…in our street, at least, the pervasive “warm, buttered, milky spuds” aroma almost certainly has nothing to do with potatoes.
Melaleuca quinquenervia is the “culprit” – flowering, not mashing.
Comments closedPelican Yoga Posts
…or discovering him.
Arguably one of South Africa’s two pre-eminent improvising pianists, Bheki Mseleku was also an arresting saxophonist and vocalist.
His music deserves to be much more widely known.
Anyone who deeply admires Abdullah Ibrahim, McCoy Tyner and John Coltrane is highly likely to appreciate Bheki Mseleku.
Comments closed
Soil restoration can be expensive, and impractical across vast areas of land. Soil disturbance by echidnas offers a cost-effective restoration option, and this potential should be harnessed.
Very easily reached via sealed roads, but astonishing little-visited, Anvil Beach is deliciously wild.
It offers visual splendour, grave danger, and safety.
If you intend to swim there, you must very carefully select exactly where/when/if to do so, how to reach your chosen point of entry, and how/if you can safely return from it…most especially if the tide is soon to turn, or a weather change is imminent.
Comments closed
The rodent pictured above – well-rounded, petite, and “out in the wild” – quite probably strikes you as “cute”, maybe even “adorable”.
But how about the longer-toothed, urban-invading ranks of Rattus norvegicus?
Allegedly, they are currently making themselves ever more “at home” inside our cities’ offices, shops and homes…
Comments closed
On 22 October 2019, in the northeastern part of the Tibetan Plateau in Qinghai, China, I met an obviously-ambitious sheep-owner.
Clearly, he was “improving” his flock, probably with help from Australia.
Some of his sheep greatly surprised me – very evidently, some of their “bloodlines” were merino.
The prosperous grazier’s mask was entirely appropriate to his dusty task.
However, wearing it would have been expressly forbidden in some other places/contexts, even in the much more open/democratic land of Oz…
Comments closed
Our hero lost his “sacred” status when his Australian-ness was recognised!
As is true of many birds, Threskiornis molucca – the Australian white ibis – is wonderfully elegant when high in the sky, but rather less so when on terra firma, or in the process of becoming airborne.
Comments closed
At the moment southwestern Australia’s very own turtle is very evident at Lake Monger.
All photos copyright Doug Spencer, taken late afternoon on 27 January 2021.
Comments closed
This sequel to the immediately-preceding post shows the magnificent landscape which surrounds and towers above the valley’s floor.
From Budongquan (see #4 in Tibetan Plateau series) we set off in darkness.
We breakfasted two hours later, overlooking a brushy, sandy section of the valley floor…through which we then walked.
The featured image (all photos copyright Doug Spencer) was taken at 8.11 am, during breakfast.
Comments closed
The featured bird is very tiny, very hardy.
“His” valley’s sparsely vegetated floor – the “low ground”, locally – all sits within 200 metres either side of 4000 metres above sea level.
If transplanted to the Tibetan Plateau, New Zealand’s highest peak would fail to reach this valley’s lowest point.
Comments closed