I am not a curious person, ladies and gentlemen, so it is well that I ended up sharing my life with my True Love and that we had two lovely, inquisitive boys. It is a truism, but without them, I would be the lesser.
There is much to be learnt from the curiosity of children. Read more
Too many posts from me lately, ladies and gentlemen. Not sorry. Today’s Ragtag Daily Prompt is masterpiece. I thought I would join in, because I can. I’ve written some stories and very bad poetry in the past, and dabbled in mosaics. Not every piece has to be a masterpiece. In fact, most of my written pieces are full of grammatical and spelling errors, but you probably already know that. The moral of this story is go where your heart takes you (including to Yass to buy a raffle ticket). Take that logic!
Here’s my Finnish Lapponian Dog mosaic of which I’m very proud. That’s allowed, isn’t it? Months of work were involved so it was very satisfying when I finally got the last tile stuck down and the grouting (approx 5 different colours) finished. Read more
Namadgi burning / Canberra burning / Australia burning
Sometimes sh*t happens, ladies and gentlemen. Or accidents happen, to be more polite. Canberra’s beloved Namadgi National Park is on fire and the fire is heading towards Canberra’s southern most rural settlement, located just beyond the city proper. It’s just been one day after wretched day for over a month now. Many Canberrans will spend an anxious night and next few days. Some southsiders in the path of the fire have already evacuated. My family lives on the other side of town to the fire. We are fine for now. Read more
It is Australia Day so I had better say something. If you don’t already know, there has been much debate in the Australian community about whether Australia Day should continue to be held on January 26. On 26 January 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip sailed into Sydney Cove to establish a penal colony for the British Empire. 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
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 — 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?
Reflections of An Untidy Mind 