Saturday, October 31, 2009
SALLY AND MICHAEL COOK'S THIS SPRING
HERE'S YET ANOTHER OF OUR BACKGARDEN: IN THIS PIC YOU CAN SEE NATIVE FRANGIPANI AND NATIVE HIBISCUS.
ANOTHER VIEW OF OUR BACKGARDEN
ALMOST ALL OF OUR PLANTS ARE AUSTRALIAN NATIVE PLANTS. (MIKE IS A LANDSCAPER WHO UTILISES AUSTRALIAN NATIVE AND INDIGENOUS PLANTS IN NATURAL SETTINGS).
HUSBAND: Michael
Here's a photo of my husband Michael atop a large granite boulder at Tecoma Birdlands Sanctuary at the start of The Dandenongs near Melbourne, Victoria. Trees recently burnt in this February's bushfires are in the background.
YERING GORGE
HERE'S ANOTHER OF MY PHOTOS TAKEN AT YERING GORGE LAST WEEK. THIS PICTURESQUE POND IS NEAR THE YARRA RIVER.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Yering Gorge, Victoria, Australia
My friend took this at Yering Gorge, near Yarra Glen, Victoria at the end of October 09. Platypus live in this region of the River Yarra as well as kangaroos and many birds
VIEW FROM INVERAWE, MARGATE, TASMANIA
HERE'S ANOTHER VIEW FROM INVERAWE GARDENS - COLD BUT CRISP AND DELIGHTFULLY FRESH IN WINTER.
INVERAWE GARDENS, SOUTH OF HOBART: TASMANIA
We visited this beautiful property near Margate, South of Hobart in Tasmania this winter. This view is taken from Inverawe Garden - a beautiful private Australian native plant garden which is open to the public.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
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Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Ráquira, Colombia
I found Ráquira such an artistic and beautiful place during my visit to Colombia last November/December. The indigenous symbols and motifs are fascinating and a delight to photograph. 
Monday, October 26, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
QUE QUIERO
QUE QUIERO
Estoy nadando en un oceáno de preocupaciones
Pero no quiero...
Esta agua es gruesa y oscura.
***
Estoy nadando en circulos con solamente
Un vislumbre del sol.
En la profundidad
Estoy tocando malezas oscuras
***
Estoy nadando sola con un corazón pesado
Estoy nadando en mi propia profundidad
Estoy nadando en mi propia incertidumbre
***
Pero hay otro mar
Hay el mar de mis sueños
Hay el mar de mi niñez
Hay el mar de mi optimismo
Hay un mar con luz
A tráves de las olas
***
Quiero estar en el mar de mis sueños
Quiero estar en mi mar de aguamarina
Quiero descansar en mi mar de luz y burbujas
Quiero estar en el mar de mi niñez
***
Estoy nadando en las malezas
Pero recuerdo
Con claridad
El mar que me restaura
***
Me siento restaurada en el agua fria
Me siento restaurada en el mar azul
Me siento viva con la combinación
De burbujas y olas frescas
***
Tengo recuerdos felices
Tengo recuerdos brillantes
Tengo recuerdos de mi cielo
Tengo recuerdos de mi mar
***
Y en este cielo
Estoy flotando
Debajo el sol
Debajo el cristal
Debajo del aguamarina
Debajo mis burbujas
***
Tengo ocho años
Y estoy pidiendo a Dios
Por favor - me de
este mar
me de estas burbujas
me de estes colores
me de esta tranquilidad
por siempre
***
Cuando el tiempo sea correcto
me de
Un lugar
En mi propio cielo
Por Favor
RICKETT'S POINT, MELBOURNE
Only had to drive 30 mins from my place to see this pretty sunset this Easter. Was a pleasant though chilly evening for my Brazilian visitor.
