GOOD MORNING AND WELCOME TO SATURDAY

Welcome to the weekend in the Southern Hemisphere where the weather is very humid and the sky is grey in my lovely City.   Adelaide always looks better when bathed in sunlight - but today is a grey grey day.

A good day however, I have lots of things to brighten my day and the music on this page is a piece I love - I did try to find "Come Saturday Morning" by the Sandpipers, but to no avail.   Come Saturday Morning is a special piece of music for me - My Father sang it to me on the morning of my wedding., but I have been called "Angel of the Morning" so this will be fine today.  Angel I really don't know why but I am certainly a morning person and once I am awake it's look out world (or at least it used to be like that ~ it takes a little longer to get going these days.)

I hope you have plans for your weekend - spending time with those you love and finding each other after a week of working days and all the other things that clutter our days and often interfere with relationships.

Today belongs to "ME" and I shall spend some of it here on line and some of it gathering "Christmas" from around my home - I will gather it all to one place, sort it through, decided what I no longer need and then storing the rest.   That's probably a silly statement because with Christmas "I need it all!"

Christmas never quite goes away in this house, there are always things that I like to keep out and look at each day - special Christmas cards sent with love often grace my desk well into the year.  Some ornaments that are just too beautiful to sit in a box all year and only share their beauty for a few short weeks will stay out and be loved all year.

Talking this morning with someone who is cold and in mid winter about the North Wind - when I was a child I remember this little verse:

"The north wind doth blow

And we shall have snow

And what will the robin do then, poor thing?

He'll hid in the barn to keep himself warm 

And cover his head with his wing, poor thing."

Well, that's not how it works in the Antipodes because for us when the North Wind blows it is generally very hot, dangerous and full of the dust of a farmer's paddock.  It dries things out so very quickly and if a fire takes hold we pray for a wind change and rain.

Australia is such a land of contrast and rugged beauty, but a wilful lavish land.

Dorothea MacKellar at age 19 wrote these words in 1904 and it is a piece I love and often revisit.

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! 

A stark white ring-barked forest

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."

visit this link and hear Dorothea MacKellar read here own poem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86TKK81EwJ4

Have a wonderful weekend - spend time with those you love and be sure to tell them that you love them - make some memories, share some laughter and be happy.

Thank you for visiting the musings from my heart - a happy heart today.

Love and hugs,

WEDNESDAY, 75 WEEKS, ALIVE AND LIVING WELL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty27xUYtDWA

John Williamson - Galleries of Pink Galahs

Welcome to Wednesday - 75 weeks for me but who's counting?  I am and I am grateful for every day I live and for the beautiful country I call my home.   It is not the land of my birth, but I am Australian by choice and am often moved to tears by the beauty, majesty and cruelty of this "Wide Brown Land" and I love this song sung by Williamson who portrays such wonderful images in my mind.  For those who live overseas I am including some of the images that he presents in his song - This is my home.

Pink Galahs

Apricots preserved in jars

Oceans in the sun

Purple Hazes

Old River Gums Loxton, South Australia.

"Galleries of pink galahs,
Crystal nights with diamond stars,
Apricots preserved in jars,
That's my home.

Land of oceans in the sun,

Purple hazes, river gum,

Breaks your heart when rain won't come,

It breaks your heart.

It takes a harsh and cruel drought

To sort the weaker saplings out,

It makes room for stronger trees

Maybe that's what life's about.

Winter's come, the hills are brown,

Shops are closed, the blinds are down.

Everybody's leaving town,

They can't go on.

The south wind through verandah gauze

Whines and bangs the homestead doors.

A mother curses dusty floors,

And feels alone.

Trucks and bulk bins filled with rust,

Boy leaves home to make a crust.

A father's dreams reduced to dust,

But he must go on.

Tortured red gums - unashamed,

Sunburnt country wisely named.

Chisel-ploughed and wire-claimed,

But never, never, never tamed.

Whirlwind swirls a paper high,

Same old news of further dry.

Of broken clouds just passing by,

That's my home."

© John Williamson

Thank you John for this wonderful picture of my home.

On the home front I have so much to be thankful for - the little things that make life sweet, and living in such a beautiful place is such a great gift.

To those who live here - please enjoy this "Wide Brown Land" and for those who live overseas I hope this gives you just a glimpse of the beauty of my adopted Homeland.  I am sure your homeland is full of wonderful images and songs about them, but I just want to share mine.

I hope your journey is a smooth one and there are not too many bumps in your road, and if there are bumps I hope you have the courage and strength to cope with and overcome them.

I am often totally overwhelmed by the courage and strength of character of the people I encounter in my daily living.   Ordinary families living extraordinary lives and caring for sick children   and knowing that they are running out of time, and yet celebrate life.

Please pray for/light a candle for or just hold in thought this precious baby girl and her family.

This is Lilah Sophie with her sisters Jemima and Maddy.

"Lilah Sophie was born on October 20, 2009. She was not 'meant' to survive her pregnancy and certainly not live beyond her birth. She is an angel and an inspiration to all who meet her.

Lilah is living with a brain tumour which occupies nearly three quarters of her skull. It was discovered in utero at 20 weeks gestation and we were told it would be unlikely that she would survive the pregnancy. She did. 

She was induced at 7 months and was given less than a 5% chance of living beyond a few minutes. She did. 

Lilah's brain does not have the centres required for breathing, controlling temperature, hormone levels, movement, sight or the ability to learn. And yet she can do all..."

(written by her Mother on Lilah Sophie's Facebook page.)  If you have Facebook this link will take you to her page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lilah-Sophie/172226739486413

Keep on smiling, caring and loving and care for one another, keep the faith and remember to shine.

Love and hugs to you all and my thanks for visiting the "The Musings from my Heart." and for taking new steps on my journey with me.