Currawong heart

Looking up

Looking up (mostly) into the trees by the inlet and playing with black and white and filters in photoshop.
From the top; Banksia, Allocasuarina (sheoak), Eucalyptus, Melaleuca (paperbark). Each tree has its own distinctive pattern of growth. I am in the process of experimenting with solar plates and creating the necessary 'transparencies' on acetate sheets. All good fun although the dogs get a little fed up with me stopping to take photos ...

White robin

Over late summer and into autumn we were graced with the antics of a pair of white robins flitting and feeding through our garden. Early in April I flushed a fledgling from some shrubs near the chook yard.. It flew straight out in front of me with the parents looking on from near by. After staring at me for a moment it flew into the bush next door. These are the photos I took of it feeding in our garden on subsequent occasions. It looks a little scruffy because it still has some of it's baby fluff.

Unfortunately this story has a sad ending. I found the poor little bird dead one morning at the end of April. Soon after that I found the White robin's nest in my shade house - a well built little cup of woven grasses nestled in the fronds of a large elkhorn. No wonder I saw the adults so frequently. Since then I have found an older nest in another elkhorn. With a bit of luck they will try again and this time with more success.

Silver shimmer

Walking down by the inlet the last few days the water has been a gentle reflection of the pale cloudy sky.

The water birds are making the most of the still shallow waters - easy fishing and feeding on the water weeds in the shallows.

A flotilla sails by.

Spoonbills taking time out from feeding.

An ibis comes in to land.

The lichen covered rocks glow in the late afternoon light.

A wolf on the wall

Last trip to Perth I caught the train into town with Mum to have a look at some of the Art in the City organised by Form. Painted over nine days, by forty five artists, Australian and international, on thirty walls. All photos taken on my phone. These are just a sample of the works to be discovered.

This was one of my favourites in Wolf Lane. Mining meets Dr Who meets gaming.

Pilbara Destruction by Pixel Pancho.

The squished car is due to photomerging images.

Child wolf in Wolf Lane by H?

Productive Construction by Heavy Projects

Cheeky Sparrow 2013, 

probably not one of the Form ones but I like it - in the outdoor eating space of the Cheeky Sparrow eatery.

Maya Hayuk on curved wall, floating ladies and dresses by ?

Alexis Diaz

Hand detail - Alexis Diaz

Anya Brock and Hurben

GAIA in a car park in Murray St.

Stormie Mills

Rollin 

Last Chance

detail - Last Chance

Roa - six stories high

 

Phlegm - this work is extraordinary full of amazing detail

Over all very interesting - humorous, fun, cheeky, colourful, serious. Next trip I hope to check out the ones we missed. And yes - Mum loved it too.

Dog gravity

I was in Perth a week ago. It was hot. I stayed with a friend. We walked down the beach with her old dog. Slowly.

 The beach was crowded with dogs and people, all shapes and sizes and colours. Mostly walking. Dogs playing and splashing in the shadows. The calm water was nearly empty of people. 

Surprising. 

We watched big brown dogs collect together, then a group of small pale dogs sniffed as their humans chatted. They agglomerated then dispersed. A special dog gravity.

We walked around a lake in the evening, and watched birds feed in the receding summer shallows. Muddy edges closed in as the hot dry weather continued.

We stayed to watch the evening colours change. 

I loved the last light catching the tips of the pines. 

Awakenings

Yesterday it drizzled on and off under cloudy-ish skies. Out walking the dogs in the afternoon I was surrounded by the rubbery cricks of tiny frogs that live in the karri forest. Only three millimetres of rain but just enough to wake the frogs. Almost autumn.

In the afternoon I and many others witnessed the sand mandala dissolution ceremony performed by the monks that had been working on the mandala since Tuesday.

The Tibetan monks hail from the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in India and were accompanied by the Tibetan, Tenzin Choegyal, a singer, songwriter and musician. While in town they created the mandala over five days, gave workshops and guided meditations, and performed in a concert on Friday night.  Tenzin Choegyal has the most amazing voice and the monks were surprising.

They had an instrument that looked like a flared didgeridoo and had a deep and resonant sound reminiscent of throat singing. It was a Tibetan horn or dungchen. It was used in accompaniment to their chanting and throat singing. Parts of their ritual would wake any slumbering spirit. It must have been quite amazing to hear in the mountains of Tibet.

The mandala was 'dissolved' then collected up and we all walked to the river. For the finale of the ceremony the sand and petals were poured into the river after a final series of chants.