MI AMANTE
MI AMANTE
HOLA MI AMANTE
CON TU CUERPO ELEGANTE
Y TU VOZ MUY DOMINANTE
***
HOLA MI AMANTE
CON TU MANERA TRANSPARENTE
Y TU RITMO PERSISTENTE
TU SENSUALIDAD ES EVIDENTE
***
HOLA MI AMANTE
MI MENTE ES VACANTE
CON TUS PALABRAS EXTRAVAGANTES
TU CUERPO MUY VIBRANTE
Y TU SABOR MUY PICANTE
***
HOLA MI AMANTEE
CON TU POSTURA CONFIDANTE
TU PRESENCIA IMPORTANTE
Y TU CARA VIGILANTE
***
HOLA MI AMOR
ME ENCANTA TU SABOR
Y A VECES CON LICOR
INCREMENTO MI CANDOR
***
ME ENCANTA TU ESTILO
Y LA FUERZA DE TU CREDO
ME DAS TUS GRAN RETOS
ME REVELAS TUS SECRETOS
***
CUAL ES TU NOMBRE?
MI AMANTE, MI HOMBRE
LA RESPUESTA ES OBVIA
EL ESPAÑOL ES MI NOVIO
From Rio de Janeiro to Healesville
How lucky to find two Australian icons together : the kookaburra and football.......An interesting glimpse for my internet friend from Campinas, Brazil, who came to stay with us this Easter
VANUATU TRIBAL CEREMONY FOR THE PM AND A MINISTER FROM NEW CALEDONIA
This tribal ceremony in Port Vila, Vanuatu, took place in front of their Prime Minister and was a welcoming ceremony for one of New Caledonia's cabinet ministers. A pig was killed as part of the gift giving. (We just happened to be at the cultural centre at the time).
Saturday, October 24, 2009
SOLAMENTE UN DIA
Solamente Un dia
Un dia ordinario
No especial
Un dia no malo
No bueno
Solamente un dia normal
***
Un dia sin complicaciones
Sin dramas
solamente
Un dia normal
***
Un dia sin calor, sin frio
Este dia normal
Un dia no horrible
No maravilloso
Este dia total
***
Un dia sin éxitos
Sin realizaciones
Este dia normal
Un dia sin color
Sin ideas
Sin una visión lateral
***
Pero que noche!
Que noche, que noche.
Que energia super normal...
Que noche, que noche...
Que noche
Que visión especial
***
La noche, la noche
La noche!
Que fluidos son los sueños
Con movimientos liquidos
Y colores totalmente
Tremendos
***
El dia normal
era aburrido
Pero dio una gran sustancia
Para la noche exótica
Con sueños
en gran circunstancias
***
Que noche....que noche....que noche
Una pantalla de placer especial
Que noche....que noche...que noche
De la comida diaria usual
BLINDING QUESTION
BLINDING QUESTION
There's light
On the dancing dust motes
Lime green in the frilly fern fronds,
A thousand fuzzy rainbows
Dance in my eyelashes
***
But she was left to feel
The space between those waiting
Their clammy guiding hands
The air moving between bodies
The subtly changing pressure
The atmosphere of hope
The ambience of dread
***
The guided her
Till she guided them
The anxious, the lonely, the poor
They led her by the hand
Till she led them with compassion
***
She saw nothing
But heard their hearts
She saw nothing
But felt their trepidation
***
She dangled by a cable
They dangled by a thread
-Their lives caught in the headlamps
***
She moved through silky darkness
Awash with curiosity
***
But on a day when she led the hopeless
On a day when she led the hopeful
She asked:
What is a cloud like?
***
Like cotton wool?
Don't tell her that!
Like cauliflower?
More beauty...please...
Clouds are like wild horses tails...
***
Her spirit danced in childish rapture
For with these shared words
We held a treasure
Library, Botogotá - Capital of Colombia
I took this photo of Bogotá's main library last November. It was as glorious as it looks
A small kiosk in Bogotá, Colombia
This little kiosk in Bogotá, the capital of Colombia, is crammed with an amazing array of goods for sale...I found this theme recurring in Colombia
SWAY HER
SWAY HER
You wove a web
For her swaying soul
Words hooked to words
A macraméd cradle
***
In word strung hammock
You cupped and cradled
Her churning spirit
As she swung to and fro
In its lullaby web
***
Mind The Gap
Mind The Gap
Word beads joined word beads
In tensile strength
Holding aloft her startled spirit
***
Cats cradle of syllables
Sounds and sentences
You held her over
Her innner precipice
***
Oh sway her, sway her
With word strung gift
Rock her, rock her
- No more bereft
TRAVEL BUG
TRAVEL BUG
Carry bags, luggage bags
Stay up late eye bags
Travel bug, eye bags
Duty free through sky bags
***
Bugger travel, travel bug
Looking through a bleary fug
Do we fly or did we land?
