Progress

A bare wall in May now has decoration. There is also a picture of what will eventually be hiding the bare wall.

Colours in the dry tropics

At this time of the year, as the dry season draws to a hot finish, the colours we mainly see around are the dry browns and even the burnt out blacks. Some of our plants, however, try valiantly to show some colour to the remaining visitors and locals, as they struggle towards the “green season” when the wet arrives.

The aboriginal people from the Kakadu area call this time of the year Gurrung, and consider that it is from mid-August to mid-October, and is hot and dry. It is still 'goose time' but also time for Bininj/Mungguy (the name of the people) to hunt file snakes and long-necked turtles. Sea turtles lay their eggs on the sandy beaches of Field Island and West Alligator Head and goannas rob their nests sometimes. White-breasted wood swallows arrive as thunderclouds build, signalling the return of Gunumeleng - the pre-monsoon season of hot weather that becomes more and more humid.
From: Department of the Environment and Water Resources website.

I have looked around for some colour, and following are a few photos to show some of the variations.
















Even the palms try white with the brown.






















Red seeds of the Carpentaria palm are offset by the white Torres Strait Pigeons feasting
















Fire by the sea - a pandanus suffers
















One defiant plant survives the burn




















A bright yellow native tree as a street planting





and a bright orange vine on a fence adds some colour





















Even pastels - pink and white frangipani

For you, Paul

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Pope Benedict XVI in Oz for World Youth Day

Pope Benedict XVI arrived last night in the centre of Sydney ahead of World Youth Day.

What was on the menu for breakfast this morning at St Mary's Cathedral House, Sydney Archbishop Cardinal George Pell's official residence?

Yep, you guessed it … Eggs Benedict.

Songbird soars higher (after a little help from the Rocket Man)

Territory singing sensation Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu is going from strength to strength with his two shows selling out at the Opera House in Sydney.

Yunupingu and his band are playing the studio theatre at the famed venue next Friday 11 and Saturday 12 July, but plenty of Sydneysiders will be disappointed when they learn they are too late for the 400 tickets to each show. Yunupingu may return to the Opera House for another show later in the year. His Opera House shows are part of the Message Sticks indigenous culture festival.

The 37-year-old Yunupingu was named male artist of the year at the 2007 NT Indigenous Music awards, he has performed for the Queen, supported Elton John at his recent Darwin show and will play for the Pope at World Youth Day celebrations on 17 July. A pretty diverse group of audiences, you may quite correctly think! Intensely shy and blind from birth, Gurrumul, a former member of Yothu Yindi, is an old hat at the star-turn, has toured the world as well as playing for the Queen. However, constant touring tired him and he likes living on Elcho Island, his birthplace, 500 km east of Darwin.

Elton John’s interest and support of new and eclectic artists is legendary. Before the Rocket Man performed on May 17 in Darwin, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, also called Gudjuk, performed songs from his Gumatj country, one of the First Nations of North East Arnhemland, and mostly in his Yolngu tongue.

The Elcho Island singer-songwriter has drawn critical and popular acclaim for his first solo album, Gurrumul, released in February this year. It is already a rare phenomenon, breaking into the mainstream; it knocked the John Butler Trio out of the number one spot on iTunes Roots music chart and hit number five on the mainstream iTunes chart in early April. Hailed by the Sydney Morning Herald as “the greatest voice this continent has ever recorded”, Gudjuk sings with the voice of an angel of his love of country, being born blind, the death of his father and creation stories of his Yolngu people … calling Gudjuk’s voice “a gift from the gods”. His music has no political agenda; he just wants to tell stories.

We were able to attend a performance by Gurrumul and his band, for the closing of the North Australia Forum at the end of June, at the new Convention Centre auditorium in Darwin; and were once again mesmerized by his voice. It absolutely filled the auditorium with a hauntingly beautiful sound that you could almost reach out and touch.

To listen to his music click below.

http://www.myspace.com/gurrumul

Not a Bush Christening

On the outer Barcoo where the churches are few,
And men of religion are scanty,
On a road never cross'd 'cept by folk that are lost,
One Michael Magee had a shanty.

Now this Mike was the dad of a ten-year-old lad,
Plump, healthy, and stoutly conditioned;
He was strong as the best, but poor Mike had no rest
For the youngster had never been christened,

And his wife used to cry, "If the darlin' should die
Saint Peter would not recognise him."
But by luck he survived till a preacher arrived,
Who agreed straightaway to baptise him.

Now the artful young rogue, while they held their collogue,
With his ear to the keyhole was listenin',
And he muttered in fright while his features turned white,
"What the divil and all is this christenin'?"

He was none of your dolts, he had seen them brand colts,
And it seemed to his small understanding,
If the man in the frock made him one of the flock,
It must mean something very like branding.

So away with a rush he set off for the bush,
While the tears in his eyelids they glistened-
"'Tis outrageous," says he, "to brand youngsters like me,
I'll be dashed if I'll stop to be christened!"

Like a young native dog he ran into a log,
And his father with language uncivil,
Never heeding the "praste" cried aloud in his haste,
"Come out and be christened, you divil!"

But he lay there as snug as a bug in a rug,
And his parents in vain might reprove him,
Till his reverence spoke (he was fond of a joke)
"I've a notion," says he, "that'll move him."

"Poke a stick up the log, give the spalpeen a prog;
Poke him aisy-don't hurt him or maim him,
'Tis not long that he'll stand, I've the water at hand,
As he rushes out this end I'll name him.

"Here he comes, and for shame! ye've forgotten the name-
Is it Patsy or Michael or Dinnis?"
Here the youngster ran out, and the priest gave a shout-
"Take your chance, anyhow, wid 'Maginnis'!"

As the howling young cub ran away to the scrub
Where he knew that pursuit would be risky,
The priest, as he fled, flung a flask at his head
That was labelled "Maginnis's Whisky!"

And Maginnis Magee has been made a J.P.,
And the one thing he hates more than sin is
To be asked by the folk who have heard of the joke,
How he came to be christened "Maginnis"!
A B Banjo Paterson

From The Bulletin, 16 December 1893.

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Looking at the books for the year

Well, the scrutiny of Estimates by Parliament is over and we have survived … well, sort of … because we now have to do the work we weren’t doing while we were preparing for estimates.

But, whoever said Parliament was boring, hasn’t read Hansard.

And I quote:

"Mr MILLS: Treasurer, has the department been the subject of any form of criminal damage?

Ms PRINCE: I am not sure what you mean by criminal damage?

Mr MILLS: By criminal damage, I mean graffiti, windows broken.

Ms PRINCE: Not that I am aware of.

Mr MILLS: Theft?

Ms PRINCE: I know the Tattslotto fund was taken from Treasury pool about a month ago, which was about $30. I am not aware of any other."

But perhaps the most of it can be roughly summed up with an international cartoon. Perhaps in the global village many things change, but many others stay the same.