One Frightening Kookaburra

A Frankenkookaburra???

I've been following a blog called  
Tyto Tony (Life in a tropical Queensland wetlands) which is a beautiful blog on bird-watching in tropical north Queensland by a bloke who calls himself Tyto Tony and describes himself as a re(tired) Kiwi journalist now living in Ingham, North Queensland, Australia.
This site has wonderful wildlife photography of bird-life that TT goes around snapping himself, by the looks of it, on his website.
I've been following his adventures, off and on, since coming across his blog when I was trying to identify my little bird friend that flew into my front window in February.

The stunned Sacred Kingfisher
recovering from some window pain;-)

This morning though I was quite impressed by this frightening looking Blue Winged Kookaburra with a snake hanging out of it beak.
The only thing missing, as I wrote in the comment box on his site, are a few bolts through it's neck.
I'm sure glad the Kookaburras around Brisbane only look like these ones I snapped on my mother-in-laws clothes line.

Snapped on my cell phone/camera in my MIL's backyard.

These come every afternoon for a feed
 with the Rainbow Lorikeets

Feeding time for the feathered friends

I love this photo he has on his side bar of a beautiful rainbow it looks like he captured on his travels.

Stunning stuff!  
Go check his work out for yourself.
http://tytotony.blogspot.com/

New Blood

 

I just saw Peter Gabriel's New Blood Live in 3D on the big screen at the Dendy cinema in Brisbane and wow, it was worth every cent.
One that I'll be sure to grab when it's out on DVD.

"Over two nights in March 2011, Peter Gabriel took to the stage at the HMV Hammersmith Apollo, London, in the company of the 46-strong New Blood Orchestra, with the entire event filmed in 3D. 
The extraordinary show features a handful of the covers from Scratch My Back, but the majority of songs are taken from Peter's solo career and given the same glorious orchestral treatment"

I wish he would bring his live show to Brisbane, but this was the next best thing, I guess. 
Bravo!

Cleo

 

I attended a talk at the Byron Bay Writers Festival called  
Animals as Healers and Totems in Literature.
The main person I was interested in hearing was 
Scott Alexander -King and the MC, Barry Eaton (whose radio show I have occasionally listened to).
Radio Out There
Kim Falconer also looked interesting, but I was not familiar with her work. 
The other author on the panel was Helen Brown.

 I had never heard of Helen before, and I had no idea what she had written about.
The talk mainly centered on black cats, which was fine with me, as I could relate to what they were saying through my experiences with Sylvester and my first cat Tiger (a ginger tom cat).
Gabriel (Peter) 
To me this was the best talk of the festival, as far as I was concerned.
They all had something deeply spiritual to say to the audience, and maybe it was just my imagination, but I felt a great spiritual connection with most people there, including most of the audience.
I had already purchased Scott's and Barry's books and was planning on getting them signed after the talk, but now I was intrigued by Helen's story as well and decided to buy her book and get her to sign it. 
I put it in my "to read" pile and thought I would maybe get around to reading it sometime next year, or the year after, the way I was going with books.
I kept passing by the book laying on my desktop and looking at the cover with the cat staring back at me and the name Cleo over it's head.
The thought kept coming into my head that maybe I should let it jump the book que and read it now. 
Then I thought to myself, if the universe wants me to read it now then it can give me a sign first and then it will be a deal, I'll start reading it straight away.

As for now I thought, I need a break from reading, so I decided to watch two movies from my "to watch" pile.
Somewhere by Sofia Coppola, a movie I chose when I renewed my Filmink Magazine subscription, because I knew it featured the motel where Hunter S Thompson used to stay and write about in his books, and Cabaret, a movie that I had bought for my wife, and one I had never watched before.

I couldn't believe (and still can't) that the daughter's name in  
Somewhere was named Cleo and at the Italian film awards there are two cats on stage as the main actor in the film is accepting his award (see trailer above). 
After watching Somewhere I put on Cabaret as the stage play was on in Brisbane and I wanted to know if the story line was any good.
I knew what the songs were like, as I had heard them enough throughout the years, but I had never watched the movie ... not really my thing.
In it there was a scene where Michael York decides to translate a book into English from German titled "Cleo, The Whip Girl", or something like that, but the name Cleo had come up in this second movie as well, and that's when I said into the heavens, "OK, I get the picture, I'll start reading the book".
I began reading it and was also startled when I got to page 42 and Helen mentions that she had a black and white cat named Sylvester when she was growing up on her parent's farm in New Zealand!?

It's a great book, I highly recommend it.

You can visit Helen's blog here;

http://browngentry.livejournal.com/

Helen with Cleo

Infinity Instruments  "Fisher Wall Clock"

"Animals as Healers and Totems in Literature"
talk Saturday Aug 6th

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UPDATE: 28.08.11

 I've just finished reading Cleo, and what a great story ... and some great personal synchronicities I had reading this one.
Page 187, where Helen goes on her first date with her future second husband Philip, they see the Tennessee Williams play 
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which is a play that I've always wanted to see ... and guess what? 
I can, because it's playing in Brisbane, but finishes this weekend. 
What "luck"?

