I roo the day

Early morning and only 5 minutes drive from a shopping mall, 15 kangaroos grazing in the front yard of this house of which I am temporary guardian. They refuse to take direction so are not all in the photo. Two of them had a bit of a bitch-slap ...

... and then they all left.

(please click to enlarge any of these images)

The baby kanga could not jump the fence and was left behind, going up and down several times until it found a section of the wire it could squash through underneath. While fretting over all the other baby kangas abandoned beyond fences, I will be out there very soon, making that hole bigger .

Christchurch NZ

"Residents are reporting bodies lying in the streets of Christchurch following this afternoon's magnitude 6.3 earthquake.
Police said fatalities had been reported at several locations and that two buses had been crushed by falling buildings. Christchurch mayor Bob Parker has declared a state of emergency.
Christchurch resident Jaydn Katene told the Herald: "We've had friends in town call us and say there are just bodies lying around; lots of dead bodies outside shops just lying there just covered in bricks.
When it hit we were knocked to our feet. Everything in the house fell down, nothing was left still standing. There's more damage than the first earthquake, the roads are completely torn up; sewage coming up and flooding. It's crazy.
The elderly are all crying. The next-door neighbours around us were all bawling their eyes out, it was horrible. People can't get out of their houses," said Mr Katene.
We've seen cars halfway sunken into the road. We've heard there's a bus which is sunken halfway into the road just around the corner. Buildings are half-collapsed everywhere. It smells horrible. The roads are packed with cars. There aren't enough police or ambulances. Houses are all collapsing. It's pretty shocking; a total warzone."

There is nothing I can say about this - sympathy to all in Christchurch, and the hope that no family of any of our blogpals have had loss or harm. I am house-sitting for someone who went to NZ at dawn today and hope he is in Wellington and safe. We are all clinging to a hurtling ball of molten rock, and should never forget it.

Patron faint

St. Valentine was a Priest, martyred in 269 at Rome.
He is the Patron Saint of

fainting,
bee keepers,
engaged couples,
epilepsy,
plague,
and unrequited love.

Beechworth, Victoria

As Hot Andrew Highriser did back in January, I too, had to photograph the heraldry above The Royal Arcade in the centre of Melbourne's CBD, and then I wondered how grateful those royals must have been, to allow the use of their very own coat-of-arms with Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense ... could it have been all the stonking great tons of gold we shipped back to The Empire?

Our commonwealth c-of-a has a sheep, a wheatsheaf and some goldmining tools, whereas the Royals just seem to have a lot of lions.

If AUS updated ours, it would have a cellphone surrounded by credit cards and barbecues.

I wish I had a coat-of-arms signifying the fabulousness I represent. It would have a keyboard au courant, surrounded by cats and winebottles possibly.
Last week I made my first visit to goldrush town Beechworth out in Victoria's North-East, and loved this coat-of-arms on an 1856 bank. Isn't the crouching lion just cuddly, and not even slightly looking like he will eat Skippy & The Roadrunner ...

(I do have some readers in other countries so will just explain for them that we Aussies diss our Commonwealth heraldry by referring to the kangaroo by the name of a TV show kanga, and to the emu as that beep-beep US-desert bird)

not so Bright

Missed all the Melbourne flood drama while spending the week of rain drinking a lot on the deck of a cabin right on the banks of the Ovens River, just beyond Bright in the Victorian High Country. This photo is a zoom of our foggy mountain view, and I am sorry it does not include the friendly ducks which appeared every time we did.

We visited every winery and country bakery for miles, so it was Pies & Pinot all the way from (the Heritage Listed landscape of) Wandiligong, to Mudgegonga, Beechworth and Mt.Beauty. Country-baked pies are always superior, and the historic Hides Bakery in Benalla was worth two visits for their triumphs in pastry.

We saw a male lyrebird by the roadside as we went very slowly in deep fog on the winding road over to Mt.Beauty (which isn't called that for nothing), and here is my photo
of the raging Ovens River in the centre of Bright township, where, despite at least 10 signs warning not to swim, a man and his son about 9 years old were on rubber tyre tubes oblivious to the danger of being swept away. I hope you and your companion animals are all safe, dry and undamaged.