Another Trip to the USA / Sioux Falls SD - The Arc of Dreams

They say Sioux Falls is an arts and culture hot spot in the heart of America.

Certainly from what I have seen this could be true given the number of museums and galleries that exist in a city of just 200,000 people.

My interest there has been mainly in the visual arts with the Sculpture Walk around downtown always on my to do list.

But a few years ago I read about a new project.

Back in 2016, the Arc of Dreams, a giant stainless steel sculpture by South Dakota Artist Laureate, Dale Lamphere which would span the Big Sioux River was mooted.

The initial design immediately caught my attention. 

There was some controversy with divided opinions as to the work's relevance to the city.

But in the end the community made this dream a reality. 

In March of 2017, the Sculpture Walk organization put out a request to people to help support the work.

It became a project that has been funded entirely by private donations.

I followed it’s construction on the web through local media, both press and TV.

It was quite an engineering feat not only to put it together, deliver it (from Denver) but to install which was finalised mid 2019.

The overall sweep of the sculpture was inspired by a blade of prairie grass.

With a span of just over 90m, the centre of the Arc has a 5m gap, 26m above the river, symbolising the leap of faith dreamers need take to see their dreams come true.

And I couldn’t wait to see it.

And what a wonderful addition to the city it is.

Couldn’t be more perfect. 

Another Trip to the USA / The SD Family

The main reason for the USA trip was to reconnect with family in New York City and South Dakota after a nearly three year absence due to Covid.

In SD we ‘rotated’ around the siblings’ accomodations and visited the mother on a regular basis and went on a clothes shopping spree with her. Thanks for the coupons!

Sister Karyl drove in from Montana to complete the set. 

But one of the first things we did on arrival was get our Omicron specific bivalent vaccination shot. It was not available in Australia before we left. It was free in pharmacies with no nationality restrictions.

In Elkton we caught up with sister Kelly and Mark as well as their daughters’ families.

A bit of excitement was the multiple sighting of a mountain lion in the close vicinity. 

Hunted but no trace found.

I got to go out to the family farm to ride the combine harvesting soya beans. 

Love big machines.

A couple of the grandkids are into football so we spent an hour at the South Dakota State University stadium in freezing temperatures watching them run around. Despite the cold it was fun.

And a house in the vicinity had their usual OTT Halloween display

At Lake Hendricks with brother Kevin and Lisa, autumn was beginning to show and despite a few windy days it lived up to its reputation in the sign below.

It was beautiful out on the lake and we got the traditional tour thanks to the bro keeping the pontoon boat  a little longer in the water than normal. Boats and docks are pulled out of the lake when winter approaches. The co driver got to do some paddling as well trying SUP.

Kevin and Lisa arranged a get together with their sons’ families. It was a full on day with lots of food, laughter and an important football game on TV to watch. Lisa was into the Fall and Halloween decorations. I’d never seen pumpkin carving being done before and the grandkids were really into it.

At Trent, Kay and Scott had organised a mini Thanksgiving dinner with their daughter, her husband and grandchildren which turned into a bit of an extravaganza which I didn’t mind at all. It was all very delicious.

Scott took me for a ride in friend’s oldish red Mustang convertible which has always been on my bucket list. We ended up at a local winery for a tasting and enjoyed a flight of reds. Even bought a few bottles.

Kay runs an on line quilt fabric supply site and every Saturday morning presents a live webcast on Facebook for about 30 minutes or so. It’s very chatty in a way only quilters seem to do. As a bit of variety she asked me to introduce the program. No doubt it was a surprise for regular viewers to see a man with a strange accent there when they tuned in. But it was fun. And, no, I won’t be supplying the link. The embarrassment of seeing myself doing that has not yet abated.

During this time we ate out with family and friends at two lovely venues, The Knotty Pine in Elkton and in The Stone House and Quarry Lounge over the border in Pipestone, Minnesota. The co driver and I did our usual date night at Morries’s in Sioux Falls. Still as good as ever.

