Victorian Bushfire Appeal

These are gum trees in Australia, beautiful but deadly when they burn. Please donate to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal 2009 @www.redcross.org.au/default.asp

Kangaroos, people and rural communities in Victoria, Australia need our help.
Phoenix sunset overlooking Camelback Mountain and the Praying Monk taken one street over from my house. I use the Praying Monk as a reminder to pray in my busy days.
This is the beginning of rearranging our family room into Julian's office. This is one end of the room, my office and it will stay pretty much the same. We now have a flat screen TV and have moved the couch to the empty wall you see on the right side of the picture. When we moved the couch we scratched the wood floor which upset me greatly! Now we have a long scratch about 6 feet long in the middle of the room. However, we are now watching our new High Def TV from this end of the room. The TV sits next to my computer. It is really quite cosy. Next is to move the drawing tables etc into the other end of the room.
It's harvest time for the oranges. They are really sweet this year as usual.
African Violets are blooming they like the winter and love it when it rains. They are part of my friendship garden. Given to me by Mom. I'm not sure who gave them to her. My paperwhites just finished blooming they come from my Grandma Cooley's downtown apartments.
These are Snow Peas, great for eating raw with dip or in stir fry. They came from the Sing's through my Mom.
These are my brocolli. Brocolli and cauliflower do well here in the winter. After you harvest the initial big head, they continue producing little baby floweretts that are very tender.
These are my tomatoes. Notice the Christmas tree lights. On frosty nights I plug the lights in and cover them with a sheet to keep them from freezing.
This is our new handle on our redwood gate. Julian made it. I love it.
Hanging flower basket, like they have on Victoria Island.
I put these purple flowers together. I like all the shades of purple and the different heights and shapes.

More clothes lines, sunrise and sunset

This is a picture that my cousin Annie took of a creative clothes line in Australia with adjustable lines which go lower for easy pinning and higher for drying. Kirsten and I have been faithfully hanging up our clothes on the line. I got a call at work the other day from Kirsten. She said I hung all out clothes on the line and it poured rain. They are dripping with rain. Do I have to wash them again, or can I let them dry again. We went with letting them dry, since it wasn't a dust storm. What can be cleaner than rain, right? Well they weren't dry by evening, so she was going to leave them up overnight. About 9pm it started pouring again and we finally put them in the dryer! It rained 1.3" that night! That is over 1/7 of our yearly rainfall of 7 inches.
This is a picture that I took of clothes hanging behind a townhouse in Sydney Rocks area
This is sunrise Annie took outside her window in Brisbane, beautiful huh! Good on ya Annie for getting up early!
This is sunset outside my front window in Phoenix with the setting sun shining on a thundercloud over Piestawa Peak.

Mum's Poems of Ballarat

This postcard was taken at The Cedars when Mum was a baby. She is held by her Mum, her Father standing in the garden. Her Grandfather is sitting on the porch. The cedar trees, one bough of which became her favorite swing are in the background. Ballarat is a gold mining town in the mountains outside of Melbourne and gets very cold in the winter.

CEDAR TREE SWING
Memories of Ballarat, Australia, 1933
By Coral J.P. Ayraud

When young I had a swinging tree
A cedar bough so supple
My Father swung the branch
As up and down I flew
As across the way a sky blue lake
Came sailing into view

WOOLEN STOCKINGS

The skeins of wool about two chairs
Were draped and round I ran
Winding up the dark brown balls
As fast as small legs can

Then in the evening, mother knits
Long stockings, warm as toast
When wind blew cold from artic shores
Legs needed heat the most

Little girls in nineteen twenties
Wore dresses in all weather
And ice would lie along our path
As we walked to school together

Our teacher had us jump about
Before we sat for classes
Singing, “Here we go gathering nuts in May”
A folk dance for lads and lasses

When out of breath and rosy cheeked
So glad to sit awhile
Our books came out and down we sat
To do our work in style

I don’t remember feeling cold
Tho’ winds blew off the lake
And all because of stockings
Mother knitted for my sake

By Coral J.P. Ayraud

Climbing the Cedars

Climbing the Cedars

She climbed up in these cedar trees
She climbed so high she felt the breeze
She felt so grand as she climbed higher
The view was a sight, she was inspired!

However when she looked around
She discovered that she couldn’t get down
A little voice from high above said,
“Help me for I’m filled with dread!”

“I’m up so high and I can’t get down.”
“Is anyone here or are you all in town?”
Mum came out and looked high above
“Hold on tight!” she said with love

“Where is Coral?” Grandfather asked
“When I find her, I’ll take her to task.
“I know that she is only ten”
“But she’s been in my tools again.”

Mum said, “Finding your tools will have to wait.”
“She’s up in the tree again, in quite a state!”
Brother Laurie helped her down, he saved the day
Coral dried her tears and ran off to play

By Carol A. Ayraud

Mum's Memories of Ballarat

This is a picture of Mum as a child in Ballarat. The picture below is of the "The Cedars" where she lived from age 3 months to 11 years in Ballarat. I will add some poetry, 2 written by Mom, one by myself about Mum's childhood. We visited Ballarat, but "The Cedars" has been replaced by a white modern monstrosity and Lake Wendouree is currently dry due to the drought. This was a little disappointing, however, we loved visiting with Mom's cousin Gwen and family.

Somewhere over the Rainbow in the land of OZ

We were in K.I and Adalaide and saw rainbows that lasted for hours. In fact the rainbow day in K.Island lasted for most of the afternoon. I wonder if the longevity of rainbows in Kangaroo Island and Adelaide have anything to do with how far south they are? I googled the question, but couldn't discover an answer. Maybe it has something to do with the angle of the sun? I was taking a picture of these last 2 and Jacki and I ended up having about a long conversation with a couple on the street. They were very jealous that I had a camera with me!

