NEW BLOG ABOUT MELBOURNE

Hi everyone! You might wonder why I haven't been posting many photos lately. Life has been busy, and I have visited Melbourne, Victoria some weeks ago. Since I have taken loads of pictures over there, I have decided to start up a MELBOURNE BLOG.

You can visit the site by clicking on the following link.

http://melbournecitylife.blogspot.com


I will still keep the main blog on Western Australia and will hopefully get around to get "out and about" for some new photos!

Cheers!

Salt Lake, Lake King WA

As summer is approaching fast now, water supplies fall even shorter and a lot of lakes dry up and turn into "salt lakes". Kilometers of salt crusts cover what was once a beautiful lake.

Coccinella transversalis - Transverse ladybird

Frangipani backlit

Camouflage Magpie

Weevil with hitch-hiking aphid

Leptopius sp. - Weevil native to Australia

Green Looper Caterpillar

I discovered this little bugger munching happily on our Geraniums, perfectly camouflaged by its green colour. The way this caterpillar "loops along" impressed me, so I decided to place it on a slightly more contrasty background in order to photograph it. This caterpillar most likely belongs to the family Noctuidae and grows up to 40mm long in size.

Hibiscus Flower

Nectarine Orchard Farm

This is the last image to my spring orchard series. It shows a well maintained nectarine orchard located in the "Perth hills".

Glowing Blossom

Nectarine tree in flower

Plum blossoms

Nectarine blossoms

Spring is already on its way and summer is now not far away anymore. Last week I went to some orchards farms in the Perth hills area where the nectarine and plum orchards are now in flower. The smell and the colours are magnificent!

Mishka surfing

Got Ya!

Fighting for "Squeeky"

"You really think I will let go???"




"You can pull as much as you like, Squeeky is mine!"



"See, I told you so!"

Catch me if you can!

Surfing Dogs

Hi everyone! Apologies for the long break. I have been very busy at work and didn't get a chance to post new pics. But now I'm back with some new pictures.

We're heading towards spring now in Perth and the weather is getting better every day with lots of sunshine. I went down to the local dog beach at the weekend and took the opportunity to take some action shots of happy dogs.

In this photo you can see Mishka (white Labrador) and Jett (black Labrador) catching waves down the beach.
I will post some more photos in the next few days.

Rainbow Lorikeet

Lots of these colourful parrots hang out in the trees of our neighbour's garden picking berries and making a lot of noise.

The rainbow lorikeet (Trichoglossus haematodus) was
introduced into the wild in Perth, Western Australia,
during the 1960s. When lorikeets were first recorded
in the wild in Perth no action was taken to remove
them. From fewer than 10 escaped or released birds,
the population is now distributed over a large part of
the metropolitan area and may expand to numbers over
20 000 birds by 2010. The bird is now a declared pest here.

The rainbow lorikeet is a small, brightly coloured parrot
26 - 31 cm in length and weighing 120 - 130 g.
Male, female and immature birds all look similar, with
young birds slightly duller in colour. Lorikeets are quite
noisy, continuously screeching while in flight, at a food
source or at roosts. They have a swift direct flight with
rapid whirring wing beats and display flashes of dark
green and bright red.

Sunset after storm

Strings of grass

Scarborough Hotel

The Scarborough Observation City Hotel is the only high-rise building along the whole west coast and it looks like it is going to stay this way to preserve the natural coastal landscape.

Lonely day at the beach

This is Trigg Beach in Winter where hardly anyone is out in the water apart from a few surfers in wetsuits (neoprene suits) to keep warm in the ocean. You could sit down the beach for hours at this time of the year in this sort of weather and would only see a few people walking along on the sand. In summer on the other hand it would be very crowded, especially at the weekends when the local surf club has competitions on. On the sign in the photo you can see all the rules and warnings in order to make your day down the beach a pleasant experience rather than a day with a dramatic ending. So always remember: Swim between the red and yellow flags!

Gras in the wind

Winter afternoon

Footprints

Sand Traces

Little Seashell

Stranded

Shower anyone?

Beach Dream

Trigg Surf Life Saving Club

Close-up flower

Yellow Flower

Not sure of the real name of this flower/plant. Need to check with a botanist and then update the name.

Sunflower

Front view

Sunflower backlit

We have been growing sunflowers from seeds in our backyard and this is one of them with the sun lighting up the petals from the front. I love sunflowers, they automatically put you in a good mood, just looking at them.

Maddy in action

As a true "Blues" supporter Maddy wears her Carlton jersey underneath the local Footy Club jersey (see previous images). In this session she decided to show off her Carlton outfit instead.

Heeere!!! Kick the ball to meeeee!!!

Maddy against the boys

Australian Rules Football (AFL) is one of the biggest sports in Australia along with Cricket and Rugby. Football is a "winter" sport and everyone is eagerly awaiting the footy season to begin in April. Kids learn to love the sport at a very early age and strongly support their team by all means.
This morning we went to watch our 7 year old niece (the one with the ball) play football - nearly the only girl in this male-dominated sport - but she kicked some serious butt!
I'll be posting some more action shots of the kids playing football in the next few days.

Windmill & dam on farm

This photo was taken a little while ago on a farm near Toodyay, a small country town, about 80km North East of Perth.

Map of Margaret River Region

On this map you can follow up the places where we went to on this last trip.
Distance from Perth to Margaret River: ca. 280km.
Distance from Busselton to Augusta: ca. 80km.



















Here you can see the southern part of the Margaret River Region highlighted in green, compared to the rest of Western Australia. You will automatically come to the conclusion that WA is a bloody big country as we say here in OZ.

Hit by car

This very unfortunate kangaroo was hit by a car and will soon be completely consumed by other wildlife and thousands of insects. Sadly a lot of kangaroos get killed this way, but once the animal jumps in front of an oncoming car, the impact is unavoidable. At first I wasn't quite sure if I should publish this photograph as the corpse looks rather grotesque and it might offend some viewers. But then again death is part of life and therefore dealing with death to some extend should not be excluded from our lives.

Lush Green Fields

Wood Pattern and Tree Trunk