Yagan/yerrigan the longneck turtle under the water by the gazebo heading towards a kind of highway in the grasslands under the surface. “They really look like rocks,” my nephew says, comparing it to a nearby rock under water…which soon after also begins to move.
Author Archives: jbstubley
Fishing for Kingfishers
Konk nephew and I walking the east side of the lake and I notice by the side of the water, on an overhanging branch, the unusual form of a bird. It’s hard to make him out through the bushes—he’s bigger than a honeyeater, smaller than a crow or magpie, maybe even smaller than butcherbird or magpielark. He has the beak and head shape and overall form of kookaburra, though smaller. I think kingfisher, but from this angle it’s hard to see the back of his wings. I assume he’s azure. Not often seen here.
A Lake of Green Grass
After a summer of dry lake and much grass, this next spring the grass continues to grow, but now through the water (of a wet winter), so that there looks to be as much grass as water in the lake. A lighter green and a darker green.
Dragonflies
There are many dragonflies in the lower part of the lake at the moment—larger ones. Then, on walking round, on the northern-most border, under the figs and eucalypts, there are many smaller ones that spring up with our every step. With the increase of light and warmth they appear. And they appear with an increase of warmth and light.
Dead Duck
There’s a dead duck by the jetty today, with some of its feathers plucked. Some say foxes, some say cats. Some say it’s the second one recently. Some weeks later I find a few Pacific duck feathers by the eastern viewing area too; and then someone has stuck the bones of what appears to be a wing into the top of the fence line, maybe to keep it away from dogs.
Dolphins at the Beach
Only maybe a half dozen or so times—maybe slightly more—have I seen dolphins on this stretch of Perth coast north of the river. This day I’m in the water with my nephew, and they are a fair way out—maybe a hundred metres or so; possibly only one or two of them—-hard to keep an eye them on at water level—heading north I think. Out from the river? In any case, something to note.
Dwarf Kangaroo Paw
Karrgatup Kings Park and it’s wildflower time. I walk around with my nephew and see the flowering of Western Australia—from silky eremophila to spider orchids. But the one that really stops me is the dwarf kangaroo paw from Yonga Mir the Stirling Range region. The ranges are higher up, quartz sandstones and shales—a long way from the sandy dunes of Whadjuk Country on the Swan Coastal Plane. And for some reason I’m struck—the kangaroo paw in this place grows tall and slender, but down there on those higher ridges and harder rocks he’s lower, closer to the ground. And in that moment I get a glimpse of something akin to Goethe’s archetypal plant which he first spied on his trip to Italy, crossing mountains and visiting other gardens with the same plants from his German Weimar, but in those other places appearing differently, given different conditions. And so he articulated what he saw as an archetypal plant—the plant in all plants which could, given the right conditions, take on an infinite number of forms. Here something of that same plant, expressed also in the archetypal kangaroo paw—in front of me, the dwarf.
Nyimarak Shoos
Back at the lake today and Nyimarak the Australian Shelduck—the biggest duck in these parts—is in no mood for wardong the crow, or even for feisty little kidjibroon the Eurasian coot, shooing both off, then flying away.
Dragonfly-Sized Mosquitos
Cliff Head campground after driving the Indian Ocean Drive from Mingenew, and Mullewa and Tenindewa before that: the whole Northern (wildflower) Loop done with most of the southern in one day, and now seeing how far the road is open before it’s closed for roadwords ahead. And just before we can go no further we turn into Cliff Head and down to an almost empty campground bar a couple of caravans. We set up and eat dinner on the beach just before sunset, all alone except for a whole swarm of dragonfly-sized mosquitos getting blown in the wind south to north. Maybe there are no other campers because they’ve been carried away by these things. They fly, dopily, into the side of our heads. They are giant mosquitos, and somewhat slow. To keep them from feeding on us we are forced to kill those that land on our skin. We keep them and later throw them on the fire, hoping they and the smoke will keep others away.
The next morning they are still around, even in the daylight. While above the cirrus are also appearing in long streaks, like the tracks of mosquito wings. More heat approaching.
Nangetty Valley
There is a valley north of Mingenew on the road to Mullewa with mesas on either side, a lone hill, cattle—a kind of Arizona or New Mexco but lower, flatter, greener and (at this time of year) more yellow. It feels to me like a kind of rift valley, like the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. Looking on a map now I see it is also where a lot of the water of the Coal Seem area runs out, taking that flowered soil with it.
John Stubley 