spike can soar two or more metres – sometimes straight-line vertically, sometimes contortedly.

All grasstrees are endemic to Australia; many species occur in very particular regions, but at least one kind naturally occurs in at least one of every Australian state or territory.

This post’s heroes are endemic to southwest WA.

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Wireless Hill – feathers & flower spikes (#1 of 3)

Published October 30, 2024 by Pelidoug

Wireless Hill – feathers & flower spikes (#1 of 3)

This little series celebrates a favourite place, as it was on Sunday, 27 October 2024 – our first fully-waking day after our return to home turf.

(coming soon to Pelican Yoga: a teaser-series devoted to two contrasting parts of Indonesia. One is very sparsely populated. The other is “our” planet’s most-populous large island )

”European” calendars suggest it is still springtime in Perth.

In fact, the world’s greatest substantial-city, entirely-natural springtime flower-show ended some weeks ago.

Here, however, some wonderful plants are in flower at any time of year…plants which naturally occur only in WA’s southwest.

This post’s hero is one of them.

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“Robbing” gravestones, adjacent to Hollywood.

Published October 29, 2024 by Pelidoug

“Robbing” gravestones, adjacent to Hollywood.

In 2024 Father’s Day fell on a Sunday, and its afternoon was cloudy, but fine and mild.

Unsurprisingly, those factors made for a busy day at Perth’s largest cemetery.

By late afternoon, many Karrakatta gravestones were adorned with fresh floral (and other) tokens of remembrance.

Many Australian ravens were visible, “visiting” those gravestones.

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“Father’s Day” 2024, in Hollywood (final in series-proper)

Published October 28, 2024 by Pelidoug

“Father’s Day” 2024, in Hollywood (final in series-proper)

Southwest WA’s black cockatoos are highly sociable and very intelligent.

They are intermittently LOUD, but rarely aggressive/disputatious.

Breeding pairs usually “bond” permanently, and both parents are remarkably attentive to their offspring.

When it comes to enjoying their food, very evidently – both the “capturing” and the consumption thereof – these birds have few peers.

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“Father’s Day” 2024, in Hollywood (#4 in series: dexterity & “beak-power”)

Published October 27, 2024 by Pelidoug

“Father’s Day” 2024, in Hollywood (#4 in series: dexterity & “beak-power”)

One of life’s recurrent pleasures in southwest WA is to watch how any member of the region’s three endemic species of black cockatoo “deals with” his or her food.

This involves hugely-varying amounts of “difficulty” or “effort”, depending on whatever is the currently-relevant “nut”, “spike”, “seed pod”, “cone”, or flower.

For Carnaby’s black cockatoos, Banksia are a staple food source.

Extracting Banksia seeds from a “cone” is equally a matter of precision and power.

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“Father’s Day” 2024, in Hollywood (#3 in series: in praise of grey skies)

Published October 26, 2024 by Pelidoug

“Father’s Day” 2024, in Hollywood (#3 in series: in praise of grey skies)

There is the small matter of nothing but blue skies being a recipe for the end of all life on “our” planet.

Supplying water is, however, not clouds’ only good quality.

If you wish to photograph birds, trees or flowers – most especially if you are using a digital camera, and there is no “screen” of vegetation immediately behind them – intense, unshaded sunlight is not your “dreams come true”.

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“Father’s Day” 2024, in Hollywood (#2 in series: pink fairies)

Published October 25, 2024 by Pelidoug

“Father’s Day” 2024, in Hollywood (#2 in series: pink fairies)

Caladenia latifolia – generally known as “pink fairy orchids”, or simply “pink fairies” – are not endemic to southwest Western Australia.

They also naturally occur in other southern Australian places, including Tasmania.

In my (totally “unscientific”) experience, as someone who has lived on both sides of the Nullarbor, they appear to be much more “common”/easily-seen in southwest WA than anywhere else I have been.

The pictured ones were among more than a few that were flowering in Hollywood Reserve on 01.09.2024.

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“Father’s Day” 2024, in Hollywood (#1 in series: Hakea)

Published October 24, 2024 by Pelidoug

“Father’s Day” 2024, in Hollywood (#1 in series: Hakea)

In January 2022 parts of Hollywood were devastated by a very fierce (i.e. hot) fire.

You didn’t hear about it?

My beloved and I have visited Hollywood many times, but the only bit of Los Angeles that we have directly “enjoyed” is its godawful airport.

We harbour no desire to set foot in the famous/infamous Hollywood, but are very fond of the petite, not-famous Hollywood Reserve.

This choice patch of inner-urban bushland sits “right next door” to one of Australia’s major cemeteries.

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Spring in Perth, 2024 (in “winter”)

Published August 28, 2024 by Pelidoug

Spring in Perth, 2024 (in “winter”)

Pelican Yoga briefly interrupts its ongoing celebration of autumn 2024 on the Coorong, to celebrate the arrival of spring, in Perth.

Western Australian wildflowers are not fussed about calendars, nor European-derived notions of “the four seasons”.

Four days before the alleged end of winter, in Shenton Bushland it was abundantly evident that spring had already “sprung”.

Kangaroo Paws are now easy to see, as are some (not all, yet) of the “spring-flowering” orchids.

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Winter light plays with Perth CBD (2 of 2)

Published July 19, 2024 by Pelidoug

Winter light plays with Perth CBD (2 of 2)

Even as a spectacularly distorted reflection on the facade of another, lower and more “glassy” edifice, St Martins Tower is unmistakably itself.

Since we moved to Perth in 1983 many different tenants have “badged” St Martins Tower; as you can see in lower right hand quarter of the above photo, the current logo is that of ICBC – a Chinese bank.

From 1978 to 1988 St Martins Tower (140 metres) was Perth tallest building.

In the much more crowded and taller 2024 skyline, it is #10.

The #1 ranking, however, has remained unchanged for 32 years; Central Park (249 metres) still looks down on all other WA rooftops.

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