Had best consult the travel plans
***
Departure or arrival?
Did we come or did we go?
Feels much the same
In the bag shuffle row
***
Sit on a seat and wait
Which airline? Which gate?
Oh God - we're too early...
Oh damn it....we're too late!
***
Meals at the airport
Food on the plane
Which is breakfast?
Is dinner here again?
***
Ticket, ticket, passport
Trickle through departure port
Faces dull and faces long
Their owners in the air too long!
***
Skin dry, insomnia
In the plane the hours seem longer
***
Wait, wait....capitulate
Plane late -
A travellers fate....
More time near departure gate
***
Don't rock the boat
Don't rock the plane
You want to get home again!
***
Oh travel bug
Oh bugger travel
Oh squashy seats
Oh modern marvel
PING PING
PING PING
Ping ping ping - el horno de microonda
Eeeeeee la máquina de facsimil
Wooooooooo la alarma de un carro
Biiiiiiiiiiiiing - el reloj del horno
Bip bip bip un mensaje en la computadora
Brrrrrrr brrrrrr el sonido del teléfono
Bip bip bip el teléfono móvil
Bing bing bing el contestador automático
Boom, bang, boom la ópera de la lavadora
Piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing la secadora de ropas
Wooooo woooo woooo una ambulancia
Wrrrrrrr la impresora de la computadora
Woo woo woo la sirena de los bomberos
Tic tic toc - reloj, reloj
***
Quiero relarme, quiero dormir
Pero no es fácil con estos sonidos
que mi mente puede distinguir!
Quiero relajarme, necesito mi siesta
Quiero descansar antes de mi fiesta
***
Quiero reclinarme en mi propia cama
Pero las voces de estas máquinnas
hacen su propia drama
Máquina a máquina
con pulsos electrónicos
Me estoy volviendo loca
con ping, brr, tic de estos aparatos
***
Quiero relajarme, quiero soñar
necesito desconectar las máquinas
para descansar!!!!!
THE QUADRANGLE
A QUADRANGLE
A rectangle of asphalt
A rectangle of sky
Clouds frozen against blue
A quadrangle of faces
A quadrangle of innocence
A small girl's plump cheeks
A little boy on air guitar
***
Bemused faces round the quadrangle
Legs crossed on the ground
A moment in time:
Contained, sweet and frozen
The air, the youth the containment
- A moment in time
***
The guitar plucked, picked and poignant
A rising ache in the quadrangle
A rising promise in the quadrangle
A soaring above the asphalt
Beyond the brick walls
An aching, a yearning
Flamenco held time
***
What if the last time...
What if the last memory...
What if the last vision...
What if the last taste...
Of sweet human kind
Friday, October 23, 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Remembering The Children
By Sally Cook
Tonight numbers will be called in Spanish and English. Tonight drinks will be bought, Colombian food purchased and raffle tickets sold.
Tonight there will be camaraderie, jokes and festivities. But behind all this the children are being remembered.
These children in orphanages who don’t have enough pyjamas, these children who are cared for by the church which does not always have enough resources to feed them. These children who lie in rows of fifty on a concrete floor in a basic concrete dwelling will not be forgotten. The children of farm labourers, the children of the poor, the children who don’t receive Christmas presents. These disadvantaged children of Colombia are being remembered in Melbourne and Sydney and other parts of the Colombian and Latin American community in Australia because people do care.
The funds raised will go towards these children’s well being and especially their happiness. It means many will receive their first Christmas present, it means that their mothers and fathers and grandparents will be there to see them receive these gifts in some of the small pueblitos of Colombia. It seems it is never too late to give these children hope, never too late to give them a sense that good things are possible.
