Seventeen years ago a roar engulfed the singing pines - countless breaths exhaling the needle sting of smoke. They stood in shredded funeral garb flinging glowing ember flowers onto us below. They witnessed our syncopated falling and the operatic scream of twisting steel, the cymbal crash of exploding windows. We knelt prostrate before the fire … Continue reading The House at No. 3
I cannot forget your steely-white glare; the too-hot press of you against my skin. My body contracted until cracks appeared. Plants wilted, waterholes sucked in and my body fissured abandoned to exuberant wind and the angry roar of carbon-crazed dragons. The smoke rolled over us all like hell's too-slow envoy. Before it, a syndicate of … Continue reading Australia’s Summer
(I wrote this for a competition in which there was a 1000 word limit. It didn't win so, several months later, I think I will publish it here.) It turns out that waiting is the hard part. You decide that waiting needs to be redefined to mean “empty space; opportunity for useless worry.” As the … Continue reading Waiting..
We started with fires and then muddy mires, then a lockdown of worldwide trade Then Scomo's spat with China, well that's nothing minor when your economy needs First Aid. And now... what the blazes? So many malaises! It's that incorrigible school house pot. Most of the nation in enforced isolation but it seems the … Continue reading Living in 2020
Under this aluminium sky the day feels blank as a factory wall. The chickens fluff fatly keeping busy in the sunless dirt. The washing hangs limp and two dimensional in front of the enthusiastic budding of the Magnolia. It is winter with its grumpier face on. Pretty tame, you have to say, compared to … Continue reading I Love Winter
Dear Prime Minister Morrison, I am not a supporter of yours but I have been pretty impressed with how you have dealt with COVID19. And for me, the big difference is that you have listened to experts. It seems to be a common malfunction among Australian managers in general (and politicians in particular) that they … Continue reading An Open Letter
So P is outside raking leaves. "What?" I hear you say. "I thought you said it was summer!" Too right. The summer has been too hot for our plane tree. About 70% of its leaves turned yellow and fell. Our front yard is deep in browned leaves. It really looks autumnal. Of course, we have … Continue reading Weather the weather
Today as I ate my lunch I spoke to Mum. She told me about the distress of visiting their neighbour whose property was at the point where two big fires converged. She told me about all the dead wildlife - possums, roos, wombats and a wallaby barely able to hop who they couldn't help. … Continue reading The Onceler
I watch the sky for smoke, for dust and (in vain) for rain clouds. The sky tells many tales. This week has been hot in an unusual way. The air feels heavy and solid. At 9am yesterday I watered pot plants and felt the cling of this unpleasant wrap and couldn't wait to get inside. … Continue reading Written in the Sky
Tomorrow is the last day of January. What a hell of a January it has been. And I mean hell as in hellish. There have been a few redeeming moments but in general I would rate it as one of the worst months of my life. A few people have said to me (making contact … Continue reading January
