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Old News but Good News

I give up. I can’t write anything to save myself. Can just imagine myself shipwrecked on a desolate island and not being able to write “help” on the beach.

So catching up on some news, I went to the National Folk Festival in Canberra (Australia) a few weeks ago. I had a lovely time. There was such a full program. Kudos to the event organisers who put on a such a great festival under very difficult financial circumstances. The word of the festival was hope. It cheered me that so many people still had it. That makes sense, doesn’t it, because how could they sing without it?

Anyway, you would have liked to hear about the culture of the Ngunawal people, the traditional custodians of the land that is now Canberra. First Nation’s songstresses, Stiff Gins and Suga Cane Mamas sang heartfelt songs of family and country. Professional storyteller, Kiran Shah. told the story of the mouse deer who, although he was small, outwitted the crocodiles. And how powerful is Chilean folk legend, Nano Stern? The list goes on and on.

I also loved the community choirs. Newcastle (Australia) community choir, Ukastle Ukestra and Ukestral Voices won the 2025 Festival Infinite Song Contest. I couldn’t have been happier for them.

I had fun. Then I got Covid. Not fun. I’m recovering. Would I go again? Absolutely.

Sing out, everyone.

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

*Photos from L-R. Ukastle Ukestra & Ukestral Voices, Queen of Hearts, Kiran Shah.

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Lens-Artists: Planes, No Trains & Automobiles

Just in case you were wondering, I am still here. It is quite some time since I’ve been anywhere. I certainly haven’t been everywhere, man.

I didn’t go to the Temora air show. Coincidentally, I was doing something else in Temora at the time of the air show. However, my lads jumped at the chance to attend so we made a weekend of it. The three of us camped at the airfield which was a novel experience. My True Love snapped a photo of this leering Spitfire. There is another air show coming up in October ’22 for fans of old war planes. Temora is a two hour drive from Canberra.

Too scary. Let’s look at some cars instead. The photo below of some stunt driving at Movie World is courtesy of my eldest son. The Movie World excursion was part of his band tour. We could never afford to take the kids and dogs on holidays. Probably because we were paying for music lessons, school fees, vet bills, etc.

Movie World

My True Love and I eventually went road tripping and left the kids at home with the dogs. We took his and her cars. Only joking about the his and her cars. Now our boys are busy with their own careers so we are once again stuck at home with the dogs. I was envious of this pair that I saw travelling down the highway. Now that epitomises the spirit of adventure.

In 2019, we accidentally found ourselves at the Yass Classic Car Show. I understand that was the last classic car show organised by the founders of this popular event. A new classic car show under new management kicked off again this year. Anyhoo, my favourite car of the 2019 show was this steampunk makeover.

I will finish with one last fighter jet photo. Very much a DIY jobbie.

May the force be with you, ladies and gentlemen.

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Planes, Trains and Automobiles

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Surrender Is The Only Option

Welcome to my regular Friday song/tune day, ladies and gentlemen, where I pick a piece of music that reflects my mood or the times, to share with you.

Happy new year to all who celebrate the Chinese New Year. It is the year of the Water Tiger. I feel inspired to write a short poem.

Surrender To The Forest

silence descends
deep are the shadows
birdsong marks its passing
the water laps the lake

Photo by Danne on Pexels.com

Continuing on this cultural journey, I think we should have a listen to Sun Quan, The Emperor, by Moyun. Enjoy.

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

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The Light Of Day

I recently remarked that I live in, and for, the shadows. Perhaps this is because I am a night owl. However, much to my surprise, I actually managed to rise and shine before dawn this morning. The reason for this was that my insulin pump’s battery ran out at 5am. It could not have happened at a better time as it was Canberra Day today and Skywhale and Skywhalepappa were scheduled to make their first joint appearance. Now my husband took some convincing that we should go and see this spectacular event, because we don’t do photography for the masses. We are too up ourselves for that. Just joking. Better to sound like an idiot than admit you can’t get out of bed in the morning. However, get up we did and the outing was totally worth the sacrifice. I took a photo to honour this occasion. Coincidentally, it was the last photo I needed to embark on a photographic journey of a hypothetical day for this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge on natural light.

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Double Fault

Welcome to my regular Friday song/tune day, ladies and gentlemen, where I pick a piece of music that reflects my mood or the times, to share with you.

Over the last fortnight we’ve been importing coronavirus cases so that Aussies can sit back and watch the Australian Open tennis. It’s good for tennis and good for the Victorian state economy apparently. As you can imagine, some residents of the fair city of Melbourne (where the tournament is being held) are none too happy with the latest virus breakout via a worker at one of the Australian Open quarantine hotels. Melburnians spent six months sheltering at home last year so they are entitled to be a bit miffed. It also does not seem fair on the quarantine workers who risk their health every day to ensure that the rest of the country can live virtually virus free.

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Standing Up For Peace

Day 29 — Share Your Music: 30 Days, 30 Songs

Music — it represents the sum of our lives.  Think of any aspect of human emotion or endeavour and there has probably been a song written about it.  Songs can unite or divide.  Just as there are war songs, there are also songs of protest and peace.  I prefer to call the latter, songs of kindness.   Every year I feel the love at Canberra’s National Folk Festival.  It is there that I first heard many of the songs that I have shared over the 30 days of this music challenge.  This year I had the very great privilege to attend the Festival’s Concert for Peace.  The concert was a call to action and an opportunity to honour the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (otherwise known as ICAN). Read more

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Dangerous Liaisons?

Hello Groovers, I was going to start with a joke about how I’ve been hanging out in a hotbed of radicalism, but that doesn’t seem very appropriate now.  So instead, I will tell you about how lovely it was to spend last weekend at the National Folk Festival (Canberra) with many people of goodwill.  Admittedly we were a little cranky given the political times/blame games, but we took our frustrations out in peaceful and creative ways, such as through humour, verse and songs of kindness.  Here’s how it goes. Read more

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We Won’t Fade Away

 

A post for the environmentally-conscious and chocolate-mad.

chocolate

Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve got Friday on my mind.  I’ve been waiting for this event all year.  For many years it has kept me going — my National Folk Festival.  It is a magnet for extremists.  I say extremists because that is the language that is now being used by some leaders to describe the environmentally and socially-conscious. In the wake of the Christchurch terrorist attack, you would think that our leaders would have learned that scare-mongering can have dire repercussions.  It legitimises the warped views of those who would seek to achieve their aims through violent action.  It is the responsibility of our leaders not to characterise peaceful, concerned citizens as extremists.  Instead, let’s have a reasoned debate on solutions given the evidence.  In other words, let’s have some evidence-based policy making without the histrionics, and then we can vote on it. Read more

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Folk ‘N Roll

Dear Readers

Some of you may recall I did a series of posts on the National Folk Festival (Canberra).  The National Folk Festival takes place every year over the Easter period.  Here is a sample of my Folk Festival posts.  At the time, a couple of you expressed interest in attending.  Read more