Old Owl's photos

Lotus bertholotii, commonly known in Australia as "Parrot's beak". Originally from the Canary Islands, it is now extinct in the wild. So it goes.

Seals on a haul-out at the southern tip of Tasmania.

Rio Tinto tower, Perth (detail)

Better when bigger. Please press Z.

"I am monarch of all I survey; My right there is none to dispute;" William Cowper. Photograph taken long ago outside Jimmy's Café, Mandurah. Now sadly gone and replaced by a chain restaurant. Why do the things we love always disappear? "Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone ..." (Or to quote another Joni Mitchell song: "Nothing lasts for long.")

Perth, WA

Happy Fence Friday to everyone. Let's hope your weekend is a good one.

Little Penguin under St Kilda Pier. At dusk there are large numbers of these Little Penguins coming out of the sea to roost under the pier. This was the only one we saw during the day. It may have been ill, very young, very old or perhaps just hungover from an all-night bender and a dodgy fish kebab. Whatever, you have to be careful not to disturb them.

Early morning, Mandurah estuary, WA Cormorants, gulls, pelican. Press Z to biggen it up. "The common cormorant (or shag) Lays eggs inside a paper bag, You follow the idea, no doubt? It is to keep the lightning out. But what these unobservant birds Have never thought of, is that herds Of wandering bears might come with buns And steal the bags to hold the crumbs." (Poem by Christopher Isherwood)

(Press Z: big is bright and best.)

So little time ...

Primrose Valley, near Filey. HFF to all. This one might not be there for much longer. It may not even be there now. It is a very moveable coastline.

Bridgetown, WA (Bigger is possibly better. Please press Z.)

Leederville station, WA

Note on Moonlight by Wallace Stevens The one moonlight, in the simple-colored night, Like a plain poet revolving in his mind The sameness of his various universe, Shines on the mere objectiveness of things. It is as if being was to be observed, As if, among the possible purposes Of what one sees, the purpose that comes first, The surface, is the purpose to be seen, The property of the moon, what it evokes. It is to disclose the essential presence, say, Of a mountain, expanded and elevated almost Into a sense, an object the less; or else To disclose in the figure waiting on the road An object the more, an undetermined form Between the slouchings of a gunman and a lover, A gesture in the dark, a fear one feels In the great vistas of night air, that takes this form, In the arbors that are as if of Saturn-star. So, then, this warm, wide, weatherless quietude Is active with a power, an inherent life, In spite of the mere objectiveness of things, Like a cloud-cap in the corner of a looking-glass, A change of color in the plain poet's mind, Night and silence disturbed by an interior sound. The one moonlight, the various universe, intended So much just to be seen --- a purpose, empty Perhaps, absurd perhaps, but at least a purpose, Certain and ever more fresh. Ah! Certain, for sure...

Happy Fence Friday one and all. Stop 139, Acland Street, St Kilda.