A Touch of Paradise ~ The Kookaburra Kingdom

January 25, 2013 Joanne8 Comments

“~~Flamingos~~ Kookaburras walk, and sway in peace
Seeing this, it makes my troubles cease
The sun is hiding, leaving a pink scar
That stretches right across the sky….” ~ A Touch of Paradise sung by John Farnham.

Regular visitors will have become quite familiar with the next Australian icon I am featuring here, as part of my series of Australia Day posts ~ The Laughing Kookaburra.

Every time a kookaburra visits, it really is a Touch of Paradise in my back yard. Now would be the perfect time to click on the link of the song, written by the wonderful Australian musician Ross Wilson, and performed by John Farnham.

Now back to the kookaburras….

Kookaburras are part of the Kingfisher family, growing to a height on average of 42 cm. They are native to Australia, territorial and mate for life.

Their nests are made in the hollows of trees and both parents share the duties of caring for their young.

From watching the kookaburras each day as they come to feed in my garden, there are certain points I have noticed about their behaviour. Reading through the facts, so as I can tell you all a few actual factuals about these most recognisable of Australian birds, it is interesting to read about things that I have already noted!

Territorial groups of kookaburras flock together.

For example, they don’t arrive on my feeding table in pairs only, I can have any number of kookaburras here, sometimes up to eight at the same time, who intermingle amicably with one another. The facts confirm this to be so, that they do cohabit in a set area, even sharing the responsibilities of their young.

That explains another thing I have noticed about the young kookaburras, they will take food from any of the adults at the feeding table.

A timid baby, still finding its way in the big world.

So who belongs to who? Which adults do the baby kookaburras belong to?

It seems to me that in the Kingdom of Kookaburras, it simply doesn’t matter! The babies are taken care of by the multitudes. I guess you could say they watch out for each others backs!

Creamy coloured babies, like chocolate and milk.

The beautifully pristine and gloriously coloured baby birds are still quite shy when I take their food out to them, preferring to stay on the clothesline and watch me from afar….

….and then there’s Larry.

kookie 2 — This is Larry on the left, taking care of his, or perhaps another kookaburras baby. Who knows in the Kookaburras World. They all look out for one another.

Have I mentioned my old mate Larry before? He’s my Ultimate Tame Bird, out of all the birds who visit. I can hand feed Larry, he flies straight up to me and looks straight into my eyes, often with his head tilted to one side, as if questioning me.

If only he could tell me what he is thinking! A penny for your thoughts Larry?

When I asked my daughter Emma to feed Larry for me, so as I could take a photo of him being hand fed, Larry was a tad reluctant. "Who's this?", he seemed to be asking! — When I asked my daughter Emma to feed Larry for me, so as I could take a photo of him being hand fed, Larry was a tad reluctant. “Who’s this?”, he seemed to be asking!

When I am in the garden there is usually a kookaburra nearby. As much as I would like to think they are enjoying my company, the reality is that they are hoping I will rearrange some earth, disturb a worm or witchety grub, and faster than the bug can say “kookaburra”, it’s been swooped upon, flicked against a hard surface and eaten!

"There's gotta be a worm in here somewhere!" — “There’s gotta be a worm in here somewhere!”

Kookaburras will perch patiently on the branch of a tree for hours, watching, and waiting. Their ~~eagle~~ kookaburra eyes don’t miss a thing and once spotted, their prey doesn’t stand a chance!

Watching, waiting.... — Watching, waiting….

As the old wives tale would lead us to believe the kookaburras burst out into great choruses of laughter when there is rain about, and in years gone by housewives would swear by the accuracy of this tale, rushing into the garden to bring the washing in when the kookaburras started their song of so-called warning.

The truth of the matter is that their laughter is a warning….for other kookaburras to clear off! They are telling any stray kookies who may be lurking amid the nearby foliage that this area is taken!

Yes, this area is taken, by the Kings of the Bush, who have transformed my garden into A Touch of Paradise. 🙂

Australia · challenges · didgeridoo · music · son · spiritual

Learning, growing, and loving the Didgeridoo.

