a few kangaroos loose in the top paddock

the guardian today included a roll-call of australian heroes, including skippy

and it reminded me how much i love kangaroos

(although i never really got into skippy.

sorry bout that, skip)

what is it about kangaroos?

their winsome sensitive noses

the wonderful thumping sound as they bounce by

i have a dream of carving a rocking kangaroo out of wood

i found a rather wonderful design for one - us patent 295988 - by australian sculptor adriaan vanderlugt

i love its flying ears

i love that it looks like a kangaroo in motion

i'd like to do one where the legs are the front rocker and the tail provides the back rocker, but this will need some devising.

(there are a few rocking kangaroo designs out there but this was the most sculptural and dynamic)

kangaroos in the landscape

i like that kangaroos appear even in an urban melbourne landscape

the famous kangaroos in the surf photo that hangs behind the bar in pelligrinis

a nice blurry photo from flickr

when i visited the south coast of nsw recently i became quite excited by the idea of roos on the beach (i didn't see any at the beach, but we took a photo of a pair of roo prints pressed into the sand)

i think my favourites are the clasping kangaroos on top of a drinking fountain in the carlton gardens near the exhibition buildings. i found a history of the sculpture,

manufactured by Alexander McDonald & Co., this pink-granite fountain was presented to the people of Victoria by 1840s pioneer William Westgarth, when he returned to Melbourne to visit the Centennial Exhibition in 1888. It was removed from its original site around 1953, after which Giannarelli & Sons acquired it for their land at Merri Creek, Northcote. It was never erected at Northcote. Its composite parts were disassembled and later found around the creek with the Coburg Council. Giannarelli restored the work ... [and] in 1993, it was then purchased from the company and returned to the Carlton Gardens.

i'm so happy i found this information! i've been wondering about these two for a long time.

i used to catch the nicholson street tram into work and trolleying past them in the morning always made me smile.

kangaroos in the consciousness...

there is a this mortal coil album with a song called kangaroo on it

sort of a dumb song, not my favourite, but the lyrics visit me now and again,

i first saw you.

you had on blue jeans.

your eyes couldn't hide anything

i saw you breathing

and I saw you staring out in space

i next saw you, you was at a party

thought you was a queen, oh so flirty

i came against

didn't say excuse

you knew what I was doing,

we looked very fine 'cause we were leaving

like Saint Joan, doing a cool, cool jerk

oh I want you, oh I want you... like a kangaroo...

i'm not sure what the last line means, i want you like a kangaroo, but i love the long ooo in kangaroo

it's a curious thing, but in the movie chocolat, the little girl has an imaginary friend, pantoufle the kangarou (frenchified spelling)

at the very end of the film, the girl no longer needs her kangarou and you see it, for the first time in the movie as it hops away

and finally disappears

he looks more like a wallaby

you can watch the whole sequence here

this kangaroo on a plate, was living in england,n

this kangaroo on a plate, was living in england, but is now back in australia and is living with us

this is not a kangaroo