Category: Nature

  • Spring Gardens Down Under

    Spring Gardens Down Under

    Typical of Australian art is an appreciation of contrasting styles. At Everglades Gardens, it’s mainly European flowers and trees, but at some places in nature, and in botanic gardens, such as at Mount Tomah, you can find stunning native plants, in particular, the waratah, floral symbol for the state of New South Wales. I first…

  • Symbolism of Twins

    Symbolism of Twins

    Some Definitions Twins can be either monozygotic (“identical”), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two embryos, or dizygotic (“fraternal”), meaning that they develop from two different eggs. In fraternal twins, each twin is fertilized by its own sperm cell. Spontaneous division of the zygote into two embryos is not considered…

  • The earth is sick and in need of salvage

    The earth is sick and in need of salvage

    Sick Earth The earth is sick, its lungs stuffed and out of puff, its bones brittle near to break cancer cells spreading throughout its crests amid tumescent landfill dense as gas Her womb’s barren as melting ice all of this oblivious only to the unexamined life

  • Temperature Records Broken in Australia this Weekend

    Temperature Records Broken in Australia this Weekend

    We live near the beach at Coogee, so we are fortunate enough to get a fairly constant sea breeze.  But other areas in Western Sydney and in the Western plains were not so lucky. Residents of Richmond on the north-west fringe of Sydney saw the mercury climb to 47 degrees on Saturday, placing the town…

  • The Grafton Jacaranda Festival of Yesteryear

    The Grafton Jacaranda Festival of Yesteryear

    I’m remembering the Jacaranda Festivals of my childhood at Grafton in northern New South Wales, with a certain nostalgia. Did such a time of innocence really exist? Is this celebration different today? Below is a photo from my sister’s album of her, Susan, and our little sister, Jill, folk dancing with school friends at the…

  • Visiting Ein Gedi

    Visiting Ein Gedi

    I was drawn to the exotic name Ein Gedi, when coming across it in my brother’s first novel set partly in Israel. Then in a friend’s writing based on a poem by Ted Hughes from “Folktale”, part of  Hughes’ collection entitled Capriccio.  Hughes refers obliquely to the last of the leopards of Ein Gedi in…

  • The Passion of Grandparenting … and of Writing

    The Passion of Grandparenting … and of Writing

    Like for most things, you can only understand the strong emotions grandparents feel  towards their grandchildren once you’ve experienced it. Some live only for their children and grandchildren. I cannot imagine this. I feel so lucky and priviliged to have my twin passions, my family AND my writing. I’ve reconnected recently with people from my…

  • The Golden Ratio in Nature

    The Golden Ratio in Nature

    I was never interested in mathematics at school,  perhaps because of the way it was taught; it was seen as a subject for boys in the 50s. Today, things may have changed a bit.  In any case,  from early on, I was on the creative spectrum, rather than the logical/rational one. Was this a result…

  • More About The Golden Ratio

    More About The Golden Ratio

    The Vitruvian Man is a drawing created by Leonardo da Vinci circa 1490. It is accompanied by notes based on the work of the architect Vitruvius. The drawing, which is in pen and ink on paper, depicts a male figure in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart and simultaneously inscribed in a…

  • The Golden Ratio in Art and Architecture

    The Golden Ratio in Art and Architecture

    Many buildings and artworks reflect the Golden Ratio: the Parthenon in Greece, and many other classical buildings in Europe. But it is not really known if it was designed that way. Some artists and architects believe the Golden Ratio makes the most pleasing and beautiful shapes. There is a mathematical ratio commonly found in nature—the…