My A-Z of Australia – Total Solar Eclipse 2012

T is for Total Solar Eclipse over northern Australia

Tens of thousands of scientists, tourists from around the globe, and amateur astronomers watched as the Sun, Moon and Earth aligned and plunged tropical northern Queensland, Australia into darkness during a total solar eclipse on Wednesday, November 14th, 2012.

Photo courtesy Mike Salway Photography

Although  not in it’s direct path, the eclipse still cast an unusual shadow over my own area which is much further south. The light just after dawn that morning was very strange as I sat watching it with my morning coffee outside on the patio. There was a kind of silver effect all over the houses and bush-land across from me, and everything was eerily still. The cows in the field were all lying down under the trees. . . they would normally be grazing at that time of the morning, but not one of them was standing, no bellowing, everything was strangely silent around me. I guess they must have realized something incredulous was happening too!

I was so enthralled and mesmerized by it all, I never even thought of taking any pictures. However, I found the above one courtesy of Mike Salway Photography which says it all much more than I ever could.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/slideshow/2012/11/14/rare-solar-eclipse-casts-shadow-over-australia/?intcmp=related#slide=1#ixzz2CGYSphtM

Related articles

• Watch Live: Total Solar Eclipse from Australia (universetoday.com)
• Solar eclipse darkens north Australia (thehindu.com)
• Total solar eclipse delights Australians (telegraph.co.uk)

Not always Sunny in Australia

It’s not always sunny and hot in Australia – now you know!

A cold snap has covered parts of Australia’s east coast with a blanket of snow – in the middle of spring!

Snow on gum trees – an unusual sight!

It does snow in some parts of Australia, but only in limited areas compared to the entire area of the continent, and there are Ski Resorts catering for those who love to ski.

Winter time sees excellent snowfalls for skiing in the Snowy Mountains region of south eastern New South Wales and north eastern Victoria. Several of Australia’s main snow resorts include the Kosciuszko National Park in NSW (Charlotte’s Pass, Thredbo), and Victoria (Mt Bogong, Fall’s Creek, Mt Hotham).

However, what makes this recent event unusual is that this recent snow has reached as far north as Queensland, which is sub-tropical!

The Bureau of Meteorology says snow falls have occurred right along the Great Dividing Range and as far north as Queensland’s Granite Belt. It’s fairly unusual to get snow this time of year around the southern parts of Queensland.

Puzzled kangaroo in snowy Australia – “What’s all this white stuff?

It must have given our native wildlife a bit of a shock!

Click here to watch a video clip from the ABC News and see the kangaroo puzzled by the whole event.

 

Poppy’s Birthday Celebrations

 

 

It’s my dog Poppy’s birthday today. She is 13 but she still acts like a puppy – well, most of the time! 

She is in for a special treat today, but doesn’t know it.  

Please come and enjoy her special day with us.

 

G’Day, I’m Poppy!

Wow, in the car early today with Mum, wonder where we’re going? Hope she hasn’t forgotten what day it is – it’s my birthday you know! She must be taking me somewhere special – yeah, that’s it!

 

This is my Auntie Kaye; she always gives me a Schmacko when I go to her house.

 

Auntie Kaye gave me big hugs

. . . and Mum gave me big hugs

. . . the bird was civil – he whistled Happy Birthday to me!

. . . twice!

Sheba and I played till we got tired

. . . so I crashed till it was time to go home

 POPPY!

. . . and a good day was had by all!

ANZAC - what it really means to an aussie/kiwi...

Reblogged from Chronicles of Illusions:

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As an Aussie/Kiwi ANZAC means much more than just the letters or the words they represent.

Australian New Zealand Army Corps.

To me those words represent a special breed.

On the 25th of April each year we commemorate one of the saddest days in Australia's and New Zealand's combined history.

The landing at the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915.

The objective was to capture the Dardanelles and Constantinople, opening the gateway to the Bosphorus and the Black Sea for the allied navies.

