Whether, weather,weather...

 Whether the weather be hot,

or whether the weather be cold

We'll weather the weather together,

Whether we like it or not.

But will we?

My low tech high/low thermometer.
Today's range 8.5 - 14 deg C.

I was already thinking about the weather because the rain put paid to my kitchen building plans and this was going to be a little light hearted post about that.

Mist rolling up the valley late this afternoon following a pretty soggy day.

Then I went wandering down the

Sweet Scented Pathwith Mrs B.  

She posted about a book she has been reading.

She included this quote from Paul Gilding's book, 'The great disruption'.

"It's time to stop just worrying about climate change, says Paul Gilding. Instead we need to brace for impact, because global crisis is no longer avoidable. The Great Disruption started in 2008, with spiking food and oil prices and dramatic ecological change like the melting polar icecap. It is not simply about fossil fuels and carbon footprints. We have come to the end of Economic Growth, Version  1.0, a world economy based on consumption and waste, where we lived beyond the means of our plant's ecosystems and resources." 

- from The Great Disruption: How the climate will transform the global economy by Paul Gilding

And even if it was only about fossil fuels...

The ordinary bloke over at

The Greening of Gavin

posted about Peak Oil today

and will be following up tomorrow.

Have a read. 

Of course, all over the news for weeks (months) we have had the pollies in Oz arguing about how to deal with global warming. I am so over their bickering and their Mickey Mouse 'solutions' which all involve fiddling at the edges of the problem...fiddling while Rome  The Earth burns.  If the Carbon 'tax' ever gets of the ground properly, at least it will be something.

But I am with Paul Gilding, we need to take a good look at the real problem....capitalism and the orchestrated consumerism we have all been lured into since WWII. All sorts of environmental (and humanitarian) disasters have been caused by the hunt for profit and our belief that we should have the biggest, newest, bestest, latest..... 

Money or the latest fashion/gadget isn't worth much if there isn't any world.   But it is so hard.  If you are trying to be an ethical consumer, advertising and packaging make it very difficult.

The lovely Rose is carrying out her own detective work over at 

The Greening Of Rose.

She is tracking down the sources of her daily food.

What is in the product,

where it is produced and packed...

and who owns the brand.

Even a humble carton of orange juice 

with the label 'Berri since 1943' and 'Australian Grown'

contains additives produced in China

and is owned by a multinational. 

It feels as if there isn't a lot the individual can do...
proselytize...but who will listen?

Vote...who for?

Another blogger, Nick,  over at , Make Believe, has made a few
changes to the way he lives now and is
making plans for the future after reading
Gilding's book.

So here I sit, chipping away, doing the little I can to make a difference.

Growing a few veggies,

turning off lights,

installing solar panels,

avoiding processed foods,
cooking from scratch,
eating mainly vegetarian,

keeping chooks,

ignoring advertising,

buying only what I must,

making do,

recycling, re-using, repurposing,

op-shopping,

volunteering,

reading,

educating myself about the issues,
trying to become self sufficient
(in skills and knowledge as well as the usual)

and blogging about it.

Whether the weather be hot,

or whether the weather be cold

We'll weather the weather together,
I hope,

Whether we like it or not.


Remember Winter Wednesday tomorrow.
Write something that is good about Winter
and join in the fun.

Reflections

It was a drippy day here yesterday...

even the daisies went to sleep early.

Puddles everywhere....

On the drive,

on lemon leaves...

on the tins in the veggie garden...

 on top of the goats feed bin...

and under the guttering on the carport....

Mmmm....might have to do something about that leak.

This is the calm before the storm.

Lots of visitors expected in the next week and a half.

I may even subject you to a couple of guest bloggers.

Four Seasons in One Day

We are in midldle of Winter at the moment.  Well, and here is an anomaly, because Australia is such a big continent it has different climactic regions.  This is obvious if you follow a few Aussie gardening blogs ... we are all planting different things.  Up north, north of the Tropic of Capricorn it is very different to down here in the South....check out this map.  

I live just below the 'O' in word 'Victoria' in the south-east corner of the big island.

Winter, is officially all of June, July and August.  The four season model is one that was imported with the first white settlers but with a slight change.  Somehow New Zealand and Australia do not follow the practice in other countries of using the solstices as a marker for Winter and Summer and the equinoxes for Spring and Autumn.   

But this is the interesting thing to me....The indigenous people, always much more in sync with their environment, have different seasonal models for their regions.

The Wurundjeri have 

a six season model 

for the Melbourne region.

Like many native peoples the traditional inhabitants here did not have a written language.  The length of the days and the seasonal changes in the night sky provide pointers to the time of the year along with the changes to plants and animals. Click on the above diagram to see a clearer version and scroll down to to see an explanation of what happens in each season and how it affected the movements of the indigenous people in the area.

The indigenous model makes wonderful sense... but it doesn't work for my veggie garden.   June, for instance, is often dry and is certainly warmer, in my experience than July and August when it can be very cold and the soil, particularly so.  In June I can still plant brassica seedlings, other greens and root crops.  In July the only thing that will germinate and grow are snow peas.  Although by August, I can start seeds inside for planting out in late September, once the ground begins to warm.

