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!

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.

LAST DAZE BEFORE CLIMATE CHANGE RAVE PARTY

EVENT IN THE HATCHERY

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



ANOTHER RANTING RAVE
FOR SUE

&
YOU

if you can bear it

!!

I'm afraid you wouldn't like me very much if I told you what I do with strays, but I do live on a wildlife reserve and domestic escapees wreak havoc. The wildlife has been seriously decimated by feral animals in the time I've lived here.

I grew up with a dog called AspadelladouchByTheSea (Aspy for short), 2 cats called Pinkle & Purr & later another called Black Magic. Later I bred myself an Arab stallion called Banzai (from Banjo out of Ayesha). I came from that kind of 'normal'.

But my travels showed me our impacts on ecosystems and when I came here I dedicated my life to conservation and righting the land-use wrongs, as this land had been ravaged by logging, bananas, cattle, pigs & goats by various different owners over 150 years since Euro settlement.

Feral animals were abundant. A big management problem as being close to a National Park which some people seem to think is the place to dump unwanted pets, plus having a next door so-called Wildlife Reserve, which then had caged animals, both native and exotic, so it was actually a zoo in effect. The captives frequently escaped.

Worst of all were the packs of hounds the local dairy farmers fed milk slops to after the milking and then let loose to roam the mountains in marauding packs.The idea was the hounds became tick-infested as they moved thru the bush and they developed immunity (or died horribly). When they returned for their milk slops they were milked for serum which was then sold to vets who used it to save their client's tick-affected pets.

Obviously a pack of hungry dogs hunting in the wilderness ate any animals they could, including the koalas, wallabies, possums & etc etc etc.

Fortunately those practices ceased n 90's when environmental groups lobbied and prohibitive laws were finally passed that recognized the values of native ecosystems conservation. But much damage had been done by then.

The wild dogs, descendants of those packs and dumped pets, came around after my scraps and howl in packs, very unnerving. They have been known to attack people so I keep my doors closed at night. Fortunately they are fewer these days.

Every now & again well-meaning neighbors, or the Parks Service, put down 1080 poisons baits & that gets a few of them. A horrible death I also have to endure as they don't always die quietly & tidily in distant unseen places.

Then carrion eaters dispose of the carcass. So the quolls, bandicoots, possums, skinks & other native wildlife that eat carrion die too. And the poison goes all they way down to the dung beetles & worms.

Cats are as much of a problem and much harder to eradicate. I saw a feral cat here a few weeks ago that was the size of a bobcat, very scarey. That was no sweet pretty kitty can tell you.

Once there were possums, quolls, bandicoots, pademelons, skinks, frogs, koalas, echidnas, snakes and the full array of inhabitants one would find in a healthy wet to dry sclerophyll forests & rainforest montaine ecosystem.

In the wet we just had I saw ONE frog. In the 80's the roar of their mating numbers around the ephemeral pools made it impossible to sleep some nights.

Then came the cane toads.

Then went the frogs, the snakes, the skinks, the bandicoots & all that used to predate on frogs & ate canetoads instead. Deadly poisonous creatures. I have one frozen in my freezer as speak. The only way to dispose of them is to burn them they are so toxic.

Now I feed the kookaburra so she can breed, because her food chain is severed. I don't like feeding wildlife, but must say when she turned up with 2 emergent nestlings last week I nearly cried with relief. But now what will THEY eat? They are a species of giant kingfisher & rely on streams for fish & amphibians & snakes,lizards & skinks to survive.The streams have been depleted thru kids throwing stones & turning over the rocks & taking whatever they fancy might be fun in a bottle, till it dies. Plus pollution from Park visitor impacts & increased settlement impacts on the riparian zones.

My grass used to be grazed by a herd of about 20 macropds of various species, wallabies & pademelons mostly. Now ONE pademelon timidly grazes, keeping right close to the edges near the surrounding bush.

Now I have to employ a man to cut the grass. That means machinery and the noise disturbs what other creatures there are, plus inadvertently killing the odd legless lizard, of which very few are left.I haven't seen a skink in several years and I used to have about 20 scooting around the studio & outside, very friendly,. They controlled the insect that wanted to live with me too..

