On our way home this week from the coast - the town of Warrnambool, Rob and I had a little stop and so I took a couple of photos "Over the farm gate"
And I just love the hills and trees in this huge country I call home.
It is always fun to see a farm "tip" and to take a peek at the things they toss out!
This is a poem that is dear to my heart this time of the year as summer is reaching out to touch us.
The Poet Dorothea MacKellar was born in Sydney in 1883 and died in 1968.
This cherished timeless poem speaks to the core of the Australian heart with its line "I love a sunburnt country".
My Country
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!
The stark white ring-barked forests,
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.
This is my Tuesday with country in my heart!
4 comments:
Wonderful poem, dear friend. So full of love of country. I must admit, I was surprised by the photos. Your countryside could be my own backyard. We live in twin landscapes. Amazing.
Nice piccies! I love seeing our OZ like this too, and yes, it brings to mind that iconic poem.
We always sing Advance Australia Fair at our Australia Day party, and I've just had an idea; I might get everyone to recite I Love A Sunburnt Country - just to see how many people remember the words!
What an evocative paean to HOME.
An Opal Hearted Country . . .
what lovely images. I wish you all a safe and happy Holiday Season!
rachel.
I love your pictures. The fields and hills are so lovely. You know everytime I see fields like this I wonder how many snakes are hiding there. I am very afraid of them. When I was a child we had a Black Spaniel who learned to walk the trails ahead of me and remove any snake he found. Boy I loved that dog! That's a really nice poem too.
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