The above image was extracted from the Wikipedia web site – Rat Snakes It was one of those dry and dusty Sunday summer days in Pune, India. The abundant greening of the nation during monsoon season had long passed and been replaced with a uniform brown dust and rock where grass had recently grown so abundantly. Flame trees kept a brave presence in searing dry … Continue reading Another Unwelcome Visitor
http://www.minifauna.com has copyright to the above picture. It was Sunday afternoon, and because it was summer we were inside trying desperately to stay within the orbit of our home made water cooler. Our Indian friends had advised during the blistering heat of pre-monsoon all windows and doors should be shut tight daytime, and opened wide at night. That is except for one window where water … Continue reading Unwelcome Visitors
My parents tell me I was six years old when this event happened, which means the year would have to be 1942. We were residing in the old mining town Gympie, Australia where my Father Eric had business interests and was beginning to take an interest in politics. The town sits astride a river in the beautiful Mary Valley. By 1942 memories of a frontier … Continue reading My First Ocean Dip
Not long after Joe the sulphur-crested Cockatoo (see one of my early blogs) joined our family in the 1940’s my Father Eric came home one evening with a cage containing an injured Galah parrot. To us children this multi-coloured bird was a thing of beauty and by common consent it was agreed we should call our new pet “Pretty.” Pretty was a young bird and … Continue reading Our “Pretty”
One of my favorite pastimes is to spend time in a bookshop. During shopping expeditions with Georgine I confess to becoming weary of craft shops and the dress section of superstores, where GG examines each of these items with meticulous care. After fifteen minutes of that I know its going to be a long haul, so with appropriate excuses gravitate to the nearest bookstore. Georgine … Continue reading The Back of the Book
You can imagine how happy we were as children in 1948 when our father Eric returned home one evening with a white sulphur-crested cockatoo. One of the farmers had found the bird on his property, and as it was obvious the young bird was unable to fly took it home to look after. Not having much to do of an evening the farmer spent considerable … Continue reading Joe
Beth studied her index finger pointed toward the ceiling. There was a long silence as she tried to remember why she was doing this. Her daughter Ellen glanced up from her knitting and frowned. “What are you doing Mum?” Beth lowered her finger and glanced toward the doorway. The cleaning crew were giving the corridor a once over and the racket diverted her from her … Continue reading The Activity Room
July 4 1776 was the birth of this great nation. An association of diverse communities banded together to form a political entity which eventually evolved into the United States we know today. Here we were on July 4 2006, two citizens from “Down Under” who were there to celebrate our daughter Gina’s first Independence Day as an American citizen. Naturally she wanted us to be … Continue reading Independence Day in the USA
The above image copyright to http://www.featurepics.com It’s funny how things seem to hide in the deep dark recesses of memory to be triggered long afterward by a ‘happening now’ event. Now I’m aware the further you get from early childhood events the recalled scene is sugar coated with an added element of mythology. However there are things which are so seminal in one’s experience they … Continue reading Brotherhood of Mankind
It was Father’s Day in the USA, June 18 2006. We had departed early in the morning for our date with the whales in Puget Sound off the coast of Bellingham, Washington State. The day was doing its summer thing switching from hot to cold as the sun occasionally peeped through the clouds, and a relatively calm sea beckoned to us with the white tips … Continue reading Father’s Day in the USA
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