Silhouettes on the shade.......

Morning shadows.

And look who had to get in on the act!

Awful shots but he came and stood

right in front of me, the little poser!

Yes, I'm a fair dinkum Aussie girl with a French name!!

A Kangafrog, or Frogaroo

My first attempt at superimposing

A few days ago an English blogger made the comment that it seems as if I'm "a fair dinkum Aussie girl with a froggy name".

Well, let me tell you that she was 'spot on'!  I'm very proud to be Aussie and I'm also proud of my French heritage, including my 'Pommy' (English), Welsh, Scottish and Danish heritage!  My Great-Grandfather arrived in Australia from France in the late 19th century and was naturalised in 1914.  I like my name; it was to be Alana, after Mum's favourite actor Alan Ladd's daughter but Grandma had a say and I was named Alaine.

'Fair dinkum' is a colloquial saying used frequently in Australia meaning 'it's true!' or 'are you serious, mate?'  The origin is said to have come from the Australian gold rush period of the 1800s; Chinese gold miners described gold as 'din gum', meaning 'real gold'.  Thus, it means that it is the absolute truth, completely genuine or authentic!

On another slant, according to Melvyn Bragg's The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language, 'dinkum' comes from the English Midlands and meant work.  'Fair dinkum' referred to a fair day's work and subsequently fair play.

'Pommy', as Wikipedia says, is an alternative name for the British, the origin probably meaning 'prisoner of (his/her) Majesty' or relating to their complexions as 'like a pomegranate'.  The dicionary says that it is usually used disparagingly by Australian and New Zealanders but I disagree with that; most Aussies use it affectionately.  And I'm married to a 'Pom'!  Boom, boom!

'Froggy' is a disparaging term for a Frenchman, from 1872 onwards, later WW1, referring to the French being partial to Grenouille (frog).

Another explanation I found is "that the coat of French officers was closed using not ordinary buttons but little pieces of wood attached to a ribbon and called 'frogs'.  That made men recognizable among others and could have awarded them the name."

By the way, the French, in turn, call the English 'Rosbif'.

I was going to include a recipe here for Cuisses de Grenouille aux Herbes (herbed frogs legs) but balked at the picture of them on the plate!  They're my little friends; I picked one up from the carpet the other night and put it in the garden.  I think it must have got in via the dog door, or is that 'frog door'?!

Yay!!! Torah wins Gold for Australia!

Photo: Getty Images: Alex Livesey

Torah Bright is the fourth Australian ever to win Gold at the Winter Games. Source

Torah Bright - Gold in Women's Halfpipe Snowboarding
Reuters: Todd Korol

Congratulations Torah! We watched with watery eyes and bated breath; it was agony! Australia is so proud of you!

Making morning last....

Pic: "Tea Time" - Helen McConnell 1879-1915

I just love mornings;
I wish it were morning all day!
The silence before the sound of engines,
the sun still on the other side tingeing the clouds,
soon pushing long shadows across dewy grass,
highlighting spider webs,
shining through lace threaded with tiny pearls.

The soft, snoring of a ball of fluff at my feet;
still savouring the peace of night;
soon to be running to his favourite
morning spots in the garden.

The gentle tick, tick, tick of the clocks
that one barely hears behind the clatter of day.
Soft sounds of complaint coming from the iron roof
as the sun hits;
seemingly it, too, has relaxed over night,
is waking, stretching and gaining strength to face the day.

Oh, I love the morning;
I want it to last!

There's one in every holiday pic.........

H A V E A H A P P Y D A Y!

Ekphrasis - using art to inspire poetry...

Apollo
Greek god of music, healing and prophecy

The following is an example of ekphrastic poetry.

Ekphrasis, a new word to me; yesterday to be exact!

Archaic Torso of Apollo
by Rainer Maria Rilke

We cannot know his legendary head
with eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torso
is still suffused with brilliance from inside,
like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low,

gleams in all its power. Otherwise
the curved breast could not dazzle you so, nor could
a smile run through the placid hips and thighs
to that dark centre where procreation flared.

Otherwise this stone would seem defaced
beneath the translucent cascade of the shoulders
and would not glisten like a wild beast's fur;

would not, from all the borders of itself,
burst like a star; for here there is no place
that does not see you. You must change your life.

~~~~~~~~

The outdoor setting gets a lot of use.......