King Parrot, Alisterus scapularis

What an amazing birdlife Australia has! The King Parrot is named appropriately for both its size and colour. It is the king of all its kind.

 

Male King Parrot, Lane Cove, 17 September 2019, within tree that it was feeding
 from, and of a group of approximately ten birds.

Some King Parrots have visited a Lane Cove street. They have taken a liking to an Australian native tree that is seeding.

 

The male is unique amongst Australian parrots in that it is the only parrot to have red head colouring. It is distinguished from the female in this way in that she has green colouring for her head. In common, both male and female have a red belly and green back.

 

King Parrots habitat is principally in rainforests; they feed within tree canopies. They eat both seeds and fruit. They will travel from rainforest environs when food is in short supply. King Parrots are found on the East Coast of Australia from the tropics through to Victoria. This makes them a common sight within Sydney. They largely live their entire lives in a tight geographic area.  King Parrots will eat from feeding trays and may often be seen drinking from backyard ponds.

 

The King Parrot prefers to nest in hollow trees. They will often have a nest that is within fifty centimetres of ground level where the entry point to the hollowed tree is ten metres or more high!

 

A surprising feature of the King Parrot is that some colouring patterns are visible only the ultra-violet wave-lengths. While King Parrots look very much alike to human observers, they look quite unique to King Parrots whose vision includes the ultra-violet spectrum. That is a helpful way for a King Parrot in the darkness of a nest to know whether the King Parrot entering the nest is your mate!

 

The location of the King Parrots; corner of Finlayson Street and Centennial Avenue; image: Google Maps.

Photographing the King Parrots proved difficult with a camera that had no credible zoom ability. The birds would scatter if I came too close. With some patience, a single photograph of a male was taken.

 

Reference: http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/Alisterus-scapularis

 

Shalom,

Ozhamada

 

[324 words] #parrot #sydney #sydneylocal #lanecove #lovewhereyoulive #inthecove #sydneyflorist #birding #twitching

Review of Scrublands, an Australian novel

2018 seems to mark the role of the priest in Australian literature. For both Tim Winton in The Shepherd's Hut and Chris Hammer in Scrublands include clergy.

Winton's book assigns a member of clergy to a forgotten parish. Hammer’s book finds a member of clergy (deceased yet central to the story) who shielded his previous life. In both instances, the clergy are in hot, dusty and remote locations.

And, Scrublands has a publican (deceased) who was once an Army chaplain.

Where the former Army chaplain and deceased priest sought atonement through passage of monies to an overseas orphanage, Winton’s priest is beyond atonement but to serve his time in isolation.

Scrublands is a great read. The characters are richly developed, the town of Riversend is colourfully displayed and the story moves quickly. The reader follows the steps of a journalist. The journalist pieces together why the priest committed murders, then was killed. Official Police accounts and the facts diverge; the journalist works carefully to re-imagine the story.

The story has much intrigue. Many parties are involved including Australia’s spy agency, Police, media and a bikie gang. Destruction arises from car accidents, bushfires, abduction and fire. The story depicts how a small country town can be subject to many pressures. The drought, the waterless river and the limited business hours of the town all seem synonymous with the slow death of the community.

I borrowed Scrublands from City of Sydney Library. This post links from Goodreads.

Shalom,

Ozhamada

[175 words] #agreatread #books #cityofsydney #library #goodreads #amazon #readAustralian

Tragic love story

I’ll never win any points with conservative Biblical scholars or preachers for drawing parallels between Exodus 32 and a Led Zeppelin song. This I did in this linked post. Nonetheless, the comparison served well. It was the catalyst that bought about the penny dropping – the how to exposit the Golden Calf narrative in a sermon.

 For the narrative is ultimately a love story.

It is not a love story of the Mills & Boon type nor of the type wonderfully portrayed by in-real-life-married actors in the quirky French comedy La Fée. It is instead a tragic love story in that the husband’s love is spurned.

 

Source: https://goo.gl/images/bs4gEi

For the Almighty God, God of the covenant communicated to Abraham, who freed the people from captivity in Egypt, is rejected by his spouse – the Israelites – in favour of a god that the spouse creates with their own hands. It is the tragedy of a loving God watching his spouse worship something of creation rather than the creator. It is the tragedy of watching Aaron, as second to Moses, acquiesce to the people’s request rather than attesting to God’s decrees.

And, it is a love story because God is slow to anger in that in his righteousness he could have smite the people for their evil. For Moses fasts in prayer for the people that Moses may endeavour to best make right that which is wrong.

The sermon will fall together well as a love story. It is a segment of the definitive love story – that God sent his only Son.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,

 that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 

John 3:16 NIV

{Previous in series on sin}

{Next in series on sin}

Shalom,

Ozhamada

#Sabbath #Bible #heisrisen #jesus #Christ #messiah #preaching #sermon #homilitic #LedZeppelin

Review of park: Kesterton Park, North Sydney

Kesterton Park, North Sydney had recently been renovated with new fitness equipment, updated children's playground and new water-side access to the de-commissioned HMAS Platypus base.

It is a pleasant park that is hidden away at the end of High Street, North Sydney. Sydney Ferries Neutral Bay service stops at the North Sydney wharf adjoining the park.

The former HMAS Platypus buildings will be eventually released to business interests - restaurants, cafes, art galleries and the like. It will be a wonderful gentrification of the area. Some of the naval and submarine history has been preserved.

Fitness equipment

 There is a public bathroom, running water and an electric BBQ area.

