Australia Day ~ In the land of sunshine (and sometimes rain!)

January 26, 2013 Joanne8 Comments

Saturday, 26th January, 2013 ~ Australia Day.

I had some fabulous ideas of the photos I would take to show you all our beautiful sunshine, the beaches, and the way so many Australians in my beachside area celebrate the anniversary of the first day of English settlement in our land of sunshine. You would see photos of families enjoying bar-be-ques at the overcrowded beaches and the Australian flag flying proudly against the brilliant blue sky, fluttering in the breeze. Can you just image it?

So what happened today? It rained, all day, so I had to resort to Plan B and you will all have to be content with imagining the blue sky!

But that’s okay, we Australians are used to making the most out of a less than perfect situation. You’ve all heard the stories about the days when the first fleet of eleven ships arrived in Sydney Cove, on the 26th of January, 1788, headed by Captain Arthur Phillip, haven’t you? The one thousand, five hundred and thirty people who arrived on those ships, seven hundred and thirty six of whom were convicts, had to make the most of the inhospitable conditions they were faced with upon their arrival.

I wasn't the only person out taking photos today. Another blogger perhaps? — I wasn’t the only person out taking photos today. Another blogger perhaps?

“Farewell to old England forever,
Farewell to my old pals as well,
Farewell to the well known Old Bailey,
Where I used for to cut such a swell.” ~ Lyrics, Botany Bay.

All I needed to work around today was a bit of rain. Well, it was quite a bit of rain actually, so I took my planned photos between the showers. And it was nothing compared to the less than ideal conditions the first fleet had to deal with!

Roads and car parking areas, usually with cars queuing up for miles whilst waiting for a parking spot, were almost empty in comparrison to previous summer’s days.

I did spot a couple of interesting sights, besides the very keen surfers, who were prepared to brave the rain (they get wet swimming anyway!) despite the weather. This little pup seemed to enjoy taking a bike ride with its owner….

And I also saw a man, wearing a fluorescent shirt, unicycling along the beach side path at Kirra Point.

On a bycycle built for...one? — On a bicycle built for…one?

Our “Australian of the Year” was announced today and this year it is Australian media icon, Ita Buttrose.

Ita became one of the most recognised faces on Australian television during the 1970’s and 80’s when she began filming advertisements for the magazine which she was then the editor of, the Australian Women’s Weekly. Ita was awarded the title of Australian of the Year 2013 for “her media career as well as her commitment to not-for-profit organisations, including president of Alzheimers Australia.”

In 1980, Australian rock and roll band Cold Chisel recorded their hit song “Ita”, written about Ita Buttrose. In honour of our newly named Australian of the Year, my Aussie song for today is “Ita” by Jimmy Barnes and Cold Chisel.

Happy Australia Day! 🙂

“Every week, in every home
She got wholesome news for the family
I believe, I believe, in what she says
Yes I do
I believe, I believe, at the end of the day
Her magazine’ll get me through…”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUONdYMPbXs

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKxIj1vzs_k&playnext=1&list=PLC62E9576465B6316&feature=results_main

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.

Australia · gratitude · music · nostalgia · old house · son · spiritual

Capturing the Moment

December 28, 2011 JoanneLeave a comment

“Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no delay, no procrastination; never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.”~Lord Chesterfield.

The above quote sums up an important lesson I have learned during 2011.

With my camera at the ready, as I see a magical moment unfolding, I photograph it. It’s no use in thinking we can go back to the moment later. If we fail to seize the moment, it will be lost to us, forever.

During the year I have captured many moments in time with my camera. We are fortunate enough to live in a generation when we can click away to our hearts content, transfer the photos to our computer and edit later. No more messy and expensive film processing for us!

Most of my captured moments didn’t make it to my blog page, for no other reason than there were so many of them! What better time to share some of my year as it draws to a close.

During my visit to the Blue Mountains in April this year with my youngest son, I captured days which will live in my heart forever. There are those who say you can’t return to your past. Well, I didn’t do that; I re-discovered my past surroundings, through the eyes of an adult. The home where I grew up is obviously loved by its present owner, with both the building and garden being well maintained.

Watching my son ride his skate-board along the same street where I had played as a child was one of those special moments, in need of capturing in the instant of the time.

My old school, the one where I began kindergarten at the age of four, seemed to me to be captured in a time-warp. A well maintained time-warp I might add!

The award for the most surreal moment of the year, when time literally stood still for me, happened when my boy and I visited the Three Sisters in the Blue Mountains. As we headed towards the lookout, the sounds of a didgeridoo echoed throughout the expanse of the valley. If you are not familiar with the sound, I have found a sample on You Tube, which you can listen to here…

The man responsible for the Magical Sounds kindly allowed me to photograph him, then complimented my son on his choice of cap he was wearing, a glossy, purple, checkered number he had found a few days earlier!

Making memories with loved ones is really something special; seizing the moment and recognising it for what it is embeds the moment in your heart.

Treasuring the moment, and moving right along in the direction of the next memory is absolutely priceless.

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