The play is mentioned 13 lines from the bottom of the page?!

 Also on page 301 this passage struck a cord, 
"Do you know what my strongest memory is? 
Jason asked, perusing the wine list.

"Digging that hole!" the boys said in unison.

I must've looked blank."
(that goes double for me ... see link below for the hole story;-)
Gabriel (Peter)

I know it's the 'Year of the Rabbit', but it seems more like the  
'Year of the Cat' to me;- ).

Synchronicity: it's all about being caught in the moment by a meaningful coincidence, I guess?-)

Blue Cars Too

I had a very vivid dream a few weeks after my father-in-law's death, where I was being pushed up a hill in a pale sky blue peddle car by him, but I was an adult like I am now, and I had to sit on the boot, with my legs astride the doors. 
As I was too big to sit inside it.
He pushed me up the hill, and then I coasted down the hill by myself, and into a house, which in the dream I believed to be mine and my family's.

I wanted to buy some sort of model car to place on my desk, so I would not forget that strange life like dream.
The best models I could find to represent the approximate colour of the body and wheels were these cars pictured below.

Body colour very close to dream car,
plus it has silver wheels

This is how I was sitting on the car in the dream

The best picture I can find of the dream car is the one above.

Type of wheels, colour of wheels, shape and style of car.
But there was no number, and the colour was more the colour of the Ford Thunderbird pictured further u above.

If this was a peddle car and the wheels
were silver this would be it.

This dream image has taunted me since I've had that very realistic dream months ago.
So, I know there was a message for me ... I just have to work it out.
Anyway, why I'm bringing this up again was because I was out grocery shopping a few weeks ago and came across the new car from the movie Cars 2 named Finn McMissile.

Finn McMissile (pictured here)
is very close to the dream car's colours

Everybody who had seen this movie was telling me how good it was, and these guys were grown-ups.
So, the Tuesday after I got back from 
the Byron Bay Writers Festival, I went and saw it.

The first Cars movie I saw when it came out and I liked it (probably because George Carlin voiced the Kombie Van in that one), but this one to me was way better.

When you press the orange button on the Finn McMissile toy car it either says,"Finn McMissile, British intelligence", or  
"Time is of the essence", in the voice of Michael Caine.

Plus, the hood pops up and shines a blue light forwards.
Which was strange to me, because the first thing I bought after my dream was this Monopoly styled silver car key-ring that shone a blue light out when you pressed the button (see the picture two down).

"Time is of the essence!"

 

There is also a blue forklift called Guido in the movie and with me being a forklift-driver, that also makes for strange coincidences.

 

 Having just read a book called  

The Man Who Drove With His Eyes Closed  by a British guy who calls himself , "The Barefoot Doctor" (British intelligence?) and speaks a little bit like Michael Caine, is also another one of those strange coincidences.

 

And Michael Caine's voice must be flavour of the month, because  

Mel Gibson's character in the movie The Beaver  uses a very  

Michael Caine type voice to speak as the Beaver's voice in that movie (great movie, by the way).

Plus, Mel plays an executive of a toy company in the movie.

And in this movie that I saw on Sunday called The Trip, the two actors try to outdo each other by impersonating Michael Caine.

They also talk about Mel Gibson running down the valley with his Braveheart face, if my memory is correct? 

It's also odd that the number-plate on Finn McMissile is 314 FMCM, which the movie-makers claim is a reference to Michael Caine's birth-date of March 14th.

But 3.14 is also Pi ... or an inFINate number, or 8 (3+1+4 = 8) on it's side.

My numberplate containing
2 infinity symbols

It's also claimed that Finn McMissile is a stylized Aston Martin DB5, 

James Bond's trademark vehicle. 

The high-performance DB5 Vantage was introduced in 1964. 

This engine produced 314 hp (234 kW). 
Only 65 DB5 Vantage coupés were built.
DB just happens to be my initials and 1964 is the year I was born ... another coincidence for me to ponder.

There is also a car named Mater, as in To-mater.
You say Tomater, I say Tomato;-)
Now, when it comes to synchronicities, one thing is for sure
"time is of the essence".
More puzzle pieces for me to play with?

Be Willing to be Amused

The symbol of the white feather could also represent a message from the universe to be willing to be amused as this passage from 
 The Intuitive Way points out;

"Every irritating or boring situation can turn funny without warning.
If you can find a way to prompt a chuckle out of your experience or tickle yourself when you're in the midst of being dead serious, the feminine mind can break through with an intuitive revelation.
Once when I was morose and having a difficult time finding the way out of my bogged-down feelings, I turned the corner I pass every day.
As I sped around the bend, in my peripheral vision I saw a man juggling an armload of black "sticks" that were poking into the air and waving wildly.
It was an unexpected image that popped a hole through my mood.
As I looked more closely, I saw that the man held his black Labrador retriever, upside down, cradling and cuddling her lovingly.
Their wiggly giddiness rushed into me, and I broke out laughing.
I had been touched by a"real moment".
Within seconds I could feel my heart again.

