Mt Lawley Western Australia 6050
http://www.vincent.wa.gov.au/Home
Hyde Park is one of my secret public spaces in Perth. I have a deep personal energetic connection with the place and I have always believed that this place has some real magic going on there, and that my stay in this city is interconnected with the life of the park.
The park is almost in the heart of the city, so there is no excuse not to take a stroll and have a look, especially on weekdays when the crowds are elsewhere, and its magic is, well, more magical.
Why I do love Hyde Park? It must be the magnificence of the trees, the symmetry of the ponds, the orientation of the park and the way the light walks through the leaves at certain times of the day, the ever-changing colours of the place, the circular walking/jogging track, the beauty of it, the size of it, the black swans, the ibises, the ducks and ducklings, and other funny birds that call HP home. One of the things I love the most it is that it is both a private place and a community area that holds private weddings, concerts and community events.
Who goes there? The regular daily walkers and joggers are joined by couples, specially those in their first relaxing dates (take me there on a date!), or looking for a quiet place to hug and kiss, couples on picnic dates, heavy drinkers, the mentally anxious type, kids learning to ride their bikes, dog walkers, kids playing in the playground areas, bird watchers, photography lovers, passers-by, I-want-to-take-a-beer-on-my own sort of people, book-readers, thoughts-munchers, Ta-chi devotes, dancers practising their routines, jugglers, Gothic tribes, wedding-goers, parents of the world, and so on. A colourful tapestry of specimens of the human species.
The only thing I don't really like is the fact that you can be in your own mystic or lay personal trance, in one of those moments of inner bliss and ethereal mood I am sometimes while at HP, and the smell of sausage barbecuing hits my nostrils from the public BB areas. I love free BBs and I do eat sausages but, dear sausageers of the world, there is something anti-trance, anti-relaxing, anti-sexy, anti-sensual, anti-spiritual, anti-natural about the smell of a fatty sausage in the middle of a natural setting, especially in a small park as this one.
Cyclists, please, notice that there are signs asking you to dismount when entering the Park all around the Park. I have no problem with bikers riding at all, but I do have a problem when they are in a hurry and ring to you so you move out of your way, or ride dangerously. Sweetie, I am walking, so it is you who is out out the way and should move your muscley bottom out of my sight. Understood?