Possums are now totally absent...gone...I used to have about 20 of about 4 different species.

Quolls are GONE, haven't seen one or heard one in 10 years.

I now have ONE koala where in 80's there were 20+, in the 90's there were 8 or so... now only ONE!! I heard it crying the other night, so sad, no reply to it's mating call this year when normally the screams of ecstasy would make yr hair stand on end for hours at a time. I called this place Koala Mountain Sanctuary & dedicated it to the conservation of the core population of koalas it then supported. It seems it will be a sad epitaph, not a statement of success. There will be no new generations. The dogs got them all except this last solitary male.

All this because of people letting their cats & dogs stray or dumping them.
It's not the animal's fault. It's people.

So I'm afraid I'm seriously unsentimental when I see the plight of these uncontrolled domestic ex-pets. Cats and dogs are very efficient hunters and because Australia's major large carnivorous predator is the introduced dingo, which only arrived around 4,000 years ago, most of the wildlife species don't have that necessary instinct to combat them, so they are just sitting ducks, so to speak.

I had a friend who worked in Diplomatic Corps & had just come back from a stint in Martinique,some years back now. She told me the wildlife on those Caribbean islands has been so decimated as to be reduced to very few species. It is the same world over.

Wherever we go with our baggage & friends, we destroy the very base of the systems that have evolved only by the full compliment of their native inhabitants. Take links from the chain and it all falls apart. We are a very uncomfortable species to be a part of.

I thought I was part of the solution, but find I am a very definite part of the problem.

So, sorry to rain on yr parade, but it would be hypocritical of me to nod, smile & wave when I feel so very much otherwise on this issue of saving strays.

Please don't take it personally, because I respect you and where you are coming from. I thought if I spelled out clearly what has happened here you could understand why I am of that opinion.

My brand of green is very deep ecology green.

I am beyond being aghast at what we do and have done, so now I just try to live as lightly on the planet as I possibly can and watch the movie.
I can't combat The Greater, the damage is done and we are now reaping the consequences of our mass stupidity.

Maybe we should write messages on the cave walls now...

Control our numbers,

Respect the life supporting resource base & its component working parts

Use appropriate non-polluting technology

So if there are any survivors they can at least have a few guidelines to a more successful sustainable management plan for our species' survival in its' next manifestation.

The weather has suddenly become full-blown beautiful diamond days summer.

Butterflies everywhere. At least they are still in abundance. Maybe because there are fewer birds to eat them!

I will try not to think of these things and return to fractalising to divert my mind in the creation of useless ephemeral images that are total self indulgence so I can post them on DA & Flickr & have 3 or 4 Commenters say cool or WOW or some such ego booster.

Ho Hum

STARSHIP HANGAR

Readying for the Voyage to next Goldilocks Planet

as

if

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

TRUTH

A SERMON TO MARK AUSTRALIA DAY 2008.

FOR SUE.

Wollumbin Dreaming

You say I traveled far to find the Truth, and I did, but it was not until I found my home here on the mountain that the Truth was finally revealed.

That was because I studied Biosphere Function, Evolution, Prehistory, Astronomy Physics & etc.

Letting go all notions of God & replacing mythology with scientific facts.

I felt at the time, and still do, that if we were to right the wrongs and establish a sustainable life supporting management plan for The Way Forward we had to understand the fundamental Truth about It All.

By which I mean the way the universe works to produce life on planets and what the mechanisms are that turn stardust into living consciousness in our perceiving minds.

Objectively and subjectively.

The organism in the midst of the conditions must understand what those conditions are that support its existence and functioning body and mind.

This was obviously a Huge Call for Little Me!

But the truth I have finally nutted out has finally revealed itself, sometimes steps of it in Eureka moments, sometimes in slow iceberg slides of consciousness awakenings & realizations over days & weeks that eventually showed me a new viewpoint when the iceberg righted itself & started floating.

I had to figure out time, motion, chemistry, planetary formation, evolution, anthropology, the anthropic principle, the anthropocentric viewpoint, socio political evolution thru his and her stories, the way human systems work, human migration patterns, rise & fall of civilizations,biosphere evolution itself.

