Light & Shadow at Orama Lane - Katoomba

 

Early morning light on the Birds Nest Fern
(Asplenium australasicum)

The original stained glass window

Bush walk to Echo Point – Katoomba NSW

Mallow and bee

Early morning mist viewed from Carrington Park



Pea Flower (Dillwynia elegans)

Mountain Devil (Lambertia formosa)

Overlooking The Three Sisters

A child’s baby rabbit carried in a basket to Echo Point !

Majestic view from Echo Point !

Thousands march to fight cuts to London Hospitals – 18th May 2013

Photo by Paul Davey – Demotix

Thousands of Londoners gathered to march from Waterloo to Downing street in protest against cuts to NHS hospital services and privatisation of essential medical services.

This demonstration was called by an unprecedented coalition of London residents, medical staff, trade unions and health campaigners who have come together to raise the alarm regarding the biggest threats to A & E’s, maternity units and in-hospital care for a generation.

Professor Simon Shorvon, a neurologist, attacked the decision to close four west London A&E departments. He said: "It will leave a huge swathe of residents far from a local casualty.

"Time matters in an emergency situation and being stuck in an ambulance after a coronary or stroke or life-threatening accident will play havoc with survival and recovery rates."

Closures planned across the capital include nine accident and emergency departments, a number of maternity units and thousands of hospital beds.

Blue Mountains National Park - bush walk Katoomba to Leura Falls

Fossil Rocks Lookout

Leura Falls

Hairpin Banksia (Banksia spinulosa)

Bridal Veil Lookout – part view only !

May Day March - Sydney New South Wales 05-05-2013

Photo by Demotix

New South Wales Nurses and Midwifes Association

First prize for placards depicting conditions won by nurses, supported by their Union, dating from 1936

 

This May Day march was a uplifting! Strong, vibrant, colourful and the biggest for 10 years!
All Unions were involved as far as I could see, many community groups, inventive floats,  bagpipes and brass bands.  

First and second prizes were awarded to the best Unions and best political or community organisations in the May Day March. The basis of the decision was innovation, positive promotion of the organization or campaigns, signage, branding, colour, sound, noise and getting the message across of a proud past and a fighting future.

May Day March – 1st May 2013

photo Wong Maye - E/AP

Thousands of Bangladeshi workers marched on May Day  in central Dhaka to demand safer working conditions and the death penalty for the owner of the multi-storey building which collapsed last week.  The building housed garment factories and has been the country’s worse industrial disaster,  killing at least 402 people and injuring some 2,500.

Polyisobutene dumping at sea – Cornwall

Over the last few days in Devon, Cornwall and Dorset, over a thousand stricken seabirds including guillemots, puffins and razorbills have been washed up on our shores, dead or dying. The culprit: a substance called Polyisobutene (PIB) which covers these precious seabirds in a toxic glue.
Currently, it’s legal to dump PIB at sea. But a simple change to maritime law could change that and help prevent the scenes of destruction we’ve seen in areas like Whitsand Bay this week.

Happier days - Puffin running on the water at Whitsand Bay

Earth Day in Lithgow – 23-04-2013

Autumn Poplars

Willow bottlebrush (callistemon-salignus)

National Parks of New South Wales protest rally in Sydney 18-04-2012

No Hunting in NSW National Parks!  3000 people were at this protest rally in front of NSW Parliament House.

Bob Brown speaking from the dais – inspiring, passionate as ever about the need to act as caretakers of the land and protect what remains of our flora and fauna in the National Parks.  "We go out into the wild to find ourselves, we don't go out into the wild to find bullets and guns”

Also speaking was former NSW environment minister Bob Debus who said that the Coalition government's decision to allow hunting in National Parks is part of a “deliberate attack” on the environment. "The point of National Parks is to be a safe place for Australia's native wildlife"

More Blue Mountains – Katoomba 15-04-2013

View from Carrington Park Katoomba

Yellow Admiral resting on Radiata Pine

Tricky photo  – taken in the garden, I worried that my shadow or presence could trigger its flight!

Blue Mountains Botanic Garden – Mount Tomah 14-04-2013

‘ Braidwood Waratah’ (Telopea mongaensis) – could well be wrong on this!

Ian Bundeluk Watson - Circle of Fire  2002 - depicting the Durag peoples use of fire for hunting animals. Kangaroo, witchety grubs, snake, lizard, cockatoo, echidna , possum and frogs.

Early explorers saw thousands of little camp fires from the Kurragong Heights not far from here.

Rimu or Red Pine ( Dacrydium cupressinum) ranging from southern China to New Zealand, but not Australia. It is an ancient Godwanan conifer that has existed for over 70 million years.

White topped Pitcher ( Sarracenia leucophylla)

Acers – in glorious colours

Fuchsia Heath (Epacris logiflora)

Various Proteas – South Africa

They belong to the same family of plants as the Australian banksias, grevilleas and waratahs