Australia Day 2022

Happy Australia Day ! 

We are happy to be here surrounded by some good friends, many birds and animals and so much beauty. A dedicated gardener with the National symbols is a fitting tribute to the day. No parked cars this time. 

It's a little different this year, overcast and quite rainy with La Nina but the garden is loving it and we are enjoying the cooler nights and watching so much good tennis. It's been a slower and more insular start to the year because of Omicron but we are hoping the tide is turning and the pandemic will become endemic and will soon be forgotten, though plenty of lessons will need to be taken from it. The Radio Station has moved to new premises and while still beset by many problems and costs I am confident it will resume community broadcasting and live programming before too long. 

Yesterday I met a friend for lunch to finalise the gardening programme for 2022 and next to us two ladies left their bags as they strolled into the cafe to order. This is Oz. 

Brisbane City Council has done us proud starting the new year by planting many trees in our street and the adjoining one. We have a Golden Penda outside our home and cant wait to see how it will grow. 

Meanwhile in the neighbourhood I love to see the escapees (not the convict ones) as they are so beautiful.

Hubby woke up and wondered how the worms he transplanted into the box window outside our bedroom were enjoying their new home. We love our view, we hope they will too.  

Happy Australia Day 2022. 

First proper walk in 2022

I am setting out in search of an artist today -I found him, but that is another story. It was once more so lovely to be walking the neighbourhood. It's been a while. There is much to see and take away for sharing with you all. 

A magnificent gum in flower just around the corner.

And a little further along an unusual bus stop. 

On the one side some serious stilettos and on the other a fat hen and some glass beads. Could be a story, or the start of one for sure. "The girl took off her stilettos as she boarded the bus. The night had been long.The cool grass under her feet was liberating and comforting ....

A beachside post box 

Painted glass framing a bush in an old Queenslander. 

La Nina continues to send short sharp showers our way. The Garden is looking green and lush and this and not much else sustains us this strange omicron led new year. OH and the magnificent talents playing at the Australian Open. 

Bimblebox 153

Time to pick up the pace after what has been a week of staying in and the days dragging. 

Took the hubby to see this magnificent Exhibition in Beaudesert called Bimblebox 153 and Bird Reflections. We were the only people there with our masks on. The exhibition is about Bimblebox, a Nature Refuge near Longreach which has for years been threatened by coal mining. 158 birds are featured here and each bird is given an artist, a writer and a musician.The project began in 2013 and 450 artists worldwide have contributed to the works, the music and the recordings of the birds to draw attention to the plight of these birds in Central Queensland. The mediums used were very varied from watercolours, linocuts, screen printing, ceramics and ironwork. It is an immense curating feat which is not only admirable but will serve as a record of birds in this area. It is moving, beautiful and well worth a trip to Beaudesert to see it. It is on until the 5th of February. 

Brown Honeyeater Madeleine Williams 

Common Bronzewing Peter McLean 

Emu - Head in the Clouds- Clare Cowley 

Crested Bellbird - Sandra Pearce

Zebra Finch -Kate Hudson

Yellow billed spoonbills - State of Grace - Timothy Gowcott 

Red browed Pardalote - Brenda Dyack

Brown Falcon - Beatrice Carlson

 

Judith Wrights book of Bird Poems comes to hand with thanks to Verity Mansfield, and I quote from the poem Reminiscence : 

I was born into a coloured country 

spider webs in dew on feathered grass 

mountains blue as wrens 

valleys cupping sky in like a cradle,

christmas- beetles winged with buzzing opal,

finches, robins, gang- gangs, pardalotes 

tossed the blossom in its red streaked trees. 

Percy by Colleen Lavender.

Heartening stuff in our otherwise pandemic life.

Limbo land

One of the beautiful murals in GOMA's new exhibition by Gordon Hookey.

Those strange days when you lose track of the days of the week, when life is not quite back to normal, whatever that means these days, and the days stretch out unplanned, unchartered. We are all living in our own individual bubbles of home and family with a couple of close friends thrown in virtually for good measure. The Radio Station is still shut and recording from home has been a weekly and lonely pastime. The children I mentor can only be "met" virtually now. Schools reopening will be delayed to allow children's vaccinations to catch up. 

