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Pelican Yoga Posts

McGowangrad, winter ‘22: #12 in series (Matagarup Bridge)

Published August 20, 2022 by Pelidoug

McGowangrad, winter ‘22: #12 in series (Matagarup Bridge)

 

It cost more than ninety million dollars to build.

Does that make it Australia’s most expensive pedestrian bridge?

It may or may not be our longest suspension bridge that carries no cars; certainly, it is more than twice as long as one eastern Australian pretender to the “longest pedestrian bridge” crown.

(I have long since ceased to be surprised that “perhaps we should check to see what has been built or achieved in places west of the Great Dividing Range” is a notion that never occurs to far too many Australians who live east of “The Divide”)

Statistics aside, Perth’s Matagarup Bridge is a singular structure; imagine a pair of swans, in flight…

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McGowangrad, winter ‘22: #10 in series (Karrakatta Cemetery)

Published August 18, 2022 by Pelidoug

McGowangrad, winter ‘22: #10 in series (Karrakatta Cemetery)

 

 

Visitor numbers to Karrakatta Cemetery exceed one million per year.

Even if you have no funerals to attend, and none of your particular loved ones have been buried or cremated there, Western Australia’s largest cemetery is a richly rewarding destination.

This is most especially true on a non-gloomy winter’s day.

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McGowangrad, winter ‘22: #9 in series (third of three “strangers in Paradise”)

Published August 17, 2022 by Pelidoug

McGowangrad, winter ‘22: #9 in series (third of three “strangers in Paradise”)

 

This kookaburra, perched on a grave cross, has something in common with most of the humans who have been buried in Perth’s largest cemetery over the past 123 years.

In 2022, most living WA humans do not know what it is; most of them, in fact, have a quite wrong view of kookaburras’ “place” in southwestern Australia.

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McGowangrad, winter ‘22: # 8 in series (second of three “strangers in paradise”)

Published August 16, 2022 by Pelidoug

McGowangrad, winter ‘22: # 8 in series (second of three “strangers in paradise”)

 

 

 

Lion’s teeth, wind-riders, and a bad reputation….

I am referring to members of Taraxacum – a large genus of flowering plants. which most Australians regard as weeds and/or as highly invasive pests.

They are generally known as dandelions; Australian has some native species, but the ones so very familiar to most of us are indeed “alien invaders”.

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McGowangrad, winter ‘22: #7 in series (heron on river flats)

Published August 14, 2022 by Pelidoug

McGowangrad, winter ‘22: #7 in series (heron on river flats)

 

Perchance, on any particular day, a Perth resident wished to see a pelican, a parrot/cockatoo, and a heron…

… s/he would almost invariably find it very easy to make that wish come true, somewhere within a few kilometres of home, in whatever suburb.

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McGowangrad, winter ‘22: #6 in series (inner suburbia, believe it or not)

Published August 13, 2022 by Pelidoug

McGowangrad, winter ‘22: #6 in series (inner suburbia, believe it or not)

 

This series’ #6 location is only a whisker further from the centre of Perth’s CBD than was #5’s, but in the opposite direction.

If our imaginary “crow”/Australian raven decided to fly over from the roof of the GPO, s/he would be able to reach this post’s vantage point in less than two minutes.

An unhurried human could walk it in less than forty minutes, or spend five minutes on a train, then walk for another five minutes.

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McGowangrad, winter ‘22: #5 in series (Kings Park)

Published August 12, 2022 by Pelidoug

McGowangrad, winter ‘22: #5 in series (Kings Park)

 

If an Australian raven (Corvus coronoides –  the bird most Australians have in mind when they say “a crow”) had been perched beside me when I took the photo for #4 in this series, it would have been able to fly to this post’s location in less than 90 seconds.

The sites are less than two kilometres apart, and a frequent, free bus service will get you from one to the other in five minutes or so; a slow-walking human would take less than 30 minutes.

As you can see, they are “worlds apart”.

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McGowangrad, winter ‘22: #4 in series (3rd winter of COVID-19)

Published August 11, 2022 by Pelidoug

McGowangrad, winter ‘22: #4 in series (3rd winter of COVID-19)

 

Candid photo (copyright Doug Spencer) taken at 12.36 pm on 27 June 2022 in St Georges Terrace, Perth CBD.

I could, of course, have taken a not-dissimilar shot in the main street of any major Australian city, indeed any “First World” city.

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