Sydney Stories

This is the Overseas Passenger Terminal in Sydney. This is probably where we came in when we arrived in Australia by ship when I was 10. I very clearly remember leaving at the end of our trip. My Mum was very sad and crying because she was leaving Australia. I started crying also. She told me I didn't have to cry because I wasn't leaving my home and parents. I still cried. Sounds like me, huh. I think somebody had sent us a Bon Voyage basket with food to our cabin. I also remember that whenever we left a port there were streamers. Everybody on shore and on the ship bought these narrow different coloured paper streamers. You would hold the end and throw the paper roll to shore (or to ship). Someone would catch it. Those on shore and on ship would hold onto their end of the streamers till the ship left shore making the streamers break. There were hundreds or thousands of these colourful streamers connecting the ship to the shore. It was very beautiful and very exciting.
I will tell you another Sydney ship story as told to me by my Mum. When she was 11 her family moved back to Brisbane from Ballarrat. Mum and Grandma were going from Melbourne on ship to Brisbane and Uncle Laurie and Grandpa were going across country with a touring car. There was a ship strike and so the ship took them only to Sydney not on to Brisbane as planned. Somehow Grandpa heard about the strike as they were traveling by car and picked up Mum and her Mum in Sydney. They had to squeeze the whole family into the car with all their suitcases, etc, but managed to make it to Brisbane.

These are school children on a field trip to the Rocks (the oldest section of Sydney) sitting under a fig tree. These are amazing trees with exposed roots.
This is the view from out apartment in Sydney. When I was 10 we stayed for 2 days right across the harbour at with our Aunt.

Happy as Larry

Grandma enjoying her daughters, grandson & great-granddaughters with the Kangaroos at Lone Pine
Happy Grandma Jacki and Airah at the beginning of our trip in the L.A. airport
Bailey smiling it up in one of the Remarkable Rocks on K.Island
Look at these faces! Happy lot, huh! Happy as Larry, Happy as a dog with 2 tails, Happy as a pig in shit, Happy little Vegemite, all Aussie phrases describing a happy person. Listen up Larry, you are married to an Aussie now, turn that frown upside down and live up to your name! Actually the cute picture of Airah and Aubree was taken after all 3 girls each wanted something different to eat from different restaurants so they had to go back to the apartment and have a discussion with their Dad, Sean. After a few tears they were all smiles. Airah and Aubree remind me of my sister Diane and I who are also 15 months apart. We fought like cats and dogs, but were also the best friends. I used Mum's, "lets sing a song" technique when Aubree and Airah were fighting in the car and it worked great!

Dogs eye and other Rhymes

My cousin Geoff laughs at many American phrases. He seems to think, "I guess" is especially humorous, or maybe it's the way we say it that he finds funny. Anyway the above picture is a typical deli with different types of meat pies. "Dogs eye" is another way of saying meat pie. It is one of many rhyming slang phrases used by Aussies. They really have fun and play with language. For example "Capt Cook" means "take a look" and "china plate" means "good mate".
Inside the Sydney Opera House looking out at some of the roof sails
Bailey from our balcony in Sydney. "Good on ya" Jacki for finding us this apartment. We found when planning our trip that it was cheaper to stay in apartments since there were so many of us. Even when there were just Mum, Jacki and I apartments or small cottages were definately the way to go.

Back in the good ole' USA, but more Oz pics to come

Been away so long I hardly knew the place, Gee it's great to be back home. As you can see everybody at home has been bored and lonely without me. CC looking out for my return. I have posted Australia pictures on the slide show, but will continue with memories and pictures of Australia for awhile in my next posts. If you get tired of my yabbering, let me know.

Phoenix after light rail

Melbourne has the best tram, trolley and train system. We can only dream that Phoenix's light rail will transform it. In Melbourne cars can drive over the tracks on most all the streets, so people can still turn left and use the rail lane when the trolleys are not using it. It is not restrictive, but instead flows together.
Good on ya!
How ya going?
No worries!

Stories from the Great Ocean Road

Bush and ocean meet.
Mum and Jacki

Mum tells a story of when she, her Mum and Grandma John when to Apollo Bay which is along the Great Ocean Road. Grandma John was swimming in the ocean and lost her teeth. They pondered how she might get them back and decided to put an advertisement in the paper. Well, a fisherman found them in his catch, read the ad in the paper and returned her teeth to her!

Australia

Sheep are everywhere out in the country in Australia and Kangaroo Island. They say there are more sheep than people. I know for sure that is true for Kangaroo Island.

Most of these photos are from Kangaroo Island. There are many animal crossing road signs on the island. This is a geese crossing. They are very rare geese called Cape Barren Geese. They were introduced to Kangaroo Island because they were almost extinct. They are doing very well on the Island.

Bailey and Aubree with kangaroo.

My Mum has been telling us stories she remembers as we go about our travels. She remembers a story her Mum told her about when she first married and moved to Queensland. Their bathtub was under the house (old Queensland houses are up on posts) and frogs would jump up and sit on the fence all around the tub when she was bathing. Grandma had a saying about such moments, she would say, "it struck me comical". I like that saying.

We are having a great time back in Brizzie staying with cousins Geoff and Annie. We have introduced them to Mexican Train Dominos and have been having games every night. Much fun and many laughs. We often laugh at each other's phrases. When someone plays on a spot you were planning to play on they will say, "you snaffled it" meaning you sneakily stole my play (or anything else). I don't know if this phrase is strictly Australian, but I like it, " you have thrown a cat among the pigeons."

My friend Lee in Phoenix is very ill in ICU at St. Joseph's hospital. Please pray for Lee, his family and his doctors.