Skip to content →

Tag: Lake Monger

Such a winter’s day…

Published June 17, 2021 by Pelidoug

Such a winter’s day…

..is by no means uncommon in Perth, but this one delivered something amazing.

The photo above shows Lake Monger Reserve’s southernmost section – its faux “European” part – where exotic trees and lawn predominate, still.

The image below looks to the lake’s longer, eastern shore, where an ongoing rehabilitation process has re-established more appropriate riparian vegetation.

There, “local” plants now predominate. They – along with other measures to reduce eutrophication – are key to Lake Monger’s recently-improving health, after circa 170 years of seemingly-irreversible, human-induced decline.

read moreSuch a winter’s day…
Comments closed

Life Goes On/ Happy 85th birthday, Carla Bley

Published May 12, 2021 by Pelidoug

Life Goes On/ Happy 85th birthday, Carla Bley

 

In the USA, it is currently “yesterday”,  Tuesday, 11 May, 2021.

I hope that Carla Bley is enjoying a very happy birthday with her beloved, Steve Swallow.

For rather more than my entire adult life, Carla Bley has composed, arranged and played singular music, variously – sometimes, simultaneously – provocative, surprising, very amusing, satirical, sublimely lyrical, complex, seemingly-simple…

Her three most recent releases – all, new trio recordings of new music, made between 2013 and 2019 – are some of her finest, ever.

read moreLife Goes On/ Happy 85th birthday, Carla Bley
Comments closed

Aussie “icon”/ “outcast” achieves lift-off

Published February 1, 2021 by Pelidoug

Aussie “icon”/ “outcast” achieves lift-off

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.

read moreAussie “icon”/ “outcast” achieves lift-off
Comments closed

“Bloody” cockatoos – loved/hated, “native”/“introduced”

Published December 6, 2020 by Pelidoug

“Bloody” cockatoos – loved/hated, “native”/“introduced”

If you come across corellas in a big city, chances are excellent that you are in Perth or Adelaide, that there a great many of them, they are making a lot of noise, and you can easily see that they are doing a lot of damage.

It is highly likely that the species in question is Cacatua sanguinea, the Little Corella.

Its Latin/“scientific” name means “bloodstained cockatoo” – a reference to its pink markings, between eye and bill.

This species has proved “too adaptable”.

read more“Bloody” cockatoos – loved/hated, “native”/“introduced”
One Comment

“Golden Hour” at Lake Monger

Published November 23, 2020 by Pelidoug

“Golden Hour” at Lake Monger

 

(this post includes photographic advice and a musical bonus)

Officially, Perth’s November 21 2020 sunset occurred at 6.59 pm.

Effectively, on the west side of Lake Monger, the sun had set some minutes earlier, thanks to the (modest) hill/stabilised dune which rises behind the lake’s western side.

Where I took the featured image, the golden hour’s most magical moment was at 6.43 pm.

read more“Golden Hour” at Lake Monger
One Comment

Narcissistic duck? (#80 in “a shining moment” series)

Published August 31, 2020 by Pelidoug

Narcissistic duck? (#80 in “a shining moment” series)

Anthropomorphic captions almost always lie about the animals they purport to describe!

This juvenile Australian Wood Duck was simply preening, as birds do.

This behaviour has precisely nothing to do with egregious self-regard.

However, the “water as mirror” circumstance does lead me to one of my favourite pianists, delivering a sublime rendition – coughers, notwithstanding – of Claude Debussy’s Reflets dans l’eau.

read moreNarcissistic duck? (#80 in “a shining moment” series)
Comments closed

Pelican Yoga, for real (#11 in “a shining moment” series)

Published April 4, 2020 by Pelidoug

Pelican Yoga, for real (#11 in “a shining moment” series)

One day, when the global pandemic is over, I’ll post a sequence of photos that show how this brief but intense example of “pelican yoga” unfolded.

It occurred during the last half hour of sunlight, yesterday, 03 April, at Lake Monger, just minutes away from Perth’s very centre, which is an almost-dead centre, now.

read morePelican Yoga, for real (#11 in “a shining moment” series)
Comments closed