New Beginnings...

Well, it is hard for me to fully realise it, but uni is over. That little monkey that's been sitting on my shoulder saying 'you should be studying, you should be studying' for most of the last 21 months or so is starting to slip off her perch ...and I am beginning to realise what it is to be fully alive again! I have only had a few days so far, so it really hasn't sunk in...

At any rate, I do know now that there is time to write a long overdue post here. So here it is: a brief look at my life, love and other lessons over the past few months:

I have spent a lot of that time down at Byron with Mookie, riding bikes, walking on the beach, being domestic, loving and sharing our lives and thoughts - love at our age is precious and beautiful. However, despite all we have in common, we have had different life paths and now have different commitments to families and places so it seems we will continue to spend time apart - but who knows what will happen next? Life is an adventure, after all...

Mookie is a musician and I have loved to be around lots of music once again - learning new songs and even becoming the proud new owner of a tenor ukulele called Mahalia. She sings tender little tunes even under my inexpert hands and it is sweet to have an opportunity to learn a stringed instrument. Although my brain doesn't seem to hold information the way it used to, it's gotta be good to keep trying. Mookie is pretty encouraging of my efforts and now uni has finished I can become a bit more focussed on music. I also plan to anthologise his songs over the next few months, he is a great songwriter and has written hundreds of them. And I need a few little projects to keep me busy ... I don't know what is around the next corner and the habit of writing and organising has gotten pretty strong over the last year.

There is a remote chance that Mookie may get funding to continue the recording of traditional Fijian music that he began this year and if I could use my degree to research that also - that could be fantastic!

I bought Sunshine - a little yellow campervan - on impulse a few weeks ago, not sure if I will keep it but we may use it for a few months of getaway times. We took her to Woody Head folk gathering for her maiden voyage and she did well, despite rain and not very good music. Mook amused himself taking some great photos and we coped well. The van is in incredibly good condition and I should be able to resell it if I decide to but it uses a lot more fuel than my serendipitous little red wagon and it seems the cost of gas conversion has risen astronomically since the government rebate was introduced...

Meantime, back at the ranch there are the usual myriad tasks ...here is Ben making the new classy staircase to the loft. I have been fixing up the house with the intention of being able to share it with another person who can be here when I am away. The place is lovely and peaceful as ever and I have been lucky enough to have a friendly young couple, Ash and Nicola, with a gorgeous cheeky 2 year-old daughter as neighbours - they are renting the little house and the builders have almost finished adding on a bedroom for them. Tuntable has been blessed with an influx of young families, great people who really want to be here - there is a renaissance happening, it is so heartening to see little troupes of blonde toddlers playing in the creek and hanging around the Centre with their parents all sharing them. Just like the old days.

There have been lots of funerals - and Doug and Biko's wedding, which Lisa came up and stayed for, was wonderful. Their vows were especially touching - the celebrant asked if they might hurt each other - to which they answered that they may - and then affirmed that it would never be their intention to do so. It was great to see their big kids up there smiling and Zelly read a beautiful poem she had written, before we all feasted and partied in true Tuntable style.

The cafe continues - Mookie helped me with the cooking a couple of times which just made it so much easier and more enjoyable for me and he also played music, which is his forte wherever he goes. We have another one this Friday and I hope it will be a success and not too exhausting for me. Getting too old to do everything (maybe!).

The Bundjalung people held the first corroboree for over 70 years at the Nimbin showground recently - a beautiful peaceful event, hopefully the first of many. Some amazing dancing and excellent music from Chris and Marcelle and others - they just carried on carrying on for hours, it was brilliant.

And Tara's tutus in the Nimbin Fashion Show last weekend were brilliant too! What a girl!

Ok. I've made a start. If exciting things happen, I'll post more often now ...






















Our new causeway across Pixie's Creek...

Tara in full fashion-warrior paint and Lindsay...










and some of the locals...

Travel Tales

Ihave been back on the North Coast for a fortnight since my latest adventures, so better put up some photos before they are out of date...

