In My Arms

One of my favourite songs at the moment is call In My Arms by Plum. I have it on my play list at the bottom of the blog but I found the most gorgeous video that goes with it. Sure it is a Disney one but for some reason I found the images in this video more moving than in any other. Again to hear it you will have to pause the music at the bottom of the blog. I think it is in wide screen as well so it may be best to double click on the video that way it will open up in a bigger screen.

Hope you enjoy it.

We Are One

As promised here is the video of the song I am Australian. I love this song as I think it embodies everything Australian. I have posted two videos. The first one is the original that was sung by the Seekers as a group with the original lyrics. The second is the version penned specifically for the Victorian Bushfire Appeal on the National Day of Mourning on Sunday.

You will need to pause the music at the very bottom of the blog before you press play on these video's. Alternatively if you double click on the video itself it will take you to the website where it is. This may be better because the full screen is not shown on blogger.

Bruce Woodley and Dobe Newton, 1987

I came from the dreamtime
from the dusty red soil plains
I am the ancient heart,
the keeper of the flame
I stood upon the rocky shore
I watched the tall ships come
For forty thousand years I’d been
the first Australian.

I came upon the prison ship
bowed down by iron chains.
I fought the land,
endured the lash
and waited for the rains.
I’m a settler.
I’m a farmer’s wife
on a dry and barren run
A convict then a free man
I became Australian.

I’m the daughter of a digger
who sought the mother lode
The girl became a woman
on the long and dusty road
I’m a child of the depression
I saw the good times come
I’m a bushy,
I’m a battler
I am Australian

[chorus]
We are one,
but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We share a dream
and sing with one voice:
I am, you are, we are Australian!

I’m a teller of stories
I’m a singer of songs
I am Albert Namatjira
I paint the ghostly gums
I am Clancy on his horse
I’m Ned Kelly on the run
I’m the one who waltzed Matilda
I am Australian

I’m the hot wind from the desert
I’m the black soil of the plains
I’m the mountains and the valleys
I’m the drought and flooding rains
I am the rock,
I am the sky
The rivers when they run
The spirit of this great land
I am Australian

CHORUS x 2



We are one
But we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We share a dream
And sing with one voice
I am, You are, We are Australian

There are no words of comfort
that can hope to ease the pain
Of losing homes and loved ones
the memories will remain
within the silent tears you’ll find
the strength to carry on
you’re not alone
we are with you
we are Australian

There are so many hero's
who’s stories must be told
they fought the raging fires of hell
and saved so many souls
From the ashes of despair
our towns will rise again!
we mourn your loss
we will rebuild
We are Australian!

I’m the hot wind from the desert
I’m the black soil of the plains
I’m the mountains and the valleys
I’m the drought and flooding rains
I am the rock, I am the sky
The rivers when they run
The spirit of this great land
I am Australian

National Day of Mourning

Today across the nation, bells rang out to commence the day of mourning for those affected by the bush fires of Feb 7. There is a song that I love called "We Are One" that was written by Bruce Woodley and sung by the Seekers. It talks about how we are all from different parts of the world but we are all one nation and we are Australian. He came back to Australia and wrote 2 more chorus' for those who are victims of the fire. He even had two of those victims up on stage singing with him. I am hoping that I will soon find a copy of the song/video from the memorial service so that you can all listen to it as well.

There were members of the CFA who could not attend the service today as they were preparing for the week ahead. Apparently Victoria is looking at similar conditions this week as those of Feb 7. I just hope and pray that nothing happens.

For more information on the Day of Mourning please visit the Herald Sun.

Fire Appeal Give Away

Ok I promised my valentine creation as well as a free giveaway. Considering my blog of late has been about Koalas and the fire in Victoria I decided to try and combine it all. Below is a set of 3 ATCs which I will be giving away on March 1st. All you need to do is leave a comment and leave a link to my blog on yours (I will be checking).


Ideally I would love to give them away to someone who has donated to the fire appeal, but that is not something that I can police so I will leave it up to your own conscience. Donations can be made by anyone from anywhere in the world at the Australian Red Cross web site.


The ATCs show the progression of Samantha the Koala from the day she was found, getting her bandages and finding her soul mate in Bob (the last ATC is the valentine one). Among the techniques used were stamping, embossing, burning, bleaching, rub and buff and so on. I will put magnets on the back if the winner wishes.

Blog Party

Which was held yesterday for valentines and I totally forgot about it. On the up side I was doing my cousins wedding album but I am not showing images of that until she see's it.

This means I will now have a belated blog party all on my own and will post something very special as soon as I have finished it. Keep watching this space. There may even be a giveaway!

Good News

First of all I would like to thank Lady North in Canada for her kind words and believe it or not, keeping me up to date with Sam (actually a Samantha) the Koala from the fires. Her story below.

