Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
The western rosella is the smallest of Australia’s six rosella species
It is also the most sexually dimorphic; it is not at all difficult to discern an adult western rosella’s gender – a marked contrast to other rosellas.
The male of the species is the more exuberantly-colourful, but the female’s more subtly-variegated plumage is at least as lovely.
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This series has twice featured an image of a male red-winged fairywren, in “flaunting” mode.
Females are more “drab”, but are very attractive – and perky – in their own right.
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Wikipedia description of the Porongurup Range’s geomorphology:
The Porongurup Range is 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from east to west and consists of porphyritic granite[3] peaks levelled into domes. The range is the remnant of a sizeable reservoir of molten granite that bubbled up when the Antarctic continent struck Australia in the Stenian Period of the Mesoproterozoic Era, around 1200 million (1.2 billion) years ago.[9]
The sea levels of the late Cretaceous were around 100 metres higher than today[10]and during this time the Porongurup Range was an island surrounded by the sea.
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This post’s images show the appearance of the forest understory on the lower slopes of the Porongurups at the driest time of year, in an especially dry summer.
The local climate is “Mediterranean”, with cool wet winters, and warm dry summers.
Each photo’s “hero” dead leaf is wedged, approximately as high above the forest floor as would be the eyes of a tall human, standing there.
In such a forest (one dominated by tall eucalypts) it is perfectly normal to see the ground rendered largely invisible – “buried” beneath masses of leaf litter, bark, twigs & small branches.
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This post’s forest floor “natural abstract” was photographed a couple of minutes later than was the “5” Porongurup image.
Their locations were only a few footsteps distant from each other.
One of the world’s greater guitarists has (unwitttingly) provided a sublime musical accompaniment..
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A forest floor’s “natural abstracts” often delight me rather more than do some allegedly “iconic” abstract artworks on “important” galleries’ walls.
As is true of all photos in the current series’ “Porongurup” sequence, the photo is ©️ Doug Spencer, & was taken in mid-afternoon of 12 February 2025, on the northern side of Porongurup National Park.
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This is true even when an unusually-prolonged dry spell has ensured that on this day the relevant forest will fail to deliver its usual visual treat in the “fungi department”.
However, in the “Karri trees’ annual exfoliation department” all was as it should be on 12 February 2025 in Porongurup National Park.
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You are looking at the “skin” on a venerable Karri’s trunk, as it was on the afternoon of 12 February 2025.
Six months earlier – or six months later – it would have looked remarkably different, in both colour and texture.
Karri shed and renew their bark in an annual cycle.
“Karri loam” – the particular soil type in which Karri trees grow – is primarily composed of decomposed Karri bark!
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