Friday, April 24, 2020

ANZAC SPIRIT IS IN US ALL

Hi there
I'm passing on an extract from an article written by a friend, Eda Utka. To me, it epitomises the spirit of Australia, including our new residents from other lands.  Thanks Eda
LEST WE FORGET 
Claire
This Saturday is a special day here in Australia. It’s a day of remembrance for the men who sacrificed their lives to fight battles in faraway lands. One of those distant lands where Australians and New Zealanders fought was Turkey, my homeland.

This year, I baked ANZAC Biscuits. These biscuits are symbolic of a mother’s love and the innovative spirit of the ANZACs. The mothers of the ANZAC soldiers developed a recipe made from non-perishable ingredients to last the long journey to Turkey and this biscuit made of flour, rolled oats, coconut flakes, golden syrup and butter was born.
So this ANZAC spirit that we talk about, mateship, humour, ingenuity, courage and endurance, it is not only in the men who served overseas, but in the women who were left behind to raise their children to provide moral support, bake and ship off ANZAC biscuits as a symbol of their love. These days I see ANZAC spirit in people who leave behind their homes to come to Australia to study or start new lives here with their families.
I see it in people like Christabelle, who first offered me ANZAC biscuits despite being Indonesian. I see it in anyone who’s left all they know to start a new life after battling an illness, breakdown of a relationship, becoming a mother for the first time, decided to write a book, left a job that was comfortable for a new challenge. In short, we all embody the ANZAC spirit. It is the human spirit. Eda

Sunday, April 12, 2020

Andre Bocelli - Songs of Hope in Duomo di Milano


 
Duomo di Milano 
Maddonnina a-Duomo

Italian tenor Andre Bocelli has performed a live Easter concert in the empty Duomo cathedral in Milan to promote a message of hope for Italy and the world as it confronts the coronavirus pandemic.

https://www.youtube.com/andreabocelli

Click on link.  You can also click on 'Skip ads'.

The Music for Hope concert, broadcast worldwide on Youtube on Easter Sunday (local time), featured only Bocelli, one of the world's most famous opera singers, and the cathedral's organist Emanuele Vianelli.
Bocelli sang four hymns, before finishing with a moving rendition of Amazing Grace as a montage showed the empty streets of Paris, London and New York...
"Thanks to music, streamed live, bringing together millions of clasped hands everywhere in the world, we will hug this wounded Earth's pulsing heart, this wonderful international forge that is reason for Italian pride."  Andre Bocelli






Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Artist's Camps revisited with Vivaldi


Vivaldi - 'Quattro Stagioni'  Janine Janson - Internationaal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzE-kVadtNw&list=RDzzE-kVadtNw&start_radio=1





'From My Camp'  Arthur Streeton 1896


Great music for a walk around our foreshores or on a  desert island.



Photo - Christopher Maait - 'From Curlew Camp' 2012
"I shout and laugh at my immense wealth, all free and without responsibility.  Who could steal this from me?  No-one"  Arthur Streeton

(The wonderful thing about these two images is that with about a century between them.) 


This foreshore walk has it all - spectacular views to the city, natural bushland, history: with places to linger and imagine how it was for the young men at the Artists' Camps.  


1890's Streeton and Roberts 'pulled through the lazy green water
and lunched in the shade and in the open air'
to join their fellow artists under canvas 
in camps set up by Hopkins and Ashton.
" 'til matrimony claimed their souls"



My walk took me here to the same spot this week.  

(More about these camps - P37 Through the Heads to Balmoral, Sydney and Mosman Meanders & foreshore flavours)

Sirius Isolation with Mozart


To get you in the mood for a beautiful walk.

Piano Concerto No. 21, Andante (Elvira Madigan)  ...  much loved Mozart piece



Sirius Cove, the closest harbour beach to home, is the beginning of a fabulous walk around the foreshores to Taronga Zoo.  A walk such as this inspired 'Mosman Meanders & foreshore flavours' and still does, with its rich history and natural beauty.  
Our foreshores beckon
Child and dog-friendly - the beginning of the foreshore walk to the zoo
At the Zoo Wharf