Thursday 26 January 2012

A Happy Australia Day

" 'Ave a good one, mate."
To all you Australians and any one one who feels Australian today.

My Country

- Dorothea Mackellar
The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance
Brown streams and soft, dim skies -
I know but I cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of rugged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding plains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me!
The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold rush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.
Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die -
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.
Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back three-fold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze ...
A opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land -
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand -
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

I have a little book of bush poetry this is one of my favorites.



 Another bucket of potatoes  reminder to myself put more holes in bucket.

But not bad for a few peelings, these we will eat tonight.


 A photo every day from my back door looking west.

 The flowers are loving all this cool wet weather.


I had a walk and found some Australian natives."G'day"

Join me at Thankful Thursday tell us what your thankful of

6 comments:

  1. Thank you . Are you an australian living in Israel ?

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  2. Thank you, that was sweet. From memory you are English, I hope I am correct. "Strong love of grey-blue distance" that is me. I am happy now I have a view of a mountain out my front door after not having a view of hills for 25 years.

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  3. Love the poem...reminds me some of Arizona! Beautiful photos...I'm so excited about your potatoes!

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  4. Hey Cathy,

    Thank you. I'm a French Australian and feel lucky to live in Australia.

    Are the natives in your garden?

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  5. that is so neat that you can get all those potatoes from potato peelings.

    Gill in Canada

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