New Neighbors...they're Black

We have the most gorgeous new neighbors - Red-Tailed Black Cockatoos. A flock has been hanging out at the cemetery across the street for about a week or so. A few came to the gum tree hanging over our yard yesterday.
They are much more skittish than the ubiquitous pink and gray Gallahs. Gallahs watch you walk right up to them and then, they tell you off.
These RTB's flew off just because my camera made a tiny "bee-deep." They were a good 20 meters away at the time.
Thus, I have few photos and none of them good. Come on, black things just don't photograph well.
Their awesomely bright red under-tail patches show up for about a millisecond when they take flight and they are always flying AWAY which isn't the pretty red side.
These dears don't usually come to town. We first saw them at Ross River Resort our first Christmas when we still misunderstood the word, "resort."
Their noises are raucous and beepy. That's what first made me look- to see what the new bird sound was.
They're BIG - about the length from my elbow to the tip of my fingers. That's just a guess because, as I said, you can't get too close.
Remember, I did my best with the photos.

Our Church

We're Catholic. Our church in Alice is Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, called "Olsh." It is a fairly new building and quite beautiful of red sandstone and tile. The kneelers are 2 by 4's. NO cushions.


Mass here is far more optional than what I am used to. The priests seem to still have the missionary attitude to be just grateful when people do come rather than being demanding at all.

That's Bernie. She got into a few pics. Nice lady, helps run Vinny's (St. Vincent DePaul Soc.)



Dress is really casual, too. A baptism might be find the parents and godparents in jeans and boots or flip-flops. Notable and stunning exceptions are the African ladies. Man! I wish I could dress like an African. The Indian women are stunners too.


I believe priests were first sent here in the early 1900's to tell the Aboriginals about Catholicism along with the Lutherans and Uniting Church and Baptists, but the Lutherans seem to have been the first and best at it.


There are many Indian, Filipino, African and Pacific Islander members of our church and town. Most have tight communities, except the Americans for some reason.

Pope John Paul II came once.


Early religious set up schools and when public schooling came along, there were already so many religious schools teaching kids, the government decided it was just easier to fund them along with the state schools.
So, a Catholic, Lutheran or other Christian school will get hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding from the government right along with the public schools.

Bet you've never seen an Aboriginal Madonna and Child before.