BLUESKY

BLUESKY OVER WALL STREET

Blue skies smilin' at me
Nothin' but blue skies do I see
Bluebirds singin' a song
Nothin' but bluebirds all day long

Irving Berlin lyrics

It seems the global financial crisis is turning the corner into better times ahead. Well here's hoping. My latest Apophysis Escher-esq piece above echoes that sentiment. Maybe the leaders are just talking it up, maybe the unemployed are still suffering and maybe things still don't look as rosy as they could, but hope feels good.

Here we've had one of the best winters. Not too cold, good rains, and now endless blue sky days as we go through our usual end of July - start of August calm sunny dry days I call our "champagne weather". Each breath feels like "soma", recharging and reinvigorating every cell & fiber of the being.

Spring is very close, it usually comes arrives here in next couple of weeks. Already the Jasmine and Peach blossom are in abundance, heralding the warm days to come.

My life is Apophysis, as it has been for 2 years now. The complexities and intricacies of chaos tamed into meaningful art is so all-absorbing, so hypnotic. I am an addict now. How I love this addiction. The rewards for slavery to this machine, ephemeral tho they may be and only available thru it, fill my waking hours with delight and obsess my dreams as well.

PC addiction is often looked on as a problem. I can certainly see the problems of computer, IT & gaming addiction if the associated behaviors affect our survival. But at my age I don't think those concerns apply, as long as I maintain my health & safety. If I am hurting no-one, staying happy and producing a minimal ecological footprint with it, I do not see the harm. You can check out my work by following the links on side-bar and make your own judgments, remembering that I am a lame old woman and cannot function as that riparian botanist I once was. It is a rewarding way to pass the days of my dotage.

Swine flu is spreading exponentially throughout Australia. People are dying every day from it. The news today is that it has been found in pigs in a NSW piggery. Bellingen hospital staff & beds have been reduced by one-third by it after a swine flu patient was treated there and they are sending new patients to other hospitals. Yet still people are saying it is just the normal winter flu toll. OK, no panic, but surely it is better to face reality and embrace what is really happening, rather than live in delusions of what we would prefer to think.

The Grey shrike thrush has just landed in studio in front of me as I type this. It hops across to mirror and lets forth with its excruciatingly delicious piping melodious harmonic call. Go to the link to hear its' call. How can anything feel bad when the day is so magnificent and my visitor brings such rich gifts. What is happening on our planet is disturbing, but here all is peace and I am in bliss.

TATHATA

Orchids in the Moonlight

I'm a bit sick of all the snakes. Now I have not one, but 2, Night tigers coiled looking at me. One in dressing room beside bunk, the other behind me as I type at my computer. Small inoffensive Antichinus catchers.

So I'm posting these orchids below to create a better view than scales, coils & snakes eyes.
Go here if you want to see the snakes.

Beautiful orchid in full flower

I had thought this was Sarcochilus falcata, but others who apparently know better, tell me it's an Asian soft-cane species. So I'll do the keying out and let you know. Meanwhile whatever it is, it is beautiful. One of the blessings I count. By full moon it will be in full bloom. Then I'll take a moonlit shot.

Dendrobium beckleri.
The Pencil Orchid.

An Australian native orchid outside my back door presenting very well,
despite, or perhaps because of, the drought.

Goodbye APEC, Hello Very Big Snake.

wotULookinat....
my comment on APEC

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

Anu (would-be) Friend

This is what Spring has brought to my bunkhouse bed....I think she's about 12 feet long.

During the colder months she hibernates right above my head in the ceiling. But now she's out n about & taken to enjoying the comforts of the foot of my bed. Outside the net thankfully!

uh ooh....busted...!!

please, not the big stick again.....

evicted !

She's becoming just a little too cosy. I respect that she's a wild animal. She's just shed her skin and is looking very sleek and glossy.