I have seen the faces of some of these children in Colombia. A group of four brothers playing in a sodden yard near Lake Tota – playing with a teapot lid on a string. They have no parents. They cannot believe their luck when given some money to buy Christmas presents last November. The oldest ,15, is asked to buy presents for himself and his brothers. The big wide smiles are emblazoned in memory. No wonder the slogan “hagamos sonreir un niño” is apt. Money raised at tonight’s fundraiser, through raffles and other events will bring a smile to a poor child in Colombia.
Some will get a new pair of shorts or a skirt, they will receive dolls or a toy truck, a school bag, ball or other relevant toys. They will wear Christmas hats and eat Christmas treats but most of all they will feel special, particularly in front of their friends, their parents, their grandparents.
In the pueblito of Barbosa, an hour’s drive from Colombia’s second largest city of Medellin, the children await their Christmas presents. Their faces are solemn, sombre, it is a big event in their lives. But this is a small finca in Colombia so the festive ambience and anticipation is mixed with the ways of the farm. Chickens strut amongst the children, a cat stretches in the sun, a dog scratches, birds fly to the bananas left on a birdfeeder. The children wait amidst this scene with the massive green mountains of the region as a backdrop. The deep green of the mountains contrasts with the bright red Christmas hats of the children. The atmosphere is deepened with the twirl of scarlet as a local Colombian dancer spreads her skirt and begins to dance. A little girl wanders in, entranced, forgetting for the moment that she is about to receive her first Christmas gift.
A rural pueblito in Colombia, famous for its large colourful balls, is an important stopping point for purchasing presents for poor children encountered near the roadside. A bag for a girl, perhaps a ball for a boy…the smiles are huge as the children pose for the camera then run down the street, arms filled with the gifts of strangers. But these gifts are not from strangers, they are from Colombians aware of their country’s need, aware that there is a chance to make a difference.
I didn’t realize that learning Spanish as a hobby at Mulgrave Neighbourhood House in Melbourne could lead to such worthwhile and interesting experiences. I didn’t know that it would lead me to some of the poorer areas of Colombia where I too would be able to hand out a gift on a rural roadside.
Tonight I will buy Colombian food, raffle tickets, participate in bingo and buy drinks because I know that there are children in Colombia who will benefit from mine and all the other guests pleasure and participation. These children do appreciate the gifts, they do smile, they do deserve pyjamas, an education, a future.
“Hagamos Sonreir Un Niño” – may Jairo and Nury and the rest of the involved local Colombian community continue to succeed in their mission. I have seen the results, I have seen the work done on the ground by other Colombians in Colombia associated with this campaign. They help with purchasing, wrapping and distributing the presents.
ENTONCES: HAGAMOS SONREIR MUCHOS NIÑOS !!!
By Sally Cook
Tonight numbers will be called in Spanish and English. Tonight drinks will be bought, Colombian food purchased and raffle tickets sold.
Tonight there will be camaraderie, jokes and festivities. But behind all this the children are being remembered.
These children in orphanages who don’t have enough pyjamas, these children who are cared for by the church which does not always have enough resources to feed them. These children who lie in rows of fifty on a concrete floor in a basic concrete dwelling will not be forgotten. The children of farm labourers, the children of the poor, the children who don’t receive Christmas presents. These disadvantaged children of Colombia are being remembered in Melbourne and Sydney and other parts of the Colombian and Latin American community in Australia because people do care.
The funds raised will go towards these children’s well being and especially their happiness. It means many will receive their first Christmas present, it means that their mothers and fathers and grandparents will be there to see them receive these gifts in some of the small pueblitos of Colombia. It seems it is never too late to give these children hope, never too late to give them a sense that good things are possible.
I have seen the faces of some of these children in Colombia. A group of four brothers playing in a sodden yard near Lake Tota – playing with a teapot lid on a string. They have no parents. They cannot believe their luck when given some money to buy Christmas presents last November. The oldest ,15, is asked to buy presents for himself and his brothers. The big wide smiles are emblazoned in memory. No wonder the slogan “hagamos sonreir un niño” is apt. Money raised at tonight’s fundraiser, through raffles and other events will bring a smile to a poor child in Colombia.
Some will get a new pair of shorts or a skirt, they will receive dolls or a toy truck, a school bag, ball or other relevant toys. They will wear Christmas hats and eat Christmas treats but most of all they will feel special, particularly in front of their friends, their parents, their grandparents.
