Weekly Photo Challenge: Sun

Quinns Beach, Western Australia

This week’s theme is SUN and we have plenty of it in Western Australia. I tell my Northern Hemisphere friends that our sun really IS a big ball of fire in the sky. It is bright, glary, harsh and biting at times. Here are a couple of shots I found that weren’t thrown away!!

Sunset over Perth, Western Australia.

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Autumn Solstice 2012

I stood on the front verandah a few nights ago and captured the last of the summer sun. As we view the Perth city skyline from our verandah, the buildings in the centre of the shot act as our own personal sundial and calendar. On March 20-22 each year, the sun sets directly behind the city as it makes its way from left to right, across the horizon, changing seasons and reminding us we’re on a planet that is always moving in time, even though we are standing still.

Autumn Solstice - Perth, Western Australia (c)thesacredcave

We face due West (South to the left, North to the right) so the sun has been marching its way from the South (left) towards the city in the centre. When we moved here seven years ago, we were amazed to see just how much the sun moves across the horizon. We’d never been consciously aware of it before. We’ve watched it over the years and in our own minds, we know that once the sun sinks behind the city, the weather will start to cool and the sun will slink over to the very right of this shot where it will remain at a lower angle through winter, before skipping back to announce the start of spring.

Nature and its rhythms are so amazingly reliable. They don’t care about the stock market, petrol prices or the Kardashians. Events like the wonder of the Solstice make me want for a simpler life. My lifestyle is full of electricity, gadgets, plastic and computers yet I feel a deep desire to be more connected. I need to be more in tune with (and responsive to) the natural cycles and seasons of the earth. I’m sure that must be a good thing.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Contrast

Contrast:  Humans vs Nature

The agricultural landscape of south west Australia is a patchwork of yellow and green crops awaiting harvest. Canola and wheat fields stretch as far as the eye can see yet come to an abrupt halt at the boundary of the Stirling Range National Park. Here flora and fauna have been preserved, a sanctuary for rare orchids, mountain bells and wallabies. Farming techniques race forward with science to find better fertilisation, genetics, irrigation and disease control. Yet the boundary contrasts the wonder of nature, a place of peace, a place to wind back and a refuge away from machines.

National Park Boundary: from the summit of Bluff Knoll, Western Australia

Bluff Knoll is the highest peak (1096m) in the Stirling Range National Park. We took a day to hike and climb the Knoll on a crisp spring day in 2008. This was the view from the summit, looking North. I have never felt such peace and serenity. Truly beautiful.

From Bluff Knoll Summit: carpark 1096m below.

Bluff Knoll: an awesome hike