Maureen’s blog

Visited South Coast, NSW recently and came across some unusual pets being taken for a swim down the beach. They were about a week old, cute as anything and will grow up quickly into big honking geese!

Visit to local Flower Power garden centre...didn't buy anything, took photos instead..cheaper!

More spring stuff from my dad's garden where all the flowers are strutting their stuff. I love photographing flowers. They're varied and colourful AND more importantly they don't run away so I've got time to focus the camera.

Glorious day in the garden yesterday. Blue sky, sun, birds, flowers. Took lots of photos, walked. Woke up this morning looking forward to more of same....rain, wind and grey skies. Ah well! At least I woke up.

 

I hate to see cats in my garden. My neighbour across the road has had many over the years, more often than not they have not been spayed and they scream and carry on at all hours under and around my house. They usually only go home to be fed and spend their days terrorising any bird that happens to visit. Ok, the only birds they seem to catch are the little doves that are just too slow and silly to get out of their way. But I don't like a free ranging predatory mammal in my garden and I like the doves. I have often thought about putting up a bird feeder, but have always worried about the cats staulking around it.

The thing is, I like cats. They are beautiful, graceful and intelligent. But they should not be free roaming. There is well documented evidence of the damage domestic and feral cats do to wildlife. While holidaying in a south coast national park I watched a domestic cat saunter past with a little blue wren hanging from its mouth! My brother in law's feline often presented him with a little feather glider ( a tiny marsupial)  snatched from his garden in Sydney's northern beaches.

I  cannot see the reasoning behind laws that make it illegal to let a dog wander wherever it likes but put no restrictions on cats. I have several friends whose cats never leave their house or are restricted to a wired in enclosure. It is possible to have an environmentally friendly cat!

 

Beautiful, but deadly to other smaller creatures when allowed to wander through gardens and bushland.

When I think of the poverty stricken, war torn areas of the world I realise just how lucky I am to live in Australia. It's not perfect, but it's streets ahead of so many other places. We take peace so much for granted and my heart races when I think of our suburbs being turned into battlefields like the ones you see in the news each night. I acknowledge that we too have poverty, crime and unemployment and that not all our citizens can afford to live the "good life". But we don't have murderous dictators or widespread religious and tribal wars. My hope is that when people see a hint of these scourges surfacing in Australia they take a deep breath before they act and ask themselves, is my action or attitude, my prejudice or my religious fervour going to alter the peaceful nature of this country.Please let us learn from the mistakes of others and stop following war mongering, control freak countries into wars that have been created using subterfuge and manipulation. Wars perpetuated by greedy people whose vision extends only to the end ot their own lifetimes and who don't give a flying f*** about future generations.

My beautiful big gum is no more. Lopped down by a chainsaw wielding guy who was more arboreal marsupial than man. He clambered to the top like a treed  possum and proceeded to slowly and methodically lop off the branches, stopping every now and then for a smoko.The ground crew yelled directions and kept tension on the guide ropes.

I really loved that tree and am so sad for all the creatures that lived on it or stopped to visit. The house has lost its personality and is now revealed in all its suburban shabbiness.  I dread the coming summer with the west facing front rooms no longer sheltered under its green canopy. Would it have eventually come crashing through the bedroom roof or dropped a branch onto some passing pedestrian's head, I'll never know. Just couldn't take that chance.

This sky rushed overhead, a moving tapestry of shapes and colours.

Just added some music from my son-in-law, Daniel McKay, a talented classical guitarist. Funny thing, I have ever only heard him play a piece right through on recordings, as when he is at home or staying at my house, he does the practice thing! If you like his music there is some more info on Danny on www.danmckay.net.

He now lives in Melbourne with my daughter and because of this I get to go to Melbourne quite a bit. Thing is, I never liked Melbourne much. Had uncomfortable memories of long road trips to visit an unfamiliar grandmother who stank of cigarettes which she sucked through alarmingly bright red lips. I also had a fear of railway  level crossings, fuelled by recounts of fatal collisions between cars and trains  I would shiver involuntarily as the car bumped over the lines.

Well, now the grandmother is long gone, but alas the level crossings remain! Still, after staying in Coburg numerous times now, I am becoming quite fond of Melbourne and its inner city suburbs. I like the trams, the cafes, the hubbub of the city itself and am looking forward to my next visit.

Tell us about a time when you were brave. 
Submitted by Hops.

Is there a difference between being brave and being stoic? You know the whole grit your teeth and get it over with thing because there are no other options? When I went into hopsital to have a kidney removed I didn't feel brave, but resisted all the adrenalin charged flight instincts and stayed externally calm. I'm sure I appeared "brave" to those around me but to borrow from a popular comic, I was going "internally berserk:!!!