Australia Day 26th January
 

My Country by Dorothea Mackellar - 1885-1968, written in 1904
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!

A stark white ring-barked forest 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
Happy Australia Day to all the Aussies on this board. May our country enjoy continued peace and freedom.

Australia Day commemorates the landing of the First Fleet in Sydney Cove under the command of Captain Arthur Philip the first Governor of Australia. It is a public holiday and many Aussies celebrate with a Bar-b-que in the back yard, lamb chops, sausages or maybe a lamb roast. In many towns and cities throughout the country migrants who wish to become citizens of Australia are welcomed with citizenship ceremonies on this day.

thanks for sharing the poem. wishing you a happy Australia Day tomorrow! our PBS tv station ran several Aussie informational shows about your continent this past weekend. i really enjoyed learning about the land down under. the poem means more to me now that i know more about your land. Enjoy!

Happy Australia Day to all our friends from Down Under. The poem is beautiful.

mltquilt

Happy Austrailia Day!!

The 26th is my birthday! So..Good day to you and Happy Birthday to me! I will just pretend that you will be celebrating for me. LOL Have a great one!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]306132[/ATTACH] Greetings to all you wonderful Australians down there.

Just finished our lamb roast dinner and thought you might like to see dessert before we cut into it.

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Happy Australia Day to all of our Aussie friends! Mrs. B., I sure wished I lived a little closer to you so I could have a taste of that cake!! YUMMY!! :)

I'd LOVE to have had a big plate of lamb, love, love, love it!
Happy Aussie Day to all of you, sounds like lots of fun!

Jan in VA

You would have been surprised to taste this "cake". It's actually a pavlova (named after Anna Pavlova, the early 20th century Russian ballerina who toured Australia and New Zealand in the 1920s). Both Australia and New Zealand ferociously claim it as their national desert. It's made of meringue, soft in the middle and crusty on the outside, filled with fresh whipped cream and usually fresh strawberries and passionfruit pulp to mitigate slightly the overwhelming sweetness. (The mad folk in NZ add kiwifruit). It's a totally over-the-top finish to many BBQs at home, dinners for visiting friends etc (don't ever try a restaurant/shop pavlova -- they are rubbish!)
I speak as someone who has cooked and eaten far too many pavlovas!