An observation in the few wine shops we went into. Australian wine was generally on the lower quality and cheaper side and on the bottom shelf which was a bit disappointing. Regrettably mail ordering wine into South Dakota is not allowed by law so I couldn’t get the folks to sample some better ones.

Another Trip to the USA / NYC to SD

After good night’s sleep and breakfast at the La Guardia Plaza, we took the hotel shuttle to LGA Terminal B.

This airport has recently been revamped. Previously it had a pretty poor reputation.

Self check in at United was a breeze and security took a few minutes.

This is how an airport should operate. 

SYD take note!

The waiting areas were spacious, signage was excellent, seating comfortable plus there was a huge range of food and merchandise shops.

And how about this fountain?

Our flight to Chicago was an hour late departing but we had factored in a three hour transit time in ORD so there was no stress.

The full flight passed quickly and we disembarked into T1 and a virtual zoo.

Have never seen Chicago O’Hare so busy. The throng of people, even in T2, was difficult to manoeuvre through.

I think we were two of the few wearing masks.

After a quick lunch we boarded another full flight to Sioux Falls, SD. 

The planes were getting smaller.

On time arrival at FSD to be greeted by some family members dressed up for the occasion.

It had a lot of airport staff, passengers and rental car people grab for their phones.

It was a nice welcome back after a three year absence.

After renting a car from the amused agent, we were on the interstate north reaching our Elkton BnB and Kennels accommodation about an hour later.

We had a nice dinner and catch up chat.

But soon jet lag began to creep in so it was time for bed.

Another Trip to the USA / Getting There

Incident free trip up to Sydney to a hotel across the road from the international terminal.

Up early next morning with the advice we would need a minimum of 3 hours for check in and exit formalities due to the chaotic situation at Sydney Airport.

We decided on four.

Lucky we did as it took just under three hours to get to our gate.

Check in was fast but emigration and security was extremely slow. Only half the gates are open due to post covid staffing problems.

We had time for breakfast and for the co driver to collect her tax refund on her electronics she was taking with her.

The three hour flight to Auckland on Air New Zealand was very pleasant despite the plane being full.

A quick security check to enter Auckland airport transit, a shop for some more duty free goodies, then onto the non stop 16.5 hour Air New Zealand flight to New York City (JFK).

Luckily we both had two spare seats beside us so we could spread out and sleep.

We also had an internet connection most of the way.

We arrived in time and I spent an hour in the immigration queue before grabbing our bags and getting a taxi to a La Guardia airport hotel.

A room service pizza and a beer before hitting the sack.

It was a long long day.

Another La Niña Event / Australia

The Bureau of Meteorology has officially declared a La Nina weather system is underway in the South Pacific.
Models predict the event, characterized by above average rainfall, will continue until early 2023.
It is expected to peak during spring.

Many communities are still rebuilding after at least 22 people died and more than 25,000 homes and businesses were damaged by floodwaters earlier this year. In the first week of April southern Queensland and northern NSW each received more than a year's rainfall.
This is the third back-to-back La Nina event and the fourth instance of three consecutive events since records began in 1900.
There is already wet soil, high rivers and full dams right across NSW and. with more rain on the horizon, comes the very real possibility of flooding.
According to the Bureau's Climate Driver Update, tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures have been cooling since June and are now at La Nina thresholds. Atmospheric indicators are also displaying patterns typical of the weather event.

Bureau head of long-range forecasts, Dr Andrew Watkins, said that while La Nina criteria had been met, most models forecast it to be weak to moderate in strength.
During La Nina events, waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean are cooler than normal, and waters in the western tropical Pacific Ocean warmer than normal. This causes changes in wind, cloud and pressure patterns over the Pacific.
When this change in the atmosphere combines with changes in ocean temperature, it can influence global weather patterns and climate, including increasing rainfall over large parts of Australia.
There was an 80 per cent chance of above average rainfall for many parts of the eastern half of Australia.

