Photo Challenge - PATRIOTISM

I have joined Brenda's Photo Challenge. I found it while roaming through some of the blogs that I read. The patriotism challenge was issued by Karen. Have a look at the links from their sites to the other participants in the challenge.

This is my oldest daughter Tegan flying the Australian flag. It is a few years old - we actually took it during the Olympics when they were in Sydney. We managed to get tickets to the rowing, near where we live, in the ballot and we had the best time barracking for the Aussies.

This is the Sydney Opera House - a landmark everyone should recognise. This picture is when they dressed it up with gorgeous lights for a special event. It is stunning day or night, sunshine or rain.

The Twelve Apostles - one of the most amazing ocean rock formations on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia. We spent a day driving along this short section of coastline, the views more and more stunning as we went. One of the best drives ever! Words cannot explain the beauty and magnificence of this natural wonder.

I Love A Sunburnt Country - by Dorothea MacKellar

The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens,
Is running in your veins;
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies -
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of drought and flooding rains,
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me.

The tragic ring-barked forests
Stark white beneath the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
An orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the crimson soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart around us
We see the cattle die -
But then the grey clouds gather
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold;
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land -
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand -
Though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown Country
My homing thoughts will fly.