Read more… 677 more words, 3 more videos

Today in Australia (Wednesday 25th April), we celebrate ANZAC day (Australia & New Zealand Army Corps).

Related articles

• An Introduction to ANZAC Day from a Kiwi Living in Australia (thissydneylife.wordpress.com)
• ANZAC Day (fibromodem.wordpress.com)
• Lest we forget (cateskitchenadventures.wordpress.com)

To Ken Grenda: Count Me In, haha

Reblogged from aRVee' s blog:

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Thought of sharing you this, what a generous act! May God bless you even more, Honorable Ken Grenda! 

Aussie bus boss gives $15 million bonus to staff

Reblogged from:

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/aussie-bus-boss-gives-15-million-bonus-staff-064324127.html

An Australian bus operator has stunned his employees by handing out Aus$15 million (US$15.9 million) in thank you bonuses, with workers saying Wednesday they were overwhelmed by his generosity.

Ken Grenda, 79, sold his family-run company after 66 years and decided to put a chunk of the profits into the pockets of his employees for their hard work and loyalty.

Read more… 170 more words

Generous Aussie Boss showers some magic fairy dust on his employees! 

Click here

Queensland Floods Jan 2012 (Pictures/Videos)

Reblogged from Magsx2's Blog:

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Well here we go again, there has been very heavy rain in Brisbane where I live which is the Capitol of Queensland, for the last couple of days, and flash flooding has started. Thank goodness it doesn't seem as bad as last years January floods. This of course is our wet season.

So far there have been evacuations in Burpengary just north of Brisbane, and also some evacuations in Narangba, again just north of Brisbane, and also on the Gold Coast south of Brisbane.

Read more… 330 more words, 1 more video

 

I've re-blogged this post from Magsx2's blog as we both live in the areas affected by the current rising flood waters. 

Click here for original post

Barb

Spring has Sprung in Oz!

Today, September 1  is the first day of Spring in Australia!

Yes, winter is officially over, although we can’t really grumble because our winters up here in sub-tropical Queensland are mild to say the least. We have cold nights with a low of 5C, and beautiful warm days up to 26C.
Not so in other states further south where the temperatures get below freezing in winter, and in some places, it even snows!

Our State of Queensland is often described as “Beautiful one day, perfect the next” and it’s so true.
Now we are in Spring, the temperatures start to rise steadily, bringing life and colour back into the garden again.

Sure, we get our share of cyclones and floods in the wet season (December/January), but we take it all in our stride as Queenslanders do and just get on with the clean-up once it’s over – like true Aussie battlers!

Just wanted to let you know.

On September 5, I am flying to the UK where it will be Autumn (fall), and I’ve been warned to bring plenty of winter woolies! I’ll be away for a month, so when I return home, our Spring will be in full swing!

Wedding Ceremony with a Twist

Have you ever seen a Scottish handfasting tradition incorporated into a wedding ceremony?

Handfasting rituals are popular additions to traditional wedding ceremonies due to their strong cultural and historical backgrounds.  As a wedding tradition, this custom can be traced back to Celtic wedding ceremonies of the 1500’s.

My best friend got married recently, and as both bride and groom have Scottish connections, a Scottish theme flowed throughout the ceremony, with the handfasting ritual being incorporated into it. It was very moving and beautiful, and something I’ve never seen done before at a wedding. Being Scottish by birth, it both intrigued and fascinated me.

Their clan crests, names and date of wedding was embroidered onto their tartan which was used during the handfasting ceremony.

A piper led the wedding party, followed by the bridesmaids, then the bride and her friend who gave her away

Me with the ribbons!

The ceremony was held outside in the beautiful gardens of our local Golf Club, and the sun shone brightly for the occasion.  There is a waterfall at the back of that gazebo and we could hear the water falling gently during the ceremony. It couldn’t have been more perfect!

The Venue

It was a very simple ceremony – the bride and groom faced each other and the guests formed a semi-circle round them. The legalities of the ceremony were carried out first, as were the exchanging of the rings and their vows to each other.

