Morning Walk

 I regularly go for a Saturday morning walk at 7 am whether it is winter or summer. I do this event with my friend Alun Davies who's a long-time Armidale resident and with whom I work on Maria Hitchcock's community activist group 'New England Visions 2030'. Of course, in winter the temperature is often -3 C with a heavy frost when we start. But that was not the case today when it was a warm 6 C. Moreover we might be in mid-winter but today's forecast maximum is 19 C (66 F)! And that's in a town 1000 m above sea level! 

Anyway, we went for a walk along Tilbuster Creek and the views we saw were great. These were taken at about 7.30 am on a brilliantly clear day. The creek was high and flowing fairly fast after recent heavy rains.

We saw quite a bit of wild-life including kangaroos and ducks, but we did not see what we desperately wanted to - a duck-billed platypus. It's known to be living in the Tilbuster creek and it is one the world's strangest and most admired creatures. Have a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platypus to find out more about this mammal that lays eggs!

AS

Immigration Detention

Some people I know staged a protest vigil last week in Armidale's central mall. Their complaint was against Australia's long detention spanning 8 years of people mainly from Asia or the middle east who tried to migrate to our nation by boat from Indonesia. Most have been detained on a remote island of Papua New Guinea in shameful conditions and many people, including me, feel that it's time to let them settle here. Australia is an immigrant nation, with over 30% of the population not being born here. And our migrants come literally from all over the world.

And Armidale is no exception even though it is remote by global standards. In the last few years, for example, we have become home to some 300+ Ezidi people displaced from northern Iraq by Islamic State. As a community we have actively supported these arrivals in many ways - and our support has received warm reception in the national press.

So I went to those staging the vigil and offered my support by way of signing the relevant paper-work. And this is what I saw.

I got there at the very start shortly before lunch-time, so there just a few observers like me. However, I'd guess that come lunch-breaks there would be many more people in attendance.

AS

Out of Season?

 I was in our garden yesterday shifting a large load of wood delivered to keep our home nice and warm in the middle of winter. As I walked past various flower beds I was amazed by the large range of plants in full bloom. This is strange for mid-winter where we have short daylight hours (about 10 hours at our latitude) and many frosty nights (with temperatures sometimes as low as -5 C). Also don't forget that our house is c. 1,000 m (3,281 feet) above sea-level. Here are the pictures I took of our flowers:

Nice, eh?

AS

Celebrating Emily's Birthday

Yesterday we celebrated Emily's birthday on 14 June Seattle time (15th here in Armidale) with an online discussion on our Google nest. It's amazing how one can have a video discussion with someone living roughly 12,173 km away with no apparent time lapse. The discussion proceeded exactly as it would have done with Emily sitting alongside us here at home.

Some of the discussion focused on our gift of a basket of plants sent via the USA company You Flowers. Here's a picture taken of our hub showing Em inspecting her gift at home in Seattle.

 

She was delighted with the present including a plant she loves but died when visiting Australia earlier this year. During our hook-up we also managed to exchange words with hubby, Greg, and grand-kids Flynn and Ella.

All up, it was a great occasion!

AS