Waterlog

WATERLOGGED!

Endless weeks of rain. Coastal areas north & south of here just had 1 in 500 year events. 26 inches in 5 hours up on Sunshine Coast & Coffs Harbor declared a Natural Disaster Area! Many lost everything in the walls of water that swept thru, taking all in the unprecedented surging waves. We had our share, but nothing so devastating. It has been an endless wet season. Good rains here tho, not damaging, just persistent.

It's been nearly 6 months since I blogged - so much has happened.

I've been Apophysing endlessly mainly. Follow the links on sidebar to see my latest output on deviantART. But been keeping my eye on global events. We live in interesting times.

The race to keep the tail up with the head is getting tense, but at least we have People of Peace (well, some!) trying to put the ravages of the past to rights. But with the latest news of the accelerating breakup of the Antarctic Ice shelf it is obvious that the warming process is far advanced. Too far for us to survive? Time will tell. Meanwhile the ridiculous wasters keep destroying, denying and generally ignoring the fact that we need to act as one to get thru what's coming.



Meanwhile I'm reading a book that fills me with joy.
Roger Deakin's Waterlog







I'm taken back to all the free swimming of my life.
Rivers, surf, lagoons, pools, creeks, dams and so on.

Drifting downstream on bubbling streams in Far North Queensland, only to find, on exiting, crocodile slides on the banks....oops!

Lilo-ing down Bell's Creek gorge canyons in the Blue Mountains in NSW.

Years of early morning laps in Sydney's Queenscliffe saltwater rock pool after running the 5 miles up Manly Beach & back.

The freezing cold dips into the Tamar River pools at the bottom of our cottage field at Hardstone Farm in Devon before and after my daughter Klea was born back in '66.

The raging force of the Himalayan snow-fed Ganges at Rishakesh .....then the eye-to-eye meeting the body-eating dolphin midstream of its'downstream turgid muddy polluted maninfestation at Varanasi. I broke all records to get back to the houseboat of louche stoned hippies who responded to my "omfg you should have seen it" freaking out as I threw myself back on board, with "Cool Man".


Countless naked dawn surfs on pristine surf beaches all along our Pacific coast here in Oz. Crystal aquamarine tubes catching the rising sun, dolphins in silhouette riding the waves in alongside me.



Bliss beyond bliss.















Mountain pools high up in the canyons of our old volcano, not called The Fridge for nothing!










Water has been the dominant presence in my life in so many ways, right up to the last real work I was able to do, surveying the rivers for appropriate vegetaion for restoration works by govt depts., Landcare & Councils & etc.

Now, lame, all I can do is live vicariously in the memories. How I long to swim in a saltwater rock pool just one more time.















I can dip in my creek, but that's about it for me now.

This book, Waterlog by Roger Deakin, such an erudite writer & dedicated swimmer & environmentalist is bringing back my love of water and so many memories.

I went to find him online but sadly found he died a couple of years back.

So I add this blog to the tributes to his ethos, spirit, energy.

In the Search I did find this site: SwimSallySwim Reading that has given me a new thrust and determination. I will swim again! Thank you Sally!

TIPPING POINT

TIPPING POINT

BUCKY BOOGIES ON THE EDGE OF THE ABYSS





LIMITS TO GROWTH



PLAYING WITH INCENDIA.

I've been learning 3-D digital art in a new program, Incendia , in last months.
Go here to view the other results.

The above Incendia images are my comments on what's going down as we approach the climate change tipping point and weather the global financial crisis, or the comprehensive failure of extreme capitalism, as Kevin Rudd expresses it.

I watch with interest. Uncontrollable forces affecting every living thing on this planet.

How will it all pan out?

I am beyond expressing anything much about it all now, except thru my art, as I doubt we can do much except try to survive. The time for remedial action was last century when we could have averted a lot of the problems becoming catastrophic by addressing biosphere carrying capacity in better management of sustainable life support systems & population controls.

I think few realised that the threat was real and partied like there was no tomorrow.
The future is NOW.

