Launching into Winter

I went to Sydney for a week, had a great time, saw lots of people and did lots of knitting and reading on the train ...Lenore and I walked round the Glebe foreshore to see Chez Ritz restored to its original glory...when we lived there in 1972 we paid $5 a week for this glorious mansion, without electricity but with wild graffiti and equally wild company. Blackwattle Bay was a great place to live, I learnt to play the flute on the rocks there while the massive old cargo ships glided by...the photo of me at 19 in the previous post was taken in the loungeroom at Chez Ritz - now known as Bellevue. We named it for the home of Ratso Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy (thanks to David George, our rr look-alike...)


Lenore's book launch was a massive success, Marie Bashir opened it and it all went off perfectly in the old Mosman methodist church which is now a community centre and gallery. Here are Lenore and her brother Leo with the governor and me and Nor and Angie Michaelis whom I haven't seen for years. We had fun reminiscing about the wacky tricks we used to get up to as 13 year-olds - I almost wanted to squeeze her back into being the funky little kid she once was ...we are all so staid now...




Now I am glad to be back home where the sun does indeed shine brighter and warmer and I have my wonderful gourmet woodstove loaded up with bloodwood to get me throught the chilly times. Sydney people don't seem to understand the need for heating.

My new career as Treasurer of the Co-op has just begun. Not that it is much of a position - last time I had anything to do with the treasury it was a massive job - now I share it with someone else who makes all the payments out and I just have to chase up money owing and bank it when it comes in - AND there's a book-keeper. Piece of cake really. So I will have the time and energy perhaps to get some more exciting projects happening. Tuntable shop has almost faded away which means we have lost our community hub ... However, Tribal Meetings are well-attended and the beautiful school had a fantastic winter solstice event and ritual which was so affirming and heartwarming - it is wonderful to know that the school continues so strong and creative after almost 30 years. Here are the little kids class, Ember on recorder.

...and our gorgeous Tara ...

Harvest Home

It's been a while since I last put up a blog, and I've been feeling stuck and sorry for myself for much of that time. Now my spirits are beginning to rise again and the self-pity is on the wane. As usual, some amazing things have happened ... an old friend and lover from 35 years ago contacted me and that has been quite an email journey backwards and forwards in time reconnecting with our past and present selves... here we are - as we were ...

It is harvest time here, the valley is overflowing with produce - citrus of all kinds, avocadoes, macadamias and pecan nuts, kiwi fruit, bananas - and the vege garden is pumping. It's a job to keep up with it and I have been brewing up chutneys and pickles and marmalades for barter and gifts.

This is Margaret - she is moving into the little house as I write and I am looking forward to her company and energy, she is smart and fun and eccentric enough to enjoy Tuntable (and she is very practical and even has her own brushcutter and ute ...need I say more...)

The winter is finally coming in - weeks of rain seem to have cleared for the moment and the day is crisp and sunny. Here is Melanie, mother of my nieces Nell and Bridie, giving the talk on birdcare at the Wildlife Rescue WIRES course I did last weekend. I look forward to becoming a birdwoman myslef but need to build an aviary first and am working on a chookpen as well.

My knee is a lot better so I can walk when I need to free myself from old ghosts and that is great. Winiata came to stay for a few days and we shared ghost stories and felt much better too! Poverty is forcing me out of the house to do a few massages and that always makes me feel better - and the writing , drawing and ukulele lessons at the comskool every Wednesday have been my spiritual mainstay - I love it. Here is a self-portrait I did last week, I really enjoyed this - it was an illuminating exercise in self-acceptance. It is also a record of my long hair - just had a haircut and now its short, gray and curly. I am off to Sydney this week for Lenore's book launch and given that the governor of NSW Marie Bashir will be there, i thought it time to give the fuzzy-haired old hippie look a miss. Tara says I should wait until it goes white to grow it long again...may not be long.

Our Diana played at the Nimbin pub on Friday night, the beauty of that incredible voice was a bit lost on some of the more inebriated punters (what musicians have to do to make a living, it's bad) but it was great to see her and I even really like some of her new songs!

Next week I will be in Sydney catching up with old friends and attending the book launch. Lenore's grandmother was a poet and this is her autobiography. She was a beautiful soul who lived most of her life flat on her back, having been paralysed by rheumatic fever as a young woman. She wrote under the name of Rickety Kate and was a part of the Sydney literary scene. To us she was Lenore's granny that we used to visit after school, a gentle kind and intelligent woman with the whitest skin I have ever seen. We would play our piano pieces over the phone for her to hear, and pick the mulberries from the huge tree in the backyard that she probably had not seen for many many years. She lived in the one room but her mind travelled far. It's wonderful that Lenore's years of research and hard work are finally bearing fruit and I will be glad to be there.

Some Wonders of my Little World

Please click on the title above and read the story from the Australian - these are people that I know and stayed with - and I tried so hard to get them a phone out there. There is still so much to be done. Lobby Telstra, lobby the govt.

HERE IN PARADISE = THESE ARE THE LATEST PHOTOS OF JESS'S GREAT WORK: THE DANCE STUDIO NOW HAS A ROOF!


AND HERE IS ONE OF THE OTHER GREAT WONDERS OF TUNTABLE - MAX'S CAVE - DUG BY HAND FROM THE RHYOLITE CLIFF TO MAKE A MAGICAL SACRED SPACE...














THIS LITTLE LEAF-TAIL GECKO, ONE OF THE WONDERS OF MY WORLD














THE NIMBIN MARDI GRASS PARADE ... AND THE AQUARIAN ANNIVERSARY - ITS A WONDER, BUT OLD HIPPIES NEVER CHANGE ...








AND MY LITTLE HOUSE ...AND MY BIG KIDS (AND NIECE)!