The wholistic view of It All.

When a planet is Just Right For Life, it is called a Goldilocks planet. When we search the universe for planets, we seek those Goldilocks planets. But whether we will survive to ever explore another life supporting planet is now in serious doubt.

Consider This question:

How does biosphere evolution work?

How did that lumpy chunky fireball floating around the sun
turn stardust into a living watery biosphere envelope
populated by an integrated ecology of plants & animals
that support another (super?) species
that relies on all the rest for its existence
and has the ability to see itself in context
and the technology to maybe even translocate some core DNA to another Goldilocks planet
when the biosphere it has plundered collapses
under its uncontrolled population pressures and resource mismanagement?

And another question: What is that Sun?

Well, that was what I needed to know.

That was the truth I sought, beyond all the socio/political/religious human mythologies,beyond all this stuff about Chosen Ones,The Coming Messiah,The Son of God, The Pantheon of Gods, God the Supreme One, Buddha. & etc.

I had a discussion recently on the subject of Holy. I find such a concept rather precious. However I concede it has a place if it is translated into actions of respect and nurture.

In my Truth all concepts of Holy in terms of anthropocentric mythical beings have been replaced by the concept of the Holy Earth and the living biosphere that exists as it interacts with the Sun, the moon and space. Holy, to me, are the ecosystems such as the rainforests, riparian zones, wetlands, rivers, oceans, reefs, deserts, etc. and all those places where things exist that support and drive our precious life support system, the Biosphere.

I also regard all lifeforms, including human beings, and especially our children, as Holy. They are all Holy. To be respected, defended and supported in the best way we can. In the case of our human population, education as to the precious nature of life and existence is paramount.

Putting offerings on these holy altars by investing our energies in their sustainable future should be our species credo.

Now, slowly, some things are changing for the better, despite a lot of negative behaviors like war & crime,as the knowledge of this Truth which I find I now share with many, is getting to those who control the Power & the Energy systems and, most of all,the purse strings to get the action happening for a Sustainable Future.

But, alas, unfortunately, we are too late. Climate change is now upon us.

You wonder how much is passing cyclic change and how much is deep modification ?

It is both, but the deeper changes are now influencing the seasonal & cyclic events. We have been told to expect greater intensity and frequency of events. That has been evident as one hottest year on record builds on the last and the melting icecaps influence the global conveyor belt ocean currents, unleashing many complex reactions.

The biosphere systems are moving into new balances, skewing our life supports.

Here in Oz I have just experienced a small dose of what many others have experienced in varying forms of magnitude in recent weeks as floods drove people from their homes, killed livestock, destroyed crops and property over an area larger than GB.

My isolation of last weeks is now over, as a vital bridge was built today and at last I can access the wider world. I survived. As have many flood affected people. But at a cost.

As these incremental costs mount across the planet, pressures will build. How we handle what is to come is the big worry.

The Mad Max scenario of fuel wars and outlaws controlling through looting, fear and violence, could be one unthinkable stage of what is to come.

Human nature has cooperation inbuilt. Compassion, sacrifice for the greater good and all such laudable virtues are a recognizable part of being human.

However we all have the knowledge that when push comes to shove the less pleasant aspects of our nature start manifesting.

Avarice & greed overcome caring & sharing. Bullying and threats turn to violence and murder. Tribal feuds turn into genocide.

Climate change may wreak havoc, but will our survival depend on defeating our greatest enemy, ourselves?

This is the Truth I have found. It ends with a further question.

Change is the constant and we must adjust to the ever changing nature of existence.

Orchid & Iris

Today the garden (read wilderness) gives me flowers, strange flowers with color similarities and contrasting odoriferous differences.

Meet the Creeping Day Iris.

This is a particularly strange iris that blooms 2 days a year in Spring, usually a few weeks apart.
An exotic weed in rainforest understory. Still tracking it's name & place of origin.

Creeping Day Iris around the bird bath.

It stays out for a day, then the flowers simply fold up & shows over folks, nothing to see here!

