My Country

With the rain, flooding and devastation widespread across the country at the moment I felt it only fitting to share this inspirational poem by Dorothea McKellar title My Country.

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 cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
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 hush 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 threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An 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.

A photo a day - 365 Project

An interesting concept of taking a photo a day and sharing with the world. I've decided to jump on board and give it a crack, what will my daily photo's be?
I have no real planned theme or structure for this project just some random snaps a day, more than likely the family will be heavily featured but we will see how it evolves over the course of the year.

Don't expect any real high res pics from this one as I'll be purely using the iphone to take the daily snaps.

You can bookmark http://365project.org/anewman13/365/2011-01 to view the daily shots and have a play around to see calendar view that shows the month in progress. There is also a link on the right hand side of the blog that will point you in the right direction.

Here is yesterday's photo.

A Morning Stroll

Mr mobility enjoys his daily morning cruise around the house.
Not long now until he will be mobile without any assistance, let the fun begin!