My opinions, such as they are, are in previous posts. However action is all that counts and apart from being as minimalist as I can in my lifestyle here, I can do no more.

Good luck everyone.

Try to be kind & share the burden, not destroy eachother in some blighted Mad Max scenario.

Yes, we will survive, but will civilisation endure?

How will it all look in 100 years from now?

I am coping by creating art (aka selfish pleasures), and appreciating this extraordinary thing we call life, living in hope that our stupidity will not result in our annihilation.

While there is LIFE.......ah yes, but will we be part of it?

Is HOPE all we have now?

WINTER SOLSTICE OFFERINGS

Here are two offerings to celebrate the
Winter Solstice, 2008.


*Chronicles d'Anu
A fractal fantasia.

*Anu Fractal Style
Have I created a "New Style" of fractal?
You be the judge.

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CHRONICLES D'ANU

Recently I've created a fantasia - a series of fractal images with attached brief fictions that link as the Chronicles d'Anu. Fantasy imaginings based on various episodes of my life's journey.

I posted the series on deviantART and some images are also on Flickr.


Chronicles d'Anu

SECRETS IN THE CAVE


ANCIENT MAGIC


WILDE EYE


MOONFLOWER


SCARLET PASSIONFLOWER


SPELLBOUND






SWAMP SECRETS


Hope like what you find as you browse these old Journals.

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ANU STYLE OF FRACTAL

DeviantART's cmptrwhz recently posted an Apophysis tutorial for the Julian Chain. I played with it and came up with heaps of images & posted the ones you see below. He calls them a new style of fractal. Read about all that here.

The below are the "new Style" fractal images.

What do you think?

Witchy Brew

Caldron of Troubled Bubbles

Are these below also included in the "New Style" category?

Buddha Bowl

The Cherry Bowl

Cmptrwhz says not, the "New Style" having the brew in the bowl being the difference.

What do you think?

Enjoy,

Anu.

PEAK OIL

Living in Interesting Times.

Image created by me in Apophysis

PEAK OIL

It's here, right now, and we are all faced with
Titanic-scale consequences.
Just how will it all play out?

Powerlessness.
An interesting concept.

We should have acted in the 70-80's,
but maybe nobody really believed
this scenario would come to pass.

The sudden awakening of the 00's
to the reality of the tsunami nature of the catastrophes
of over-population, inappropriate technology, profligate consumerism, greed,
power-hungry rulers who fiddle while Rome burns,
biosphere breakdown,
climate change, gross pollution on all levels,
(etc. etc., you know the litany),
is just too late.

Spaceship Earth has too many passengers,
is powered by polluting technologies
controlled by power mongers with agendas
that somehow don't include
the well-being of the passengers and crew.

But of course I/you/we know all this.

Now we reap the whirlwind.

Incoming!

Hold tight, it's going to be a bumpy ride folks.
Prepare for colateral damage.

FANTASTIC DIVERSIONS

RECENT DIVERSIONS IN APOPHYSIS

Ancient Magic

Migaloo Singing

Secrets of the Cave

Full Moonrise over Rainbow Falls

All the above can be seen, with production details and, in some cases, a bit of prose poetry, in my deviantArt Gallery


I have been so sad. The disasters of the past weeks in Myanmar and China have been so appalling I haven't been able to stop crying at what I've been seeing on the news. So I have been diverting my mind creating fantasy art in Apophysis. Feeling so helpless, unable to do a thing to help, what else can I do except try to occupy my mind with the beauty within and without. There is enough being said about it all by others, so I'm not going into either horror here.

So I give you my art.

Ancient Magic was created in response to ideviant's extraordinary recent works, Sanctum Sanctorum and Illuminati Tablet , evoking old stones and fantasy myths. Unfortunately my attempts lacks the expertise of his works, but I was able to express something of my own fantasy myths, based on the Bradshaws, which would horrify my old Prehistory Rock Art prof no doubt! All done in the spirit of fantasy Michael I assure you. No, I don't believe in that twaddle, science is science, but I can have a bit of fun fantasising, can't I?

