Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
The photos in #2 through #4 in this series were all taken in Spring 2020 – in a section of Waychinicup that had been burnt some time in the preceding several months, probably, via a Summer lightning strike.
Today’s Hakea was blooming on the very windy afternoon of 07 February 2022, in a different part of Waychinicup.
Comments closedPhoto credit/time/place details are as per previous post.
As the headline says….
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Pictured above and below: Hakea victoria, known as Royal Hakea.
Arguably, it has the most spectacularly variegated leaves of any plant on earth; the individuals in this post are by no means unusually splendid examples.
Fitzgerald River National Park is its stronghold, and all naturally occurring Royal Hakeas are within easy driving distance of “the Fitz”.
Most photos in this post were taken on a morning ascent of East Mount Barren on 21 September 2021.
One CommentThe featured image has not been photoshopped; it is not a composite of monochrome and full colour.
Such juxtapositions of the “drab/dark/subdued/almost monochrome” with the “brilliantlly/exquisitely/flamboyantly colourful” are commonplace in southwestern Australia.
Here, some of the world’s poorest soils are in fact the key to an astonishing, highly diverse array of endemic flora.
In global terms, the relevant “mountain” is in fact a relatively modest hill, rising 311 metres above the nearby ocean.
However, if you love wildflowers, this hill has few peers, anywhere…
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Neither Cabernets, kangaroos, Communists, nor U.S. Republicans – and never married to Alan Bond…
This post’s “Big Reds” are uncommonly splendid, very upstanding members of the bloodwort family, Haemodoracea.
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Verticordia is a genus of circa 102 “feather flower” species, of which circa 100 naturally occur only in Western Australia’s southwest.
Literally translated, Verticordia means “turner of hearts”, an epithet applied to the Roman goddess Venus.
Comments closed…and I don’t mean Bluff Knoll, on which snow has fallen five times during Winter and Spring in 2021 – making this year Western Australia’s snowiest in more than half a century.
I have been “snowed” these past couple of weeks, so the promised flood of posts to celebrate southwest Western Australia’s incredible 2021 Spring has been delayed.
The floodgates will open, soon – flowers galore, but also fire, feathers, rocks, seascapes…
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My beloved and I have recently returned from a couple of weeks in one of our favourite parts of “our” planet.
Its coastscapes are magnificently “big wide screen”.
Cape Arid National Park, Cape Le Grand National Park and Fitzgerald River National Park are even more jaw-dropping at the “micro” level – one should always pay close attention to the ground immediately in front of one’s feet!
The featured image looks east from Belinup Hill to Mt Arid/Cape Arid.
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As Bob Hudson said nearly half a century ago in his most famous song, “don’t you ever let a chance go by”.
The pictured can’s back label bills the brew as “a light yet indulgent beer to help you through the COVID-19 times”.
Lucky Bay Brewing has excellent beers, their venue is a very congenial lunch spot for anyone lucky enough to be in or near Esperance, and those who don’t love beer will likely be pleasantly surprised by the compact but excellent and reasonably priced wine list.
It is, however, this area’s magnificent, wild coast and its astounding, astonishingly diverse wildflowers that make the adjoining shires of Esperance and Ravensthorpe one of the world’s more compelling “safari” destinations.
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…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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