Of the Wallace Line, the company of friends

Lombok island sits on the Wallace Line; a ‘black and white’ boundary where there is an abrupt and complete change from one type of animal and fauna type to another type. It was discovered by Darwin’s contemporary, Alfred Wallace who drew it in 1859 and I quote: ‘[to show] the ecozonesof Asia and Wallacea, a transitional zone between Asia and Australia. West of the line are found organisms related to Asiatic species; to the east, a mixture of species... Read More

Beautiful 3 minute vid of our country’s little creatures

The wonderful eye of photographer Emma Carol and her colleague, Ruth Hessey, is combined with a soundtrack by Steve Kilbey on this 3 minute vid. Enjoy: www.youtube.com…   Thanks, Emma and Ruth – and the Total Environment Centre who put it up there. Go the little critters who need us to act now, M (I’ve written about the disappearing ants of the Perth plain here: www.thefifthestate.com… - hang on little ants, we’re coming down to the ground for... Read More

Free mulch, free spring and other positives

Free mulch – Australia-wide While in Fremantle recently –  a very beautiful place to walk around – I met Tim Lawrence, whose business, MulchNet, provides free mulch across Australia. No catch here, just someone using imagination and wit. It works like this:  most landscaping and other mulch-making businesses have to pay to take the mulch to the tip if they can’t find a way to make it useful.  MulchNet allows anyone in any Australian state to register... Read More

When the streets seem strange

More often now  as I walk the streets the words come to my lips or mind, “These things seem strange to me now.” Funny.  Why’s that? The streets are the same.  The people, cars and other walkers – the same. How can the familiar become strange? James Joyce, self-exhiled to Paris, could describe the streets and names of most of his home town Dublin.  They were in his blood and inhabited his every fibre – his books say so loudly, and fondly, with... Read More

Humans being wonderful

With music and passion we humans soar and are wonderful – I dare you to watch this and say, ‘No’: www.youtube.com… Som Sabadell flashmob On the 130th anniversary of the founding of Banco Sabadell we wanted to pay homage to our city by means of the campaign “Som Sabadell” (We are… (With thanks to The Chook Whisperer and her parents.)  Read More

Choosing solitude

No more for me the sounds of shopping trolleys. Gone the grass parrot’s songs of joy, their upside down feeding in the branches outside a dance that woke hope in my eyes. Left behind, too, the beatitudes of Bronte pool, its oceanic liquids that silenced chattering voices.   If Banjo Patterson’s Clancy of the Overflow went a drovin’ to take the stock to feed and water where he could find it for them, If what was left was still there after Clancy’d gone, What then... Read More

Cool our cities by cooling our streets

In the summer the meat ant on the western plain of Sydney carts small reflective, silvery pebbles to it’s ants nest.  These reflect the sun’s heat and cool their nest.   In winter the meat ant replaces the pebbles with dark coloured ones.  These absorb the sun’s heat and warm their nest.   Here’s an invitation to our culture to match the meat ant: vimeo.com…   Black is ‘cool’, but it’s not . . . this video explains... Read More

Wonderful writing, great start to the day

  Sometimes, we start the day, and read something that’s out of the ordinary. In today’s Sydney Morning Herald Jessica Irvine has written something which touches both our Chippendale and every community in every city; worth a read and I’ve blogged, facebooked and emailed it: www.smh.com… If you do read it, read James C Scott’s, Seeing like a state; he’s in Ostrom’s class (to whom Irvine refers), or the books by Stephen... Read More

Making ice without electricity

An ice house in Iran - Image from Gardens of Persia, Penelope Hobhouse, photo by Jerry Harpur, published by Floriligium (yes, the same wonderful gardening bookshop in Glebe) Four hundred or so years ago Persian engineers made ice without electricity. Ice houses (yakhchal in Farsi, or icehouse) kept ice in the burning heat of the Iran plateau.  They’re rarely used today. They’re up to 20 metres high and 6 or so metres below ground.  A single door is insulated with thick,... Read More

A hard rains a gonna fall

When madness become normal.   Here’s a story about how forest land is being turned into sand as far as the eye can see – have a look at the photos with the article; it’s about strip-mining forests to extract oil from sand in the soil: “Over the course of three days spent visiting reserves, band offices and the vast sand dunes left behind by the bitumen-scrubbers surrounding Fort McMurray, the Achuar confronted a reality that may one day be their own.... Read More