Meanwhile the champagne weather of late Autumn here is giving us endless beautiful clear sunny days reaching the mid 20's round middle of day, but crisply chilly in mornings and nights. The full moon in the cold crystalline air fills me with the joy of being alive, thankfully happy to be safe here in my mountain idyll in this wonderful Land of Oz, as I gaze into the universe and ponder It All.

SUNSPOTS and LAUGHTER

HERE'S THE GOOD NEWS

Laughing Kookaburras - Dacelo novaeguineae.

She struggled thru the endless wet to feed her brood, begging for food every day at my kitchen window - see her in other pix by clicking kookaburra tag and here in my Flickr Anu Wilde World Set.

Today the laughter from the Native Tamarind tree (Diploglottis campbellii) brought me outside to record her successful breeding season as I see 3 juveniles and her mate with her, all cackling like crazy.

So I cackled back. Impossible to be sad with this mob around!

SUNSPOTS.

Yes a few spots of sun from time to time, but still showers most days.

The cooler weather has brought back my need to crochet again. Last winter I started on a granny square rug called Sunspots.
I put my cache of finished squares away in one of those ubiquitous plastic crates with the onset of the wet weather of early summer.

SUNSPOTS IN STORAGE

But I posted the details of its' creation on GrannyAlong. Today I revisited the site and saw another has come up with a similar pattern so I'm inspired to finish Sunspots, despite the fact that it hasn't stopped raining and the air is humid and moisture-laden. This bird-blind of a studio isn't conducive to a dry atmosphere, I'm surprised my computer functions sometimes.

I have been busy organizing in the world of Tapestry Crochet lately.
Met Megan Jack who makes extraordinary and beautiful hats.
Go to the Tapestry Crochet site (sidebar) to read about her and see other artists in this field I'm uncovering since I started the Flickr Tapestry Crochet group.

APOPHYTIS

I'm having a rest from fractals for a while. I think I've got the hang of Apophysis, enough to rest on my oars for a bit and gather back the shreds & threads of the life I once lived before the Apophytis virus took me over. My main fractal cache is on Flickr and Picasa if you want to see what I've done so far - see sidebar links.

I've never had an obsession before and now I can see why addicts' lives fall apart. Time to show who's the boss of this ship! The lure of something so beautiful, so attractive, that becomes so dangerous. Now I've had that experience and can see how others can be taken over by various traps life can present. Just watch the news and see the fallen and the falling. Hear the stories of the victims who could not resist that siren song. Just like overcoming smoking or drinking, it is a matter of finding inner resources, of recognizing a certain objectivity and exercising willpower. It's all to do with personal freedom. Unfortunately many don't know how imprisoned they are by their own stupidity. We are, each and every one of us, such flawed and fallible creatures.

THE VIEW OUTSIDE MY WINDOW!

Hello...
...the Very Big Snake digesting the 2nd last pademelon ....
....goodbye...!

Click on tag at side to see more of her.

EVEN MORE GOOD NEWS

Kevin the Reformer is showing us his stripes. What a powerhouse we have in him & his team. The last few weeks have shown his dazzling diplomatic form with his OS trip. Here in Oz we've seen, among a plethora of much-needed reforms and initiatives: work place reform, climate change, 2020 Summit, China (Olympics, Tibet & all THAT!). His latest coup is the appointment of the (first-ever) woman, Quentin Bryce, as our Queen's representative. Could be the last too, as Kevin, Julia and the Mob are openly declared Republicans and I feel we will be a republic before 2015, if not sooner.
Not a moment too soon for me.

MANDELMANIA

While exploring an Apophysis tutorial for creating Wires and Tubes Fractals I found how to create the classic Mandelbrot in Apophysis 2.06c beta 3D Hack.

Here are a few:

MANDELMANIA

HOT MANDELBROT

CLASSIC MANDELBROT

The below was created with the same Wires & Tubes tutorial.

COOKING WITH GAS

Finding how to create these fractals has given me a lot of joy. Feel like I'm taking Apophysis fractals away from the types of images usually associated with this program, opening new possibilities. Keep wondering what will be the next amazement this extraordinary program will reveal as I continue this journey of discovery.

