Who Are They?

These men changed history. You know their names, even if you do not know their faces.

Watch the blog for another photo which will give the answer. What's your guess?

Happy Birthday, Ansel Adams

February 20, 1902, was the birthdate of photographer and conservationist, Ansel Adams, best known for his black and white photography of Yosemite National Park. Slate.com offered an "Ode to Ansel" in its photo section today and all his breathtaking photos can be viewed online at The Ansel Adams Gallery .

Sydney Harbour Receives Two Queens

The $1 billion grand lady of the sea, the Queen Mary 2, docked in Sydney Harbor early yesterday. Too tall to sail under the Harbour Bridge and too long to berth at the International Terminal in Circular Quay, QM2 had to dock at the Garden Island naval base. Later that evening her sister ship Queen Elizabeth 2 entered the harbour. Even though the two ships sailed together from Florida, they set different courses around the world and this was their first reunion. They saluted each other with their foghorns and thousands of Sydneysiders lined the harbour foreshore to watch fireworks in their honour. At 11pm, the QM2 began its departure on its way to Hong Kong. She leaves behind her smaller sister, with the QE2 remaining in Sydney until Thursday evening when she departs for Brisbane.

Rainy Sunset, Mullaloo WA

Anniversary of Darwin Bombing

Today is the 65th anniversary of the bombing of Darwin, a small town on Australia's Top End. On February 19, 1942 Japanese forces dropped bombs on Darwin for 40 minutes and launched a second attack 30 minutes later. At Darwin's wharf 22 workers died, and 243 people were killed during the raids. About 400 others were injured. It was the first time Australia had been attacked on home soil by an enemy. There were over 60 more bombing raids on Australia's north, lasting until November 1943. Wreaths were laid in Darwin today at the town's war memorial and at the wharf.

Dirt Music, the Film, is Coming

West Australian novelist Tim Winton's book Dirt Music is set to be screen-adapted and the next project of director Phillip Noyce. Irish actor Colin Farrell is the latest name to be linked to the film. At the Berlin Film Festival this week, it was announced Farrell would take the role of Lu Fox, earlier offered to Heath Ledger. Dirt Music is an intense love story between outcast Lu and Georgie, the unhappy partner of a prosperous fisherman. Britain's Rachel Weisz is to play Georgie.

I've read the book twice. It's full of West Australian references, of both personalities and places. While Farrell is imaginable as Lu Fox, Weisz is not the Georgie of the novel. Still, I will be first in line to see the novel on screen. It was a great read!

Happy Valentine's Day 2007!

From Us in OZ and Ella Grace in TX

Our Beach

This photo was taken at our beach on Australia Day 2007. Between the fireworks and the lightning is Comet McNaught. Click the image to see a larger view.

For full details of the photo and to see it full size, go here.

Aussie's New Website

Our new website is up and running at long last! We have a newly standardized version (above) of our Loan Manager Corporate program for sale on the site. It's very exciting for us as getting the program to a standard version and away from the current per client customization has been a dream of ours for several years. Several companies and banks in Australia and South Africa use our custom program. Now we hope to increase sales with the standardized version.

Sad Loss of Engdangered Whooping Cranes

In addition to tragic loss of human life in those recent Florida storms, the entire whooping crane population from Operation Migration was lost. Those 18 birds represented the latest flock to be led from Wisconsin to Florida by ultralight. The flight is intended to teach the cranes a new migration pattern and to save the endangered birds.

Read about Operation Migration here. For some beautiful images of the flight, look on their website or google image search for "ultralight cranes". Also the wonderful movie Fly Away Home was based on the use of an ultralight to help migrating birds, in that case orphaned Canadian geese.

Happy Australia Day 2007!

Two Hanky Link

I found this link on Clicked which is Will Femia's weblog on MSNBC. It's an 8 minute video titled 4 Generations and relates the story of giving a gift of a water buffalo to a Chinese farm family. Warning: Put your tissue box nearby before clicking.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SCOTT!

Ella Grace's First Snowfall

Remember the first time you saw snow? I hope you had your warm blanket too!

Comet McNaught Visible

On Tuesday and Wednesday nights we had perfectly clear skies and Comet McNaught was spectacular. It was clearly visible from after sunset until after 9pm. The head and tail were very distinguishable. Hundreds of people came to our beach for a good look. For tonight it looks like the clouds have returned.

Comet McNaught

The weather didn't cooperate with our comet-watching last night. We waited patiently for the sun to set then looked in the proper direction and finally through a little peephole in the cloud cover, we saw Comet McNaught. We'll try again tonight. The sky is clear tonight but the comet will supposedly be less visible. There's a great photo gallery at Spaceweather.com of the comet in different parts of the world. Our view sadly was not comparable to any of these great photos.

New Yellow Wiggle

The Wiggles, a popular Australian band which specializes in children's entertainment, has a new member. Sam Moran will replace Greg Page, the Yellow Wiggle. Page was a founding member of the group and he has been a part of the song and dance group for the last 15 years; however, he suffers from orthostatic intolerance, a disorder which stops his heart from pumping enough blood while standing or dancing (or wiggling) and has been forced to resign from the group.

Sam Moran got his start with The Wiggles hosting the Dorothy the Dinosaur Show. Recently he married Lyn Stuckey, the American who is Dorothy the Dinosaur, in a Sydney Harborside ceremony. Pictured, Sam Moran and Lyn Stuckey

Roddick Beats Federer in Warm-up to Open

The Australian Open which starts Monday just got more interesting. Andy Roddick won the Kooyong Classic Saturday afternoon, recording his first win over Roger Federer since August 2003 and proving that Federer is not invincible. Federer has not been beaten since losing in the second round of the Cincinnati Masters to Briton Andy Murray last August. Roddick will probably battle through the Aussie Open without his new coach Jimmy Connors who lost his mother this week. Federer is the top men's seed in the Open.

McGwire Passed Over for Hall of Fame

We're not here to talk about your past, Mac.

As baseball greats Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn were voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame today, baseball cheat Mark McGwire only managed enough votes to keep him on the ballot for next year's balloting. McGwire appeared on 128 of a record 545 ballots in voting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, raising doubts about whether he will ever get elected. Accusations of steriod use doomed McGwire's election and will likely cost Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro their places in Cooperstown when their balloting comes around.

Two Break-Ups and A Wedding

And a retirement. Tennis stars do seem to have a life outside of tennis. Lindsay Davenport is retired from tennis and awaiting the birth of her first child. Martina Hingis is engaged to Czech tennis player Radek Stepanek. Justine Henin-Hardenne will probably be dropping the Hardenne from her sirname in light of the rumored break-up of her 4-year marriage. She cancelled her appearance at the Sydney International tournament as well as the Australian Open for "personal reasons". What reason other than marital could be keeping the world's number one away from the first grand slam of 2007? In a break-up of the tennis sort, Lleyton Hewitt's coach Roger Rasheed walked away from Team Hewitt last week following a reported tirade from Lleyton during and after his loss at the Adelaide International last Thursday, going down to 94th-ranked Russian Igor Kunitsyn.

On a happy note, former golf great Greg Norman and former tennis great Chris Evert had gone public with their love affair, walking around Sydney holding hands and no longer repeating the refrain "very, very good friends", but looking to all the world like the 50-something lovers they are.