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The Early Bird

I’m not a morning (photography) person.  In the morning, I am usually pretending to be too busy doing stuff to be wasting my time taking photos.  So consequently when I checked my photo archive for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge — Morning, my morning photos were few and far between.  I normally start to take a few photos around midday, you know, to further avoid actually doing anything “productive”.  My photography tempo picks up early afternoon, peaking between 3.30pm and sunset.  That’s because by 3.30pm, I’ve convinced myself that it is now too late to actually do anything concrete, for example, like starting work on whatever art project I happen to be contemplating at the time.  Read more

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Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge #5

Welcome to Week 5 of my Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge.  Corvids are birds belonging to the Corvidae family, encompassing ravens, crows, magpies, jays and nutcrackers.  So check out your corvid photo, poetry, music and story archives and join the challenge.

Over 170,000 people have died from Covid-19 since December 2019, and yet, I can still enjoy this little corvid challenge.  There’s something about minutely concentrating on one thing and just one thing that helps me keep my sanity.  It is a triumph of bravado over pessimism.  So are you ready?  Let’s go corvid-hunting. Read more

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Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge #4

Welcome to Week 4 of my Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge.  Corvids are birds belonging to the Corvidae family, encompassing ravens, crows, magpies, jays and nutcrackers.  So check out your corvid photo, poetry, music and story archives and join the challenge.

Corvid-spotting is as good a game as any at the moment.  I’m not one for house cleaning or Netflix watching during this Covid-19 killing time.  Corvid-spotting is tricky because the raven is the only corvid in my village and it has been proving rather elusive.  I confess that sometimes when I am feeling rather down, I’ve been inclined to abandon this challenge, but I know you are all counting on it (like not) so I have to keep trying.  Trying to keep living, trying to keep my spirits up, etc, etc, is the story of my life at the moment; just keep going until I can’t go on anymore.  Maybe that’s your story too? Read more

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Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge #3

Welcome to Week 3 of my Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge.  Corvids are birds belonging to the Corvidae family, encompassing ravens, crows, magpies, jays and nutcrackers.  So check out your corvid photo, poetry, music and story archives and join the challenge.

My son, the naturalist, tells me there are two types of corvids in Canberra, Australia —   the Australian Raven and the Little Raven.  He also tells me they are about the same size and he can’t tell them apart.  I don’t know about you, ladies and gentlemen, but I find that a tad confounding. Read more

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A Simple Rose

A simple poem to commemorate a beautiful rose and a month of contrasts.

A Simple Rose

in fading light
gossamer petals delight
ethereal bloom

gone on the morrow
fate and folklore entwined

rose

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

Lens-Artists Weekly Challenge — Simplicity
Sunshine’s Macro Monday #36

 

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The Changing Seasons – March 2020

March — Australia creeps toward lockdown.  The weather is good but.
Warning:  this story contains many bird and nature photos.

It seems an age ago that the smoke of bushfires polluted my lungs and we hunkered down for the summer in our small abode.  Then the drought broke and the new corona virus reached our shores, causing chaos and disruption, and threatening to kill a generation.  I confess that my summer experience made me hyper-vigilant for danger. Like the virus, my preparations and anxieties gathered momentum as March marched in.  Read more

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Land Of Milk And Honey

It seems an age ago that the aphids were attacking my newly sprouted garlic chives.  Now as autumn makes its long anticipated appearance in the temperate areas of Australia, the black aphids are back.  This time they are attacking a beautiful succulent that my friend gave me last year.  The ants are milking the aphids for honeydew.  It is a good system. Read more

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Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge #1

Hello Readers, I know we are all busy just trying to stay alive (welcome to the world of many trapped in refugee camps and in poverty), but if you have enough time (and photos, stories, poems in your archive), you may wish to participate in a new weekly challenge.  I am calling it the Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge.  No, the virus hasn’t evolved.  A corvid is a type of bird.  The challenge will come out each Tuesday, all being well (if you know what I mean). Read more

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Crisis Management

Australia today.

Given the shortage of Personal Protective Equipment for health workers and the shortage of test kits, Australia appears unprepared for Covid-19 to accelerate rapidly. Governments have a duty of care to take all necessary steps to prevent infection or face another catastrophe.  If the Australian government is not getting this advice, it is consulting the wrong people.  If Government is getting sound, evidence-based advice (including on the level of preparedness) and ignoring it, then that is a significant issue.  The advice of the Australian Medical Association should be heeded now.   Is this a re-run of the bushfire disaster?  I’m hopeful for a better response this time around.  Much is at stake.

Irrespective of official advice, organisations that run public events and employ staff should consider the legal implications for their organisations, including the potential personal liability of directors/officials, if their event or business acts as a host for the spread of Covid-19.  They should also consider their duty of care to participants, staff and the wider community, including the impact on local health systems and critical supply chains.  Risk management should be part of all organisations’ planning.  Thankfully, many are doing just this and are leading the way in responding to the crisis.  Organisations/companies should not expect governments to indemnify them for bad decisions taken, should they?

Without a vaccine, enough PPE, or test kits, social distancing appears to be the only practical option to buy more time.  This is not business as usual.  Now where have I heard that before?

There is no time to waste, Australians.  I went to my doctor for my pneumococcal vaccine last week. I overheard the receptionist talking on the phone about a potential Covid-19 patient who they had sent back to their car to wait to be triaged there. The office staff gave the distinct impression of rabbits caught in a spotlight.

UPDATE – I have been hearing from friends who work in the health system that our governments have been too slow to ban community gatherings.  Those are on the front line are asking citizens to voluntarily quarantine themselves right now.  NOT TOMORROW BUT TODAY.  Act now to prevent the transmission of this virus in the community.

We (governments and the community) must do everything possible to protect front line staff and if that means being overly cautious, so be it.  Be calm, but act.

How apt this video seems now.  Sorry about the political stuff tacked on the end of it though.  Let’s keep politics out of it and be guided by best practice.

Regards.
Tracy.

Further information:

https://ama.com.au/media/ama-federal-council-covid-19-national-public-health-emergency