Volcanic Islands in the Stream

 

Hawaii

  The volcanic mountains creating the Hawaiian islands are among the greatest mountain ranges on earth. They rise an average of 4,572 meters 15,000 feet to reach sea level from their base on the sea floor with the highest Mauna Loa climbing an additional 4,170 meters (13,680 feet) above sea level.

Mauna Loa is the largest volcano and the largest single mountain of any kind in the world. It is 97 kilometers (60 miles) long, 48 kilometers (30 miles) wide, and rises about 8,742 meters (28,680 feet) from its base on the sea floor.

  Kīlauea is the youngest and southeastern most volcano on the Big Island of Hawai`i.Kīlauea is the home of Pele, the Hawaiian volcano goddess. Hawaiian chants and oral traditions tells of many eruptions caused by an angry Pele. 

Kilauea Erupts

The Glasshouse Mountains 

 The remnant cores of volcanoes have been active about 25 million years . They were formed as molten rock was forced out of vents from within the earth. As these flows of magma cooled over a period they solidified into conal shapes of hard rocks.

   On  17^th May 1770 Captain James Cook while sailing up the east coast of Australia he sighted and named these hills the Glass Houses. The reflections and the shape of these hills reminded him of the glass manufacturing houses back in England.

    The names the Kabi Aborigines gave the mountains remain.They are Mt. Beerwah, Tibrogargan, Ngungun and Coonowrin.

It seems that Tibrogargan, the father, and Beerwah, the mother, had many children - Coonowrin (the eldest), Beerburrum, the Tunbubudla twins, Coochin, Ngungun, Tibberoowuccum, Miketeebumulgrai and Elimbah.  and Wild Horse who was always straying away to paddle in the sea.
  An Aboriginal creation legend of the Glass House Mountains tells a tale of a pregnant Beerwah mountain mother, father Tibrogargan and son Coonowrin. The son's neck is broken as punishment (resulting in the shape of the volcanic plug) and the father never looks at his son again. Both mother and father cry tears (seen as streams running down the mountains). It's a legend that comes to life when you see the mountains up close. 

Glasshouse Mountains view from Mt Coolum

Santorini Greece

    The island of Santorini or Thira is located in the Cyclades islands, in the middle of the Greek Islands on the Aegean Sea.It is actually a Caldera (crater), an ancient rim of a still active volcano with beautiful white houses scattered along the cliffside. 

     The first eruption of the volcano is estimated to have happened around 1500 BC. It is one of the most significant volcanoes in the world history because it is considered responsible for the destruction of the Minoan Crete .
    The last eruption dates to 1956, and the volcano is still alive today. Some legends lead to believe that the destruction of Santorini could be related to the Mythical Atlantis.

Sunshine Coast Volcanic Peaks
Mt Coolum Sunset

Mt Cooroora Pomona Noosa Hinterland

Climbing Mt Coolum

Islands in the Stream

Flower Power

      The term flower power was used in a poem by Allen Ginsberg in 1965 a probable source for the term. The hippies were also to be known as the flower children.It has been 43 years since thousands of young people gathered in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district to share what came to be known as the "Summer of Love." It introduced the rest of the country to flower children and free love, protests and drugs. San Francisco during the Summer of Love were filled with the sounds of bells, the fragrance of incense, lots of beads, fringe vests, paisley and, of course, music.

“I have seen the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness,”

 Allen Ginsberg The Howl

   The world was spinning out of control and everyone was angry about something. Vietnam war,black rights,womans rights,free love and assassinations. More changes probably took place in American society during the 1960's than in any other decade of the 20th century. Of all the events of those years, perhaps none more  important than Woodstock Music and Arts Festival, held in Bethel, NY, in mid August of 1969.

Woodstock 

Age of Aquarious 
 

Links to Woodstock and other Trippy Sites
Haight Ashbury
Woodstock
Summer of Love 
Allen Ginsberg 
Summer of Love Memories 
Woodstock Retrospective

Wish I Was A Punk Rocker 



More Flower Power

Ah! Sunflower William Blake

Ah! sunflower, weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the sun,
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the traveller’s journey is done;

Where the youth pined away with desire,
And the pale virgin shrouded in snow,
Arise from their graves and aspire;
Where my sunflower wishes to go. 

Song of The Flower

Kahlil Gibran 

I am a kind word uttered and repeated

By the voice of Nature;

I am a star fallen from the

Blue tent upon the green carpet.

I am the daughter of the elements

With whom Winter conceived;

To whom Spring gave birth; I was

Reared in the lap of Summer and I 

Slept in the bed of Autumn.

At dawn I unite with the breeze

To announce the coming of light;

At eventide I join the birds

In bidding the light farewell. 

The plains are decorated with
My beautiful colors, and the air

Is scented with my fragrance.
As I embrace Slumber the eyes of

Night watch over me, and as I

Awaken I stare at the sun, which is

The only eye of the day.
I drink dew for wine, and hearken to
The voices of the birds, and dance
To the rhythmic swaying of the grass.

I am the lover's gift; I am the wedding wreath;
I am the memory of a moment of happiness;
I am the last gift of the living to the dead;
I am a part of joy and a part of sorrow.

But I look up high to see only the light,
And never look down to see my shadow.
This is wisdom which man must learn.

Bird Moments Part 2

 Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come.
-  Chinese Proverb

Blue Wing Kookaburra

A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.
Lou Holtz 

 

Treecreeper

Have you ever observed a humming-bird moving about in an aerial dance among the flowers a living prismatic gem it is a creature of such fairy-like loveliness as to mock all description. W.H. Hudson, Green Mansions

Humming Bird

Use the talents you possess for the woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except for the best.Henry Van Dyke

Wagtail

Willy Willy Wagtail sitting on a cow's tail cow did a pee and Willy had a cup of tea.

Could'nt resist throwing this in.One of my dad's favorites when I was small and the little ditty I have passed on to my children along with this one.

Ask ya mother for sixpence to see the giant giraffe with pimples on his eyebrows and spots upon his as....k ya mother for sixpence repeat.

Figbird

Located across Australia's Top end and down the Eastern seaboard to South of Sydney, found in forest edges, parks and gardens, the Figbird is a locally nomadic bird which roams in search of native and cultivated fruits and figs

Fig Bird

Hoodwinked Eagle 

Eagle attacking Mountain Goat

Lorikeet Feeding

The Rainbow Lorikeet is unmistakable with its bright red beak and colourful plumage. Both sexes look alike, with a blue (mauve) head and belly, green wings, tail and back, and an orange/yellow breast. They are often seen in loud and fast-moving flocks, or in communal roosts at dusk.

Minahs Chatting

A Bird

A bird came down the walk,
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angleworm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.
And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.

by Emily Dickinson

Swamp Hen

You have to believe in happiness,
Or happiness never comes
Ah, that's the reason a bird can sing
On his darkest day he believes in Spring
Douglas Malloch

A wonderful bird is the pelican
His bill will hold more than his belican.
He can take in his beak
Food enough for a week,
But I'm damned if I see how the helican.  


Dixon Lanier Merritt

Family of Cormorants

The Raven Edgar Allen Poe

But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only 
 That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour. 
 Nothing further then he uttered not a feather then he fluttered 
 Till I scarcely more than muttered "Other friends have flown before 
 On the morrow will he leave me, as my hopes have flown before." 
 Then the bird said, "Nevermore."  

Bob Marley Three Little Birds