This will hurt me...

Vegemite sandwiches among the bees and the flowers. There is little in life as fine as thee!

Big sky. Long Beach, Sandy Bay. April 2020. In my opinion, Easter Saturday is the most pointless and disappointing of all holidays... Dialogue on the Headland , Robert Graves SHE: You'll not forget these rocks and what I told you? HE: How could I? Never: whatever happens. SHE: What do you think might happen? Might you fall out of love? - did you mean that? HE: Never, never! 'Whatever' was a sop For jealous listeners in the shadows. SHE: You haven't answered me. I asked: 'What do you think might happen?' HE: Whatever happens: though the skies should fall Raining their larks and vultures in our laps - SHE: 'Though the sea turn to slime' -say that - 'Though water-snakes be hatched with six heads.' HE: Though the seas turn to slime, or tower In an arching wave above us, three miles high - SHE: 'Though she should break with you' - dare you say that? - 'Though she deny her words on oath.' HE: I h

This fellow may not be a monkey, orang-utan, squirrel, leopard, snakes, frogs or lizard; but the boy sure can climb!

Morning glory. Geilston Bay. April 2012. . Two books to have a look at this Good Friday (not a bad day weather-wise). The first is German author Elke Schmitter's Mrs Sartoris . A subtle, but very dark, novel that explores the life of an ordinary - but spurned - titular character. For a text that revolves around the boredom of suburban life in a small German city, it is surprisingly engaging. As an exploration of marriage, motherhood, sensuality and bourgeois morality in the post-war period, this is a well-composed and balanced novel about the ways in which a wronged woman might choose to hit back. Recommended. The second - Guilt About the Past - is by another German, author and jurist Bernhard Schlink. Now, readers of Schlink's fiction will know that most of his books are in some way about reconciling the past with the present. This book is a series of essays (based upon a series of lectures) that explores the concepts of collective guilt; how we might use history to motivate

Now THIS is a pumpkin to write home about!

Don’t give up little man. Battle on! Royal Botanical Gardens, Hobart. March 2012. What more could one ask for this lovely Theme Thursday than a little bit oh HOPE? “What are we if we are without HOPE?”, one might ask. The answer is of course Tasmanian , but at the moment, it’s neither here nor there! No, HOPE springs eternal, noted short literary bloke Alexander Pope used to say. He has a point, but that doesn’t mean that the confidence in an assured outcome will ever be repaid. Unfortunately, the cynical among us sometimes can’t help but feel that HOPE is the eternal purchasing of a TattsLotto ticket to a draw that will never happen. Of course if HOPE translates itself into something more than the passive expectation of a result, it might have some use. HOPE transformed into action might instill a determination that otherwise could dissipate. This is the HOPE I like. This is the HOPE that seems very un-Tasmanian. Can you tell that I’m having a good past couple of weeks? Bring on the

Remember that beach volleyball scene in Top Gun when all the lads stripped down to their undies and frolicked about trickling sweat all over each other? Yeah, well this was nothing like that.

Lots o' dogs. Howrah Beach, as seen from Little Howrah Beach. March 2012. Another Watery Wednesday and today, we pop down to Howrah Beach and enjoy a canine afternoon delight . Naturally, these evenings I usually find myself in a state of extreme concentration, the task being that of ensuring that some stray furious accumulation of muscle, sinew and enormous set of jaws on petite legs pit bull does not snap and make a meal of one of my children...

Ezra strikes a stately pose in front of a young coffee tree [ Coffea arabica ], some gourds and whole bunch of spring onions...

Young love. It's complicated... Derwent Avenue, Lindisfarne. March 2012. Tuesday already? That means another Q and A stolen from Sunday Stealing! Today it is the The Last March Meme 1) Which TV character do you think you are most like? A heady mix of MacGyver, Al Swearengen and George Costanza. 2) What time do you go to bed? Early. These days I’m asleep from 9:30 pm to 10 pm each night. 3) What was the last meal you made from scratch? Dinner last night. A simple one though, sausages and a green salad with a Mexican tinge to it. I regularly cook, and prefer to do it from scratch. 4) What is your favourite type of music? This old chestnut again! I like all sorts of music, and my tastes are often dependent on my mood. I usually answer this one with “good music”. 5) In what position do you sleep? I usually sleep on my [right] side, facing the wall. 6) What is your first memory? I remember Kevin Bartlett’s last goal in the 1980 Grand Final, so with something to hang the memory off, I’d

He's a god now...

Ezra lures a young girl through a doorway. Royal Botanical Gardens, Hobart. March 2012. The Internet is a wonderful place filled with the rich and varied treasures of the world holds (as well as innumerable straw men.) The following are some things that I've had a look at in the last week. I call this: a Compendium of Click-throughs for Monday Morning... Follow some of the most famous trips in history Scott's Antarctic diet: Stewed penguin and champagne ... Why politicians should rethink their appeals to people's fear Ahhh, the good old days: when we gave opium to newborns and sold heroin over the counter ... Making sense of Visegrad ... Guy comes out of closet on Facebook to friends who are entirely too geeky to care ... The Ottomans were a rather hardcore bunch ... America. " From Nuremberg on, no country has invested more in the development of international jurisdiction for atrocity crimes. And no country has worked harder to make sure that the law it seeks for oth

At some point, at some time, one of my children simply must find a considerable amount of money and/ or equivalent amount of jewels, doubloons, treasure in the sand, given the sheer amount of digging that they do on beaches...

Egretta novaehollandiae or, the White-faced Heron. The Battery Point foreshore, March 2012. Sunday Top Five again and this week I am going to get all lexicographic on yo' selves. Therefore, I present to you My Top Five Words From The Dolgopolsky List [The Dolgopolsky List Of Course Being The Fifteen Lexical Items That Have The Most Semantic Stability As Compiled By Aharon Dolgopolsky in 1964] ! tongue name tooth teardrop water