Pelican Yoga

“Fleur Carnivore”…

Published September 1, 2021 by Pelidoug

…is an arresting, humorous/sinister/beautiful composition by Carla Bley. (for more, see footnote at bottom of this post)

Probably, Carla was inspired by some fellow Americans – Venus Flytraps.

Possibly, she had in mind the spectacular pitcher plants that lurk in Asian jungles.

However, the hottest spot for carnivorous plants is somewhere Carla has never ventured – Western Australia’s southwest corner, where more than 25% of “our” planet’s flowering carnivore species live, exclusively.

Many have exquisitely delicate flowers and look like they wouldn’t hurt a fly.

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Taste of Spring (West Australian & Norwegian)

Published August 25, 2021 by Pelidoug

Taste of Spring (West Australian & Norwegian)

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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Altered states – suburban moments.

Published August 18, 2021 by Pelidoug

Altered states – suburban moments.

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.

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Revelatory Covers (#21 in series – special bumper edition)

Published August 9, 2021 by Pelidoug

Revelatory Covers (#21 in series – special bumper edition)

This post includes my favourite cover of a wistful, very famous Johnny Cash song, and a singular version of a less famous, more urgent song, authored by Stuart Adamson.

Both are “live” performances.

Darrell Scott is their American singer-guitarist, Danny Thompson their English double bassist.

And that’s not all…

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Unique flora, vertebrate pollinators…and “good” tax policy

Published August 3, 2021 by Pelidoug

Unique flora, vertebrate pollinators…and “good” tax policy

Southwest 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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The “aw shucks, us too” taxation policy now adopted by the ALP strains beyond breaking point any reasonable definition of “alternative government”…or “Opposition”…or “Labor”…or “progressive”. Alas, many fewer words than those in this verbose header are more than enough to say everything that needs to be said about it…

Published July 31, 2021 by Pelidoug

…as Jon Kudelka has demonstrated in today’s edition of The Saturday Paper:

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Carnaby’s streets

Published July 25, 2021 by Pelidoug

Carnaby’s streets

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

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Winter light, 2021 (in the Australian Perth)

Published July 18, 2021 by Pelidoug

Winter light, 2021 (in the Australian Perth)

All 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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Word power: Kathryn Schulz on “the Misanthropocene”

Published July 12, 2021 by Pelidoug

Word power: Kathryn Schulz on “the Misanthropocene”

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”.

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Word power: “the Billy Joel of Australian politics”

Published July 7, 2021 by Pelidoug

Word power: “the Billy Joel of Australian politics”

Did I stumble upon his/their avatar in a Tibetan Plateau marketplace?

Peter Lewis’s essay is an amusing and perceptive look at “Scotty”and Billy, as fellow “masters of pastiche”.

Morrison doesn’t even pretend to try to build his own coherent body of work. It’s not that he can’t come up with a tune. Far from it, there is a ditty for every occasion. It’s just that it’s not leading us anywhere.

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