The main difference two years into this pandemic, is that Governments around the world no longer assume the role of Big Brother that we can push and rail against if that is what you were inclined to do. Covid and indeed Omicron, and even reporting it, has become a personal responsibility and most are recognising that while there is an inevitability about catching it, they are best shielding from it. This applies mostly to our age group of the 60 +. So while there are no lockdowns, there is a definite withdrawal from daily busy life. 

This is what is happening in my neck of the woods. Would be interested to hear how it is in yours. 

Downing street parties and Novax Djoko dominating the news. Planning for the New Year feels a little tentative all over again. This time the buck stops with us. 

Flood plains and planes.

We are flying north, yes flying, and while we may not be passing the borders of this vast state it does feel a good start to the New Year. Our destination is Cairns on the eastern border. Currently Tropical storm Seth which was whirling around here is heading south as we head North. In its wake are torrential downpours, king tides and swells. I am a little anxious about this one so let's hope this is not my last post. The rains of the recent weeks has resulted in rivers flooding and their muddy waters spreading into the ocean and the view from my cabin window was impressive. Like cream being poured into blue jelly. 

Further out the coral reefs gleaming green and turquoise.

Arriving in Cairns the sun was out and we were hit with a blast of hot and humid air, stifling. Clouds swirled in the sky, threatening, but it was a dry night. People out on the esplanade enjoying the cafes and restaurants and the occasional breeze.

Today we start our cruise - no idea if there will be any connectivity so this might be it or it might not. 

Welcoming 2022

My Xmas cake might give you a clue about where we need to go! The bumps and air pocket icing was the stuff of this last year, leading into the uneven new year. All part of this unpredictable course. The alphabet letters we still have to get through are a fair few. 

The last day of the year will be spent in the garden, weeding, harvesting some honey and watching the fruit form on the trees.

The first day of the New Year will be more of the same. Everything will grow from there, little by little. From one day to the next, we are learning to live with the tyranny of numbers rising and falling. We are all in for more letters and numbers. May the letters form what we are hoping for -  spelling Happiness and Health for the year ahead. 

Xmas 2021

Not much time to sit idle, but a welcome walk in the neighbourhood brings some thoughts to the fore and with these I write my xmas message for this challenging year, the year of two out of three and the borrowed Xmas Tree. A year which brought regulation changes more frequently than we change our underpants. Jesting aside, this has been so hard for so many families wrenched apart by the faceless, nameless masses of red tape, (and how easy it is to hide behind that). Loved ones not quite within reach, whether grandparents in old peoples homes or young babes which have just been welcomed to a not broad enough meeting of aunts and uncles, grandparents and more. 

The message on my 2020 Xmas Cake was "Roll on 2021", but now looking back it is more like we were rolled under the bus. Everything became a considered decision which teetered on the moment, in the year, though by all accounts Australia survived better than most places in the world and weathered the Delta variant well, but we were so aware of how many many lives were lost in that time, particularly in India and the US. Just as we thought that we were finally out of the woods we find ourselves facing more uncertainty, admittedly with changing goal posts, and a little further along the Greek Alphabet. Will we get to the end? 

Now once more we are on the cusp of Christmas and we hold our breath. Dare we wish for open borders, renewed travel and no more deaths around the world? Will we reunite with loved ones and plan ahead? Thoughts and sympathy for lives lost. Thinking about Kathy's son Mathieu, Gabi in SA who lost her brother, Lusy in Kenya my wonderful PA, who lost her only son in a tragic car accident this week, and children's lives lost in Devonport in Tasmania. To all those thrown apart. To those recovering from Covid and its side effects. As my niece's daughter complained, to the loss of her teenage years. The list is long. 

Perhaps the answer lies in living in the moment, being aware of all that is around, and being thankful for what we have.To my Xmas Angel Robyn Jaques for supplying the Xmas tree for the season - a shortage of Xmas trees has been the latest supply chain problem. To my boys who love one another and reach out where there is a need and for a hubby who plants and harvests goodness in the garden. 

There are sunflowers in our garden but also clouds. Wary of 2022 - who wouldn't be.