A GREY DAY

Today I collected a gutsy lady from treatment from the cancer ward at the Mater Hospital on a grey and bleak day for more than one reason.......Had to wait some hours as my friend needed more platlets and blood transfusions.......

The undercover cops were racing about with their walkie talkies and the uniformed fellows hared off and had this youth on the ground for some time. I do hope he did something very bad as he looked like a bewildered chinese youth on the ground with no dignity at all with a couple of scruffy looking police officers standing over him and his friends standing a hundred yards off looking like normal university students. Perhaps he is a child murderer or worse I would hope so with the treatment metered out to him. I guess it is easy to judge from the sidelines without knowing the full story. It was a particularly sad day to begin with and found it a grey day in the city.


In a city with over a million people those I came across seemed so alone.....


I felt sad for the birds as well....









Getting back into the mountains....




Bye bye...grey, cold, noisy, grubby and sad...today anyway....

OK

THE MIGHTY TREE AGAIN

The miners spending a day on my property collecting samples.....GOLD!!

LOOKING OUT FOR THE LOGS

Looking out for logs in the grass....did not do too good a job as shredded one of the tyres......

CROSSING THE DRY CREEK

This crossing is where the old coaches (horse drawn) travelled from Esk to Blackbutt, Nanango and the Burnett and beyond. The advantages of a GPS positioning tool.....

RUNNING GULLY

Taking satellite readings. Notice the Toyota recovery vehicle on the right!!

THE HAND

THE HAND, originally uploaded by cnlizziebns.

At the base of this beautiful tree which uses a host tree initially to survive, the tree appears to be collecting to itself the last of the log. The spot is quite strange and gives a feeling of awe and a feeling of unease when under its branches. The setting is awesome at the base of an perpindicular cliff on the banks of a dry creek bed which is a raging torrent from the mountain after rain.

ONE DAY OF THE YEAR VISITORS

These huge parrots visit once a year. All they seem to do is prune up the casurinas......The huge beaks cut through the limbs and they plummet to the ground the limbs that is. The glossy blacks also visit and they eat the nuts from these same trees.

THE BACK GATE

THE BACK GATE, originally uploaded by cnlizziebns.

THE EASTERN SLOPES

THE EASTERN SLOPES, originally uploaded by cnlizziebns.

BLACK GRANITE ROCK

BLACK GRANITE ROCK, originally uploaded by cnlizziebns.

AN ANCIENT TREE

AN ANCIENT TREE, originally uploaded by cnlizziebns.

Yesterday a mining company who own the mining leases over my country wished to take samples. I was the guide and we spent the day in the hills taking samples from the creek beds. The signs are for gold, with the white quartz abundant and the change from the black granite.

I love this piece of Australia and is an uplifting experience to exist on this little part of the planet.

This tree is estimated at around two hundred and fifty years old or older. It sits on the bank of a dry creek bed which is a raging torrent after rain. The tree is at the base of a steep mountain range.

A STAGHORN LEAF

A STAGHORN LEAF, originally uploaded by cnlizziebns.

Found amongst other places, in the temperate mountain forests of South East Queensland.

SIMPLE DAISIES

SIMPLE DAISIES, originally uploaded by cnlizziebns.

A daisy a day.

JOE'S NEW PONY...LIL LIZZIE

Joe's new pony...just his size.....who is more excited Joe or Grandmother!!

I must be mad 6.30 am three degrees and the wind howling with the chill factor at -4 degrees and Joe and I went riding on the pony...Grandma Lizzie on Shank's pony. Lil Lizzie was the pony's name before she came to my place....will be totally confusing for a three year old with Grandma Lizzie and Lil Lizzie living in the same place.....

MARGARET YOU MAY APPRECIATE THIS SONG

I may be agnostic but try and dwell on the beautiful things done in the name of God and keep my mind open

1974 SEASONS IN THE SUN

SADNESS

AUTUMN, originally uploaded by cnlizziebns.

The beautiful colours as the leaves die......like everything on earth it has had its season in the sun.

VALE MY BEAUTIFUL CITY BOY

CITY 2000 Thoroughbred, Hunter, originally uploaded by cnlizziebns.

This time last year my beautiful City 2000 died with a twisted bowel. His mother won the Easter Cup at Eagle Farm and raced in the Brisbane Cup running a creditable 6th or 7th and was a race record with Grooming winning. She was the only mare and one of a few Queensland horses running that year. She held records for 1600 metres at Toowoomba, 1800 and 2200 at Eagle Farm and was a smaller version of City. Her name was Hurley Town and City's father was Double Century. City contacted a virus at the age of two and scarred his lungs and raced once running second when he bled from the lungs. In the interests of humane treatment and the risks associated with lung bleeds in racehorses he did not race again. In Australia should a racehorse bleed twice in separate races the animal is banned for life from the racetrack. In America bleeders are still raced and are given a drug Lasix. The American racing scene is under scrutiny at the present in the wake of a three year old thoroughbred filly breaking both fetlocks crossing the line in second place in a major race in America two weeks ago.
The American racing authorities are trying to implement a regime of less drugs ie steriods in their racing animals. They also have in place a system at the yearling sales where the young animals undergo x-rays of the fetlock and kneee joints to determine whether or not the bones are developing naturally. If the animal is forced to grow unnaturally the bones will suffer. This is a good direction and let us hope this continues and improves into the future.
City I rode most every day and he competed in low level jumping eventing and working hunter at the shows. He carried me on hundreds of kilometres of pleasure riding. I helped his mother with the delivery and the stable he was born in he considered his and would get very miffed if anyone had the hide to use his box.
I let him about at times with a hand under his chin and he would snuff and fuss and just follow the gentle pressure of my hand.
I miss this beautiful animal who enriched my life at a particular time when it needed enriching.
The photograph was taken a couple of weeks before his untimely death. City was thirteen years of age.

FLOWERS