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Rocky Times

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.

Photo by Scott Webb on Pexels.com

What a rocky week it has been. In North America, record breaking heatwave exacerbated by climate change is killing people, flora and fauna, as well as damaging infrastructure and disrupting economic activity. In Australia, the national government announced it will provide a loan to a private company, Pembroke Resources (established 2014), for a new metallurgical coal mining project. The mine will have an operating life of 80 years. Pembroke Resources is owned by US private equity firm, Denham Capital. No pesky shareholders or bankers to worry about, but who is going to insure a project like that? Do Australian governments (there is bipartisan support for coal projects) really not care about the damage that our addiction to coal is causing? I wonder if all our fire fighters are vaccinated now in case they are called to help fight fires overseas this year?

Let’s not go there. It is too depressing.

However, since we are chatting about rocks, I learnt from another blogger, Martha Kennedy, that Colorado town, Crestone, is known for its geology and for the discovery of a partially mummified body of a cult leader at the town (see here). I guess it is pretty dry in Crestone. The name of the cult group is called “Love Has Won”. So naturally, I thought of the song, Love On The Rocks, written by Neil Diamond and Gilbert Bécaud. You thought that too, didn’t you? Anyway, it is my choice for Friday song day. Enjoy.

Cheers.

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

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The Changing Seasons – June 2021

Canberra (Australia) – I’m so cold, oh so cold!

I felt anxious and grey during June, perhaps mirroring the inclement winter weather and the times, but here I am, on the eve of July. Soon the wattle will be blooming gold and the landscape will extrude from its current camo coat of green and brown.

I barely managed to pick up the camera but spurred on by my supporters, the crested pigeons, I began. Fluffed up, a crested pigeon warms up in a pocket of sun.

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Timing

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.

The people of eastern Australia spent another week on tenterhooks with coronavirus hotspots popping up across three states. Unvaccinated people took to their doonas or had parties, including at one state parliament house. I do note however that many health workers have been vaccinated so that is good news. Let the good times roll. In other news, one political party in a governing coalition had a leadership challenge while the leader of the other party in that coalition was in quarantine after returning from o/s. Yep, things are almost back to normal downunder. I imagine that developments overseas are just as challenging to the collective psyche. I don’t know about you, but I need to chill out. Let music fill the chamber, so to speak.

We can still make beautiful music if we work together. We can worry about the rakali another day (in joke).

Here is one of my favourite pieces – Ravel, Introduction and Allegro for flute, clarinet, harp and string quartet, performed by L’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Enjoy.

Take care, everyone. Peace.

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

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A Water Birth

There is nothing like the Lens Artist Photo Challenge to make me feel all philosophical. This week’s theme is It’s A Wonderful World. I have decided to focus on water because water is awesome. It’s essential to our being. Earth is the only terrestrial planet in our solar system that has liquid water at its surface.

Apart from Antarctica, Australia is the continent with the least rainfall. At the first hint of rain at the end of the recent horror drought in south-eastern Australia, swarms of flies emerged to drink from the puddles in still dry dams. How awesome is that?

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My Measure

The other day, my little dog chewed my eraser and ruler. She’s so adorable. It was her way of saying “Get my breakfast or pay the price.” My True Love (TL) joked that she had my measure. Unfortunately, he’s the one that has my measure.

My TL says that I am like a fierce little dog. When the little dog sees a person (in my case, a government spokesperson) walking past the house, a frisson of excitement issues from the little dog as it prepares to take on its larger foe and a volley of furious barking ensues. The little dog is so proud when its barking sends off the (completely oblivious) offender. It’s sport, it’s fun. Okay, I do admit to getting rather furious in defense of my position (ie. good public policy). However, sometimes a little impulse control wouldn’t go astray. So I’ve amended my last blog post so that it is more in keeping with a calmer, bigger dog.

Notice too, how I’ve issued this advice/apology on a Saturday when there are fewer passers-by (readers).

Woof, woof.

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

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Bizarrely Enough

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.

I have amended this blog post because I was rather unfair in some respects.

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) has revised its advice on the AstraZeneca Covid 19 vaccine in response to new vaccine safety concerns. it has been recommended that administration of the AZ vaccine be suspended for the 50-59 age group. This group should instead have the Pfizer vaccine (excepting those who have already had their first dose without incident). The AZ vaccine is still recommended for those above 60 years of age. See here for the ATAGI advice.

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Collective Narcissism

Revisiting the archive while I have some downtime.

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WordPress Daily Prompt  —  Narcissism

There are some of us who avoid the news, and some who, for many reasons, have restricted access to news.  I live in a country where the news is very parochial and sometimes it seems that we are caught up in a kind of collective narcissism.   

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Crikey

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.

It makes no sense, ladies and gentlemen. Australia’s borders seem to be both impenetrable and leak like a sieve. On the leaky side, SARS-Cov-2 continues to evade our border restrictions causing virus outbreaks in our largely unvaccinated capital cities. On the impenetrable side, around 250 Australian children are stranded in India without their parents and cannot return home without an adult to accompany them on the flight and in quarantine. Fair enough, but at the same time parents have been refused permission to travel to India to collect their children, and grandparents, with whom the children are staying, have been denied permission to bring children home because they (the grandparents) are not Australian citizens.

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The Changing Seasons – May 2021

Canberra (Australia) – May be, maybe not.

May was like an episode of the tele tubbies, and I am not talking about the British kiddies program. How much tele can one pathetic, pain wracked woman watch? As it turns out, quite a lot. When one series is completed, said woman rises from the couch to gaze longingly at the beckoning craft table, only to shed a (metaphorical) tear for opportunities lost. The trick is to keep going. My physical challenges necessitate changing my priorities. Maybe a little less blogging in future. Maybe. Don’t quote me on that. I’m a work in progress so we will just have to see what happens.

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