Happy Australia Day...

It's a public holiday throughout Australia today and I wish all Aussies a great day celebrating with family and friends. The day celebrates when Captain Arthur Phillip landed in Sydney Cove to start a British penal colony which eventually became this nation. In more recent times there has been acknowledgement that there were inhabitants here before Phillip and his First Fleet arrived...the aborigines. Many of the indigenous people refer to today as 'Invasion Day'.

My forebears were not convicts (it is considered very trendy to be descended from a convict these days :-/)but most came from the UK, especially Ireland, and of course my dad came from Sicily. My father loved his adopted homeland and I'm pretty proud to be an Aussie too! For a few years now, DH and I have celebrated with friends at one friend's house. That was called off this year.

Photo; Courtesy of my friend Jane Kleeman Marsh

Due to the heavy rain over the last week many A.D. activities have been cancelled. DH and I had planned to join some friends in a big open-air concert in the Moreton Bay District Council area of Strathpine...too muddy etc so it's been cancelled. We talked about going to festivities at some of the local sporting and RSL club but have decided to do our 'own thing'....watching the cricket and the tennis on telly! lol Then small lamb roast with baked vegetables for dinner tonight...then maybe a dessert made with slices of fresh mango!

We'll leave the more boisterous type of celebrating to the young ones.