Koondoola is win.
Mar. 29th, 2008 10:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
moonvoiceWent on a mega walk through Koondoola yesterday, the longest I've been on in easily over 2 years. It was amazing. We saw a Western brush wallaby almost flying through the undergrowth, a lot of 28 parrots, and an inordinate number of wattlebirds chasing each other about.
It was just lovely to walk the land again. Dieback has more of a stranglehold on the banksias, which is really sad. But... the land is evolving, and who knows how it will adapt to deal with it. I don't know. I do worry though.
While I could ramble on and on about spirits and 'zomg spirit spiders' and such, I'd rather just share a whole heap of photos with you. :) It's not even a flowering season at the moment, aside form a handful of plants, but that's okay.
For those who are keeping up with Tem's Lucky Paw, there are pictures of the Calytrix or 'spirit spiders' within. :)
Dwarf sheoak
And banksia in the background. I do really love dwarf sheoaks, but then I love sheoaks/casuarina in general. They are an awesome tree / shrub.
Stinkwood (Jacksonia sternbergiana)
Nothing is really in flower at the moment, except for the Calytrix and Menzies, but there were some small stinkwood blossoms trying to make themselves known, lit up in the light. Here are two. They were the only two on the entire shrub.
Reach for the sky, wise guy
Only to stay locked in that moment forever.
Once a flower, twice shy
The skeleton of a candle banksia. These were the motivation for Snugglepot and Cuddlepie's 'Banksia Men.' Well not these specific ones, obviously...
Menzies Banksia
I've mentioned these are big flowers right? That it's about the size of two of my fists? Yeah. Birds, bees, butterflies, moths, beetles and anything that subsists of nectar just heart banksias. I rather heart them too. They are just starting to get into the bulk of their flowering season.
Menzies Banksia
Just in case you wanted to see another one. :)
Spiderwebs
Pretty straightforward really. They glow in the sunset.
Non-glowing Nest Spiderweb
We have nest spiders in Western Australia. Basically, they are a type of spider which live in colonies together, here is an example of one of their 'nests.' The central dense point can hold hundreds of spiders (and is protected here by dead leaves etc. They usually end up salvaging other materials like bits of wood and sticks to 'protect' the centre), though this one looked deserted. The spiders are quite small, and work cooperatively in a hive to bring down prey much larger than themselves. Hence the spiderweb 'nests' can actually end up engulfing entire branches. We used to have these guys in our back garden, as much as I liked them, they got into everything so we got rid of them and I enjoy them far more in the bushland now.
Calytrix (Calytrix brevifolia)
This is not actually the specific species that I modelled the spirit spiders off, but it'll do. This bush is towards the end of its season, but I'll explain more about that later.
Calytrix (and Calytrix flower skeletons)
Here you can see an example of calytrix flowers alongside calytrix flower skeletons. The 'hairs' coming out of each flower are the awns, though you can see them more clearly on the small skeletons once the petals have dropped off. In Tem's Lucky Paw these are what they use to help them locomote. Heh. Yeah okay, so I have a strange imagination.
Sunset through the banksias
Bye bye until next time. :)
It was just lovely to walk the land again. Dieback has more of a stranglehold on the banksias, which is really sad. But... the land is evolving, and who knows how it will adapt to deal with it. I don't know. I do worry though.
While I could ramble on and on about spirits and 'zomg spirit spiders' and such, I'd rather just share a whole heap of photos with you. :) It's not even a flowering season at the moment, aside form a handful of plants, but that's okay.
For those who are keeping up with Tem's Lucky Paw, there are pictures of the Calytrix or 'spirit spiders' within. :)
Dwarf sheoak
And banksia in the background. I do really love dwarf sheoaks, but then I love sheoaks/casuarina in general. They are an awesome tree / shrub.
Stinkwood (Jacksonia sternbergiana)
Nothing is really in flower at the moment, except for the Calytrix and Menzies, but there were some small stinkwood blossoms trying to make themselves known, lit up in the light. Here are two. They were the only two on the entire shrub.
Reach for the sky, wise guy
Only to stay locked in that moment forever.
Once a flower, twice shy
The skeleton of a candle banksia. These were the motivation for Snugglepot and Cuddlepie's 'Banksia Men.' Well not these specific ones, obviously...
Menzies Banksia
I've mentioned these are big flowers right? That it's about the size of two of my fists? Yeah. Birds, bees, butterflies, moths, beetles and anything that subsists of nectar just heart banksias. I rather heart them too. They are just starting to get into the bulk of their flowering season.
Menzies Banksia
Just in case you wanted to see another one. :)
Spiderwebs
Pretty straightforward really. They glow in the sunset.
Non-glowing Nest Spiderweb
We have nest spiders in Western Australia. Basically, they are a type of spider which live in colonies together, here is an example of one of their 'nests.' The central dense point can hold hundreds of spiders (and is protected here by dead leaves etc. They usually end up salvaging other materials like bits of wood and sticks to 'protect' the centre), though this one looked deserted. The spiders are quite small, and work cooperatively in a hive to bring down prey much larger than themselves. Hence the spiderweb 'nests' can actually end up engulfing entire branches. We used to have these guys in our back garden, as much as I liked them, they got into everything so we got rid of them and I enjoy them far more in the bushland now.
Calytrix (Calytrix brevifolia)
This is not actually the specific species that I modelled the spirit spiders off, but it'll do. This bush is towards the end of its season, but I'll explain more about that later.
Calytrix (and Calytrix flower skeletons)
Here you can see an example of calytrix flowers alongside calytrix flower skeletons. The 'hairs' coming out of each flower are the awns, though you can see them more clearly on the small skeletons once the petals have dropped off. In Tem's Lucky Paw these are what they use to help them locomote. Heh. Yeah okay, so I have a strange imagination.
Sunset through the banksias
Bye bye until next time. :)
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no subject
Date: 2008-03-29 01:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-29 01:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-29 01:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-29 01:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-29 02:20 am (UTC)How many inches of rain does that area get in a year? (or centimeters, or whatever they measure rainfall in there, I can convert it)
no subject
Date: 2008-03-29 02:26 am (UTC)Kwongan bushland (as this style is known) has the soils of exceptionally low fertility, but has the richest development of flora. The Koondoola bushland represents a subset of landscape which is actually listed as critically endangered. As Kwongan bushland represents a great amount of native flora and fauna (and huge diversity, it's an ecological hotspot), but is also generally found on sandy soil which is perfect for building.
Koondoola will probably be permanently preserved, but with the dieback (an incurable - pretty much - fungal infection that affects huge amounts of flora like banksias) the Kwongan there as we know it might not last too much longer.
/ends ramble.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-30 03:26 am (UTC)It was somewhat wetter than that where I used to live, but now I'm somewhere that gets about 40 inches a year.
No problem with the ramble! It's all interesting. I assume that overdevelopment is also a problem there since you mentioned the building. So sad.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-29 02:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-29 02:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-29 03:48 am (UTC)more than that i am *so* happy to hear about your going for the walk :-)
*hugs*
- Jules & Co.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-29 03:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-29 06:46 am (UTC)I think it's a gross understatement that having a leg you can put weight on and bend and walk with will help you heal. I'm glad you can get out and be in and among the land you love again.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-30 04:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-30 04:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-30 05:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-31 08:07 am (UTC)Just seeing, and with your description, it sounds very Miyazaki-esque. So much easier to imagine the flowers all crawling away. Such are the limitations of language, I guess.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-01 05:31 am (UTC)