According to the Bureau, a negative Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) event also continues. A negative IOD is associated with above-average spring rainfall for much of Australia. When a La Nina and negative IOD combine, it further increases the likelihood of above average rainfall over Australia, particularly in the eastern half of the continent. SAM (Southern Annular Mode) is a climate driver that can influence rainfall and temperature in Australia. Full explanation here.
At least you'd hope all this reduces the bush fire threat this summer.

A Wobbly Moon

How interesting is this?

A wobble in the moon’s orbit around Earth affects mangrove cover across Australia and likely contributed to mass tree deaths in the Gulf of Carpentaria, new research suggests.
The moon’s orbit around Earth does not occur in a flat plane.

 “Since the 1720s, people have known that it moves up and down by a few degrees,” said the study’s lead author, Prof Neil Saintilan of Macquarie University. He likened the motion to “when you’re spinning a coin – as it loses momentum, it kind of wobbles”.

Photograph: Jono Searle/AAP

A study published in the journal Scientific Advances has found that an 18.61-year cycle known as the lunar nodal cycle shapes the condition of tidal wetlands
This has affected the mangrove forests in Northern Australia.
Read the whole article here in the Guardian.

The Mangrove forest type occurs in many of Australia’s coastal regions, but has a total area of only 0.9 million hectares, or 0.6% of Australia’s native forest cover. Australian Mangrove forests contain 41 species of mangrove from 19 plant families. More than half of the world’s mangrove species are found in Australia.

Kangaroos are Back!

Pre bush fires we always had kangaroos around.
After the fires, nothing.
But now, 2 years later they are back.
They feed at early dawn and late dusk and into the night.
Some have ventured into our yards
From the amount of faeces around, there must be quite a few after dark.
We have two regulars. A largish western grey with her baby (joey).
Despite its size it is sometimes still climbing into its mother’s pouch.

Joey is the name given to all marsupial young, not just kangaroos.
Newborn kangaroo joeys are just 2.5 centimetres long at birth, or about the size of a grape. After birth, joeys travel, unassisted, through their mother’s thick fur to the comfort and safety of the pouch.
A newborn joey can’t suckle or swallow, so the kangaroo mother uses her muscles to pump milk down its throat. 

At around 4 months, the joey emerges from the pouch for short trips and to graze on grass and small shrubs. At 10 months, the joey is mature enough to leave the pouch for good.
It’s nice to see them back despite occasionally causing some fence damage and eating pasture that my cattle could do with.

Wollemi Pine Update ☹️

In 2007 I received a small potted Wollemi Pine cloned from a secret stand of around 100 trees somewhere in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.
The Wollemi Pine is one of the world's oldest and rarest plants dating back to the time of the dinosaurs.

Over the years I have documented its progress on this blog.

It has done remarkably well.

Until now.
The tree doesn’t like ‘wet feet’.
So far this year we have received 1700mm of rain.
The annual average is 1100mm.
Our property has been soggy for months with the water table so high and drainage slow.
The pine started to show some stress a few months ago with yellowing of the top leaves.

Now the top half is completely dead.

Fingers crossed it is ‘self regulating’ and will survive with the remaining foliage.
But the forecasts are not good
Australia is in the midst of a negative Indian Ocean Dipole event which is producing the higher rate of rainfall over the east coast.

There are also have above average sea surface temperatures around Australia. These conditions mean that there’s a lot of available moisture that can be dragged into these weather systems as they cross the country.

The October to December outlook suggests wetter than average conditions for most of eastern Australia.
There was also a 70% chance of a La Niña event developing during the spring, which was contributing to the wetter than average outlook. 

National Wattle Day

Wattle Day celebrates the golden wattle as Australia’s national floral emblem.
The wattle is resilient against Australia's droughts, winds and bushfires and and is said to represent the spirit of the Australian people.
The golden wattle has more recently been used as a symbol of remembrance and reflection, with a sprig worn on national days of mourning.

