To The Aussies on my Flist

[alwaysjbj]

Wishing you all a Happy and safe Australia Day


ETA:-


My Country
by Dorothea McKellar


The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies -
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror –
The wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon,
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die –
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land –
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand –
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

Comments

[oldgreymare.livejournal.com]

And good one to you and yours :)

[alwaysjbj.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It is (amazingly) a nice cool day today with a gentle breeze... lovely, refreshing change. So I am enjoying the cricket while doing a little beta'ing and NOT melting to death! I hope it is a little cooler for you today too.

[oldgreymare.livejournal.com]

....It's another stinking hot northerly for us :(....

Enjoy yours!! kick back, put your feet up and have a long cool one.

[mefiant-aus.livejournal.com]

Hey sweets hope you're kicking back with a cold one. Me I have to freakin work....so looking foward to next week and HOLIDAYS!!!!!

[alwaysjbj.livejournal.com]

Ahh... I'm sorry you are having to work today. I am enjoying the cool change while watching the cricket. Tracey's coming over and we're having a barbie tonight.

I'm looking forward to next week too... will be fun!

[bloody-bint.livejournal.com]

Awwww i miss Aus C!!!1 *hugs you tight*

[alwaysjbj.livejournal.com]

*Hugs back*... I don't think you'd want to be in Melbourne right now with all the fires... I am hoping Amy doesn't live near any of them!!!

[prophcygrl.livejournal.com]

Happy Aussie Day!!! *snogs*

[alwaysjbj.livejournal.com]

Thanks, sweetie! Hope you had a good one!

[talesofspike.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm kinda late since it's after 8 the next morning, but having seen the cricket scores, I know you had a good Australia Day. Happy Australia Day+1.

[alwaysjbj.livejournal.com]

*grins happily* Yes it was a very good Australia Day... not so hot (at least here in Bris) GOOD cricket, good friends and a nice barbie (which also meant no cooking for me!)