#BookBingo – About the Environment

I have just finished reading Silent Spring by Rachel Carson which fits perfectly with the Environment theme on the Book Bingo card. First published in 1962, it is still just as timely as it was then. Carson exposed the devastating effect that the wide scale use of chemicals such as DDT was having on the …

#BookSnapSunday – Silent Spring

The last few months have been a time of unimaginable change. Who could have imagined that vast numbers of people would be working, learning and socialising from home. Who could have imagined that in the twenty-first century a virus could cause such widespread social and economic pain. Who could have imagined we would be drawing …

#BookSnapSunday – 40th Lifeline Bookfest

It has been a few weeks since I have managed to do a book snap. To say the last few weeks have been eventful is an understatement. Now that we are more or less confined to home, book snaps are going to require a fair amount of creativity and thinking outside the box. My reading …

#BookSnapSunday & Gaia 2020 – The Birdman’s Wife

Melissa Ashley’s book The Birdman’s Wife has been on my mind for quite a while as a candidate for both Book Snap Sunday and the Gaia Reading challenge. The novel is a fictionalised account of the life of Elizabeth Gould, the wife of taxidermist and naturalist John Gould. While John garnered most of the attention …

Gaia Reading Challenge 2020 – Watership Down

Sharon from Gum Trees and Galaxies is hosting a reading challenge this year that is most appropriate for these times. The Gaia Reading Challenge draws our attention to books, both fiction and non-fiction, that focus on an environmental theme. The environment is high on the agenda these days, as it should be. From the catastrophic …

#BookSnapSunday – Watership Down

This year I am continuing to join in with #Book Snap Sunday, hosted by Sharon at Gum Trees and Galaxies. Watership Down by Richard Adams was first published in 1972 and is described as …  a remarkable tale of exile and survival, of heroism and leadership, the epic novel of a group of adventurers who …

International Year of Plant Health

Over the last 60 years the UN has highlighted a range of issues for international attention, beginning with World Refugee Year in 1969/1960. Since then we have had International Years for issues such as  Human Rights (1968), the welfare of Children (1979), Peace (1986) and the Eradication of Poverty (1996).  For some of these issues, …

#BookSnapSunday – The Portrait of a Lady

I was deliberating about whether to post a book snap today. Our hearts and minds have been so consumed and overwhelmed by what is happening in our nation. Watching our country burn, towns wiped off the map, swathes of bush land burned, the devastating loss of flora and fauna, and the heartbreaking loss of homes …

The Silence of 2020

This morning I woke to 2020 and noticed the silence. Nothing too unusual about that. We live on the outskirts of Toowoomba where there is open space across the road and no neighbours right on our fences. Last night was New Years Eve so the revellers are probably still asleep. But then I remembered the …

Waiting for the Train

  Australians have a pretty good sense of humour. It is somewhat dry, irreverent, ironic and a little quirky. We love to take the mickey out of people, especially our not so illustrious leaders, and ourselves, but it may be a little puzzling for those outside our borders. I  once heard someone describe Australians as …