Creeping Day Iris flower fully open.

It spreads prolifically in the rainforest understory and it's amazing to see all these pregnant yellow buds suddenly appear all over like little candles in the evening gloom. After dawn next day they all begin to open simultaneously. By 0730 the forest has a sudden celebration of flowers looking back at you from everywhere.

From bud to fully open flower takes about a half hour.You can watch them moving. Very much living things. I'll time lapse them next time.

Macro CU of Creeping Day Iris flower pongy nectary.

Another interesting thing about them is their stench. Oh yes they smell BAD. Something must love em! But I forgive them, they are just XQZT!

Subject No. 2: A Vulnerable Orchid.

I also found this fragrant orchid in full flower. Below is an extreme macro closeup of the happy Hobbitty face of the 5 mm flower. Now this one has such a divine perfume I just swooned.

Peristeranthus hillii - orchid flower macro CU.

Go to Sydney Botanical Gardens Herbarium site to read all about them.

The palms are all in abundant flower too. Alexandra's, Bangalows, Cane palms, Chinese fan palms - 4 - 5 different species, Walking stick palsm, Royal palms, Date palms...the list goes on..I have so many. The difference this year is that many have come into flower for the first time, after 25 years!

Time to go take more pix!!

FULL MOON, ORCHIDS & BETTY IS 86.

SEPTEMBER FULL MOON

Is that a UFO bottom right?
Nah...just the 747 from Coolangatta to Sydney with headlights blazing as it does its big swooparound & heads south west from coast.

Celebrated Betty's 86th last night with veranda drinks & dinner watching full moon rise over caldera. Then showed her flickr & blogspot, explaining how, if her traveling clan posted to web, she'd be able to access their pix & diaries. I think she was impressed.

Gosh....I AM! It's such high magic this technology. Here's a good shot I got of her two days ago.

Betty is a hearty 86! Congratulations Betty!

A few more orchids have come into bloom.
This one is the Tongue orchid, Dendrobium linguaforme.

Tongue orchid

Below, this is the extravagant large raceme of the King orchid, Dendrobium speciosum. This year only 1 raceme, instead of the 6-12 it usually present. The other plants of this species, usually so abundant, have not flowered at all.

King Orchid

The drought has cut deep. This morning I harvested the solitary lemon my bush lemon beside studio gave me this year. Normally they are so abundant they litter the ground at this time and I'm busy preserving them or freezing the juice.

The fact that eastern states farmers are quitting their farms, committing suicide in frightening numbers, pulling up whole orchards, looking at totally failed crops & putting the sheep to graze off what has managed to come up but is unharvestable, is not getting through to a lot of people I think.

The implications are huge. Can we survive as a population from what the Ord River will provide?

Populate and Perish.

I'd like to congratulate my old friend from way back then, Karl Kruszelnicki , who is running for Senate under the Climate Change banner in next election.

DR. KARL FOR PRESIDENT !

Karl you are such an amazing man, always had great admiration for what you do & say. You simply MUST run for President eventually.

That's all she wrote....

Sto kalo.

Eclipse of the Blue Full Moon.

The Dark Hand of Chaos

A dark vision has emerged as I create digital images in Agony, SaVaGery, Chaoscope, GIMP & other recently acquired digital imaging programs.


With the Equine flu, the Bird flu, the Greek & southern European fires, the horrors in Iraq, Afghanistan, the African atrocities & famine, the price of wheat, stock markets in crisis, major weather events...it goes on & on.....all giving me a sense of dread as to the future of beautiful planet Earth, it is no wonder my art has turned dark.


Does it help to keep saying positive things, to play the Pollyanna card, when it is quite obvious that things are less than good.


Maybe it's the eclipse of the full moon doing it to me.

I look outside, I feel the beautiful clear balmy spring weather after a week of excellent rains.
All is well here. Hard to be the happy camper knowing the pain so many are in from so many sources.

Que sera...

Goldilocks & the 4Bears

It's only when the pool has too many other people in it that the ecology suffers. What can we do ?
If we don't modify our numbers and impacts, nature will cull us painfully.
Any good ideas folks?
Love
Anu