There is not a lot of leading the way happening in Australia at the moment. So rather than throw up my hands in disgust, I thought I would participate in this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge — Leading Lines. I don’t want to lead you astray so I’m going to try to follow the brief and let the lines take you on the journey. Read more
Our Wish
Loss, lost, a path
home, a hearth — lòchran gus an
t-slighe a lasadh
On behalf of the Ragtag Community
In the presence of royalty and Friday song day.
Dear Readers, can you guess from which song the title of this post comes? It is the song that I have chosen as my Friday song day pick. Welcome to my regular Friday song/tune day, where I pick a piece of music that reflects my mood or the times, to share with you. This week my mood is decidedly buoyant. After being down in the dumps over the past month, there was only one way to go, right? Yep, chasing pure, unadulterated sunshine from pure desire. In other words, a bird. And not just any bird. Read more
In a few days it will be the 17th anniversary of the bushfires that ravaged Canberra (the national capital of Australia) and its surrounds in 2003. With bushfires currently burning to the west of the territory, Canberrans are understandably anxious. It’s old news but some may be interested in this disaster. In many ways, the Canberra bushfires brought about a much broader call for research and action to better understand and respond to bushfire risk. Here are the sanitised details of that event —
“On 18 January, two fire fronts combined to create a 25 km fire front and wind gusts of up to 65 km per hour propelled the fire towards Canberra. The Chief Minister declared a state of emergency at 2.45 pm and the firestorm hit the outer streets of Duffy at approximately 3 pm, and soon reached [other] suburbs …. Four people were killed by the fires, more than 435 people were injured and there were 5000 evacuations. Approximately 160,000 hectares were burnt which equated to almost 70 per cent of the ACT’s pasture, forests and nature parks including Namadgi National Park, Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve and all government pine forest west of the Murrumbidgee River Stromlo pine plantation. There were approximately 488 houses destroyed and many more were damaged.” Read more
Australia burns and Friday song day.
Greetings, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to my regular Friday song/tune day, where I pick a piece of music that reflects my mood or the times, to share with you. Regular readers may have noticed that I skipped my Friday song day last week. With Australia burning, I just didn’t have the heart for it. I feel much the same this week, but, you know, it’s like falling off a horse …. Read more
Australia burning — Dear Readers, one of my favourite poets and all round nice person, Frank Prem, is currently writing a series of poems on the bushfire crisis that is underway in Australia. Frank is the author of Devil In The Wind, a collection of poems about the personal accounts of those who experienced and survived the horrendous Black Saturday bushfires that swept across Victoria (Australia) in 2009. That book was published last year. Needless to say, I won’t be reading it until the smoke has cleared.
For those of you who may not know, Frank lives in an area that is currently sandwiched between two enormous out-of-control bushfires. This brings a poignancy and emotion to his poems that will touch any reader. These poems are laments for what is, what was, what could have been. Frank writes for all of us who are caught up in this situation. Check out his poems on his website at https://frankprem.wordpress.com/blog/ .
I want to share with you a couple of photos that my husband took in Namadgi National Park a couple of days before Christmas. Read more
Still here. Going strong.
Dear readers, the temperature is blessedly cool today in the national capital (Canberra, Australia) and the bushfire smoke has cleared somewhat. We expect the smoke to return this evening when the wind changes. In the meantime, the terrible gloom that descended on the city has lifted and people are in good spirits. So are the animals. A flock of silvereyes visited our garden. One was lucky to enough to find a small praying mantis but its best efforts to dispatch it were defeated. Read more
Australia burning —Brian from Bushboy’s World wants to see the last photo on your SD card. Here’s mine, taken at 6.30am this morning from my back window.
I wonder how anything could survive outside in that smoke. Read more
Australia burning — I wonder whether those thousands of people that are sheltering on isolated east coast beaches, overwhelmed by acrid smoke — in towns where supplies are running low and where some unprincipled grocers charge exorbitant amounts for a few basic supplies — are contemplating jumping on small, overcrowded boats and sailing across treacherous waters to New Zealand? I wonder whether these prospective boat people — call them climate refugees, if you will — might beg the New Zealand government grant them asylum and a new beginning? I wonder how New Zealanders might react to such requests? I wonder ….
I wonder how far-fetched this actually sounds?
December (Canberra summer) — Caught in transition.
I feel compelled to take photos, both of the mundane and the unusual, as if to bear witness that these places, things, people and creatures, once existed and that they mattered. Read more
