Some Ariah Park Wildlife

This morning we saw an emu not 5km from town.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsenkGupCDI

And there's funnier critters than that around...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Mce80g5eGM

My First Amethyst

Peels Road
About 400 m 425m and 475m east of the Trevaskis lane corner there is slight evidence of a tip on the south side. A couple of tins and very little glass. It could be a wash down the hill, or it could be so old that it is hard to find or it could have been disturbed by roadworks. Or there could be very little there and it was only an isolated dumping. At any rate the first spot gave me my first amethyst bottle.

A pick Me Up sauce bottle with the date, 1918 on the bottle. Must be one of the latest Manganese bottles made in Australia.

"PICK ME UP"

(REG'D TRADE MARK)

CONDIMENT Co Ltd

SAUCE

THIS BOTTLE IS THE PROPERTY OF

PICK ME UP CONDIMENT Co Ltd

SYDNEY 1918

(I found it pretty easy to date this one)

On Rogers Road I found a clear bottle, again, without much evidence of any other bottles around.

THIS BOTTLE IS THE PROPERTY OF

H JONES & Co (SYDNEY) LTD

Camps Lane Litter

A decent selection of fairly ordinary bottles was found on a ride down Camps Lane on 26 February 2009. All bottles were found in ones or twos down the length of the lane. My best guess is that these bottles were the result of occasional litter from moving vehicles and remain undisturbed as the roadway is virtually obsolete.



(Left to Right)
Very Pretty VINEGAR Bottle from AGM
A H WEBSTER ARDLETHAN
Sharpe Brothers Centenary 1968 (Which may become a collector if I bury it for another 100yrs)
TUCKER & CO. PTY. LTD
A small Brylcreem

And the best one
SUMMONS & GRAHAM PTY LIMITED PARRAMATTA.
(A little worn with an impact mark at the bottom but still intact and very nice.)

Bottle Collecting

Garvans Lane

Just South of Mirrool Creek rubbish is tipped into a couple of small erosion gullies to stabilise the banks just inside the paddock on the eastern side of the road. Most of it is new heavy fill. There is evidence of a couple of bottles, nothing early or spectacular. It is unlikely the farmer would like his erosion work to be dug up, nor is it likely to yield any great finds. One interesting if newish bottle had tumbled through the fence.

THIS BOTTLE ALWAYS REMAINS THE PROPERTY OF HALLOWES PTY LTD

Dads n Lads Trip February 2009

James and I went to Abercrombie caves with some other men and little men from church.

Here are the highlights of the trip.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3_lk72CLjw

People Believe What They Want

I've often heard the rubric,
"People believe what they want to believe"




I've most often heard it directed in derision against Christians. Which I find funny. If I was making my own religion, it wouldn't have looked much like Christianity.

The problem with that saying is, of course, that everyone loves to apply it to everyone else, but not to themselves.

I think the practical way of putting it would be something like,

"Be suspicious of anyone who tells you what you want to hear."

Let me show you what I mean. When the preacher man says, "God loves America" I would like the patriotic Christians of America to just ask, "Where does it say that?" and "What does it mean by that?" and to just ask, once, "How has America also displeased God?"

When the Mullah in the middle east says that killing Americans gets you to heaven, I think it's a little suspect.

And into this category I would also put the Atheist bus ads in London. The ads essentially carry the philosophical load of the old phrase, "Eat drink and be merry." (We've stopped saying the ending because it's not done to face the reality of death these days) That's what we want to hear, so wouldn't you expect the atheists to be a little more skeptical.

As to pointing the finger back at myself. As a Christian, there are times when I probably need to be challenged. I'm human. But overall I think the Christian message has stuff I really don't want to hear.

You're a sinner - who wants to be told that?
God will judge the world - is that a cheery thought?
Love your enemies - nobody likes to actually practice this.
Submit your will to God - not going to attract a lot of people.

No, I believe the unpalatable truths of the Christian faith because I lost the battle to disprove them, because I am convinced of their truth, not because I liked them.

For a discussion of those atheist ads from a person smarter than I you could look here and here.