2020

We took the ferry on the Noosa River, from Tewantin to Noosa Heads, had brunch at Bistro C, and wandered along the boardwalk and Hastings Street. The beach was busy! Saturday challenge - New Year's resolution. The ancient Babylonians are said to have been the first people to make New Year’s resolutions, some 4,000 years ago. They were also the first to hold recorded celebrations in honor of the new year—though for them the year began not in January but in mid-March, when the crops were planted. During a massive 12-day religious festival known as Akitu, the Babylonians crowned a new king or reaffirmed their loyalty to the reigning king. They also made promises to the gods to pay their debts and return any objects they had borrowed. These promises could be considered the forerunners of our New Year’s resolutions. If the Babylonians kept to their word, their (pagan) gods would bestow favor on them for the coming year. If not, they would fall out of the gods’ favor—a place no one wanted to be. A similar practice occurred in ancient Rome, after the reform-minded emperor Julius Caesar tinkered with the calendar and established January 1 as the beginning of the new year circa 46 B.C. Named for Janus, the two-faced god whose spirit inhabited doorways and arches, January had special significance for the Romans. Believing that Janus symbolically looked backwards into the previous year and ahead into the future, the Romans offered sacrifices to the deity and made promises of good conduct for the coming year. www.history.com/news/the-history-of-new-years-resolutions

6/366 2020 Seen in Cooroy, Queensland. The Mini is a small economy car produced by the English-based British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors from 1959 until 2000. The original is considered an icon of 1960s British popular culture... This distinctive two-door car was designed for BMC by Sir Alec Issigonis. It was manufactured at the Longbridge and Cowley plants in England, the Victoria Park/Zetland British Motor Corporation (Australia) factory in Sydney, Australia, and later also in Spain (Authi), Belgium, Chile, Italy (Innocenti), Malta, Portugal, South Africa, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Yugoslavia. Wikipedia Alec Issigonis (1906 – 1988, knighted in 1969) had been born in Smyrna in present day Turkey, the son of a Bavarian mother and a Greek father who became a nationalized Briton. After the war between Greece and Turkey where Greece lost her possessions in Asia Minor, young Alec and his by then widowed mother arrived in London in 1922. Here he pursued studies of engineering and eventually began his career in the motor industry. In 1936, he joined Morris Motors at Cowley. ozcooper.com.au/A_Mini_History.htm

Seen in Cooroy, Queensland. The Mini is a small economy car produced by the English-based British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors from 1959 until 2000. The original is considered an icon of 1960s British popular culture... This distinctive two-door car was designed for BMC by Sir Alec Issigonis. It was manufactured at the Longbridge and Cowley plants in England, the Victoria Park/Zetland British Motor Corporation (Australia) factory in Sydney, Australia, and later also in Spain (Authi), Belgium, Chile, Italy (Innocenti), Malta, Portugal, South Africa, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Yugoslavia. Wikipedia Alec Issigonis (1906 – 1988, knighted in 1969) had been born in Smyrna in present day Turkey, the son of a Bavarian mother and a Greek father who became a nationalized Briton. After the war between Greece and Turkey where Greece lost her possessions in Asia Minor, young Alec and his by then widowed mother arrived in London in 1922. Here he pursued studies of engineering and eventually began his career in the motor industry. In 1936, he joined Morris Motors at Cowley. ozcooper.com.au/A_Mini_History.htm

5/366 2020 Lamp 120 pictures in 2020/4 Antique Hot and humid Sunday in Queensland. Gardening in the morning, mulching about 20 sqm with hardwood chips. That was enough for the day. Fire emergency continues in New South Wales and Victoria. Cricket continued at the Sydney Cricket Ground, looks good for Australia v New Zealand.

Our cat Dora frequently ambushes our Westie, Angus, throwing her paws around his neck. He tolerates her but does not understand her at all :-) I keep trying to catch the moment without success, so here are some easier subjects. Saturday challenge - Unusual or absurd connections

Sunday challenge - Words It's from the CD/ music www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiMssQFIBUI Jimmy Buffett 1995 Follow in my wake, you've not that much at stake For I have plowed the seas, and smoothed the troubled waters Come along and let's have some fun, the hard work has been done We'll barrel roll into the sun, just for starters Just for starters, barometer is my soup I'm descended from a deck hand on a sloop I travel on the song lines that only dreamers see Not known for predictability Sail the main course in a simple sturdy craft Keep her well stocked with short stories and long laughs Go fast enough to get there, but slow enough to see Moderation seems to be the key Constantly searching Oh my eyes have seen some horizons And I've crossed the oceans For more than just thrills No I'm not the first Won't be the last You lust for the future But treasure the past

Queensland. A close choice between a Pelican and a Duck. Also have a heart of Bromeliad, quite a good sunrise, not to mention a few river shots. So much for trying to take less photos. The sunrise won :-)

Rupert Brooke's memorial (photo in comments) There was no security at all in 1984. The place was deserted. While sailing in the Sporades Islands, we had anchored in Tris Boukes bay with a couple of the other YCA yachts. We had heard about the grave from the YCA lead crew so we rowed ashore, found the track and walked up to the grave. It was a beautiful setting. We stayed overnight in the bay and the YCA group were the only people there. A delightful, tranquil anchorage. No doubt, Skyros is much busier now. I also took a photo of the inscription on the tablet of Rupert Brooke’s poem ‘The Soldier’ If I should die, think only this of me: That there's some corner of a foreign field That is for ever England. There shall be In that rich earth a richer dust concealed; A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam, A body of England's, breathing English air, Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home. And think, this heart, all evil shed away, A pulse in the eternal mind, no less Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given; Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day; And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness, In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

Rupert Brooke's memorial There was no security at all in 1984. The place was deserted. While sailing in the Sporades Islands, we had anchored in Tris Boukes bay with a couple of the other YCA yachts. We had heard about the grave from the YCA lead crew so we rowed ashore, found the track and walked up to the grave. It was a beautiful setting. We stayed overnight in the bay and the YCA group were the only people there. A delightful, tranquil anchorage. No doubt, Skyros is much busier now. I also took a photo of the inscription on the tablet of Rupert Brooke’s poem ‘The Soldier’ If I should die, think only this of me: That there's some corner of a foreign field That is for ever England. There shall be In that rich earth a richer dust concealed; A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam, A body of England's, breathing English air, Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home. And think, this heart, all evil shed away, A pulse in the eternal mind, no less Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given; Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day; And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness, In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

Pacific Ocean at Sunshine Beach, Queensland Sunday challenge - Epitaphs Rupert Brooke's poem ‘The Soldier’ which is on his memorial on Skyros Island, in Greece, photo in PiP and more information in comments. "If I should die, think only this of me: That there's some corner of a foreign field that is for ever England"

Pacific Ocean at Sunshine Beach, Queensland. Saturday challenge - rule of thirds

Pacific Ocean at Sunshine Beach, Queensland

Quiet Sunday

Eumundi, Queensland Flamboyant medium tree, native to tropical southeastern Asia and a popular ornamental tree grown around the world. Peltophorum pterocarpum

A selection from our collection, on a tea towel from New Zealand. Saturday challenge - Dishes and dinnerware

From our garden, Queensland

Our neighbour's pond and shack taken from a distance, after all the rain.

Brilliant street artwork in Eumundi, Queensland, by John Murray 2019