Agave attenuata

I have been walking past these enormous succulents for a while. Each time I note the flower  stem has grown even more, so this time I took my camera and captured its tumescence before it goes on the downward spiral. They extend much higher than my 153 cms and it starts with the flowers and ends up with the droopy spike. 

Looking at the plant and trying to identify it I think it is the agave attenuata - originally probably a Mexican plant. Also known as the "lions tail"- obvious innit, "the swans neck"- yup that too and "the foxtail", perhaps the least successful of the common names. It is, I am told, common as muck in Brisbane, being planted in many of of the city's flower beds. It only flowers once, and then the plant dies, but this doesnt happen before the plant reaches maturity which may be 8 to 10 years and it usually produces small new plants from side shoots. For something which is as common as muck you have to say it has presence and stature of some remark. 

Brisbane is a city full of contentment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wgy-EGJovhw

This was sent to me by my very good friend Phil and it was filmed before I was born. I was so taken by the soundtrack - we have all heard something similar- the fashion and the cars, not to mention the historic buildings which to this day grace this wonderful city. If you can spare a few minutes click on the link and enjoy a pleasant journey back in time. 

William Robinson

In 2009, the William Robinson Gallery opened in Old Government House at the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane. It was the first time in Australia that an artist had been honoured in such a way.

William Robinson was born in 1936 in Queensland and came to national attention when he won the Archibald Prize for Portraiture in 1987 and again in 1995.  In 2001, the Queensland Art Gallery mounted a major exhibition which toured to the National Gallery of Australia. In 2007, William Robinson was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for his outstanding achievement and service to the arts.

When I visited old Government house recently the William Robinson Gallery was hosting an exhibition of his farmyard animals. Displayed in all the various rooms upstairs they were wonderful reminders of the artist's connection to life in the farmyard and of our own tenuous, at times, connection with them as more and more of the population become urbanised and exist often "off the ground". Having lived in a number of places where the cows were so important it almost felt right that I came across their importance once more here in Australia. I smiled my way through this one. 

 Cows in their expressive expansive form

 The artist among the corrugated iron sheds and the animals

 The wonderful and expressive goats heads - no two are alike !

The chaotic but fun farmyard

Missed Autumn somewhere

Yesterday was the first day of winter in Australia. I am sitting at my desk, the sun is streaming into my window, I am wearing shorts and a sleeveless top and I want to know where did autumn go ?

There are some worrying trends that temperatures generally around the continent are a little higher than expected and some attribute it to the El Nino effect. They happen every eight to ten years and there is one on the way as rising temperatures already indicate. Others point to the more threatening effects of climate change and to the man made long term implications of rising temperatures.

Of course I am concerned, more for my children and theirs in the years to come but I am also able to live in the moment- something that taking a course on Mindfulness has encouraged me to do and which my late, observant elder sister was particularly good at.

So I am mindful of the moment I walk up to the bus stop and along the way I come across these colours. Autumnal perhaps, warming without doubt, reassuring in their certainty that next year they might also appear or is that where we tread an uncertain line ?

State of Origin

Living in Queensland you have to embrace this - and I can assure you it is not some obscure link to anthropological data. It is THE most thrilling sporting encounter between two Australian states.It is actually one of the world's top rugby league sporting event. With apologies to any Ozzie readers I do need to explain this to the others - It started way back in 1980 and basically it is the best of three rugby league games between NSW( The Blues -aka the Cockroaches ) and QLD ( The Maroons - aka the Cane Toads) Players are selected to represent either of these two states on the basis of where they played their first senior rugby league game, hence the name "State of Origin."

The matches are watched by millions every year and for QLD it is especially exciting because for the last 8 years they have won the series to huge and exuberant chants of "Queenslander."

Last night we attended the first game in 2014 here in Queensland at the Suncorp stadium which also happened to be the 100th game in the series. Queensland lost this game but not its spirit and I can tell you that being in that stadium was electrifying and exciting with both my husband and I shouting for Queensland at the top of our voices. 

 Our neighbour on the stands who had come from the Gold Goast

The stadium before every single seat was filled - Capacity crowd 52,111.

 Time left to the Game starting

 The Maroons heading out of the tunnel

 The mix of Blue and Maroon - with a predominance of Maroon throughout

Ably sponsored by the Castlemaine XXXX Brewery ! 

Diamantina -one of the first Greeks in Queensland

Her name means Diamond and by all accounts she was as bright as one. I am talking about Diamantina Bowen, nee Countess Roma, the wife of the first Governor of Brisbane. This is about her, not him. He was a bit of an unpleasant character, though learned, but she, well, she was quite delightful.