The long dusty road to the 18th Laura Aboriginal Dance Festival led to the most blissful, peaceful, warm and creative festival I know. Not as glamorous as the Dreaming fest - but way, way more real and beautiful. It’s hard to pick the photos that will show it best, so just imagine a relaxed crowd of many colours sitting in the shade of tall trees around a circular danceground, where an endless procession of enthusiastic dancers from 2 to 90 years old radiate their love of family and culture. It’s just so good! Camping down along the river means you can take a swim or catch up with your old hippie mates anytime ….here's Bobbin, Bernie and Jingles...

And here's Kelli with some of her little blackrobats...

And then there’s Cairns. Camping at Kathleen’s was quite a different experience – a little white unit two streets back from the beach: we can see the sea in all its everchanging glory. Swimming every morning: 50m freestyle then 50m backstroke, then a gentle little lie in the sun and maybe a little yoga, a stroll along the beach or a bike ride – I could take up this lifestyle with ease! It's certainly not doing Kath any harm...

We had a day of playing mermaids, mermatrons and merhags - lots of fun and laughter.

We also went on a mission with Dee to Josephine Falls, south of Babinda. Well actually, we went on a mission to Majuba Ck – 5 barefoot through the rainforest to a clear mountain stream paradise, where they played river nymphs and frolicked and swam – while I lay on a rock and blissed out. The rainforest is so powerfully calming, there is nothing quite like it. We also laughed an inordinate amount, and walked quite a few more k’s and swam in a few more blessed mountain streams. And though my muscles were sore, my knee wasn’t - so I reckon after 15 months, it’s finally healed enough for me to bushwalk again. So I trekked up to the top of the Falls the other day with wwoofer Clare - and tinwhistled and shouted for joy - no pain!

While I was up north I took a long bus rise down to Ingham to visit Alice - and helped her put up this fence around her garden...

After I came home I also got to visit some friends from Papunya who were at the Sunshine Coast for a few weeks - a real treat to be with some desert folk again.

Some time at Byron rounded off my little holiday and acclimatised me to rain and cold...Veda's 60th birthday at Coorabell Hall with hula dancers and some great music




...and now I'm back at Tuntable to do some building…and uni has started. Back to the grind. But the peach tree is in bloom and people are friendly, though most of them didn't seem to notice my absence...thank goodness for my family people, they keep track of me.

Today I walked up to Jesse's site and took some photos which cannot do justice to the stunning sense of peace and space up there - such a big open sky feeling after the narrowness of the valley. And I saw a pretty little golden whistler and a host of other birds partying busily on this sunshiny day. And my knee still didn't hurt!

Flood Story in Pictures

Ah well - at least we are on the paradise side of the chasm...meeting today to work out a few issues of supply and transport for the 200 folk here ...People have been out talking and walking for the last three days - obviously just what we needed to revitalise the old place! Unfortunately, I was too busy wringing out 20 buckets worth of sopping towels from the seepage through my back wall when the flood was at its peak - so there's no photos of the truly amazing flood then! (well, actually it was pitch dark then anyway - and you can imagine how Murray and Joel felt when they drove up in the dark to the huge chasm that was once a bridge on the only road in :o)You will also just have to imagine the soundtrack of a raging torrent that felt like it was shaking my house, while the rain belted down on the roof and the drains roared all around me - and me out the back with my headtorch, wellies and raincoat wielding all sorts of implements to clear the drain and give all those myriad springs that just spring up somewhere to go...I evacuated to Tara's last night and managed to get 2,000 words of my assignment done - YAHOO! Solar power very low and the rain has just kept falling, though much gentler now. The beauty of a big flood is that the sun always seems to come out the day after and it is just such a lovely sparkling day that you see in these pics - lets hope we get a few more ...sunny days, I mean - not floods!