Ouch! The irony just hit me 

in the head like a wood splitter.  

Here I am writing about growing 'exotic' vegetable species, and an 'exotic' four season model in a land far removed from their countries of origin discussing a seasonal model developed by people much older and wiser in the ways of this country than me...and on a blog about being green and environmentally aware.  

Mmm!  I have to go and think about this some more.


Postscript:  It is NAIDOC week.
Click on NAIDOC to find out more and to see what is on in your area.

Barrow loads of salad

Yesterday I planted up two old wheelbarrows with some 'salad mix'.  I used up the rest of my home-grown seedlings of red and green lettuce and added beetroot and raddish seeds.  If I keep them well watered and fed they should provide a delicious mix of cutting greens.

So they will look extra pretty I added a border of petunias.  The wheelbarrows are great, because I can move them around, into and out of sun depending on the day.

 

I also planted some petunias in this pot.  The sticks are to keep Mickey the cat from sleeping in the pot...or worse.  You know what cats like to do in fresh dirt.

As I write it is pouring rain outside.  It is a clear sign that the rain is heavy when it shows up in photos.  I won't have to water the pottager...or anything else today.  I am glad I already cut the grass!

I love this view down the drive even when it is raining.

Why I live where I live.

I have lived where I live for less than a year.  

Serendipity brought me here...

but other things keep me here.

Well of course there is the garden.  It is established and superb, the soil loamy and fertile.  

The property large enough to do the things I want to do, but small enough to manage.  

The creek at the back is not only beautiful and has at least one platypus,  but also provides water for the garden.  

What more could a gardener want?

Although it feels like a bush retreat, there are neighbours and a welcoming community and all only one and half hours from Melbourne.

We can go on a lovely short rural drive to Yea and have lunch and a latte.

On the way home, just off the main road we can make a stop.

Imagine this

It is a warm humid day with thunder rolling in the distance and this is the view we must look at.  

There is a flutter of butterflies (what is the correct collective noun?) all around the car.  Because they seem so camera shy, The Cook offers to stand like a tree in case one might land and deem to have its photo taken. They just laugh and fly away.

The noisy cicadas, probably don't have time to be amused by our strange goings on.  They are preoccupied, serenading each other.  Cicadas have probably been speed dating longer than humans have been around.

On the grass at my feet, a shucked off cicada casing.  Next to it, its recent inhabitant acclimatizing herself to her new outfit.  

Cicaderella, ready for the ball.

The Cook, obliging as always,  offers a contrasting back to display the cicada in her finery.

 We didn't keep her long from her Prince Charming 

.

I'm not sure that March flies trying to bite one through one's jeans can really be a reason to love living here. But they are such a part of Summer in the bush...why not?  Anyway, they don't succeed.

 I don't know what this is, but it is pretty and matches the flower...besides I am very proud of this photo so couldn't leave it out. 

When the rain comes we sit in the car and listen to a show about Janet Frame, a favourite author, on the radio.  The butterflies disappear and the cicadas rest from their song...perhaps they are interested in the New Zealand author too.

The rain clears, the butterflies and cicadas get back to business and this is the view.

Once home, I sit with the goat babies by the creek. Listening to them pull grass and chew is very meditative.  I watch a baby currawong hassling its mother for food in a tree on the other side of the creek.  A kookaburra is perched, as he is every afternoon, on a dead tree with his head cocked to one side.  He is looking for movement on the creek bank.  Every now and then he swoops down and picks something up.  I am waiting for the time I see him with a snake in his beak.

Today I also planted the lettuces in the pottager, and more chamomile and corn in the vegetable garden. 

I made sure Henny got off her eggs to have something to eat and drink.  She does not enjoy this twice daily forced health regime.

The Cook made a fabulous risotto al fungi.  Warm orange cake, drizzled with orange sauce and cream is  desert.

Another 12 botttles of marmalade were made... to feed my obsession.  Soon it will be off to bed to listen to the night sounds of frogs romanticising and the willy wagtail who will warble on and off all night.

Now why I would want to live anywhere else!

I would love to hear why you live where you live.

.........................

Wintry weather.

What a wonderfully wet and wintry period we are having. Although it was very windy here overnight, luckily we suffered no damage although apparently there were some trees down on the main road. There has been enough rain to make the ground soggy, leave puddles and make mud. We haven't seen a lot of that in recent years.

This is an old view from the top of the creek bank at the back of the block. The King Parrot Creek is spring filled and hasn't dried out even through the recent dry seasons. It usually flows clearly over a bed of rounded river stones.

Today, fed by the rains, the creek is a swollen, raging, brown gusher, rushing off to the Goulburn River. The flattened grass, between 40 and 50 cms above the current water levels, indicates that it has been even higher.
This photo was taken from lower down the bank. It gives a good idea of how swollen the stream is.

This is the pool where I saw a platypus last Summer and it's the local swimming hole. It doesn't look at all welcoming now for either humans or monotremes. I hope the platypus has a nice dry burrow.

Did you notice the wombat burrow in the bank right in the middle of the photo. This is a newly excavated home...I am hoping its inhabitant hasn't picked a spot too damp!