A Walk In the Forest

I'm taking note of the comment from JBA and getting on with the Blog and not cooking for an old man and his dog. New pages coming shortly.

Forest Flowers

I have spent a lot of my time here walking and taking about 200 photographs of native plants and flowers, It's an ongoing project and I've divided them into four categories.

Here are just a few spring forest flowers, my first category. As a keen gardener I could never hope to create such a gorgeous garden as the Southern Forest is in spring.




Coral Vine


I'm not sure of the name of the flower but the (I think) Jewel Beetle is
a pretty little thing.


I can't find this flower in either of the flower books I've bought, so also nameless.

A day at the seaside

My first visit to the awesome Southern Ocean. It was a bit of a chilly day, as it's early spring and the Antarctic is the next stop, so that has to be expected.

What was not expected were the hundreds of Portuguese Man O' Wars washed up on to Salmon Beach, the one above was still alive and, after posing for the above picture, was carefully re-united with the ocean.

These two, however, are dead and are pictured with some sponges I found.


This dead, but poisonous, Puffer Fish also posed very prettily for me.



Grub enjoyed chasing sea weed.


I enjoyed walking on the beach.


And I now know where to go to dispose of any fish offal I have hanging around.

Later, on the drive home when we had, wisely, slowed right down for a kangaroo to cross the road a second 'roo trampolined onto the bonnet, then the roof of the car and away into the bush, not an everyday happening in Bristol - my host just said "Oh not again" and thanked Volvo builders.

Welcome to Quinninup

I was given a good welcome when I arrived in Quinninup but
was a little perturbed about the list of banned activities,
particularly the 'no fun'.


But the Quinninup eagle and....



my hosts Grub and John have made me feel very at home.



To show my appreciation of their hospitality I helped Grub
to roast a chook and some veggies for a warming winter dinner.



Which went down nicely with a glass or two of red.



Cheers everyone!

Leaving Fremantle and Thrombolites

My second morning in Oz and a breakfast fuel-up of coffee and smoked salmon bagel at Gino's Cafe, Fremantle, before the long drive to Quinninup


When we stopped for fuel and air I was amused at this man's inept attempts at filling the wheel chair tyres with air. My driver was just impatient.

Lake Clifton is one of the few places in the world where microbialites, "living rocks", grow. (Microbialites are one of the earliest forms of life on earth). Lake Clifton is the largest lake-bound microbialite reef in the southern hemisphere

Thrombolites are the most common form of microbialite in Lake Clifton. They are formed by a variety of micro-organisms. As the micro-organisms photosyntthesise they draw calcium carbonate from the lime-rich lake water to form limestone mounds

(Stromatolites form in a different way, mats of gelatinous slime trap seiment particles, similar to the way in which the sticky hairs of sundews catch flies.)

Microbialites grow at about 1mm per year

Thrombalites are characterised by an internally granular texture whereas stromatolites have a stratified structure.

The Lake Clifton thrombolites represent extant examples of thrombolites that were common 600 million years ago. Fossil counterparts are found today in the Amadeus Basin in the Northern Territory where ancient shorelines once existed.

Microbes involved in thrombolite and stromatolite formation may have been responsible for the oxygen production which enabled life as we know it to colonise the planet.

The tragedy that is happening here is that the massively increasing suburbanisation of the Swan Coastal Plain of Western Australia is causing the eutrophication of Lake Clifton. This eutrophication is causing the algae which is smothering the thrombolites and killing them. (Eutrophication in lakes and rivers is the excess nutrient caused by run off from lawn, garden and agricultural fertilisers which gives rise to phytoplankton, or algal bloom.) The sediment and algae smothering the thrombolites can be seen in the pix.

(I've pinched some of the text from the WA DEC notice board at Lake Clifton)