Waterside walk entry to Sub Base Platypus - gate closed at a set time each night depending on season.

We enjoyed an hour's walk through the park and former naval base Platypus. There were educative signage and wonderful views across the water.

Electric BBQ area with children's playground at rear

 The area had few people - the park extension is probably not well known.

Bunting on fence between opened public area and a building that one day may be a café.

 The grass areas are neatly kept and the pathways are accessible to wheelchair and pram.

Updated playground equipment

We are hoping to have many happy return visits.


Shalom,
Ozhamada

Review of theatre: Seasons Greetings

TL:DR – A review of a Hunters Hill Theatre production – Seasons Greetings by Alan Ayckbourn. Flirtatious middle age woman in Hunters Hill!

--/--

Hey fellows!, flirtatious middle age woman are running amok in Hunters Hill! Well, they are at least running amok in Hunters Hill Town Hall during performances of a play Seasons Greetings by Alan Ayckbourn. A male guest, a famous author, joins an extended family for Christmas celebrations, and receives much attention from all the women-folk. The hostess switches on her charms, delighting the male guest late in the evening wearing only a thin slip.

 

Image credit: http://www.huntershilltheatre.com.au/component/content/article/107-seasons-greetings

The play is about a dysfunctional British family and it covers four days of the Christmas period of the year 1990. Neville and Belinda Bunker have opened their home to other family members including a peculiar doctor; Bernard, who has little regard for his occupational success.

The play had a few slow moments – particularly in the middle of the first act. The pace of the later part of Act 1 and the whole of Act 2 was more to my liking. I was uncomfortable with the plot development. For instance, it took some time for it to dawn on me why the family had gravitated to Neville and Belinda Bunker’s house.

The cantankerous Uncle Harvey was a welcome addition to the mix: he bought back memories of Christmases past. No family Christmas is complete without an aged relative who is still living in yester-year! The author; Clive, has perhaps the toughest acting gig in that he has to cope with being both a guest in the house and an attraction of the ladies.

We were fortunate to attend on opening night. The play runs through to 17 June 2018. The venue is very suited to a play with the stage suitably elevated above viewers. Appropriately, a picture of Her Majesty gazed upon us subjects as we watched this British production.

Thank you to Ticket Wombat for the freebie double tixs. Parking was a breeze on the main road and the coffee at interval was hot. This was the second play for us in as many months – heady experience for us.

Shalom,
Ozhamada

Reading Group question: regret

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce included a set of Reading Group Questions. One of the questions seemed particularly appropriate. It seems proper to finish the book by proposing an answer to that one question. The question is:

 

Regret is an emotion that plays a key part in the novel. Do you think Joyce sees it as a positive or negative force?

Image credit: https://goo.gl/images/UUKYkh

 

In answer:

 

• Joyce sees the emotion of regret as a positive force.
• It is positive in that it causes Fry fruitful contemplation and re-centering of focus.
• Fry is entering a new season in his life. The pilgrimage serves to cause Fry a major shift in focus from self-centred to other person-centred. Initially, that shift occurs in respect his target; Queenie, and then his daily contemplations bring him to focus on his relationship with his spouse. Most positive of all is that Fry, after many years, reconciles the loss of his son.
• The new season cannot be endured in old shoes. Fry’s yachting shoes deteriorate through the walk as a metaphor of how Fry need leave those shoes, and his stagnant way of life behind.
• There is no question that regret was both a positive and negative force – the later occurring in Fry’s recognition that he cannot holistically relate to his late-story followers. Nonetheless, the positive nature plays out stronger than the negative.
• Overall, the reader is left recognising that Fry will seek to make good on a wasted life. It is very plausible that all of his relationships improved as a result of his pilgrimage.

 

Shalom,

Ozhamada

Tim Winton, The Shepherd’s Hut

I’ve read many a Winton novel  or short story – including some of his work for younger readers. This novel made we groan up until the main character made contact with the occupant of the Shepherd’s Hut. The groan stemmed simply from the first person voice of the main character. That voice describes a loner’s journey on foot in escape from a circumstance.

That first person voice – used in current and reflective tense - is over loaded with Australian slang. Winton almost seems to pour out the entire Australian slang upon his readers. Schoolteachers could use this part of the novel to assess student’s breadth of comprehension of Australian slang could. The first person voice is current in describing the journey and reflective in drawing out the back-story.

Image credit: https://goo.gl/images/ivbu9s

On making contact with the occupant of the Shepherd’s Hut, the first person voice suddenly works. It works because it changes to a richly descriptive language that is interspaced with meaningful dialogue. It works also because Winton best draws out the beauty of the stark land when he is allowing the reader to view it through two character’s eyes rather than a loner’s eyes.

My two star rating rests largely on the first part of the book (up to approximately page 140). I truly feel that Winton would have done better to find another way of communicating than the extended first-person, loner dialogue. The second part of the book is memorable Winton.

The test of the novel perhaps lies in how an independent playwright may prepare the book for screen. I suspect a playwright may draw the viewer to the Shepherd’s Hut much quicker than does the novel. The meeting of the main character and the occupant of the Shepherd’s Hut – a meeting that the main character sought to avoid - would generate suspenseful screen action.

I am reading the hard copy edition ISBN 978-0-14-378611-5 as borrowed from City of Sydney Library. This post links from Goodreads. The two star rating is of the Goodreads system of user applying 1 to 5 stars.

Shalom,

Ozhamada

#timwinton #penguinbooks #theshepherdshut
#readAustralian