January 24, 2013January 27, 2013 Joanne11 Comments

“We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home.” ~ Aboriginal quote.

The sound of the didgeridoo being played, as the throbbing sounds reverberated around and around the walls of the Jamieson Valley at Echo Point in Katoomba, New South Wales, is perhaps one of the most haunting sounds I have ever heard during my lifetime.

I cannot imagine anything more iconic in Australian culture than the didgeridoo, or yidaki, as it is known by the Yolngu Indigenous Australians from Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.

When I visited The Three Sisters at Echo Point in the New South Wales Blue Mountains eighteen months ago I took the photo above, and tonight, whilst searching for a link to add here so you could all hear the magical sounds of the didgeridoo, I just happened to find this very same man on YouTube, playing the didgeridoo at Echo Point!!

Click on the link and listen as you read, it will open in a new window, and here also is a photo I took of The Three Sisters while I was there, to help your imagination along. Of course it never is the same as actually being there and experiencing the sounds, but you should see and hear some of what totally enraptured me.

The Threee Sisters, Echo Point, Katoomba. — The Three Sisters, Echo Point, Katoomba.

If you watch the YouTube video it shows some scenes around Echo Point as well.

Just before Christmas arrived I spent a week in Noosa, Queensland and whilst there I visited the Eumundi Markets. Maybe I visited the markets more than once. Okay, I went to Eumundi for all three days that the markets were open during the week I was there!

The attraction may have been the atmosphere. It could also have been the old-fashioned ginger beer (a non alcoholic ginger flavoured drink we have here in Australia). Kenn may have also played a big part in why I felt the need to return.

At Kenn's shop at the markets could be found any shape, size or coloured didgeridoo imaginable. — At Kenn’s shop at the markets could be found any shape, size or coloured didgeridoo imaginable.

This photo shows my son on my second visit to Kenn’s shop. I felt sure that Adam would enjoy learning how to play the didgeridoo, being musically inclined, and I told Kenn about Adam on my first visit there. (Adam was with his brother and father that day, the boys had gone fishing.) He offered to teach Adam a thing or three about the techniques required to play the instrument (as opposed to blowing into the hollow piece of wood like a trumpet!)

On my next visit, with Adam in tow, we must have spent at least an hour with Kenn, Adam trying out various didgeridoo’s, under Kenn’s instruction. Whilst Adam put into practice what his teacher was telling him to do, Kenn and I chatted.

Kenn himself is a healer and a mystic, qualities inherited from his Aboriginal ancestors. I felt saddened to learn that there are only a few full-blooded Australian Aboriginals left now, compared to years gone by. When an Aboriginal chooses to marry outside of his race, he must leave the tribe. And many have decided to leave, choosing love over heritage.

The didgeridoo is traditionally played at ceremonial events by the men of the tribe only. Women do not play at these events, although they are permitted to play at other times.

Adam soon worked out the breathing style required to play the didgeridoo and amazed Kenn by how quickly he had picked up on actually producing something similar to the correct sound the instrument should make! Adam had a favourite didgeridoo, which he wanted me to buy for him there and then, but I told him he would have to save his money and buy it on our next visit to Noosa.

Adam returned home the following day with his father and I stayed at Noosa a few days longer, during which time I paid my third visit to Kenn. I bought Adam’s favourite didgeridoo, to give to him for Christmas.

Adam at the Eumundi Markets, being instructed on how to play the didgeridoo.

Kenn told Adam he had taught him all he could for now. The rest would be up to Adam, to remember what he had been taught, then practice, practice and practice! That’s all there is to it!

Next time we visit Eumundi we will visit Kenn again, to talk, to learn and then learn some more.

Australia · music · photography

Iconically pegged out to dry

January 23, 2013January 27, 2013 Joanne8 Comments

The Australian icon I will be focusing on today is something just a bit different and no, it is not a kookaburra, although they occasionally play a part in this story, being the gregarious birds that they are!

