Headlights in the dark: “Why I write’ by George Orwell

Words matter.  They can have work to do, or not.   But why write?  What, exactly – if exactness may be found here, is going on when we write?   In his essay, “Why I write”, George Orwell gave four reasons why he writes, and I’ve extracted them below.  I agree with him, particularly his comments afterwards about how they may vary over time, including... Read More

What would the boy say?

The boy, maybe 6, pushed the bike up the steep steps towards where I stood on the road. The girl was next, about 4. But it’s hard to know the age of the poor, they age differently. A heavy bag drooped with weight either side of the bike’s middle bar. Their haul. Maybe sand from the creek running into the beach just a hundred meters off, or mud, or rubbish. Their faces became... Read More

Native bee hive coming to Pine street

The native bee hive will be delivered and installed at Pine Street Creative Arts Centre next week.   Here is the email from Sophie Golding at Sydney Council which is providing them; please only contact Sophie at Council, or Thais from Sustainable Chippendale – please do not contact me – thanks. If, for example, you wish to do the bee keeping workshop contact Sophie. Bzzzzz... Read More

When poetry and beauty speak

Bali & Ganung Batur (1717m) from Lombok – Villa Quncy, Bar Qua   Bali obscured by trade wind clouds, Bar Qua• Photos Diane Somerton   Digging BY SEAMUS HEANEY   Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.   Under my window, a clean rasping sound When the spade sinks into gravelly ground: My father, digging. I look down   Till... Read More

Listening

Ten to five am. The call to prayer amplified from the temples fills the dawn air. Beautiful to some. Disliked by most Westerner’s I speak to, mainly Aussies.  Barely noticed, it seems, tho’, by most of their children who go to school here. The call is music in the dark to me, very primitive, some mornings achingly beautiful.  Other mornings, just a plea to be ok by folks... Read More

Gone

No more blogs for a while. I’ve gone a drovin’, seeking places and spaces elsewhere. To forget about my self. And breathe. Be well, friends, and you, too, Earth.  Read More

Notes propped on the wall

Do you get angry in traffic? I used to.  Not now. And don’t want to again. So here’s some notes propped on the wall of this computer screen for future reference: I won’t come back to this house, except as a visitor I won’t be a gardening in the verge again I will . . . what? Yes, what, indeed? That’ll do, that unanswered question. Why this, why now? Poetry... Read More

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.... 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... 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... Read More