AUSTRALIA ~ The Antipodes

AUSTRALIA ~ The Antipodes
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 / ~ Dorothea Mackellar (1885-1968)

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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Ruby Birds


Pic by Gemma Wiseman ~ Rosellas wandering around looking for flower seeds at Arthurs Seat, Mornington Peninsula
~
Ruby Tuesday prompt
~
These birds are a common sight on the Mornington Peninsula. They seem as much at home walking in grasses as flying to trees to have a good social chatter! When they dart in and out of trees, the flash of colour is quite magical!
~

A flash of rubies on the wing
Is like
A gleaming spark of passion
Longing
To sing
~

Monday, August 25, 2008

Bikie Memories


Pic by Gemma Wiseman ~ American Memorabilia shop, Rosebud, Mornington Peninsula in AUSTRALIA!
~
Odd Shot Monday prompt
~
This is really odd! Who would expect to find a bike shop, specialising in American bike memorabilia, a Harley specialist, in Rosebud, right on Port Phillip Bay, about 70km south of Melbourne in Australia! The shop is not in the main shopping mall, but is part of a small cluster of shops where parking nearby is very limited, especially in summer when the tourists arrive for the beach season!
WHY? WHY HERE?
I can only guess! There is a bikie group known as Ulysses in the Rosebud area. This group attracts the older, veteran bikies. Perhaps this shop is a passion of one of the members! Bikies enjoy riding the beach highway and the winding Arthurs Seat mountain road. Perhaps there are enough bikies on the road down this way to make this shop a compulsory pit stop! And the shop is flanked by 2 cafes that seem to do a reasonable trade in all weathers!
And not many shops fly flags here on the Peninsula!
~

Pic by Gemma Wiseman ~ A rainy, windscreen view of the shop
~
This is really the first pic I took. It was raining. But I wanted to include those bikes out the front! So, the wipers went into fast mode to clear the windscreen a bit, and I took the pic before more rain smeared the view! The other pic was taken later in the day when sunlight made a fleeting visit! And the bikes were gone!
~

Freedom on two wheels
Racing is the joy of
Somewhere else
Is like
Flying on Earth
~

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Spring Pinks and Greens


Pic by Gemma Wiseman ~ Spring blossoms in Dromana, Mornington Peninsula
~
Today's Flowers prompt #3
~

At last, the pink blossoms are multiplying! A week ago, they looked like minuscule, scattered drops of pink rain! But now they are larger and in profusion throughout Dromana!

Pic by Gemma Wiseman ~ More Spring in Dromana
~

Pic by Gemma Wiseman ~ Spring flowers can be light green in Dromana
~

Pic by Gemma Wiseman ~ More pink blossoms just to prove Spring is on the way in Dromana
~
Spring is the happiness of
Light fluffy pink blossoms
Dancing
The joy of
Warm Spring winds
~
Spring is like
Tossing back the quilt and
Finding the wooden floor is
Not so cold for
Bare feet
~
Spring light
Lets the soul
Air and
Dry
Damp wings
~

Scenic Grey Moods


Pic by Gemma Wiseman ~ Waterworlds at Tootgarook, overlooking Port Phillip Bay, Mornington Peninsula
~
Scenic Sunday prompt #6
~
We are still wading through endless days of wet weather. (It is nigh on 3 weeks now!) Trying to get a sunlit pic becomes a quest, a trial and error escapade laced with lots of patience. But, there can be moments when waterlogged landscapes have a special beauty.

Pic by Gemma Wiseman ~ More Tootgarook
~

Pic by Gemma Wiseman ~ Tootgarook walkway looking towards Mount Martha on Port Phillip Bay
~
Cloudy billows fringed with light
Overlooking
Silvered seas
Glamourise grey moods
And
Pools of light
Reclining on a dark earth
Keep
The wistful spirit
Alive and
Dreaming
~

Laughter on the Wing


Pic by Gemma Wiseman ~ Kookaburra at Tootgarook, Mornington Peninsula
~
Camera Critters #20
~

If there is one Australian bird that is tuned in to humanity, it must be the kookaburra. We have befriended a number of these wild, "laughing" birds. (Scruff was our original friend and now his family are regular visitors!) They know my car and appear for food and attention when my car arrives home from work. They have been known to fly alongside my car on several occasions when I leave home at weekends. (But not workdays!) The flight can last past half a dozen houses beyond my home!

