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Just A Dabbler (And I Don’t Mean Duck)

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

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In The Red

It’s summer in the southern hemisphere.  In southeast Australia, it has been a shocker.  In Canberra (the nation’s capital), we have had drought, a huge hailstorm and now fire in the Namadgi National Park to the south and west.

We also had a small colony of Little Red Flying Foxes take up residence in one of our town parks.  When we first discovered the colony, we asked our son whether we should report it in.  He told us that the ACT Government (that’s our local government) most likely already knew about it.  They didn’t.  Turns out the Little Reds haven’t been seen in Canberra for 23 years.  Imagine that! Read more

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Stay Calm (And Quiet)

Sorry about the title.  Aussie in-joke.  Here is another version that better accords with my personal philosophy — Stay calm and be kind.

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.  All is well and nothing is well.  So on that note.

Top temperature today was 42ºC (107ºF).

Talk soon.

Kind Regards.
Tracy

 

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When Things Go Wrong

sky

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

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What a Difference A Date Makes

Australian flag
Australian Flag (source – Australian Parliament House website)

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

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More Sad News From The Fire Front

This has been a wretched few months, ladies and gentlemen.  For those of you who can bear to read about it, I will probably share some of my personal story in my forthcoming January Changing Seasons post.  Fear not though, there will be moments of joy to help with the reading.  Not that I’ve started writing the post yet as I am waiting for a moment of calm.  But for now, 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. Read more

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Lead The Way

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

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Sunshine From Pure Desire

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

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Window On Time

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