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Pelican Yoga Posts

McGowangrad, winter ‘22: #24 in series (“terrible beauty” in another Hollywood)

Published August 30, 2022 by Pelidoug

McGowangrad, winter ‘22: #24 in series (“terrible beauty” in another Hollywood)

 

 

The only Hollywood to have repeatedly appeared in Pelican Yoga is a small but significant piece of remnant bushland, adjacent to Perth’s Karrakatta Cemetery.

Until 19 January this year, the organism pictured above was a fine, living example of a weird, wonderful, and very rare Western Australian Acacia species.

When I photographed a few of its “leaves”, glowing in bright winter light at 2.33 pm on 01 July 2022, it and they were as dead as the many thousands of entombed persons, nearby.

read moreMcGowangrad, winter ‘22: #24 in series (“terrible beauty” in another Hollywood)
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McGowangrad, winter ‘22: #23 in series (Australasian grebe, Lake Monger)

Published August 29, 2022 by Pelidoug

McGowangrad, winter ‘22: #23 in series (Australasian grebe, Lake Monger)

 

As is often true of Tachybaptus novaehollandiae, our hero/ine was repeatedly disappearing and re-emerging.

Every time s/he resurfaced, the excellence of his/her feathers’ water-repellence was readily apparent.

Incidentally, as highly responsible parents, Australasian grebes sometimes eat their own feathers; click here to discover precisely why they do so.

read moreMcGowangrad, winter ‘22: #23 in series (Australasian grebe, Lake Monger)
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McGowangrad, winter ‘22: #19 in series (WorkZone, accidental Abstractionist)

Published August 27, 2022 by Pelidoug

McGowangrad, winter ‘22: #19 in series (WorkZone, accidental Abstractionist)

 

 

“Western Australia’s first carbon neutral commercial building” is also an occasional abstract artist!

These “artworks” have a shorter lifespan than any “street art” produced by Banksy, anonymous graffitists, et al.

They can be highly surprising, truly beautiful.

They are visible – indeed, there at all – only when the pedestrian passing by, the sun, the building’s aluminium tube shade screen, and the building-proper’s sun-facing exterior are all in “Goldilocks” alignment.

read moreMcGowangrad, winter ‘22: #19 in series (WorkZone, accidental Abstractionist)
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McGowangrad, winter’22: #17 in series (minor, already mining, Cottesloe)

Published August 25, 2022 by Pelidoug

McGowangrad, winter’22: #17 in series (minor, already mining, Cottesloe)

 

When you watch young animals at play, you are often watching a safe “rehearsal” of competitive behaviours, which will become more “serious” – much fiercer – when “cute” youngsters become adults.

Homo sapiens is an animal.

Perhaps, today’s photo offers a sneak preview of a future life as yet another “West Australian mining magnate”…

read moreMcGowangrad, winter’22: #17 in series (minor, already mining, Cottesloe)
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McGowangrad, winter ‘22: #15 in series (Cottesloe Reef)

Published August 23, 2022 by Pelidoug

McGowangrad, winter ‘22: #15 in series (Cottesloe Reef)

 

Pictured above: a snake bird, perched above Cottesloe Reef’s landward edge, with surfer-dude in background.

(more formally, the “snake bird” is an Australasian darter, Anhinga novaehollandiae)

Below them: there be dragons!

(photo is copyright Doug Spencer, taken at 3.33 pm on 03 July 2022)

read moreMcGowangrad, winter ‘22: #15 in series (Cottesloe Reef)
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McGowangrad, winter’22: #14 in series (surfing the Rhodium Coast)

Published August 22, 2022 by Pelidoug

McGowangrad, winter’22: #14 in series (surfing the Rhodium Coast)

Where Postcode 6011 meets the Indian Ocean is not yet nicknamed “The Rhodium Coast”, but the “cap” would fit.

Pleasingly, however, this beachfront belies the extraordinary “effluence” (as Kim would say to Kath) of the folks who live closest to it.

Beachside, “the vibe” is much more egalitarian than is usually true of suburbs so “exclusive” that some of their billboards are placed by Sotheby’s real estate division.

read moreMcGowangrad, winter’22: #14 in series (surfing the Rhodium Coast)
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