Pete Seeger 3rd May 1919 – 27 January 2014

The ‘Hammer Song’ written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays in 1949

If I had a hammer,
I'd hammer in the morning,
I'd hammer in the evening,
All over this land,
I'd hammer out danger,
I'd hammer out a warning,
I'd hammer out love between,
My brothers and my sisters,
All over this land

 

Well, I've got a hammer
And I've got a bell
And I've got a song to sing
All over this land
It's the hammer of justice
It's the bell of freedom
It's a song about love between my
Brothers and my sisters
All over this land

The Australian Open – Melbourne Victoria 25-01-2014

Li Na (China)  - Grace with speed - Winner of the Australian Open 2014

Melbourne – Victoria 20-01-2014

Melbourne City Council will build a memorial to honour two Aborigines who were the first people executed in Melbourne.

Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheener were hanged for their resistance to European occupation,which included the murder of two whalers.

On this day 20th January 1842 the first hangings in Melbourne took place.

Tunnerminerwait                                                         Maulboyheener

Kurth Kiln Regional Park - Victoria 11-01-2014

Kurth Kiln used wood from the nearby stringy bark forest that was fed into the top of the kiln. The wood then went through a combustion process, the lower water containing portion of the kiln acting as a cooler. water was brought to the site along an old race (cut in the rock by Chinese gold miners in the 1800’s!) which powered a water wheel operating a vibrating screen, further cooling it. Charcoal was then raked out from below the kiln and bagged immediately, ready for dispatch. When operating in continuous eight hour shifts, the kiln produced 20 tonnes of charcoal per week.
 

Pink Hyacinth Orchid                            Blue Dampiera (Dampiera stricta)




                                                                                      Pink Hyacinth Orchid (Dipodium roseum)

 

Frilled lily one of many here

Manna Gums – Recorded as a favoured food source for Koalas however we did not see any or their scats. We did spot one large echidna golden spines bristling as it ambled into the understorey also several jewel like echidna scats embedded with iridescent beetle casings! 
 
                                                                         Incredible, intense blue Lobelia (Lobelia rarifolia ?) 

   

Briefly - Auckland – New Zealand 04-01-2014

The Pohutukawa  (Metrosideros excelsa)  -  New Zealand’s ‘ Christmas Tree’

A New Zealand flat white!

Sparrows! Originally introduced to New Zealand by ‘The Acclimatisation Society’ in the 1890’s along with larks, thrushes, blackbirds, etc.
New Zealand is now the lark’s heaven because its rolling pastures and undisturbed meadows, we heard so many in the few days here, also sighted two thrushes.



Pied Stilt? at Manukau Harbour                                                 Dotterel guarding ‘nest’ (borrowed pic)

Swamp Hen -  Maori name  Takahe

Spoonbills at Manukau Harbour



In the distance Mangere Mountain – once a Maori settlement

Freshly made with vanilla ice cream and crushed strawberries – so delicious. A kilo of strawberries from the field opposite our hotel! 

Breakfast at Auckland Airport - Free range eggs on Danish rye bread! - a scrumptious meal

Australia - First Explorers of the Southern Sky

The Southern Cross

Spirit Ark - navigation by stars - Artist  Arone Meeks

‘The Aborigines knowledge of the ‘crowded’ Southern Sky was probably the most comprehensive possible for people dependent on the naked eye. They made accurate observations not only of first and second order stars, but even of more inconspicuous fourth-magnitude stars, and in so doing devised a complex seasonal calendar based on the position of the constellations in the sky.’                                                                                                                                             (Explorers of the Southern Sky ; A History of Australian Astronomy  - Cambridge University Press 1996)

Aboriginal astronomy focuses on the Milky Way and often incorporates the dark patches between stars.
The Emu in the Sky, a story common to many Aboriginal groups, is an example of this — its body is made up of the dark patches in the Milky Way. The Boorong people saw the same dark patches as the smoke from the fires of Nurrumbunguttias, the old spirits. The Kaurna people saw the Milky Way — called Wodliparri or hut river — as a large river where a Yura (monster) lives in the dark patches.
To the Ngarrindjeri people, the dark shape formed by the Southern Cross is the stingray Nunganari and the pointers are Ngarakani, or sharks.

From  1899  Melbourne and Sydney Observatories took part in the compilation of the first atlas of the whole sky, The astrographic cataðlogue. The part completed at Sydney took over 70 years, from 1899 to 1971  The process of photographing and defining positions of one and a half million stars required a dedicated workforce.  For such detailed, tedious work of measurement and collation – teams of young women were employed, calculating side by side in the Main Observatory. A new name was invented, these women were called ‘computers’.
‘ In answer to your application as a computer at this observatory, your salary would be 75 pounds per annum. Hours of work from 9 till 5 with one hour for lunch, Saturdays from 9 – 12 ‘  Letter written by Joseph Baldwin Third Government Astronomer, Victoria