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tetsubinatuI have lived in three cities long enough to call them home: Canberra, Adelaide and Melbourne.
1. Canberra
AD Hope's Australia
A nation of trees, drab green and desolate grey
In the field uniform of modern wars
Darkens her hills, those endless outstretched paws
Of sphinx demolished or stone lion worn away
In fourth grade I remember looking out from the classroom window and thinking that Mt Taylor looked like a headless lion. When I read AD Hope's poem I felt a flash of recognition. The hills around Canberra are low and semi-wooded. They have always meant home to me.
This photograph was taken a couple of streets from my old primary school with Mt Taylor rising in the background. This is the suburb where I grew up.
Judith Wright's South Of My Days
South of my days' circle, part of my blood's country,
rises that tableland, high delicate outline
of bony slopes wincing under the winter,
low trees, blue-leaved and olive, outcropping granite-
clean, lean, hungry country.
2. Adelaide
In Adelaide I lived near enough to the Cathedral to be dominated by its rhythm. I still look whenever the cricket is on and they cut to the nearby Cathedral. Inside is a small memorial plaque to a great-uncle of my father's who died during its construction. The one thing this photograph doesn't show is the gorgeous golden stone the Cathedral is made of - a stone which is characteristic of the city.
This image was taken by Frank Hurley, 1885-1962 (held by the National Library). Nothing much changes in Adelaide (although they've got new trams.)
3. Melbourne
Mary Grant Bruce Bill of Billabong (1933)
He decided to make his way up the creek; the country was wilder there and less familiar to him. It was cooler, when he had rounded the first bend into the gully. A little breeze came down it, laden with the hot, sweet scents of the Bush. Birds were everywhere - magpies, kookaburras, flycatchers; he sat for awhile on a log to watch a pair of blue wrens, the little cock in his beautiful livery of blue and black and white like a gleaming jewel in the sunlight as he flitted about, flirting his long tail. Black cockatoos screamed in the trees beyond the creek.
The area where I live now is very beautiful - and green enough to make me feel guilty whenever I speak to parched friends and relatives in Adelaide and Canberra.
The birds are abundant and fearless.
I hope that some of what I posted has given you the flavour of my homes.
1. Canberra
A nation of trees, drab green and desolate grey
In the field uniform of modern wars
Darkens her hills, those endless outstretched paws
Of sphinx demolished or stone lion worn away
In fourth grade I remember looking out from the classroom window and thinking that Mt Taylor looked like a headless lion. When I read AD Hope's poem I felt a flash of recognition. The hills around Canberra are low and semi-wooded. They have always meant home to me.
This photograph was taken a couple of streets from my old primary school with Mt Taylor rising in the background. This is the suburb where I grew up.
Judith Wright's South Of My Days
South of my days' circle, part of my blood's country,
rises that tableland, high delicate outline
of bony slopes wincing under the winter,
low trees, blue-leaved and olive, outcropping granite-
clean, lean, hungry country.
2. Adelaide
In Adelaide I lived near enough to the Cathedral to be dominated by its rhythm. I still look whenever the cricket is on and they cut to the nearby Cathedral. Inside is a small memorial plaque to a great-uncle of my father's who died during its construction. The one thing this photograph doesn't show is the gorgeous golden stone the Cathedral is made of - a stone which is characteristic of the city.
This image was taken by Frank Hurley, 1885-1962 (held by the National Library). Nothing much changes in Adelaide (although they've got new trams.)
3. Melbourne
Mary Grant Bruce Bill of Billabong (1933)
He decided to make his way up the creek; the country was wilder there and less familiar to him. It was cooler, when he had rounded the first bend into the gully. A little breeze came down it, laden with the hot, sweet scents of the Bush. Birds were everywhere - magpies, kookaburras, flycatchers; he sat for awhile on a log to watch a pair of blue wrens, the little cock in his beautiful livery of blue and black and white like a gleaming jewel in the sunlight as he flitted about, flirting his long tail. Black cockatoos screamed in the trees beyond the creek.
The area where I live now is very beautiful - and green enough to make me feel guilty whenever I speak to parched friends and relatives in Adelaide and Canberra.
The birds are abundant and fearless.
I hope that some of what I posted has given you the flavour of my homes.
no subject
Hills have always been an important part of my life as well - my home town is pretty much surrounded by the Cotswolds, you look up in pretty much any direction to see hills on the horizon. It's very odd to be in places where that isn't true - the sky just looks unfinished somehow.
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