THURSDAY = THANKFUL THURSDAY.

Hi there and welcome to my world on Thursday  - a hot day in Adelaide and we are forecast a week of very warm/hot days and possibly a shower or two.

Queensland on our north eastern coast line and inland is devastated with flood waters and still it is raining.   At Rockhampton the river did not peak as high as they thought it may, but with more rain who knows what is ahead for that town,

Whole towns are being evacuated and people are being cared for in Centres established for that purpose.  It is going to be a long and difficult time ahead for the people of Queensland and Northern New South Wales.  There is also flooding on our West Coast - we sure are a land of "drought and flooding rains."

Dorothea Mackellar wrote a poem in 1904 at the age of 19 and I am sure I have shared it with you before, but will do so again as it is good to re-read often.

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 ringbarked forests

All tragic 'neath the moon

The sapphire-misted mountains

The hot gold rush of noon --

Green tangle of the brushes

Where lithe lianas coil

And orchid-laden tree-ferns

Smother the crimson soil.

Core of my heart, my country --

Her pitiless blue sky,

When sick at heart, around us

We see the cattle die...

And 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,

Young Land of Rainbow Gold --

For flood and fire and famine

She pays us back three-fold...

Over the thirsty paddocks

Watch, after many days

A filmy veil of greenness

That thickens as you gaze...

An opal-hearted country,

A wilful, lavish land --

Ah, you who have not loved her

You cannot understand...

...The world is fair and splendid

But whensoe'er I die

I know to what brown country

My homing thoughts will fly!

Please hold these Australians in heart and thought and pray for some relief for them - they are facing snakes, disease and many other issues.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/01/06/3107822.htm

I have had a quiet day after a couple of late nights and didn't have much energy today - so I still have one Christmas tree to take down and that will happen at the weekend.

I have so much to be thankful for and I think the way I am feeling is a sort of coming down after the high of Christmas and my first Anniversary but I am so thankful for all I have.

My family and their care of me.  My friends for their continued support and for the life I have - where if I need to stop, slow down or just take a rest I can do just that.

I received the following in an email from my friend Narelle and it came at exactly the right time for me.

BIT by BIT

When the chaos seems unending

Clear away a little space 

It will help to know that something 

Has been put into its place. 

Just the same when troubles hit you

Blocking up your stretch of road,

Concentrate on one small barrier 

Leave a while the heavy load.

Bit by bit the chaos lessens,

Bit by bit a path is cleared 

Till the mountain of your trouble 

Is much smaller than you feared,

Gay Wilson

I shall be glad to climb into bed and read a while and hopefully experience sweet and peaceful sleep.

I have something else to share with you but that can wait until tomorrow.

Goodnight/Good morning and blessings abound for you wherever you are.

Love and hugs,

 Linda.