For more than a century Australians in different States and the territories celebrated their own wattle day on different days in July, August and September whenever the wattles were at their blooming best locally.
The first celebration of wattle day took place, however, on 1 September in 1910 in NSW, Victoria and South Australia.
Since 1992 National Wattle Day has been 1 September in all of Australia's States and Territories.
Wattles have long had special meanings for Australians and in 1988 the Golden Wattle (Acacia pycnantha) was officially gazetted as Australia's national floral emblem.

Three Australian Musical Icons Die in August.

The Australian music industry lost three icons over 10 days this month.
Archibald William Roach AM was an Australian singer, songwriter and Aboriginal activist. Often referred to as "Uncle Archie", Roach was a Gunditjmara and Bundjalung elder who campaigned for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. His wife and musical partner was the singer Ruby Hunter (1955–2010).
Roach first became known for the song "Took the Children Away", which featured on his debut solo album, Charcoal Lane, in 1990. He toured around the globe, headlining and opening shows for Joan Armatrading, Bob Dylan, Billy Bragg, Tracy Chapman, Suzanne Vega and Patti Smith. His work has been recognised by numerous nominations and awards, including a Deadly Award for a "Lifetime Contribution to Healing the Stolen Generations" in 2013. At the 2020 ARIA Music Awards on 25 November 2020, he was inducted into their hall of fame.
Judith Durham AO was an Australian singer, songwriter and musician who became the lead singer of the Australian folk music group the Seekers in 1963.
The group became the first Australian pop music group to achieve major chart and sales success in the United Kingdom and the United States and have sold over 50 million records worldwide. Durham left the group in mid 1968 to pursue her solo career. In 1993, she began to make sporadic recordings and performances with the Seekers, though she remained primarily a solo performer. On 1 July 2015, she was named Victorian of the Year for her services to music and a range of charities.

Dame Olivia Newton-John AC DBE was a British-born Australian singer, actress and activist. She was a four-time Grammy Award winner whose music career included five number-one hits and many other top-ten hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and two number-one albums on the Billboard 200; If You Love Me, Let Me Know (1974) and Have You Never Been Mellow (1975). Eleven of her singles(including two Platinum) and 14 of her albums (including two Platinum and four 2× Platinum) have been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). With global sales of more than 100 million records, Newton-John is one of the best-selling music artists from the second half of the 20th century to the present.
In 1978, Newton-John starred in the musical film Grease, that became highest-grossing musical film ever at the time and whose soundtrack remains one of the world's best-selling albums of all time. It features two major hit duets with co-star John Travolta: "You're the One That I Want" – which is one of the best-selling singles of all time – and "Summer Nights". Her signature solo recordings include the Record of the Year Grammy winner "I Honestly Love You" (1974) and "Physical" (1981).
She battled breast cancer three times, was an advocate for breast cancer research and was also an activist for environmental and animal rights causes.

COVID 19 / Australia / Current Situation

Cases and deaths for entire pandemic and last 90 days.

This is definitely not over and the outlook is still grim despite vaccination rates ie. 2 doses (85%)

However #3 (55%) and #4 (7%) booster take up has been lagging.

Mask wearing is a thing of the past.

 

Bushfire Memorial

There were tens of thousand of photos taken during our disastrous 2019/20 bushfires from raging infernos, blacken landscapes, firefighting aircraft and units in action to the brave men and women of the Rural Fire Service.
Many of those were feature in my blog at the time.
However one stood out and resonated with me.

It was taken by photographer Alex Ellinghausen of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on 29th November 2109 at the western extremity of our Currowan Fire known at the time as the North Black Range fire.
It would eventually consume 40,000 hectares of bushland, threaten the town of Braidwood and destroy at least five homes. It was not declared extinguished until January 28, 2020, two months after it was set off by a lightning strike.
This photo must have caught the eye of many others.

A bronze casting has been made of the image by Andrew Poppleton of Melbourne’s Meridian Sculpture and now stands in a memorial garden in the RFS’s state training academy at Dubbo, honouring all NSW RFS firefighters and contractors who have died in the line of duty.
Chris Montgomery, the subject of the photo, was one of a crew of five sent to fight the North Black Range fire and was at the unveiling.