Today’s icon is the humble clothesline, or to be more precise, The Hills Hoist.

I’ll bet you didn’t see that one coming! 😉

The Hills Hoist, an Australian invention was first manufactured in Adelaide, South Australia in 1945 by Lance Hill and has become a standard item in the back yards of suburban Australia for several decades.

I would have been lost without my Hills Hoist during the years that my four children were growing up and even these days with only two children and two adults living at home, it surely does make washing day so much easier.

And as you can see, our Hills Hoist rotary clothes lines are not only useful for hanging out the washing to dry. Where would our kookaburras perch so near to the house without a clothesline being there? Mind you, they pay no regard to the fact that the clothes are clean before they hop upon their magical merry-go-rounds.

How do the folks in cold climates manage their washing days? I’ve heard that laundry rooms are built to be far bigger in countries where the weather is….um….not the best for hanging the washing outdoors to dry, shall I say.

Seriously, how do you dry your clothes when there is snow on the ground reaching up as high as the rooftops?! Are electric clothes dryers the norm in the Northern Hemisphere? When I contemplate such thoughts, I have to admit that perhaps I do take our predominantly fine weather for granted!

Speaking of the weather, the song I have chosen for you to listen to today is “Weather With You” from Crowded House. The members of Crowded House are technically New Zealanders but they did make their name here in Australia, so we have claimed them as our own.

The video was filmed in Victoria and shows a cute little old caravan travelling around with the band, which leads me to another question. Here in Australia, taking a holiday road trip and towing a caravan behind the car is quite common place, but I wonder if this is the way families take their holidays in other countries?

As much as I love my home and wouldn’t want to part with my creature comforts for any extended amount of time, I must admit to rather enjoying travelling with a caravan. In fact I have lived in a caravan twice during my younger years. Just last year I wrote about my experience of travelling and living in a caravan for four months at one stage in my early life in a post I called “A Sea Change – (AKA An Adventure with my Reckless Parents!)”

My clothesline features in a number of the photos I add here, so the next time you see my Hills Hoist, you will know that it is yet another Australian Icon.

“There’s a small boat made of china,
Going nowhere on the mantlepiece.
Do I lie like a loungeroom lizard,
Or do I sing like a bird released?

Everywhere you go you always take the weather with you,
Everywhere you go you always take the weather….” ~ Weather With You.

Australia · music · photography · summer

Sounds of Australia

January 22, 2013January 27, 2013 Joanne8 Comments

“Out on the patio we’d sit,
And the humidity we’d breathe,
We’d watch the lightning crack over cane fields
Laugh and think that this is Australia.” ~ Sounds of Then (This is Australia) ~ Gangajang.

This coming Saturday, the 26th of January, is Australia Day and to commemorate the day I thought it might be different to add a series of posts with photos that are typically Australian. Perhaps native to Australia. Or maybe those things that when a person from overseas sees them, they may smile and say “I recognise that, it’s Australian”.

It will be interesting to see how many icons I can come up with. I haven’t planned this idea out to any great degree at all! I will simply take each day as it comes, leading up to Australia Day, in typical Aussie fashion.

“She’ll be right mate!” No, I do not speak in that way myself, but again, it is typically Australian, typifying the laid-back Australia style of taking each day as it comes, which is just what I will do.

First in my series of the typically Australian is the Australian Magpie, or Cracticus tibicen. My particular magpie friend is a black backed magpie and the one who patiently posed today for a photo shoot is a male. His wife didn’t visit with him today, (she must have been cleaning the nest, or some other such magpie activity) so he dined alone on his fresh mince.

The brown wooden table beyond the magpie is usually regarded as the feeding table as it is really fit to be thrown away, so I have kept it for the birds to use. They seem to enjoy jumping around the table and chairs and I’m not in the least bit concerned that they will dirty it at all. But, the kookaburras really want the feeding table to be exclusively for their use at the beginning and end of the day, when they are around, so I let magpie eat from another newer table occasionally.