When you're inventorying your environment, especially when you're looking for entertainment, even the way a housefly washes it's face or a mockingbird brashly rattles off it's repertoire of songs or a checkout clerk talks to himself as he works can be the source of a small, private pleasure."

"Laughter is the best medicine", it is said.
So, the white feather could also be a sign to lighten up a little and smile at life, and see the little amusing things that can make the tragedies of life a little easier to take.
I know if the only way I was able to communicate as a spiritual being was to throw down a white feather, then that would be the message in a nutshell.

Deliberate Creation?

Any signs that I should stay and
listen to the rest of this talk?

James Redfield was originally scheduled to do the talk in the tent pictured above with Barry Eaton, Stephanie Dowrick and  
Traci Harding, called,
 "Deliberate Creation - Bringing the Book to Life".
Since James wasn't here because of the spider bite he had suffered, I decided to go and see another talk instead, by a guy by the name of Serge Benhayon. 
But I grew tied of him talking about having to give up coffee ... and since I knew that I wasn't going to, after about ten minutes of his talk I knew what he was offering wasn't for me, so I snuck away from the tent and wandered back to the "Deliberate Creation" tent.
I didn't know whether to stay and listen, or move on.
So, I thought jokingly, that if I saw a significant sign I would stay and listen to the rest of the talk, otherwise I would move on.
Then I saw this;

Is that a Sacred Kingfisher in flight on that lady's back, in the picture above? 
I think it might be, come to think of it.
Needless to say that I stayed to hear the rest of the talk.
The Bird that Flew into the Window

White Feathers

Bookmark with wave/white feather on it
and tag off my feather pillow.

The white feather has become a symbol to me to follow my intuition, and whenever it comes up in my life it seems to confirm to me that I'm on the right track. 
Ever since I picked up and started reading The Intuitive Way by Penney Pierce, the white feather as a sign has been popping up quite a bit.

For example, the magnetic bookmark pictured above with the wave rolling in under a full moon, I purchased from the  
Byron Bay Writers Festival, because I thought the wave looked like a white feather which reminded me of The Intuitive Way cover, and to ride the wave of intuition to see where it takes you to.

Barry Eaton (far left) hosting a talk
at the Writers Festival, Byron Bay

At the Festival I met Barry Eaton and bought his book Afterlife which tells of his memories of his last life as a British soldier killed in the battle of Somme, in France during WW1 and the memories of his preparation to come back as Barry Eaton in this life, which he is living now.

In the book Barry describes his life this time, like riding a serendipitous intuitive wave.

I also met Brendan Cowell and bought his latest book called,  
How It Feels.
His latest movie is about WW1 Australian miners who go to France to dig tunnels under the German trenches. 
It is called Beneath Hill 60, but what struck me was a scene in the movie where Brendon empties a tin of white feathers onto a dining table, explaining that so many white feathers were sent to him as a sign of cowardice for not enlisting, that he could fill a pillow with them, if he wanted to.

Photo of white porcelain feathers
 from Inside Out magazine.

And the last talk I attended at the Festival involved the author  Maria V Snyder, who had a book titled Inside Out.

Sacred Space?

The diary that I bought at the end of last year ...
but haven't used ... yet

I was sorting through a pile of books on my desk this morning and the diary pictured above was buried among them, with the bookmark I bought also inside the diary. 
I bought it so I could try and keep track of the phases of the moon throughout the year, but you know what they say about good intentions?
What caught my eye though, in more ways than one, was not only the tree and heart that was on the cover, but it had all of these little reflective squares on the trunk of the tree.
Just like the tree with the mirror-ball heart hanging from it at the Writers Festival!?!

Artwork at the Byron Bay Writers Festival

The background of the cover, making up the moon, heart, squares and bird are on a silver reflective paper, which when photographed with my camera light on made the bird turn orange like the orb in my photo from that day, as well as making the background go all colours of the rainbow.

The bird  turned orange when
I used the light on my camera

But turned blue from this angle

But it is normally just silver
when looking at it

I also noticed the bookmark looks remarkably like the pen in this banner for the Writers Festival. 

 I haven't used the diary at all since I bought it, which is a shame.

But I flicked through it today to read the little paragraphs of information scatted through it from today until my birthday on Sept 23rd and found it quite interesting to me personally. 

See photos below.

Click on them to make them bigger

On tomorrow's page August 21st

For august 28th

For the 1st September

September 18th

And my birthday September 23rd
(Spring Equinox over here)

You can view them here, but the moon times and seasons are for the Southern Hemisphere only; Moon Diary Products