The Basin Track

Lambertia formosa


Acacia suaveolens


Female casuarina against the sky


Scribbly gum, E. haemastoma


An unidentified flower


An unidentified flower

Despite the rain, or perhaps because of it, the colours seemed very true for these flowers. The mountain devils were a rare and striking red amidst their soft grey foliage. Coming up the path, the first flower I noticed was a Banksia spinulosa with its lovely black stigmas edging the bright orange of the flower and then the somewhat bedraggled Acacia suaveolens with the rhythm of its phyllodes against the soft white flower heads. Photographing it, you notice that the smooth edges of the phyllodes are translucent.

The red and grey spider flowers (Grevilleas) were flowering and the grey spider flower was striking with its flowers atop its stalks, and there was a hakea, common as dirt, no doubt, but flowering too with tiny flowers all along its stems and huge woody knobbly seed heads.

I put in the photo of the scribbly gum because of the beautiful red of its stalks. It too, was flowering. In the rain, its flowers always remind me of Little Ragged Blossom.

Not surprisingly, I saw two flowers I had never seen before. Never seen before, since in both cases the flower was little more than a simple continuation of the foliage, itself largely unremarkable. And I am assuming I had never seen the reddish one before, since I have probably walked on by thinking that the plant was entirely dead or burnt since the entire plant was orange. So easy to pass by and assume familiarity. And equally easy, in my ignorance, to assume that I have never seen it before as I did with a Boronia which had turned to seed.

Walk

Barrenjoey Headland. On the path beyond the lighthouse.


Barrenjoey Headland. On the path beyond the lighthouse.

I had to go for a walk. Men came today to pick up the spare fridge. In the end they didn't take it. Theoretically, it was part of a 'fridge buy-back' scheme. But they wanted $200 to take it. I had waited all day and felt quite sick and miserable about it all. So I went for the walk.

I do love the silver of casuarinas and tea-trees. And for some reason the isopogons are so green. Very beautiful.

theses and botanising

I am currently writing up my thesis, and taking an inordinately and unnecessarily long time to do so. I have been on only one botanising walk, since my return to Sydney. (So, two photos from that walk.)

And here at work (avoiding work) I found a specimen from the NSW herbarium's record, with a photo of an actual plant collected by Banks and Solander. (If it is not from Banks & Solander, then it does come from the British Museum Collection..) Such an incredible collection. (Click to see it...)
Plantnet Acacia julifer



Casuarinas and banksia on Barrenjoey Headland.


Leptospermum squarrosum, a lovely tea-tree common in the coastal scrub.

Given that Acacia julifera was collected by Solander and Banks, here is a photograph of a beautiful tree planted, I think, in the 19th century, and a plant in the Botanic Gardens whose plaque says "Not collected by Banks and Solander". It is a magnificent tree.


Eucalyptus grandis.

GPS

Pandanus on the foreshore of Redcliff Beach.


Casuarina. Redcliff Beach.


Mangrove at Nudgee Beach

The beaches on Moreton Bay (and all those that I have seen so far) are so different from what I know as a beach. I think it would take another lifetime to acclimatise me to them.

Pandanus and this incredibly dessicated looking casuarina are to be found on every beach I have so far seen. Shallow beaches, dirty water and warm. But there are all those islands off the coast, so the water is shallow and fed from all the muddy mangrove creeks and rivers...everywhere. Also incredibly salty.

I have brought up the car from Sydney using the old Satnav. But I clearly needed newer maps and so had to buy a new one (no maps available on the old one). So I was determined to venture forth and try the roads and the navigation.

I set out for Redcliff, having seen photos from a Flickr friend, but diverted to various places on the way. So I thought that Nudgee might serve for a swim. Clearly not. Great for fishing. And so I continued on.

The Norfolk pines of Redcliff looked somewhat the worse from the long drought, but it was a swimmable beach and so I swam.

The new satnav is not as satisfactory as the old: it does not automatically tell me to continue straight when I reach an intersection with millions of directions. You need to keep a sharp eye on the number of metres left before the turn or you will turn too early. Also the maps are crappy. We now have voiced streets, but this is not always helpful: Sir Fred Schonell drive becomes "serve ridge..." and Brisbane is pronounced with the last syllable rhyming with rain. Anyway it took me there and brought me home safely so I should not be complaining.

Disheartenment & Casuarina cones

Casuarina cones

Forest Oak (Allocasuarina torulosa)
plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&am...

At the moment, I am feeling quite dispirited with my project of photographing and identifying plants that I see.

When I look at the thread for identified plants in the What plant is that? group, it seems my requests and IDs outweigh by far those of any other person, despite my having discovered Flickr only in September.

My incapacity to look, my failure to capture the critical details of the plant, and my continued ignorance of botanical nomenclature, together with the fear of attempting to key a plant out from the very beginning as one must on PlantNet(without being able to come in at it halfway through as one can to some extent using a text book) currently overwhelm me.

Anyway, should anyone be interested in making an attempt to differentiate casuarinas, to calibrate the measure of my despair and to witness the various interactions of the Flickr plant community, double click on the image of the casuarina cones.

Trevelyan: Whigs & Tories

Casuarinas on Patonga Creek

I've been reading 'The Stuarts' by Trevelyan. It has the usual hagiography of Charles I, which I am not prepared to buy. But for the first time, I feel that the Tory/Whig difference started to make sense.

Churchill tries to tell the history of the English 'constitution' and political arrangements in his "History of the English Speaking Peoples", but despite his overriding interest in political arrangements and in his family, he makes fails to explain these or why the English made the peace they made after Marlborough's resounding victories, whereas, it all seems to make sense in Trevelyan.

And as for Charles I, I'll take Geoffrey Robertson (The Tyrannicide Brief) over the two authors above. (But given the English ended up with the Stuart monarchs, Charles I as a saint was bound to prevail as the official viewpoint.)

Patonga Creek

Looking across the creek


Cabbage tree palms


Mangroves in the saltmarsh


Rushes, casuarinas and mangroves and saltmarsh beyond


Brush turkey

The last time I went to Patonga, I went by ferry from Palm Beach, and we paddled up the creek. But the ferry no longer runs, so I drove. I had a memory of how beautiful it was, but I had forgotten nonetheless.

I was surprised to see the turkey, but I had to include him, since he was so decorative. (I took photos of crabs and flowers too, but it was the landscape, which really knocked me out.)