All photos © Alex Ellinghausen

Australia‘s 47th Parliament

Australia’s 47th parliament sat for the first time today.
The new Labor government has an absolute majority in the lower house, the House of Representatives, following the recent election.
The House will have 58 women, including 19 first-term MPs, making 38% of the chamber female. This is the highest proportion of women ever in the lower house.
The upper house Senate reached and exceeded 50% in the last parliament, and will maintain this in the new parliament.

However Labor has just 26 of the 76 seats in the Senate, short of the 39 votes the government needs for a majority.
The Senate crossbench has grown to 18 seats after the recent election.
This means the Labor government will need the support of 13 members of either the crossbench or the Liberal/National Party coalition opposition to pass legislation in the Upper House.
There will obviously be a lot of negotiations going on there over the next three years.
The Australian people also voted in nine new Indigenous representatives in Federal parliament for the current term, alongside two sitting senators. Six members are part of the Labor government, while two are returning senators sitting for the Greens.
For the Liberals it was a case of two in, one out.

The result means an extra four Indigenous voices in parliament between both chambers – three in the House of Representatives and eight in the Senate.
In terms of representation, Indigenous members will account for 10.5 per cent of the 76 Senate seats, and 1.9 per cent of 151 House of Representatives seats.
That leaves total representation at 4.8 per cent, above the Indigenous Australian population of 3.3 per cent.

Potholes 🤬

It’s been raining virtually non stop here with 1600mm so far this year.
Our average annual rainfall is 1100mm.
This means road surfaces have been deteriorating at a record rate.
Almost 10,000 drivers across NSW have found themselves stranded with a damaged wheel or tyre this month after widespread rain caused more than $1.5 billion worth of damage to roads.

Potholes are a key cause of wheel and tyre damage. Between March and the end of June, Transport for NSW repaired 65,000 potholes on state-managed roads in regional NSW and 10,000 in Greater Sydney. That is on top of the potholes repaired by councils eg. our Shoalhaven CC, on their own road networks.
Councils are responsible for maintaining 90 per cent of the state’s roads. 

The number of potholes in regional NSW has increased by 74 per cent compared to last year.
The NRMA said it had received 9814 calls for assistance from drivers who have suffered wheel and tyre damage so far in July, with almost half of them from outside of Sydney.

Mayor of Shoalhaven City Council Amanda Findley said the rain had exacerbated the road damage suffered in March and its incessant nature was hampering efforts to fix the network.
“It’s completely impossible to get on top of the task, which is frustrating the daylights out of the community,” she said.
Don’t we know it.
Driving around our area, even on the major A1 highway is like a slalom course.

COVID 19 / Australia / Update

It’s been 6 months since the last update.

In summary, the virus has been running rampant since the state and federal governments rescinded all restrictions early in the 2022.

Cases and resultant deaths have skyrocketed compared to the first two years of the pandemic when restrictions were in place. 

“It’s all over folks” is the official line.

But it’s not.

Despite 95% of the population being vaccinated ie. x2, the new variants are now predominant.

Unfortunately it is older generation which suffering the fatalities as a result.

Below are some stats bearing in mind the Australian population is around 25 million.

Three Daily Word Games

Keeping an old brain active.

Try them!

Octordle is the most challenging.

www.wordle.com

www.quordle.com

www.octordle.com

Australian 2021 Census / Some Data

Data from the 2021 census was released today.
Unsurprisingly, with Covid restrictions in place across much of the nation, 96% of people were at home on census night, an increase of 2 million people compared with 2016.
Australia’s overall population increased by 2.2 million, or 8.6 per cent, to 25.5 million between the 2016 and 2021 censuses. The number of Indigenous Australians increased by 25.2 per cent over the same period to more than 812,000.
Almost half of Australians have a parent born overseas and more than a quarter of Australian residents were born outside the country.
Mandarin continues to be the most common language, other than English, with nearly 700,000 people speaking it at home. This is followed by Arabic. Punjabi had the largest increase.

