Today's Opinions

 The lawn mower is silent. There is no clanging of a hammer as it  beats against a machine, or nail, or tree. Palm fronds have fallen unceremoniously to the ground during the brisk March gusts and lay there yet as April comes into being with a promise of a hot summer.

By Susan Howell

 No grass grew under my feet once I landed at Sydney International Airport. After almost 24 hours spent in travel, I was quickly whisked away at the airport by my son, where we boarded a train that took us over to Sydney Harbor, where we then transferred onto a ferry which would take us over to Manly Beach. Reality set in as the ferry cruised past the historic Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge– “I’m in Australia.”

Susan Howell  

On an early December morning, I awoke some 10,000 odd miles from my own backyard, to the unfamiliar sound of wild birds that filled the Australian sky as the sun rose on Manly Beach, a hustling coastal suburb in Sydney Australia.