Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Crazy days .. ... .

'Flood' sculpture at the Brisbane Powerhouse living up to its name.


I remember when i was a kid there was this one school holidays where it rained and rained and after a few weeks everything was soaking wet and then it just RAINED AND RAINED SOME MORE.. That was 1974 and ever since ppl said it would never happen again ...






I got this video from http://xesworld.com/?p=1160 but if you google youtube you can find a miliion more, if you live in Brisbane or most of Australia even you could turn on the old skool tube and see nothing else.



My Country


The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies -
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

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!

The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon,
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die –
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land –
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand –
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.
by Dorothea McKellar


8 comments:

Duncan said...

During my university years in Brissie in the late 80s, my friends who grew up there would still mention the '74 floods every now and then. It seemed like ancient history, and it seem impossible to believe the water had ever got as high as some of the markers suggested - but here it is again.

It also seemed impossible, even over the last couple of weeks, that the flooding would make its way all the way down the coast to Brisbane - and there it is.

Thinking of you all in Lake BrisVegas.

bob nebe said...

I remember it raining for two weeks really heavy non stop, I was up at Toowoombah and stayed with my grandmother the whole time, coming back through brisy when it was open again.
Its a good thing it stopped raining when it did this time all we would be all joining chuck out it Morton bay.

A Swedish friend said...

Take care, aussie friends. Keep the powder dry.

John said...

Missed me by the width of the street and the length of the property on the corner. I live in Fairfield. An amazing ( right word?) event. Only just got electrickery back on this morning. Hope all that read this blog are going OK.

bob nebe said...

Boy your in the thick of it John, glad it missed your house. No power for that long would be a bastard however.

John said...

We slept at freinds for a few days Bob and got a bit too used to the air con haa haa! It has rained this evening and the stench is something to consider. I really really really feel for the folks in Goodna and Graceville etc. Lisa drove home through these suburbs this afternoon and she said it was much worse. I think the smell is a thing that is easy to not hink about by those unaffected.

If anyone knows The Gin Club they have a super song called Milli Vanilli on their superb latest release. No idea why the title but the the lyrics sure suit the present circumstances.

John said...

Anyone wants to listen to it it can be found on their site here. As I said above a superb song.

http://www.theginclub.com.au/?page_id=120

bob nebe said...

Brilliant song indeed John,
I worke in jindalee yesterday disconnecting and replacing plumbing,
it was a childcare center that went under over 2 meters.
I later drove through Graceville, Sherwood, Rocklee, right past tghe markets and the entire area there.
What a mess!
I'm sure I can still smell that mud!