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Pelican Yoga Posts

Waychinicup Inlet on a “perfect” day

 

Unlike Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” – a deservedly celebrated, but much-misunderstood song –  this post is 100% free of irony and angst.

The photo (copyright Doug Spencer) was taken at 1.54 pm on 15 March 2021.

The inlet’s shore is surely one of the more sublime picnic lunch spots, anywhere, and the inlet is just part of one of our favourite wild places.

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Splendid by name…and in fact.

 

 

Lustful, too!

East of the Nullarbor Plain, when an Australian talks of “blue wrens”, chances are they are Superb Fairy-wrens, Malurus cyaneus.

Superb Fairy-wrens do not exist on the WA side of the Nullarbor.

There – at least in WA’s southern half – the (equally superb) blue wren in question is usually the Splendid Fairy-wren, Malurus splendens.

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Word power: on Putin’s nigh-inevitable but Pyrrhic “victory”

Combine Putin’s utter lack of scruples/decency/humanity with Russia’s overwhelming military superiority, and the result of the  invasion of Ukraine is almost inevitable: Russia “wins”.

However, ultimately, Russia loses; almost as inevitable as its initial “success” is Russia’s eventual failure – an inability to rule Ukraine, the collapse of Russia’s economy, and a decline in the “greatness” of Russia as a “world” power.

This post links to two of the better articles that seek to explain the nature of Putin’s miscalculation, and how “success” can be just another word for failure.

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Trapeze with feathers, sans safety net

 

 

Anyone who pays close attention to small birds surely cannot fail to marvel at their hyperactivity, their agility, and how radically and swiftly their appearance changes.

From one nanosecond to the next, the very same individual can appear remarkably different in shape, colour, size…and attitude.

All photos feature New Holland Honeyeaters attending the very same Grevillea, adjacent to the eastern wall of a house in Walpole, in Western Australia’s “Deep South”.

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Feeding, Flaunting, Foaming, Forest-walking – Deep South WA

 

 

This post is a teaser: each subject of its four photographs will soon be explored further, in its own particular post.

All photos copyright Doug Spencer, taken in February 2022.

The first two images were both taken just a few steps outside of the house in which we stayed in Walpole.

Above, feeding, (& probably pollinating the Grevillea) is a New Holland Honeyeater Phylidonyris novaehollandiae.

Immediately below, flaunting, is a male Splendid Fairy-wren Malurus splendens.

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Word Power: “Is Old Music Killing New Music?”

 

This post’s headline is the name of an excellent, albeit US-centric & Western “pop”-centric, article by Ted Gioia.

As he notes:

The song catalogs in most demand are by musicians who are in their 70s or 80s (Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen) or already dead (David Bowie, James Brown).

This post’s photo is a reminder that in 2022 the “Music Biz” also resolutely ignores much of the world’s remarkable “old” music…

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