Life is Jesta Bowl of Cheeries

Latest Apophysis fractals

THE CHERRY BOWL

CROCHET

TROPICAL FISH

Playing around on Apophysis is a fun & productive way of passing my last days.

The endless rain persists, but last week has seen champagne Autumn coolness kick in with showers early, giving spectacular misty dawns, followed by glorious mornings of sunshine before the clouds move in to bring more showers later & into the night. Gentle soft rain. Couldn't be better, for wet season weather.

Of course the insects are in full abundance, sandflies especially.
I've had a couple of scary spider bites that have made me very sick for a few days.

The flock pigeons have arrived, but their numbers so few it makes me weep.
Once the noise of hundreds, thousands, darkening the sun, was like a low F1-11 passing over treetops. Yesterday the flock numbered less than 20 birds.

The depletion of wildlife as our numbers increase and invade the last wild places is past critical, Researchers keep giving us the facts, but it's all fait accompli.

Like the coming climate change events, like our uncontrolled numbers impacting on the life support systems, unstoppable.

So we put it down to biosphere evolution. This is what happens. Watch and learn.
Doing anything is a shoulda, coulda. Back then, when we first became aware.
But few listened and those who shoulda & coulda didn't.
Fact is we didn't & now it is too late.

How do we stop the icecaps melting?
How do we stop the ocean conveyor belt currents changing?
How do we stop the populations expanding?
How do we control Mammon, pollution?

Oh yes, there are/were ways and all hands to the pumps, but, drat, too little, too late.

It coulda worked

It shoulda worked

But it ain't gunna work because the process is in motion.

Prepare for the culling.

The northern spring flowers and we in the south eat the fruits of autumn.

Enjoy the cherries.

CRYSTAL WHORLS

This animation was created in Apophysis 2.06c 3D Hack.
Production details can be seen here on original flame.

NATIONAL SORRY DAY

SORRY

A NEW BEGINNING

Today the people of Australia apologized to the Aboriginal people, the oldest living culture on the planet, for the wrongs inflicted upon them by the European settlers over the last 210 years.

Kevin Rudd, our humane and enlightened newly-elected Prime Minister, fulfilling his election promise, delivered the Apology to the Aboriginal people as his first task at the start of the first sitting of the 42nd Parliament in Canberra today.

Aboriginal tribal elders witnessed the event from the Public Gallery above.

Outside thousands of Aboriginal people and supporters from all cultures that make up our multicultural nation watched the proceedings on a giant screen. All around Australia people gathered to watch this historic moment that will transform our nation from this day forward.

I was in tears. Many were.

At the conclusion all members present rose in support. Their united voice said "Yeah".

Australia says Sorry.

This is a new beginning.
This is not an intellectual exercise,nor an empty condescending gesture.
Sorry is a word of substance with an agenda of positive action encoded within it.
Reconciliation will follow.

This is a core promise of national responsibility that goes beyond all posturing, petty politics & puerile attitudes.

The Commission that will follow will introduce constructively defined projects to improve the life of these people.


We have to come to terms with the past in order to embrace the future.

"Seize the Day," says Kevin. Let this day become a rare moment of national transformation. The real possibility of reconciliation of our indigenous people.

It brings the last two shameful centuries to a close and opens a new chapter that respectfully recognizes these ancient people, the original inhabitants, who have inhabited the Australian continent for >60,000 years......some estimates say twice that.





We cannot go back but we can go forward and not repeat past mistakes.

Minds wide open we can tackle the challenges that we will encounter as we go forward in this new chapter in our nation's story.

Nobody says it's an immediate cure, that suddenly everything wrong will miraculously come right.

But it is the first step in the healing process and will eventually lead to a healthier united Australian nation for the generations to come.

It is about decency and respect.

We will craft a new future from this day forward.

They no longer speak of boongs & blacks,
they talk of the Aboriginal people

Neville Bonner -1st Aboriginal MP

Images recorded from ABC TV 130208