Fresh pokies brought to you by Woolworths

Here it is -the Woolworth's other 'Happy Christmas' advert courtesy of Getup. Please blare and share and dare your...
Posted by Gypsy Jack on Monday, 21 December 2015

An Australian Carol - Carol of the Birds - with lyrics

Carol of the Birds

Written  by:  William Garnet James & John Wheeler

Out on the plains the brolgas are dancing Lifting their feet like war horses prancing Up to the sun the woodlarks go winging Faint in the dawn light echoes their singing Orana!  Orana!  Orana to Christmas Day Down where the tree ferns grow by the river There where the waters sparkle and quiver Deep in the gullies bell-birds are chiming Softly and sweetly their lyric notes rhyming Orana!  Orana!  Orana to Christmas Day Friar birds sip the nectar of flowers Currawongs chant in the wattle tree bowers In the blue ranges lorikeets calling Carols of bushbirds rising and falling Orana!  Orana!  Orana to Christmas Day The word "Orana"  means  "Welcome" This link will open a midi file player to allow you to hear the tune and see the words as it plays. Carol of the Birds  Please go to this YouTube to see beautiful shots of the birds in the song.

Carol of the Birds - a Catalonia carol

Lyrics

The Carol of the Birds (traditional)

When rose the eastern star
The birds came from afar
In that night full of glory
In one melodious voice
They sweetly did rejoice
And sang the wondrous story

Sang, praising God on high
Enthroned above the sky
And His fair mother, Mary

The eagle left his lair
Came winging through the air
His message loud arising
And to his joyous cry
The sparrow made reply
His answer sweetly voicing

"Overcome are death and strife
This night is born new life,"
The robin sang rejoicing

When rose the eastern star
The birds came from afar

Happy New Year to all the friends of the Ballarat Interfaith Network - "Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God"

This post was originally published on The Trad Pad on  2 January 2011.  

Happy New Year everyone ... 

particularly to those who did it tough this year.  

Please take on board the thoughts of Minnie Louise Haskins

~~~~~~

Happy New Year! May the year be kind to you and bring you blessings, wisdom, peace, and prosperity!  The last day or two has exhibited some coincidence. Firstly, Hay Quaker published, in toto, the poem The Gate of the Year by Minnie Louise Haskins.

 Minnie Louise Haskins

Picture from here

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year,
"Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown."
And he replied, "Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way!"
So I went forth and finding the Hand of God
Trod gladly into the night.
He led me towards the hills
And the breaking of day in the lone east.
So heart be still!
What need our human life to know
If God hath comprehension?
In all the dizzy strife of things
Both high and low,
God hideth his intention.

Perhaps readers have heard this poem, or part of it, before.  It was made famous by the Christmas Speech of King George VI delivered in 1939.  You can hear the actual speech – it is quite moving given it is made at the time of the first Christmas of World War II – here.

Picture from here

Secondly, I decided to get out of the house for the first time since  Christmas Midnight Carols and Eucharist at All Saints, Mitcham and go to see the much lauded movie, The King’s Speech. It is the story of the relationship between the Australian speech therapist, Lionel Logue, and King George VI.

The movie is being tipped as a frontline contender for an Oscar. In spite of competition from The Social Network in the bookies’ odds as set out here, it is hard to see how this movie could lose with its high proportion of former Academy Award winning actors.  The UK still produces the best actors – particularly in ensemble work as demonstrated in The King’s Speech – in the English speaking world.  However, it does an Australian heart good – particularly one coming from Queensland – to see and hear Geoffrey Rush mixing it admirably with such a talented cast. To think, this great man of Australian movies was growing up across Brisbane from me in the 1950s!

Those sitting around me in the packed movie theatre were clearly as impressed as I. 

I was however surprised at the ending. I don’t think, in such an historical movie, it is giving away much to describe the ending of this movie.  I thought the movie somehow would finish with the 1939 Christmas Speech. This is arguably the most famous, most remembered, and most quoted of all the King George VI’s speeches.  This doesn’t happen.  The movie concludes with the King’s Speech at the beginning of World War II.

Listen to the original speech here.