In the pueblito of Barbosa, an hour’s drive from Colombia’s second largest city of Medellin, the children await their Christmas presents. Their faces are solemn, sombre, it is a big event in their lives. But this is a small finca in Colombia so the festive ambience and anticipation is mixed with the ways of the farm. Chickens strut amongst the children, a cat stretches in the sun, a dog scratches, birds fly to the bananas left on a birdfeeder. The children wait amidst this scene with the massive green mountains of the region as a backdrop. The deep green of the mountains contrasts with the bright red Christmas hats of the children. The atmosphere is deepened with the twirl of scarlet as a local Colombian dancer spreads her skirt and begins to dance. A little girl wanders in, entranced, forgetting for the moment that she is about to receive her first Christmas gift.
A rural pueblito in Colombia, famous for its large colourful balls, is an important stopping point for purchasing presents for poor children encountered near the roadside. A bag for a girl, perhaps a ball for a boy…the smiles are huge as the children pose for the camera then run down the street, arms filled with the gifts of strangers. But these gifts are not from strangers, they are from Colombians aware of their country’s need, aware that there is a chance to make a difference.
I didn’t realize that learning Spanish as a hobby at Mulgrave Neighbourhood House in Melbourne could lead to such worthwhile and interesting experiences. I didn’t know that it would lead me to some of the poorer areas of Colombia where I too would be able to hand out a gift on a rural roadside.
Tonight I will buy Colombian food, raffle tickets, participate in bingo and buy drinks because I know that there are children in Colombia who will benefit from mine and all the other guests pleasure and participation. These children do appreciate the gifts, they do smile, they do deserve pyjamas, an education, a future.
“Hagamos Sonreir Un Niño” – may Jairo and Nury and the rest of the involved local Colombian community continue to succeed in their mission. I have seen the results, I have seen the work done on the ground by other Colombians in Colombia associated with this campaign. They help with purchasing, wrapping and distributing the presents.
ENTONCES: HAGAMOS SONREIR MUCHOS NIÑOS !!!
Chin Chin
Por Sally Cook
Aguardiente, agua frio
Perdi mis pantalones en el rio
Ron, ron en Medellin
Perdi mi sobriedad gracias a “Chin Chin”.
Fruta, fruta con vasos de vodka
Perdi mi balance en una hamaca
Ginebra, ginebra Que espectáculo!
Pero, perdi mi concentración con un sueño
Whisky, whisky, mas Chin Chin
Perdi mis inhibiciones en Medellin
Cervezas, cervazas en Raquira
accidentalmente borré fotos en mi cámara
Una noche de Mariachis en Bogotá
Mis fotos borrosas en mi cámara
Estaba borracha con mucho Chin Chin
Bailando, bailando…pero con Quien??
Perdi mi identidad durante térapias termales
Mi cuerpo con lodo en muchos lugares
Perdi mi cara menos los ojos y boca
Pero bailé y bromé como una mujer loca
Perdi mi habilidad para soñar
Durante las noches con mucha pólvora
Perdi mi capacidad para soñar
Con el sonido de gallos al amenecer.
Perdi mi balance en mierda y barro
Estaba atrapada en el Parque Tayrona
Colombia, Colombia:Casi perdi mi mente
Especialmente con tu Aguardiente
Colombia, Colombia:Pais de riquezas
Quiero regresar para algunas cervezas.
Pero Colombia, Colombia honestamente
Eres en mi sangre - verdaderamente
Quiero regresar para gozar tu riqueza
Porque gané muchisimo –es una certeza !
