Tag: Australia

Australia · Changes

On School, Baskin Robbins and “Chillin’”

Joanne2 Comments

Well, I am happy to report that the day did not disappoint. In fact, it exceeded all expectations!

Not in the least bit deterred by the fact that at his new school, his year alone contained half the population of the entire school he had previously attended, this morning my son calmly prepared his lunch and packed his books into his new school bag, in preparation for his first day of school for the year.

Expectations will remain high, from the point of view of the school, at least. For my boy to retain his position in the Academic Excellence classes in which he has been placed, his grades must remain at B- or above.

He’s not concerned in the slightest! In fact, I would like to a make written record right here, to refer back to in December this year, stating that my ambitious son, during this past weekend, has declared that he will end this year as the Grade 8 Dux!

As he climbed into the back seat of my car this afternoon, he announced to my daughter and I that he had just experienced the fastest school day of his entire school life!

I think I can safely say that this transfer of schools is showing extremely positive aspects, right from day one!

On the way home, we stopped off at Baskin Robbins ice cream shop. My boy was famished!

With all ice creams carefully steadied, we headed on up to Point Danger, a local landmark and lookout.

What a gloriously crystal clear day we have had today! After ice creams were devoured, my son and I went off for a walk, camera in hand, leaving Miss Eighteen to “chill” in the car, listening to music.

Chillin'

Most of the photos I took turned out very well indeed, considering the age and quality of my camera. (***Added to my wish list today, under the heading “Top Priority” ~ an upgrade on my camera!***)

More about Point Danger tomorrow. 🙂

Australia

The Colours of Light

Joanne5 Comments

The 26th January is a day of celebration for Australia, a day which we simply call “Australia Day”.

In honour of Australia Day, I would like to share a beautiful poem by the famous Australian, Dorothea Mackellar.

The Colours of Light ~ Dorothea Mackellar (1885 – 1968)

This is not easy to understand
For you that come from a distant land
Where all the colours are low in pitch –
Deep purples, emeralds deep and rich,
Where autumn’s flaming and summer’s green –
Here is a beauty you have not seen.

All is pitched in a higher key,
Lilac, topaz, and ivory,
Palest jade-green and pale clear blue
Like aquamarines that the sun shines through,
Golds and silvers, we have at will –
Silver and gold on each plain and hill,
Silver-green of the myall leaves,
Tawny gold of the garnered sheaves,
Silver rivers that silent slide,
Golden sands by the water-side,

Golden wattle, and golden broom,
Silver stars of the rosewood bloom;
Amber sunshine, and smoke-blue shade:
Opal colours that glow and fade;
On the gold of the upland grass
Blue cloud-shadows that swiftly pass;
Wood-smoke blown in an azure mist;
Hills of tenuous amethyst. . .

Oft the colours are pitched so high
The deepest note is the cobalt sky;
We have to wait till the sunset comes
For shades that feel like the beat of drums –
Or like organ notes in their rise and fall –
Purple and orange and cardinal,
Or the peacock-green that turns soft and slow
To peacock-blue as the great stars show . . .

Sugar-gum boles flushed to peach-blow pink;
Blue-gums, tall at the clearing’s brink;
Ivory pillars, their smooth fine slope
Dappled with delicate heliotrope;
Grey of the twisted mulga-roots;
Golden-bronze of the budding shoots;
Tints of the lichens that cling and spread,
Nile-green, primrose, and palest red . . .

Sheen of the bronze-wing; blue of the crane;
Fawn and pearl of the lyrebird’s train;
Cream of the plover; grey of the dove –
These are the hues of the land I love.

(Photo from Google Images)

Australia · Changes

Typically January

Joanne3 Comments
New Uniforms

Well, who would have thought? It was exactly twenty years ago his month that I made my first January school dash!

Although back then, it was all about my five year old baby boy, my first child to start school.

He arrived at school on his first day, all bright eyed and ambitious, looking forward to this brand new adventure he was just beginning.

I was a cot case!!

As the year went by, momentum kicked in, I gained control over my apprehension and fears and I grew up somewhat.

Really, I had no choice. Who was I to worry myself stupid, when my children were going off to school filled with anticipation? I had to face the facts…

My babies loved having new adventures, thrived on learning new things, couldn’t wait to make new friends and appreciated their newly forming independence.

Was it really only seven years ago this month that the baby of my four children started school? In 2004 I had all four of my children attending school; the eldest in his final year, the youngest starting his first.

So, my baby arrived home yesterday from his surfing carnival, suntanned and tired, realising he is heading into the final days of his summer school holidays.

He’s starting a new school this year filled, yet again, with eager anticipation.

Enrolment into school ran smoothly. He’s beginning an Academic Excellence program this year, hence the change of schools.

With the enrolment completed by 11.30am and uniforms tried on and purchased by 12.30am, we were off to the shops for the final leg of our annual January dash.

Shoes and socks were purchased without incident at a local sports store. He’s a very happy chappie, knowing he will be wearing sports shoes every day, from this day forward, (well, Monday, actually!) as the school uniform requirement!

