Jungle

We had two weeks of thawing out and hanging with my family, followed by a couple of days in Cape Tribulation. It was horrible.

The grass is greener

Upper Barron potted garden

too faraway

Some pictures to green up your tuesday. From a walk in the scrub with my father. Maybe a month ago. Seems like a longer time. Time flys.

gold light

Or; some of the reasons why I love to go home...

busy busy busy

REALLY

today I walked miles and miles... down the river, up the hill, down the road, through the forest

played the piano

replanted some trees lost in the cyclone

swam in my river

stared at the water falling over the rocks, for hours, and the trees moving in the breeze…



I chopped firewood and lit the fire

had an afternoon sleep

picked mulberries, made mulberry pie

sat about drinking beer and talking to my mum and dad watching the sunset over the hills and rowdy pretty parrots swooping through the yard

watched deadman

listened to my mum play the piano, which makes my heart a bit sore for some reason

that’s all, I’m going to bed

it won’t be long and my dad will be crashing around in the kitchen fixing breakfast with the Italian news up LOUD…

farmarama

I’m finished with the piggies… BUT…

LOOKIT THEM! they made me laugh every day…


my little farmer is back and very pleased to see his baby animals…



i had a wonderful time... living like a princess... with fresh food aplenty and time and quiet and ANIMALS galore...

i had a chat with a satinbowerbird... i laughed at the pigs... i nursed baby chickens... i stared at many many beautiful birds... chased a huge goanna from the baby chickens, and managed to avoid seeing anymore snakes... thankgod... listened to ANIMALS... talk about a racket... bicker and bellow and howl and chirp and cheep and grunt and sing and mimic me...

HA! why are you muttering little birdie?

it's just me and the animals

phoebe and her boys are gone on holiday. I am caretaking for a week, and have to feed a million chooks, ducks, 2 cats (one is extremely pregnant) a mother pig and her six little piglets, OHMYGOD, and an huge angry lady pig who I don’t doubt would love nothing more than to eat me for breakfast…

I also have to keep an eye on the cattle, which involves a whole lot of them staring at me any chance they get, bellowing loudly, and me staring back at them thinking how good fences are.

its just me. on a farm. which is interesting. I like solitude, but it takes a bit of getting used to this kind of middle of nowhere, long long walk (I don’t drive) through the dark night, to any other human, type solitude, so hooray for telephones. I might get lonesome and spooked otherwise. I house-sit for mum and dad, which is even more isolated, but I am good friends with the neighbours and have tv, music, and the comfort of my childhood home.

tv is good for quieting the mind. but there is no tv and limited electricity here, which means enough solar power to heat water, power two dim lights and run a freezer. maybe my computer for an hour a night if I don’t listen to the radio...

solitude and silence. let’s see if I don’t go completely crazy huh.

so far I like it. phoebe has an incredible garden, pretty and plentiful and I could just wander around in it for hours. I picked cherry tomatoes, spinach, basil and zucchini, roasted the tomatoes with garlic and olive oil, collected the eggs, then made a delicious quiche.

I spent an hour on the HUGE trampoline. watching the amazing sunset and the piglets, who were delighting in chasing the chooks and chickens who just roam about the garden. if they managed to catch one they’d eat it*, but even so they are incredibly adorable. I haven’t seen much that is cuter than six baby pigs playing chase.

*pigs like to eat other animals even more than I like to eat them.

now It’s dark, i just have to find a way to entertain myself long enough til it’s time to go to bed. trying not to get spooked by the noises. which are everywhere.

there are so many creatures in them thar hills, and this house, and those paddocks, and outside the windows. geckos, curlews, crickets, creaks and thuds, the clock tick tocks so slowly and the wind has a lot to say too.

I say goodnight. sleep tight.

quiz

What did I talk about with my dad over coffee today?

a. Lebanon

b. myspace

c. rainbirds and termites

d. bio fuels

e. moisturizer

f. jay z & Justin Timberlake

g. all of the above

What happens every time I see my grandma?

a. she asks if a have a job yet
b. she asks if I am married yet
c. I am terrified every time I see another scar from having more sun spots burnt, cut, frozen off her pale white skin
d. all of the above

What can’t i see from here, where I sit?

a. 6 large bunches of bananas
b. a fire
c. 2 sheds sans roof from cyclone larry
d. a dead deadly snake
e. a cat eating an avocado
f. none, i see them all

How many snakes have I seen in the last ten days?

a. 22
b. 2
c. 7
d. 13

Which ones wasn’t I bitten or stung by in the last ten days?

paralysis tick
leech
bull ant
green ant
crocodile
mystery spider
valentine
horse
mosqitos
fish
flying ants
stingray
angry coral snake

did I see Pauline Hanson on a wendy’s add?

... and finally, one that I still don’t know the answer to because I don’t watch the news...

Is this little piece of paradise still the only electorate in australia with a one nation mp, after yesterdays election?

I’d say probably...

SUNSHINE

It feels like summer here, baking hot sun, the tin roof is popping, heavy grey clouds are building up in the ridges, maybe an afternoon storm… the air smells good, like rain on a cooling breeze.

The birds sound good too. screechy parrots and cockatoos, kookaburras laughing, currawongs singing, willy wagtails, cockle pheasants and a storm bird calling the rain…

I am going for a swim down the river. it’s hot to walk down, but it’s the best place to be at this time... shady spots by the waterhole on big sun warmed rocks… I fall asleep down there, walking home through the paddock in twilight…

Yesterday I made mulberry cake with the first ripe fruit… I have been watching them hopefully since I got here. one of my favourite things ever is mulberry pie, so maybe I’ll make one on the weekend. OHMYGOD. mulberry pie.

other good things… my best ever look at a tree kangaroo. I walked down the river for a swim on Friday and he was crashing round the base of the quandong tree… I must’ve frightened him, but i watched him climb up the tree and find a perch, where he kept an eye on me the whole time I was down there.

I also saw a carpet snake, a king brown, a pair of snorting bulls fighting on the road, a turtle and some wallabies and kangaroos.

I saw a calf fresh born and tiny baby piglets at my sisters place. she has the menagerie, with cattle, angry mother pigs, ducks, chooks and guinea fowl, snakes and goannas… also four free-range boys.

If mum and dad's is health camp, good for the soul and spirit, phoebe's is some kind of cunningly designed sleep-deprivation, over-stimulation, stamina & endurance regime...

I mean that in a good way... i just need to come to mums after a night or two to recoup...

Have a good weekend...

oh my darlin

i fell asleep at eight o'clock tonight after a day of playing with valentine...

talk about worn out... he wakes up at 5:30 am... i doubt you'd do much better...



queensland is sunny and warm and really quite nice... just like they say in the magazines...

xxxx

hello goodbye

no time, as today i fly to cairns to meet my mum and dad, who will take me home to the hills...

i am going to qld for two months... i will try to keep you posted... but it is the land of disconnection so i'll see how i go...

be good monkeys...

i'll see you soon...