Thursday, January 26, 2012

Where a flower & flag mean something...


Most Australians would recognise this combination as being the usual result for a newly-minted Australian from the Citizenship Ceremony. It's a two-Aussie and a dog household now.

We were lucky that we had an excellent ceremony, on a special day, hosted by the Kyneton Mayor, and played in by the Kyneton Municipal Band. They were good too. Thanks all!

The mention of Canada in the news report? That's us, that is. And among other salient thoughts, the mayor was at pains to point out that taking Australian citizenship did not mean forgetting where you came from. The wide heritage, is part of what makes Australia what it is.

James

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Edge of the weather


One of the neat things about living here is that we often see the 'edge' of the weather; particularly on the local 'mountain'*, where the clouds are forming, or stopping. Strangely, although it often looks imminent, this weather often doesn't get to us, only a few kilometers away. Yesterday was a particularly acute version of this, as we started from a bight dawn and drove under the edge of the cloud into Melbourne and then later in the day back out from under. The attached photo was taken from the car (edited above, unedited below**) and shows the cloud on the mountain folding into the cloud to the side.

Fascinating.



*Only in Australia, the flattest continent. A hill to anyone else.

**Shot on my iPhone and then stitched together as a panorama in the App 'AutoStitch Panorama'. I like both versions for different reasons. The roughness of details in the unedited one adds a certain charm, I think.

James

Well...

...it's been a busy month and a bit, with plenty to blog about, but little chance so far.

It'll be fun to catch up as we go through the photos, reminders and ideas, so stay with us!

The shells seen here were collected from the shore of Endeavour Inlet, South Island, New Zealand, but not brought home. Both Australia and New Zealand are now (rightly) ultra-hot on biohazards, and moving sych things from one country to the other is a big no-no, now.

Still the picture (by Bev) tells a story. We still collect shells on holiday.