Dali Tango
It’s Dali-esque
This bitter- sweet
This dark and light
Arresting and frivolous
These flourishing trills
These moods of dark foreboding
****
It’s Dali-esque
This jagged music
This crazy carnival
With violin aching
Its painful portent
****
The piano flourishes
The crescendos with
Descending notes
Increasing tension
A slow fire
The gabble of the whirligig
****
Against this structure
The dancers move
A stolen glance
A back and forth
Crisp and deliberate
sensuous and fluid
An axis of equilibrium
A disassociated paradox
****
A pause, an intention
A change of direction
Embrace and release
Embrace and release
Spaces built and reconstructed
With disciplined lines
These disciplined lives
****
This parody, this comedy, this tragedy
This man, This woman This tango
Oh……….……………Dali……
ends
It’s Dali-esque
This bitter- sweet
This dark and light
Arresting and frivolous
These flourishing trills
These moods of dark foreboding
****
It’s Dali-esque
This jagged music
This crazy carnival
With violin aching
Its painful portent
****
The piano flourishes
The crescendos with
Descending notes
Increasing tension
A slow fire
The gabble of the whirligig
****
Against this structure
The dancers move
A stolen glance
A back and forth
Crisp and deliberate
sensuous and fluid
An axis of equilibrium
A disassociated paradox
****
A pause, an intention
A change of direction
Embrace and release
Embrace and release
Spaces built and reconstructed
With disciplined lines
These disciplined lives
****
This parody, this comedy, this tragedy
This man, This woman This tango
Oh……….……………Dali……
ends
Silent Street
Colombian ballads smooth
the Melbourne to Moyston run
They sing of love and yearning
As cleaving through yellow canola fields
We reach the rowdy pobble bonks
The banjos bonk and pobble with
Their frantic mating cries
As the wattle birds in nextdoor bowers
Hiccup their strange accompaniment
And all too soon the silent moon
Throws down its ghostly challenge
But despite the calm of silver threads
Across the billabong’s nardoo stars
There’s no hushing lymnodynastes
He’s compelled to lord these marshes
Oh silent moon over Silent Street
Tomorrow there’s a challenge
For between the cramping bulging rocks
oozed into curved and solid lumps
Wondering wanderers will pass
They will know they are in Silent Street
And will try to observe its ancient strictures
As they pass along its squishy nave,
On this old hallowed ground
But there’s an urge to yell in Silent Street
To yell aloud its beauty
To cut the silence with an echo
Another reverberation in the bonk and pobble of the day
(Sally Cook)
Colombian ballads smooth
the Melbourne to Moyston run
They sing of love and yearning
As cleaving through yellow canola fields
We reach the rowdy pobble bonks
The banjos bonk and pobble with
Their frantic mating cries
As the wattle birds in nextdoor bowers
Hiccup their strange accompaniment
And all too soon the silent moon
Throws down its ghostly challenge
But despite the calm of silver threads
Across the billabong’s nardoo stars
There’s no hushing lymnodynastes
He’s compelled to lord these marshes
Oh silent moon over Silent Street
Tomorrow there’s a challenge
For between the cramping bulging rocks
oozed into curved and solid lumps
Wondering wanderers will pass
They will know they are in Silent Street
And will try to observe its ancient strictures
As they pass along its squishy nave,
On this old hallowed ground
But there’s an urge to yell in Silent Street
To yell aloud its beauty
To cut the silence with an echo
Another reverberation in the bonk and pobble of the day
(Sally Cook)
Marysville
MARYSVILLE
Marysville, Oh Marys hell
Autumnal jewel, King Parrot land
- A breast of fire engine feathers
And wings of forest green.
Then urgently red fire engines
Combat chaos with wing and prayer
To save the forest green,
To save the nestling town
But Marysville, now Marys hell
You saw the flames, the heat, the roar
A raging inferno at your core
Reducing you to ashen grey
And vaporizing dreams.
But from the ashes you will rise
Not as the Phoenix does from fires
More as the parrot is the King
Its flame red breast and feathers proud
Amongst the Mountain Ash
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
So far I haven't resurrected my poems or writing to post on my new blog but thought I'd at least show a reflective scene I recently took at St Kilda Beach. It contains elements I enjoy very much: Merlot, the sea , a gentle sun and comfortable breeze......hmmm....must put some of my writing on here soon. ....Will also add some more of my photos 
Friday, October 16, 2009
Royal Botanic Gardens Hobart
Hello out there,
this is my first blog and I hope to add some of my poems, in Spanish and English, as well as some of my writing about South America and other travel experiences. This pic was taken in July this year. Cheers Sally
this is my first blog and I hope to add some of my poems, in Spanish and English, as well as some of my writing about South America and other travel experiences. This pic was taken in July this year. Cheers Sally
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