Mission creep in Libya !

Cartoonist Michael Leunig - Sydney Morning Herald 30-03-2011

TUC organised ‘March for the Alternative’ - UK 26-03-11

Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty

Central London was brought to a standstill on Saturday as more than a 400,000 people took to the streets in a protest against government spending cuts

The rally was entitled "March for the Alternative". This is an important exhortation: we are not just saying stop the cuts; we are saying they are not necessary in the first place. The economic predicament was not brought about by frontline services. The responsibility lies firmly within an unregulated financial sector.

Yet the public who provided a bailout have had to pay a second time in terms of unemployment, house repossession and frozen wages, and a third time by a denial of legal redress.

There are clear alternatives: the Robin Hood tax; the enforcement of tax liabilities; the curtailment of tax avoidance schemes particularly in the corporate sector and the termination of an obscene bonus culture.

Another Australian Artist

Frank Jeffrey Edson Smart - Athenian Suburb - oil on board

Cowra Japanese Garden – New South Wales 18-03-11

Ken Nakajima, a world-renowned Japanese garden architect. designed the Kaiyushiki (Strolling Garden) at Cowra. The garden covers 5 hectares (14 acres) and was designed to represent the entire landscape of Japan. It is the largest Japanese garden in the Southern Hemisphere. I like the fact that Ken Nakajima chose to retain outstanding specimens of various Eucalyptus trees (e.g. Blue Gum, White Box) and enormous stone boulders when developing the design for this garden.

Japanese Snowball Tree

Crepe Myrtle

Camelia (Camelia japonica)

Japanese Persimmon; used as a dried fruit in Japan

At the Bonsai tree enclosure

Weddin Mountains National Park – New South Wales 17-03-11

Native Black Pine (Callitris endlicheri) often called Black Cypress Pine

Red five corners (Styphelia tubiflora)

Ben Hall lived in these mountains!

However the Wiradjuri people were the first to explore the Weddin Mountains and considered the permanent springs sacred. The Mountains would have provided seasonal food and water in times of drought. The name ‘weddin’ is believed to have derived from the Wiradjuri word ‘weedin’ meaning a place to sit, stay or remain (as Ben Hall did!) As with any language, there are many layers of meaning and ‘weedin’ may have referred to a place where youths were isolated during initiation. Need we say; the Wiradjuri were forced out of their country by white settlement from 1820’s onward.

Burning off!

Guinea Flower (Hibbertia diffusa) ?

A Thick-tailed Gecko
(Underwoodisaurus milii) in the Windiloo!

Superb Parrot ( pic from our bird book ) – a gregarious bird, incredibly swift in flight yet beautiful to watch in this National Park

Eastern Rosella (pic from our bird book) – hard to capture using our camera.

Migurra Reserve to Grenfell - New South Wales 17-03-11

Picnic table constructed of old railway track – brilliant idea and almost indestructible!

Eucalyptus and the lighter green mistletoe

Mistletoe in flower loved by possums and birds

Strawflower (Bracteantha bracteata) not I have incorrectly named ‘gold everlasting’! We came across strawflowers in striking patches of gold, yet so difficult to capture on camera.

Chocolate Lily (Arthropodium fimbriatus) this lovely flower smells like chocolate!

Crablike spider

Unusual insect - Cricket?

Migurra Reserve

Narranderra to Wagga Wagga - New South Wales 15-03-11

Huge timbers supporting abandoned railway line near Narranderra – what a waste in timber and steel.

A shady stop off the road

A Wagga Wagga view!

The original inhabitants of the Wagga Wagga region were the Wiradjuri people and the term "Wagga" and derivatives of that word in the Wiradjuri language is thought to mean crow.

This mural situated outside the main Library at Wagga Wagga depicts the Murrumbidgee River and the history of the Wiradjuri people their struggle for survival.

Echuca to Narrandera – New South Wales 14-03-11

The Drover and his horse – 2009 by Cory Thomas - A monument to the overlanders who created the Long Paddock stock route.

The sculpture was constructed using a steel armature,covered by galvanised mesh then rendered in a cement mix and coated with an iron pigment paint, which over time has produced an iron/bronze effect.

Our camp midst Native Pines. Bedouin style tarpaulin rig against the rain.

Native wasp searching for its hole that we had inadvertently trampled on! It took the wasp sometime to find its home and proceed to clear out the sand at the entrance.

Not sure whether this is a giant cockroach or just a nice beetle.

Tall Bluebell (Wahlenbergia stricta)

Branch of the elegant Black Cypress Pine (Callitris endlicheri) ?

We came across this lovely pine in South Australia at Mt Remarkable National Park