I know I said that this is going to be good news but I just have one thing to let you know and that is that at least 1 million, if not more, wild life have lost their lives. Some that survived may take weeks to crawl out of the devastated areas.

Ok now for some GOOD NEWS. Earlier this week I sent you a link to a video about Sam the Koala and how she was found by volunteer firefighter. You can actually purchase a photograph of that moment (similar to the one I have in a previous blog) to help raise funds for the CFA. Just click here and it will take you to where you can purchase it.

Below is a quote I took from the Herald Sun web site. Peter Tree is the CFA volunteer who found her.

Mr Tree said he was surprised by the reaction to the photograph, which was snapped by Mark Pardew - a fellow CFA volunteer - on a mobile phone.
Mr Tree said he was in the middle of backburning at Mirboo North when he saw the stricken koala."I could see she had sore feet and was in trouble, so I pulled over the fire truck. She just plonked herself down, as if to say 'I'm beat'," he said.
"I offered her a drink and she drank three bottles.
"The most amazing part was when she grabbed my hand. I will never forget that."
Mr Tree and his brigade then received an emergency call-out to save a house, but minutes later Sam was picked up by wildlife carers.
She is one of 22 koalas, 14 ringtail possums, several wallabies and eastern grey kangaroos that have been handed into Gippsland carers.

Below are images of Sam now. She is on her way to recovery and should be able to be released back into the wild in a by the end of the year.

Sam even found herself a boyfriend named Bob. According to the video below, she sat on him the first time they met.

Once this video is finished you can click on links to see others. I recommend the one where she meets her saviour as well as the interview he gives.

Repeating Theme

Obviously my blog has been devoted to the poor Koalas in Adelaide over the last week. Yesterday I mentioned some photos that I was unable to post ... well I have managed to get them on here. Again I don't know who the photographers. Before I show you the Koalas enjoying a cooling off I want to show you some images that were sent around our work today. These photos came from one of our members in Melbourne who has lost his house. He wrote a first had account as well. I will copy some of his email (in italics) to explain the photos below. He and his family are all safe. They got out 45 minutes before their house was destroyed. Surprisingly though one of the Bantam Hens was still running around the yard when they returned today as well as the fire pump down by the dam.

At first the fire was heading away from them. Even when they left they were quietly confident that the fire would bypass them after the change in direction. It took the fire 4 minutes to cover 15kms!

They left a 4WD at the property as it wasn't running properly, and it was completely burnt out. The alloy wheels have melted and there are rivulets of allow on the ground. All of the tyres were not only burnt, but had vaporised leaving nothing but the steel belting on the ground. My trailer, which was parked close to the 4X4 is almost untouched. I'll need to replace one tyre and one set of lights, but even the paint didn't blister.

Our water tank didn't just melt, it imploded on the spot. The 2 metre high tank is now under 2 centimetres high but it's the pretty much the same diameter as it was when it was complete. The fire hit so hard and so fast that it simply boiled 2500 litres of water to nothing in seconds and the tank didn't simply burn on one side as you might expect, it fell in on itself in an instant.

We had a timber deck around two sides of the house. You can still see where the nails were because the decking boards were vaporised in seconds and the nails all fell to the ground in perfect lines. There's barely even any ash around them at all.

I could tell you stories of luck and misery. Of people that barely survived and of some that didn't. Of almost miraculous events where the fire went around houses and where fires went right through homes but left paddocks no more than 1 metre away untouched. Of one home whose timber retaining wall, less than 2 metres form the house, was destroyed entirely, but the house was untouched. There are areas here that look like Armageddon has past through, and others where Lyrebirds are walking amidst the burnt out trees, unharmed thankfully. We've lost some friends and neighbours and our world will never be the same.

His email goes on to thank the many organisations that have been helping. So far over 1800 homes have been destroyed. The Army has pitched tents for the survivors but can only take in so many. Many others have to rely on the generosity of families and strangers.

If you wish to donate money to help rebuild people's lives please click here.

Now the Koala photos

I want to cry

Most of you who know me will know that I am an animal lover. As a child all I wanted was to own an animal sanctuary where sick and injured animals could be safe. It sickens me to not only think of the animals (and people of course) in the Victorian Fires but the desperation of the Koalas in Adelaide (South Australia). Some of you may look at the photos below and think "how cute," but please stop to consider what it must be like for a wild animal to go against all its instincts and approach humans for water and to take water from them.

I have also received emails of Koalas plonking themselves in front of sprinklers to cool down. One had his face right on the sprinkler. Unfortunately I can't show those photos because they wouldn't save.

The below is Sam the Koala that the volunteers found in the fires.

Almost looks like he is savouring it as if to remember the tasteThis little guy is obviously enjoying the cooling off but would love as much in his mouth as possible.