Lastly, we headed off to a nearby chain store to join another dozen or so mums, also accompanied by their overly suntanned children, in the rummage for stationary items.

By 1.15pm we were famished. What’s a January school dash without junk food? We found sausage rolls (I had a spinach roll!) and chocolate thick shakes to tide us over for the trip home. It’s been another hot, typically January day, yet another day when drinks are as necessary as breathing!

For the grand finale of this most typically January day, the weather has provided us with a thunderstorm, usual in these parts of the country after the heat of the day.

As the thunder fades away into the distance, our pretty bright green garden frogs will begin their croaking chorus to entertain me, as I patiently hand sew name labels onto my boy’s new school uniforms.

How typically January! 🙂

January Rain

Australia · floods

When Times Get Tough….

Joanne2 Comments

I’m sure the majority of you have heard about the massive deluge of rain in certain parts of Australia just now, with the state of Queensland being the worst hit.

Well, yes, it is that time of year, the rainy season in these parts, which I spoke about the other day in my post “My Country”.

What has eventuated over the last two days, however, is nothing short of a freak of nature!

The beautiful town of Toowoomba, just west of Brisbane and part of The Great Dividing Range is situated at 2,267 feet, or 691 metres above sea level. The last thing the residents of the town would have expected would be a flood, which has left, at latest report, eight people dead and seventy people missing.

The city of Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, has also been experiencing unexpected high rainfalls (even for this time of the year), over a rather short period of time, causing the Brisbane River to break its banks.

The loss and damage to homes and businesses during times like these are unimaginable. I know. I’ve lived through it myself.

It’s times like these, when the situation becomes beyond critical, that brings out the best in people.

Here are a few ways to help ~

Appliances Online Australia has announced that for every Facebook member who “likes” their Facebook page, they will donate $1.00, up until 5pm on January 21, 2011. Their target to donate is $100,000.

If you have Facebook, please take a moment to show your support here.

The Queensland Government is accepting donations to help the flood victims get their lives back to normal sooner, rather than later.

Donations can be made by going here.

And last but not least, please say a prayer for the safety and well being of those who have been affected by the floods.

Look at the photo I have added at the top of the page, showing Toowoomba in all of its colourful, floral glory, and picture the town returning to the picturesque status it is so well known for.

Ah yes, Australia is Australia and our harsh climate does indeed send us some very trying times.

It is at these times when we all rally together and help in any way we are able, large or small, then life moves on.

The poet Henry Lawson sums the Australian way of looking at things up very well in “Send Round the Hat” when he says ~

“Now this is the creed from the Book of the Bush –

Should be simple and plain to a dunce:

If a man’s in a hole you must pass round the hat –

Were he jail-bird or gentleman once.”

Australia · nostalgia

The Blue Mountains

Joanne6 Comments

Two days ago I mentioned here on my blog page that I had lived in an area prone to bushfires ~ The Blue Mountains of New South Wales.

The Blue Mountains was my first home, the area where I spent the first thirteen years of my life.

Many years later I still reflect on those thirteen years with feelings of immense nostalgia. I’m sure I could start a separate blog entitled something along the lines of “Memories of my Early Life; Growing up in The Blue Mountains” and never run short on content!

They were happy years, filled with magical discoveries, exploring, adventure and learning, back in the days when the world was young and I possessed not a care in the world. *sigh*

The famous Australian poet, Henry Lawson, penned the most perfectly descriptive poem about the Blue Mountains, which I would like to share with you today.

Henry Lawson is an Australian icon, born in Grenfell, N.S.W. in 1867. Henry departed this world at an extremely early age, in 1922. I’m certain that upon his demise he took with him many untold stories and poems about Australia.

Today’s photo is another oldie from my first photo album. ‘Tis a very young “me” again, this time taken at Echo Point, Katoomba, the lookout of the world famous “Three Sisters”.

I do hope you enjoy the poem. It was written in 1888, after Henry had spent a few years living in the Blue Mountains himself.

The poem was copied from the book, “The World of Henry Lawson”, a book I discovered and purchased in 1983. No internet links provided for this one! 😉

I’ll leave you now with Henry Lawson, who is far more capable of describing the breathtaking landscape of the Blue Mountains, more lyrically than I would ever be capable of! 🙂

The Blue Mountains

Above the ashes straight and tall,

Through ferns with moisture dripping,

I climb beneath the sandstone wall,

My feet on mosses slipping.

Like ramparts round the valley’s edge

The tinted cliffs are standing,

With many a broken wall and ledge,

And many a rocky landing.

And round about their rugged feet

Deep ferny dells are hidden

In shadowed depths, whence dust and heat

Are banished and forbidden.

The stream that, crooning to itself,

Comes down a tireless rover,

Flows calmly to the rocky shelf,

And there leaps bravely over.

Now pouring down, now lost in spray

When mountain breezes sally,

The water strikes the rock midway,

And leaps into the valley.

Now in the west the colours change,

The blue with crimson blending;

Behind the far Dividing Range

The sun is fast descending.

And mellowed day comes o’er the place,

And softens ragged edges;

The rising moon’s great placid face

Looks gravely o’er the ledges.