Red Cardinal: Citizenship

Saturday, January 25, 2014

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY

G'Day, It's Australia Day today!

As usual, I began the morning joining with my Ladies Choir to sing at a joyful Citizenship Ceremony for new arrivals to our fair land.

It is a delight to see the pleasure on those faces, from many different lands, as they happily take the Oath, and receive their Certificate of Citizenship and all that goes with it.

We sang a selection of appropriate songs, ending of course with the National Anthem, Advance Australia Fair...

Later today, we will attend a street party outside our house.

The barbeque will sizzle, and we will indulge in some of our favourite Australian fare:

We love our salads in the summer heat:

Lamingtons: named for an early Governor of Queensland..

Somebody always brings a pavlova..

and there could be Tim Tams, our favourite decadent chocolate biscuit treat.

Meantime, in honour of the occasion, a little excitement happened in our garden:

Snake goes up,

Snake comes down.

I took these photos with a zoom lens, from an upstairs window.

There is no way I would ever deliberately go this close to a snake.

The snake disappeared into the plumbago hedge below the palm tree.

It is probably a non-venomous tree snake, but as it is the same colour, size, and has the same small head as the deadly Eastern Brown, we keep our distance and never, ever, approach them.

I hope it had a drink and left our property...