Koalas are not known for drenching themselves either but in this heat, who cares about the wet hair look.

Heat exhaustion
This can't be good for them

Feels safe and secure near a tree but still wants his bum in the water.

Koalas in the Fire

The below posts on Koalas are from the State of South Australia. As many of you already know Victoria is experiencing some devastating fires. To see one of the survivors from Victorias fires click on this link:
Koala

Desperate Koalas

I woke up this morning to find an email from my Uncle. I am not sure if this was sent from one of his friends or a friend of a friend. For those of you who don't really know about Koalas they get the majority of their moisture from the leaves in the trees. They are also very skittish animals when in the wild and don't like being approached or handled by humans. In fact they only leave a tree really to get to another tree. This is why the I was not sure if the first lot of photos I posted on here were for real or not. However with these new photos from my Uncle I am beginning to believe that they are. It seems that the heat in South Australia has made the trees greedy and they are not giving up their water. Hence the Koalas have to go in search.

Below is the body of the email I received and I have also cropped the photos to show the main part. Koalas are nearing extinction as it is. The last thing we need is for them to die off from dehydration. I know I am praying for rain.

Hi, temp in Adelaide yesterday (5th) was 39:
O/night down to 19 and today (6th) up to
43.7 with a minimum expected of 32.
Sunday is supposed to come down to 25.
These poor little fellows are obviously
stressed when they come out on to a road
looking for water and it looks as though this
one was actually approaching someone for
water - so trusting.
Tomorrow is expected to be 41+ and a very
serious fire day as strong winds are also expected
These photos were taken last night on the Old
Freeway up to Crafers in the Adelaide hills.

On top of this we have floods in northern Queensland and devastating bushfires in Northern Victoria. I haven't heard the death count for today but it was around 131 last night. The town of Marysville has been wiped out except for 11 houses. The people can not go back in as the whole place is considered a crime scene. I thank God I live in WA. We may get our fair share of weird weather but nothing like the eastern states.

Soul Journal Valentine Party

For those who like to creat in general check out the information on the Soul Journal Blog. Looks like lots of fun.

Aussie Dare 45 Hot Hot Hot

January's dare for Aussie Dares was to come up with something Hot and trust me the weather here in Australia certainly joined in. Below is a photo of my entry. Note the lack of scrapbooking. It is all paint. Can you find the lizard? I call it Twilight Heat.

As soon as I get myself organised I will be selling prints and calendars and some original work. I will give you the link later. I have to fight the tax office to get my business number reinstated first.

Traffic

It is almost 5:30pm and I am sitting at work waiting for the peak hour traffic to die down. I would rather type this now than fight the traffic. In fact I think I am not meant to be on the road today. This morning as I pulled out of my neighbourhood I pulled in front of a young guy in a hotted up yute with all his fancy work gear in the back. He was still quite some distance away but he soon caught up due to excess speed. I of course was going the limit (5km over actually) and he didn't like it so he sped out and around me and took of like a bat out of hell. Stupid considering a baby had been killed on this very road due to a hoon. The funny thing was is that I managed to catch up and pass him due to lights.

Half way to work there was a minor break down right where 4 major roads come together to get into the city. It took me 40 minutes to move 500m. People were so rude and would not let you out into the lane that was moving (albeit extremely slowly). It was unbelievable.

At lunch I went to scraptivate to pick up some stuff I had on order. Normally takes me 10 mins. to get there but this took me around 18. On the way back there is a weird section of the road that goes from 2 lanes to 1 and there is another road that also turns onto it. I was stopped at lights further back and as I started to move forward another idiot in truck decided to quickly turn off that road rather than give way to the oncoming traffic. He had a large trailer that housed a cherry picker, which, in his speed, hit the curb and upturned. The upturned trailor was now blocking the area where the lanes merged. Stupid thing thought is that 15m up from there the one lane becomes 2 again. It took a while for the guys in the truck to get out of the way and consequently I was really late back from lunch!!!!

Hmmm should I risk going home?

Lunch Time Blog

Yes I am doing this at work. It is lunch time though which means it is my time. I received an email from a friend at work. Not sure if this is a wild Koala (like the email lends you to believe) or if it is a pet.

Before I go further into the email though I must tell you I had a good laugh this morning on my way to work. I want you to imagine a muscular man on a pretty nice motorbike. He was wearing his black leather jacket, his black helmet, his black riding boots and then his bright green with white flowers mini sarong!!!! The legs were nothing to look at - way too hairy. I think he should consider waxing if he is going to wear something that short in future. He seemed to be in a bit of a rush as well ... not sure why.

The email
It has been so hot in SA for over a week…40+ degrees Celsius everyday, very dry also. A guy at work lives at Maude. His wife sent him these photos of a little Koala which just walked into the back porch looking for a bit of heat relief. She filled up a bucket and this is what happened!