Then the bride and groom joined right wrist to right wrist and the  embroidered tartan was placed over their wrists. Then six silk ribbons, each two feet long and all different colours, (each with it’s own special meaning), were placed one by one over the tartan by each bridesmaid. A blessing was offered by the celebrant before each one was placed. Here are the meanings of the colours ~

Red:                passion, strength, fertility

Yellow:          charm, confidence, joy, balance

Orange:         encouragement, attraction, kindness, plenty

Green:            finances, fertility, charity, prosperity, health

Blue:               tranquility, patience, devotion, sincerity

White:             purity, concentration, meditation, peace

 

When all the ribbons were placed over the tartan, the celebrant then tied them in a knot –  probably where the expression ‘tying the knot’ came from!  They then withdrew their hands and the tartan was placed on a table, still tied with the ribbons, a symbol of the couple being bound to each other in love.

Placing the Ribbons

Tartan is now Tied

 

It was nice to see such an old and unusual tradition weaved into a modern-day marriage, and it certainly kept the guests interested!

It was one of the most moving and feel-good wedding ceremonies I have ever been to.

Apologies for My Absence

 

 for not being around for the past week, but I’ve been to a wedding, and took advantage of the time away from home to have a complete break away from the computer – it was fabulous!

My friend got married last Friday, July 1st to her fiancee, so of course, I had to be there for my bestie!  She lives down the coast from me, just over a four hour drive away so we decided to turn it into a mini vacation.

We packed up the car, the dog, and half the house it seemed, and set off last Thursday so I could be at the hen’s night the night before her big day.  I promise she behaved herself and didn’t get too drunk or do anything stupid, wink, wink!  

It was a wedding ceremony with a difference –  my friend is Australian and was marrying an American whom she had met on the internet. Nothing unusual there, I know, but they both have Scottish ancestry, so they decided to weave the Scottish factor into the wedding ceremony by having what is called a Hand Fasting. It was very unusual, so I think I will write a separate post on it, because it was very interesting.

Hope I haven’t worried you by my absence and I just want to say thanks to those of you who contacted me wondering where I was; I really appreciate your concern.
We have a great community of blogging buddies here who feel more like friends the longer I am here.

Mary Poppins Festival

Mary Poppins

The historic city of  Maryborough in Queensland, Australia,
has a unique connection to the world’s most famous nanny that no other place can claim,  and is about to celebrate it’s annual Mary Poppins Festival beginning June 26th to July 3rd. 

Fun and games for the whole week!

Mary Poppins’ author P.L. Travers was born in the historic town of Maryborough, Queensland, Australia, in 1899.  Pamela Travers was born Helen Lyndon Goff in the residence above a bank, where her father was the bank manager.
In 1924 she moved to England seeking literary fame and fortune, using the name Pamela Travers for her writing, and it was in 1934 that the first ‘Mary Poppins’ novel about the magical nanny was published.

The city of Maryborough is very proud of it’s link with Mary, and so honors her annually with a spectacular week long festival in the streets. One of the local ladies plays the part of Mary in appropriate attire and walks around the streets talking to enthralled children who gaze at her with wide open eyes! Of course, she carries the obligatory umbrella and bag!

Bagpipes, parades & Mary with her bag and umbrella dressed for the occasion!

Lots of fun!

 
There are games, competitions, food stalls, music, pipe bands, horses and carriages, chimney sweep competitions, pram races (locals dressed up as nannies pushing their charges down the street, and the highlight would be sharing  ’high tea’ with Mary on the last day of the festival!

These are some photographs I took at last year’s festival.
My hubby entered the chimney sweep competition and won a prize for his dancing efforts whilst pretending to sweep a chimney – I didn’t know he could dance!

My 'chimney sweep' hub with Mary

Best View. The whole town turned out!

 

We are looking forward to this years event which starts this Saturday with free rides on a miniature steam train round the park for children (big kids too!),  school bands competing, dog shows, art shows –  and of course food stalls everywhere you look!

Click here if you would like to see more photographs and information.