Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
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.
Comments closedAccording 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.
One CommentSouthwest 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?
Comments closedMost mallee species are eucalypts, and more than half of Eucalyptus species are mallees.
Their generally modest height and oft-“untidy”/“shaggy” appearance blind some people to mallees’ beauty, their great diversity, and their oft-astonishing buds and flowers.
As with so many Australian species, the closer you look, the more spectacular, surprising and glorious they are.
One CommentMost – around 80% – of southwestern Australia’s flower species are endemic.
Many naturally only occur in very particular, small portions of WA’s southwest.
Almost all are extraordinary.
Some are very obviously beautiful and/or highly unusual.
Others – this one, for instance – only reveal their singularity if you stop walking, get your head down to where the flower is, and look closely.
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When in full bloom, yesterday and today’s featured species lives up to its common name, but on one side only.
Comments closed…at least if you are a Kangaroo Paw, seeking effective pollinators,
All Kangaroo Paw species primarily rely on birds; for them, bees are “useless”.
Kangaroo Paws are not alone in relying on vertebrate pollinators; in this respect, Australia’s southwest is the world leader.
And many West Australian plants that do rely on insect pollinators are “liars” – plants pretending to be “receptive” insects!
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…but bees are of little or no use to this – or any other – member of the Kangaroo Paw family!
A future post, coming soon, will explain why.
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