Patience is a strength. The whole extended family will wait for up to an hour in a gum tree above my driveway. It is so cute to see 4-6 of these little critters sitting on a branch together, hoping we will appear with food. (Scruff used to call with a full, throaty laugh on the verandah railing or even tap on the lounge room window, but these guys don't laugh till AFTER dining! We have to guess when they are there, though it is usually about 7am and at dusk!)

They look like fluffy toys. Yet pics of them can be so difficult! They tend to like the shadowy spaces of leaves. As they feed on the ground, their bodies seem to flatten out and so not very photogenic. Each one is quite a distinct personality. There is the extrovert, the cheeky one, the curious and the very shy, timid one.

These pics were taken, unbelievably, by the sea. Drizzling rain, and I was walking the coastal track by Tootgarook beach on Port Phillip Bay. I thought I heard a clearing of the throat above my head, looked up, and there he was. Frail sunlight highlighted him, and there were no shady leaves! I could hardly believe my good fortune! I took 2 pics, but then a bikerider rode by and the kookaburra flew! But I had 2 pics clearer than usual!

Pic by Gemma Wiseman ~ Kookaburra at Tootgarook
~

Pretty dark eyes waiting on a branch
Sweet family sharing and caring
A little fluffy laughter on the wing
A glass of happiness for humanity
~

Till I Find My Wings


Pic by Gemma Wiseman ~ Seagull on a war memorial at Flinders, Mornington Peninsula
~
One Single Impression prompt #26 ~ Resolve
~
Dawn is not
A broken morning

Clouds are not
The shorn fleece of
Ominous shadows

Rain is not
A sign of
Tomorrow's tears

Summer sunlight is not
A reason to hide

I promise not
To toss stones
Idly in
Someone else's
Bucket

I will stand firm on
A rock and
Look outwards and
Upwards
Till my wings
Know how and
Where
To fly
~

I will not
Be
All
I can't be

But I will
Try
To be
Simply
Me
~

Shadows ~ Paradoxical Beauty


Pic by Gemma Wiseman ~ Shadowy walls
~
Hey Harriet's Shadow Shot Sunday prompt #14
~

A shadowed wall is
Brutal
Brazen
Beauty
~
Carved limbs
Faceless portrait
Black blossoms
Blocked
Soul
~
The paradox of
Delightful
Blind
Beauty
~

CALENDAR

Tasmania

Tasmania
A place of beauty in the Western Tiers

Tasmania

Tasmania
View near Blackwood Park Cottages, Mole Creek

New Landscapes

New Landscapes
New Worlds

Archive of Blog Quotes

  • A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken. ~James Dent
  • Autumn is an introspective season when stray thoughts of the mind dive into the mystique of the soul - Gemma Wiseman
  • Autumn is the bridesmaid of Summer and the flowergirl of Winter ~ Gemma Wiseman
  • Autumn whispers the tones of yesterday in a minor key ~ Gemma Wiseman
  • Love is born / With a dark and troubled face, / When hope is dead / And in the most unlikely place; / Love is born, / Love is always born. - Michael Leunig's Christmas Song Cycle "Southern Star"
  • Spring paints the stars of heaven in Earth colours ~ Gemma Wiseman
  • Summer sizzles with a sibilant hush / Broken by dreams of / Clinking ice ~ Gemma Wiseman
  • The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul. - G.K. Chesterton
  • Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all. - Stanley Horowitz
  • Winter is the fire, simmering lonely in the soul ~ Gemma Wiseman
  • Winter is the shadow, the etching of the seasons in the mist ~ Gemma Wiseman

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