Boomers and Millennials now each account for 21.5 per cent of the nation’s 25.5 million residents.
For the first time, more than 1 million families in Australia are headed by a single parent – and in most cases this parent is female.
Of 5.55 million families recorded in 2021 census data nearly 1.07 million are single-parent families, and in four out of five of those, the parent is the mother.
While Christianity is still the most common religion in Australia, religious diversity is increasing: 39% of respondents identified as Christian in the 2021 census compared to more than half in 2016 and 61% in 2011.
At the same time, more people are identifying as atheist or agnostic. Almost 40% of the population responded “no religion” on the 2021 census, an increase of 10% in the past five years.
Interestingly, while almost 60% of baby boomers reported a religious affiliation, 46.5% of millennials reported having no religion.

The majority of Australians still live in houses, but alternative living arrangements are on the rise: 58,155 filled out the census from a caravan, while 29,369 people were in a cabin or a houseboat and more than half a million were in a high rise apartment.
Of nearly 11 million private dwellings counted in the census, separate houses accounted for 70%, apartments 16%, and townhouses made up 13%.
Two-thirds of households own their home outright or with a mortgage, similar to the rate in 1996. But the proportion of households that own outright has dropped to 31%.

The census data shows more than 8 million people have a long-term health condition, including about 2.2 million (roughly one in 12 people) who have a diagnosed mental illness.
A further breakdown of the data reveals almost 16 percent of the population now have a long-term diagnosis for back pain, which has emerged as the second most common chronic health condition nationally, followed by arthritis.
Diabetes also remained a major chronic health issue with 5.3 percent of the population reporting a diagnosis. Of these, 0.6 percent were Type 1 diabetes and 4.5 percent were Type 2 diabetes.

In the increasingly fraught area of unpaid domestic labour, the 2021 census showed Australian women do vastly more household chores than their male counterparts.

Overall, nearly 1.4 million women said they do 30 hours or more of domestic work a week, compared with 394,995 men.
Twice as many women (nearly 1.7 million) said they did 15 to 29 hours a week of home chores compared with men (nearly 820,000).

Australia / Change of Government / 23rd May with 1st June Update

On Saturday 21st May, Australians voted for both the House of Representatives and half the Senate.

It had been a long drawn out and somewhat acrimonious six week campaign, particularly from the incumbent conservative coalition, the Liberal National Party (LNP).

They had been in power for nine years and for the last three or so been ‘much on the nose’ under the leadership of probably one of our worst ever Prime Ministers, Scott Morrison.

Their performance during the covid pandemic, disastrous bushfires and floods left a lot to be desired.

They had ‘attacked’ social programs, had pork barrelled their own constituencies, inaction on climate change and gave unnecessary financial support to big business…..among a host of other unpopular moves.

They knew they were in for trouble.

New Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese

The opposition Labor Party (ALP/Democratic Socialists) had played the small target game during the campaign in an effort to let the government sink themselves.

However, they had tried this ploy 3 years ago during the last election and had not got across the line.

So there was always a little bit of doubt how things would go this time. 

But there was no need to worry.

The polling booths closed at 6pm and we knew by 9pm that the Australian population had had enough and that Labor would be in power.

Not quite a landslide, but a win is a win.

What we didn’t know, and still don’t, is if they will be a majority government.

The Greens, others and a new influx of Independents may still hold the balance of power.

Counting continues. Pre poll, postal and absentee votes are still in the pipeline.

Below is the situation as of this morning.

We will update when the situation becomes clearer.

Update: 1st June

The Labor Party has won 77 seats enabling them to form a majority government. 

The new ministry was sworn in today.

Note the number of women!

The major opposition, a coalition between the Liberal Party (don’t be confused by the name, they are conservatives) and National Party (who represent mainly rural seats) has the lowest representation in parliament since they were formed in 1946.

The new government will have quite a job on their hands.

Nine years of conservative rule has left the country in a bit of a mess.