A Sense of Place

Yes, it's a cliché "out-of-the-car-window-at-110 kph" shot. Yes, it's fuzzy from the movement and the grubby window. Yes, you've seen pictures of canola fields and trees so many times that you've instinctively yawned. And guess what? I don't care. I like it. Somewhere north of Woodanilling in the Great Southern region, Western Australia on our way home from Esperance.

Lake Muir, WA At the moment (autumn) this is a salt lake. When the winter rains begin it will gradually fill and then the water birds will arrive. In spring it will begin to dry and then in summer it will revert to a salt lake. It covers about 45 square kilometres and sits in the middle of nowhere! As always, big is best. Please press Z.

A Happy Final Fence Friday of 2022 to everyone. I hope your day, your New Year celebrations and the entirety of 2023 are pleasant, joyful and far, far better than 2022 seemed to be. Love to all. This is one of the many canals in Mandurah, along which Madame Much Younger Owl and myself march briskly each morning early for our daily exercise and for the delight of seeing dolphins, swans, herons, egrets, ducks, terns, seagulls, other walkers (old and young) and their dogs. Life is good, innit. Press Z to biggen it up.

Stingray Wharf, Mandurah. Not the best photo, I'm afraid. The scene was some distance from me and I was shaky having run/walked some distance on an increasingly hot morning, plus my iPhone skills are rather rudimentary. The bird on the right is, of course, an Australian pelican; the one on the left is, I think, a Nankeen heron (sometimes called a night heron in these parts). I took this and walked on ... They were all still there, in more or less the same positions when I passed by 45 minutes later on my return journey. Now THAT is patience. I hope they were all rewarded by a feed from the estuary waters. Gosh, I love this land.

Part of the wall which lines some of Perth Stadium at ground level close by the river. There are many different writings there in both the Whadjuk dialect and English. The stadium, like most of the rest of Perth, stands on what were the lands of the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation. "Katitjin" means "knowledge" or "wisdom" in the Whadjuk dialect. Have a Wonderful Wednesday Wall day. Stay safe and calm in the face of the various adversities which are currently facing us. And smile.

HWW everyone. This is a wall of Prospect Cottage in Dungeness, Kent, which was the home of the artist, gardener, designer and film maker, Derek Jarman between 1986 and his death in 1994. The cottage is also the home of Derek Jarman’s garden in the shingle close to the beach at Dungeness and in the shadow of the nuclear power station. This garden is wonderfully sparse and is well worth your time if you visit. Be warned, however; it is not the lush, regimented growth of a formal plantation; rather it was made by a man who used its creation for his own therapy when he was desperately ill and thus it reflects both his vision and the landscape in which it appears. On the wall, the first stanza and the last six lines of the poem “The Sunne Rising” by the 17th century poet, John Donne appear, created by hand carved wooden letters affixed to the timber of the cottage wall. My picture does Prospect Cottage and the carving scant justice, my skills being insufficient for the task. It does, however, show what is a fine and much admired project by a fine and much admired artist. The book “Derek Jarman’s Garden”, published by Thames & Hudson, is worth reading and has some wonderful photographs by Howard Sooley. The extract from "The Sunne Rising" is below. The spelling is the original 17th century style; modern versions are readily available on the internet. Perhaps more clear if the picture is enlarged by pressing Z. Busie olde foole, unruly Sunne; Why dost thou thus, Through windowes, and through curtaines call on us? Must to thy motions lovers seasons run? Sawcy pedantique wretch, goe chide Late schoole boyes, and sowre prentices, Goe tell Court-huntsmen, that the King will ride, Call countrey ants to harvest offices; Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clyme, Nor houres, dayes, months, which are the rags of time. Thou sunne art halfe as happy as wee, In that the world's contracted thus; Thine age askes ease, and since thy duties bee To warme the world, that's done in warming us. Shine here to us, and thou art every where; This bed thy center is, these walls, thy spheare. John Donne published “The Sunne Rising” in 1633.