ROADSIDE SHRINES

 

Do you know what I mean by roadside shrines?

 

I don't mean the religious shrines that you see along the roads in countries like Italy of France.
 

Probably a better name would be roadside memorials - a marker of some sort placed where a person died suddenly, often related to a car accident.

 

 

They often take the form of bunches of flowers or crosses.

 

 

or a novel one like this

 

 

gives you a clue to how the young man was killed.

This one at the site where the body of a local murdered woman was found is taking things to extremes.
 

 

These " memorials" are beginning to be found in ever increasing numbers on the roads I travel along.

 Do you have them where you live?

 

What do you think of them?
 

I think they are a dangerous distraction and I'm just waiting for the time when someone else is killed when they take their eyes off the road ( they are often on dangerous corners ) to peer at them to see what they are about.
 

I find them ghoulish in the extreme.

 

I thought that's what cemetaries were for !!!

 

 

Cheers.

PS. I apologise for the quality of a couple of these photo but I found them all on the Internet. They are all local memorials !!!!!!

 

DISAPPOINTED !

 

George Alexander Louis

 

 

 

I must be a lone voice who is disappointed.

 I was hoping for a more modern name from these modern royals.

 

Even Alexander George Louis would be a huge improvement.

 

I can't for the life of me imagine looking down at my tiny baby and calling him "George "

( my Dad is George by the way ).

 

 Does this mean for ever more we have to have Kings whose names are chosen from a small list of traditional names?

( George, Henry, James, ...... oh please !! )

 

 At least we'll get a bit of a break with William before heading for another boring George !!

 

( and if you wanted to honour the Queen's father, his real name after all was Albert !!)

 

 

Cheers from a Colonial Royalist.

 



BILBY IN CRISIS

 

 

Do you remember way back  here  I wrote about these cute little Bilbies

and their fight for survival?

 

 

It seems they are in great danger once again.

 

You can read about it here.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/feral-cats-wreak-havoc-in-raid-on-enclosed-refuge-for-endangered-bilbies/story-e6freoof-1226429359126

LOVELY WEATHER, LET'S GO OUT !

Can you guess where we've been today?

We were up and dressed and out of the door by 8:00am today.

The sky was blue and the weather warm as we headed off along the highway.



Peeping out among the dark green leaves along the roadside were lovely wattles bursting into bloom.

First it was breakfast at a little cafe then we met up with.....



Sally and Scout

 

Scout is growing up fast.

She's 5 and a half months old now.

 

We parked at this children's park near the beach where dogs are allowed off leach.

 

The possom was keeping a look out for other pirates.

 

 

The beach beckoned so off over the dunes we went. 

 

 

No surf today and not too many people about as school holidays have just finished.

Plenty of room to run and chase the ball without disturbing anybody.

 

Then back over the dunes to the banks of Currumbin Creek

A few hardy souls were swimming out to this sandbank with their dogs.

Not warm enough for us to join them today though Scout was in and out of the water.



Have I mentioned before that Queensland does Winter well ??????

Cheers.

 

WHALES IN THE NEWS TODAY

In the past I have posted about the whales that travel up the Queensland coast from Antarctica every year to give birth to their calves in the warmer waters of the north.

 

We get quite excited about them and a thriving tourist industry has developed around their visits to Hervey Bay each year.

 We're very protective of these wonderful creatures with many restrictions placed on humans approaching too close to them in their yearly journey.

 

 

The whales we see most often are Humpback whales - huge, harmless creatures some of which we have come to know quite well and even named ( Migaloo for instance - read about him !).

 

This week's news has been about a different type of whale-

the Orca or Killer Whale - a much smaller whale

 

 

 

Now these whales are fearsome predators of the sea that are not usually seen close to shore.

 

This week an Orca and it's young calf became stranded and died in the shallow waters of Hervey Bay.

Worse news was to follow as the rest of the pod were also in grave danger of becoming beached and stranded as they waited for the dead whales to join them on their journey north. 

 

 

Wildlife officers worked desperately to try to drive the pod out to sea

 

 but it looked like the whole pod were doomed as they refused to leave without the dead members

 

 

 

and became stranded on sand banks at low tide.

 

 

Wildlife Rangers worked tirelessly to protect them from the heat of the sun until the tide returned and the whales coud be refloated and guided into deeper water.

 

In desperation the dead calf was towed into deeper waters in the hope that the rest of the pod - numbering 5 - would follow but although they are in deeper water now it is feared they will return to the shallow water and become stranded again.

 

A team of rangers is closely monitoring the whales until they have cleared Hervey Bay and moved on to deeper water.



MAKING ME HAPPY TODAY

These things are making me happy today:


1. A bit of cleaning, tidying and prettifying.




Study all spic and span

and this lovely picture frame finally set up with family photos now in position.



2. Expecting good friends for dinner.

Table set

and Lamb Shanks cooking away.
mmmmmmm the house is smelling good !


3. The sun is shining brightly outside and it's 23 degrees C.

A typical Winter's day in Brisbane!


4. A new project involving nine patch squares on the go.




Some already made...

and some lovely colour combinations ready to go.

Hope you're feeling chirpy too today !

Cheers.

 

 

THE LONG PADDOCK

In my last post I refered to "the Long Paddock" and I'm not sure that my non-Aussie readers will understand what that is so I thought I would try to give you an explanation.

The Long Paddock is the colloquial term for the stock routes that cross Australia – open strecthes of unfenced land that anyone can use to move stock.

In Australia, the Travelling Stock Route  is an authorised thoroughfare for the walking of domestic livestock such as sheep or cattle from one location to another. These Stock Routes are known collectively as "The Long Paddock".

A Travelling Stock Route may look just like an ordinary country road. The difference is that the grassy verges on either side of the road are very much wider. 

 

The property fences are set back much further from the roadside than usual. The reason for this is so that the livestock may feed on the vegetation that grows on the verges as they travel.

 

 

Bores, equipped with windmills and troughs, may also be located at regular intervals to provide water in regions where there are no other reliable water sources.

By law, the travelling stock must travel "six miles a day" (approximately 10 kilometres per day). This is to avoid all the roadside grass from being cleared in a particular area by an individual mob. 

 

 

The traveling stock are diven by stockmen on horseback, quad bikes or motorbikes assisted as always by their trusty working dogs, often Cattle Dogs, Border Collies or Kelpies or a mixture of these breeds specially bred for working with stock.

 

 

 

There is usually a support vehicle traveling with the herd - sometimes a caravan or a four wheel drive vehicle with cooking and bedding supplies.

 

 

Sometimes the drover's family is also there to assist him with children and wives taking their turn to keep the mob under control and out of danger.

 

 



 A Travelling Stock Reserve is a fenced paddock set aside at strategic distances to allow overnight watering and camping of stock where the stock can be contained safely so the drovers can get a bit of sleep confident that their herd will not stray into danger during the night .

The purpose of "droving" livestock on such a journey might have once been to move the stock to different pastures or to market, but these days this is usually done by trucking them from one place to the next.

 

 

 

These days, in times of extreme drought, when paddocks lack feed and/or water, stockowners are forced to reduce their livestock numbers radically and take the remaining beasts to travel their six miles a day, along the stock routes, surviving on the roadside grass till the rains come and once again their paddocks have grass enough to support the herd.

 

At the moment the situation in many outback areas is dire and livestock herds are once again to be seen traveling the long paddock.

 

 

Cheers.

 

* all photos today from the Internet