I just hope I'm not in for a repeat of her mating rituals of a few years ago when 11+ males formed an "amalgum" - a formation of coiled stacked snakes all on top of the female to keep her down.

This happened on the guest bunk in direct line of sight from my sleeping position - last thing I saw at night....strangely I actually did manage to sleep...none were aggressive to me, they ranged from about 6 to 13 feet long.

During the day I couldn't walk in the bunkhouse for the snakes lunging in territorials at each other, loops of them hanging from the rafters, on the beds, under chairs...it was quite an event.

Eventually I saw so many inside, and several blind ones outside in process of shedding their skins before joining the gang bang party, that I decided enuf was more than enuf & time to reclaim my territory. So I called an old buddy in who's son had just come back from studying King browns in the Centre and he and his mother relocated quite a few.

One enormous male remained. I decided to be brave & sort him myself but got fanged thru my hand. But he got the message and left after I threatened him with a big broom.

So now this one is getting too friendly. I don't want to relocate her, she's been around for forever here. Dilemma.

And so to bed....no doubt to wrangle her out of it first......I'm amazed I can actually sleep & dream pleasantly with a monster like this wanting to get personal...but I do.

Fortress City

Satellites Above

This week APEC has taken over Sydney CBD. Sydney is in Lock Down.

Most of the citizens have exited, gone bush, upcountry, to the beach, the snow, or are just laying low at home waiting for it all to return to normal.

What we are observing, that is what we are permitted to see via the media, is very sobering. Why the nation's most populous city has to be shut down for this event is beyond me. Surely the whole shebang could have been staged elsewhere, away from population centers, so as not to incur the huge expense we all have to bear eventually.

Why not create a secure fortress in a remote outback conference center/resort, where the APEC leaders could be brought in & out by air. Where their every need could be catered for, where the main conference could be carried out in safety, well away from demonstrators, terrorists & other persons of interest that are attracted like flies to its' meat. For $300 million they could have built such a venue. It seems to me the whole thing is an exercise in stupidity. It knocks at least a week out of Sydney's economy on so many levels.

Just to remind us that the problems are right here in our own precincts, local towns are now getting CCTV street surveillance security cams.

Hello the Brave New World. Keep smiling, it's all for your benefit, blame the terrorists - you know, those who would destroy the fabric of our beautiful society. Do you see where all this is going?

I see sleepwalkers going like lambs to the slaughter. The trap is sprung, there is no way out. Protest and you are branded - one of Them. Either/Or. Yes/No. It's all so binary, no rainbows of options , all black or white.

So I just stay out of it all. It's all so harsh. A world of pain, of bullies, of violence , of people enslaved by debt and bureaucratic rat runs.

Kamertaj brings Anu to the Springs of the Muses.

For the last months I have been learning fractal art . It's my world, a world of beauty, peace, color and sweet harmony. A world of light and laughter.

So here I share with you some of my recent creations. You can see more on my Flickr site, just press on the link on right to go there.

The very good news is that the last week here has been gentle soft rain. A great start to Spring.

Stay safe, laugh a lot, be happy and make a better world, it's the only planet we've got.

SPRING !

One of my treasures to celebrate Spring 2007.

SPRING !

Enjoy the peach blossom all buzzin' with bees.
Symbols of hope & renewal.

The first signs of spring. Our winter of 4-6 weeks is almost over. Hasn't rained since June 26th, the creek is down to last trickle & some neighbors have run out of water. Bushfires all around, mostly arson, or idiots whose pre-fireban period burnoffs got out of control. Why anyone would light fires when the countryside is tinder dry beats me. At least a recent slight change blew the smoke pall away, enough to give a blue sky in above shot. But today the air is a jaundiced yellow/khaki again.

Thinking of the whales surging along the coast on annual summer migration, just started. I can almost feel the whoosh and surge as they surface, breath & dive again.

Meanwhile Wollumbin's Fighting Chief of the North is a sleeping giant enveloped in a pall of smoke.

Dream On.