Everywhere I end up living I find the connections to my Greek Heritage and here is another. Diamantina was of Venetian extraction but was born and raised in Ithaki, (some say Zakynthos) where she met George Bowen who was the Political Secretary of the Ionian Islands which were  Colonies at the time.She belonged to a well established and aristocratic family and was brought up with privilege. 

They married and had a son, who died young, and a daughter, Adelaide (Nina).Soon after he was appointed by HMS government as the first Governor of the newly formed Queensland. The state that Queen Victoria had given her name to willingly and which most Queenslanders (who were almost Cookslanders) were secretly quite pleased about. 

She arrived at Queen's wharf on the 10th of December 1859 after an arduous sea journey and god knows what she must have thought  seeing the small and sparsely built shacks on the hills she could see in the distance.The whole of the state turned up to greet them, some 4000 people. A huge crowd in those days.

She set about being an excellent Governor's wife and there was not much that she didnt turn her hand to. She supervised the planting of the gardens of the new Government House, as well as the vegetable garden, she turned the sod for Queensland's first  railway, she founded a Lying-in Hospital for women, and an orphanage and even had time to organise some lively balls and produce three more children. The Bowens spent about eight years here in Queensland in beautiful Government house and then went on to several other postings before finally retiring back in the UK where she attended the Greek Orthodox Church in Moscow Road, a neighbourhood I know well. She died of pneumonia aged 59. Shockingly young for our times, and was buried in Kensall Rise in a family tomb. 

Before her departure from Queensland, 120 married women subscribed to give her a diamond necklace as a momento of "the admiration and regard which the English ladies of this colony feel for the "Lady of the Greek Isles" who has so gracefully presided over them." In a farewell address they declared "Eight years ago you came among us as a stranger and foreigner. You leave us having won the hearts of many and the goodwill of all. The poor, the destitute, the afflicted and the orphans have alike shared your sympathy.

Now I know why a town, a railway station, a river, a hospital, a medical institute and Ithaca Creek at the bottom of my road bear her name and her birthplace, and countless besides which I have yet to discover. As I join the dots of the history with these names I feel her contribution which was wide reaching and socially just to this very day. She was a bit of a special Greek off that boat but if she could see it all now she would be pleased at how this small and sleepy town has grown and matured based on so much of what was dear to her.

From reptiles to leeches in a few easy steps.

I mentioned how much I enjoy areas which are wild and beautiful but close to the city. This weekend we explored the lovely Mount Nebo which is in the D’ Aguilar National Park and is a mere 30 minutes away in the car.

Off we went with a few friends to enjoy a walk in the rainforest which is just as rich as the ones we saw when we were up near Lamington National Park.

There are tall, very tall trees, many with gnarled barks, full of moss (It has been raining quite a lot recently) stag horn ferns growing in crevices and parasitic plants plaguing healthy trees with their lianas and roots.

On this particular morning, after a day of rain, the sun was out, the path was soft with fallen leaves, the company was delightful and there was no one else around. We stopped at a particular location to admire the vastness of the view below and as we were standing there, one of the friends noticed movement on the shoe of another. We looked down and to our considerable amazement – I had never seen them before- leeches were making their way inside his shoe and sock. He was suitably appalled by this and shook them off and needless to say we moved swiftly onwards.

We walked with occasional shakes of our feet like a horse shaking a fly off its hindquarters and we laughed a lot about this, as well as suggesting where else the leeches could have moved to.

On the swift way back a short and agitated stop, literally, to admire a curled up snake, no ends visible, enjoying the sun.A first for an Australian friend.

Leeches come out in the moist rainforest and they are not the most sightly things – they are of course hermaphrodite and quite odd both in their character and their behavior. Perhaps separate sexes were a non starter as neither would have found the other "attractive."

They seemed to go for the men’s brightly coloured sneakers. Is this something that has been studied I wondered ? Whereas they seemed to be quite disinterested in my earthy coloured loafers, well, that is, until the end of the walk when I felt a pricking inside my sock and wondered what it might be. There attached to the side of my foot was a leech feeding on my blood. It seemed firmly embedded so we decided to leave it there until we got home and then  the doctor in our midst, said it would come off with a sprinkling of salt.

Arriving home I went to the bathroom and took my shoes and socks off. My sock was soaked in blood and there on the floor of the bathroom was this ginormous leech that had fed so much it had dislodged itself looking distended and almost in need of an Alka Selzter.

We picked it up of the floor and examined it carefully so here is the picture you have all been waiting for so you can say a collective EEEW.

My foot bled for quite a while, because this is how they affect you, but otherwise is fine.

Yes this place is a lesson in learning- today’s lesson – leeches.