There is a movement happening to save our chasm, it has been a boon for community spirit - here's Bill, Terry, Dave and Ben working together to extract the tree, complete with roots, that was stuck under the centre bridge. But it looks like we will not have the chasm for much longer, the council are working hard too...and a concrete culvert should last better than the gal one...














WEDNESDAY May 27th: Mick managed to get out to catch his plane to Melbourne - by 4WD via the south end ford, so the creek has gone down a lot. But its been amazing to see so many people out and about, the chasm is a regular hub of activity as people commute and chat and look at the hole and what's happening to it! The shop is open every day and people are gathering and talking and walking all over the place. We need a few little warungs set up for tea and cakes...and a review of our present transport dependencies.

A hired minibus is taking workers to Lismore and to Nimbin, although lots of people are relying on the use of friends' cars each side of the chasm.
And the SES made a landing in the little paddock opposite the centre bus stop (twice!) and brought us some great fresh vegies, groceries and even soymilk and tofu! Not really necessary, but much appreciated - we have raised some good donations for them, and it raised the energy too.

Sadly, the fun may be over soon although lets hope the good feelings last a while - and spark up some discussion about how better to live and travel here.

LAST POST FOR THE CHASM Friday May 29th: Well, that's it folks - the chasm is no more, the bridge is rebuilt and open today (friday afternoon) and we are all back to a different sort of isolation now everyone can escape the valley at will - it's a bit sad really, for some of us....it was certainly fun while it lasted...

A New Year, Another Blog...

It must be a time for a blog…

We do live in paradise here, despite global warming, and it feels so far from those people suffering in the fires down south.It’s been hot but not too hot, except for one stinker of a day. Rain cools us down any time the mercury begins to climb too high and while the humidity has been over 90% for weeks, it’s a small price to pay. Steve and Sunny and Damon and Leila came up from Sydney for a few short busy days over the hottest time…
Here is the pied piper and kids at New Year – another great folk music camp down at Woody Head, where else do we still sing Auld Lang Syne holding hands and welcoming the new year? I love it – and snorkelling, swimming and beachwalks as well as music, music, music make it pretty close to heaven. I am all packed and ready for the next one at the end of this month.
We are starting up regular sessions and a café at the Tuntable shop, great times had by all – though cooking and serving 20-30 people left me too tired to play much music.
There has been a rash of big birthdays - starting with Tuntable's 35th in December - here's Katie and the kids with all the candles ...My beautiful youngest niece, Eva, turned 18 in great style – here she is with her mum. One day Eva may look older than Deb!














And Brian Childs, my boyfriend from all those long years ago when I was 16 - 19, turned 60 in even greater style last weekend. (This means we have known each other for 40 years!) He had a combined celebration at Bellingen with his youngest daughter, Ali and her older daughter Mwanampemba – and it rocked! It was so good to see some folk I haven’t connected with for years – particularly Kev, who now has a 2 yr-old daughter and partner and works with Indigenous Community Volunteers in their Qld office – and Silvia, who has not changed at all. Jenni, the same - is doing some groundbreaking work on programs to address racism in schools. Here's Brian, still at the kitchen sink, and Ali...
















The wildlife here is so absolutely photogenic - here is a huntsman spider protecting her eggs and a leaf-tailed gecko, my favourite.

My little currawong has grown to be very big and annoying, have been trying to teach it that old avian rock’n’roll hit “Big Birds Don’t Squawk” with varying degrees of success. (The broom sits by the door for when it gets too persistent).

Of course, the garden is rampant in this weather. I turned my back on it to focus on a few renovation tasks and now there are monster weeds threatening me whenever I glance outside…the driveway is awash with huge grass, getting vegies requires excavation skills – well, it’s not quite that bad, but you get the picture. So I’ve been hiding inside so the grass doesn’t get me …painting the kitchen whiter than white with a touch of mediterranean blue and gold...Uni starts in ten days and I'll be studying to become a Master of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development from ANU - this is such an amazing opportunity, I am so grateful to be able to do it and am looking forward to it so much that I am actually quite well-prepared for once!