Also typically Australian in some of these photos, if you look carefully in the background, is the weeds that have popped up between the pavers of the patio over the last couple of weeks. Throughout the year we fight a constant battle against the weeds and when the heat of summer arrives, we don’t stand a chance of getting rid of them.

Ah well, this is Australia….

I wonder if you have ever heard the song of a magpie? It is a beautiful chortling sound, one which I am often woken by in the morning, when my magpie visitors are asking for their breakfast.

Click on this link I have found on YouTube and you will hear the song of a magpie…..

“Along the road the magpies walk
with hands in pockets, left and right.
They tilt their heads, and stroll and talk.
In their well-fitted black and white.

They look like certain gentlemen
who seem most nonchalant and wise
until their meal is served — and then
what clashing beaks, what greedy eyes!

But not one man that I have heard
throws back his head in such a song
of grace and praise — no man nor bird.
Their greed is brief; their joy is long.
For each is born with such a throat
as thanks his God with every note.” ~ Magpies, Judith Wright.

They are such tame birds, once they become used to being fed by you they sometimes even come up to the door to meet you. I’ve heard that some magpies have become so tame that they will walk into a house! That hasn’t happened to me, so far they have preferred to dine alfresco, and I do hope that they don’t ever decided to come indoors as my cats may not take too kindly to sharing their home with a magpie!

Talking about Australian icons would not be complete without some Australian music. Whilst many may have heard the old classics, like “Tie Me Kangaroo Down” and “A Pub With No Beer”, there are so many other songs that scream “Australia” to me. These are the songs that if I were to ever find myself in a far off land and hear these songs, I would long for home.

One such song is “Sounds of Then” by Gangajang.

blessings · Changes · enchanting · happiness

Summer’s Enchanting Changes

January 14, 2013January 14, 2013 Joanne13 Comments

“And meanwhile the beautiful golden days were dropping gently from the second week one by one, equal in beauty with those of the first, and the scent of beanfields in flower on the hillside beyond the village came across to San Salvatore whenever the air moved.” ~ The Enchanted April.

The year is a whole two weeks old and summer, although slow to start in my corner of the sub-tropics, has made up for the previous lack of hot summer’s days during the past week.

The highest temperature we have reached has only been around 34 degrees Celsius, which is easy to cope with, if it wasn’t for the humidity. During days of humidity there is nothing else to do other than to lazy around, drinking cold glasses of water, windows opened wide, trying to catch just a hint of a breeze wafting through, even if only for a moment or two.

Change can be such a fickle little creature though. Never become resolved to expecting almost intolerable heat for the next few weeks, once it seems to have set in. You may be surprised by the cool winds of change, gentle rain, cool breezes, and temperatures dropping by ten degrees within a few hours….

Ahhhhh, the relief the cooler air, the ever so slight chill on my arms and promises of a night of sweet dreams, unhindered by the heat, after I have finished reading the last chapter of “The Enchanted April”.

Oh how I have enjoyed reading this book, taking virtual walks through the gardens of the Italian castle on the shores of the Mediterranean Ocean, with Rose, Lotty, Lady Caroline and old Mrs Fisher, each in their own time experiencing the bewitching spell which is cast over them by the beauty and magic surrounding the castle by the sea.

This place, this time, has changed all of their lives, forever.

I am completely and thoroughly besotted by this book. It has touched my heart with its simplicity. The old world charm of the text is simply delightful. Moments of dry humour are dotted throughout the story. Each chapter holds within its pages the promise of magic and love, happiness and wonder, and gardens filled with the fragrances and colours of the season.

“In the garden that second week the poet’s eyed narcissus disappeared out of the long grass at the edge of the zigzag path, and wild gladiolus, slender and rose-coloured, came in their stead, white pinks bloomed in the borders, filling the whole place with their smoky-sweet smell, and a bush nobody had noticed burst into glory and fragrance, and it was a purple lilac bush.”

Simply enchanting….

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