pour happy thoughts into your breakfast bowl that summer mayn't dry out hope leaving it on footpaths adrift amongst the stepping stone madness of commuter feet try looking for a moment through the spectrum of flowers petal art by vein they have hearts too open to the sun begging for bees and if they wilt … Continue reading They Have Hearts Too
Me & My Lid On some days in my Lockdown exercise hour the sun has poured its soothing ink quietly like warm milk between still trees and the roads have lain empty as snakeskin between closed houses. And even the birds seemed awed by the largeness of silence. But other days, the madding wind flips … Continue reading Lockdown Moods
bare little tree - small bird's nest revealed (we imagine a goose one webbed foot curved to twiggy bowl, the other flaps about rowing the air honk! honk! her arm through mine enjoying a giggle). geese 'V' on high but we can't fly. we gallop the drawn lines our dog and our masks. blue sky … Continue reading the goose and the magpie nest
August follows from a grey and fearful July – the closed hatch of cities in lock-down. Concrete and buildings hunkered under shifty, flannelette skies. The grime of recycled messages from haggard, mesh-faced leaders. Closed front doors, a stultifying blank. Resentment breeds as fast as the virus itself. Different areas, different rules. Anger like pavement cracks … Continue reading August – Haibun Monday
So this is what I wrote 12 months ago on July 9th. A lot has changed and nothing has changed. In Australia, it is Sydney, not Melbourne in Lockdown and facing a new, more contagious form of the virus. I know a lot more people in Sydney than I do in Melbourne and I hear more of the strains of the Lockdown. It’s not easy. But, having been a bit self congratulatory early on, I think Berejiklian has knuckled down and accepted that this is going to be harder than she thought.
Biden is now president in the US and I gather that, in terms of COVID, things are improving.
But personally, last year seems like a doddle compared to 2021. Everything is relative.
As Victoria rushes to stem the tide of COVID, other Australian states look on, both sympathetic and protective of their own safety. Borders are closing. The Queenslanders (with the whole of New South Wales between them and Victoria) even suspect Victorians of smuggling themselves across the border on freight trucks. Maybe it’s true but it seems unbelievable to me.
This year is unbelievable.
World politics is unbelievable.
In the US, the numbers are terrifying. Over 1600 deaths in the last two days and 61,848 new cases just yesterday. P showed me the graphs.
He made the remark that during two days in April, more people died of COVID19 than died in the September 11 attacks in 2001.
And yet Trump still glosses over it and congratulates himself on saving thousands of lives.
Will the dead be remembered every year in memorials all over the country? Will the doctors who tried…
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It's Wednesday night and in homes across the catchment children are asked to "keep it down" while one parent finds a hidey hole which pretends to be an office for another COVID19 P&C meeting on time, on track and on budget on Skype The topic is the school fete beset by 1.5 metre problems and … Continue reading P&C Revolution
when the kids are in bed and the dishwasher swishes rhythmically; when the lights in the house are down to two and if we had an analogue wall clock its ticking would be immense; when i've settled down with chocolate and a cup of hot cocoa and i get my computer mouse mixed up with … Continue reading A bit of Friday Night Nonsense
An itinerary is the path of bricks on which we hope to tread we lay our plans in naivety of what might happen instead. Everything is sold on hope - a wish, a solution, a cure - but the future's own itinerary's the only one that's secure.
To watch those peaky mountains in fearsome upward climb day after trending day... such impersonal numbers until you consider the quiet funerals and prolific wreaths - concentric blue rings of arcing grief. Will the ripples one day collide and splinter this facade of unquiet peace?
COVID has spread the annual spring flower festival like seeds across the city. Tulips on street corners guarded by raggedy scarecrows, pansies posing brightly at busy intersections or window boxes brought to rainbow life outside public buildings. There are no rides this year or crafty stalls or fragrant food trucks ** And yet the joy … Continue reading Floriade
we have all watched that expert flick as the doctor levels the serum in the syringe and then holds it at eye-level to the light before carefully adjusting for the perfect airless dose. We have all seen that little squirt (or dribble) of precious liquid that signifies "safe to proceed". But now as COVID sweeps … Continue reading The Irony of =
Mask up and sell a face. The opposition can't knock it off like they do by roadsides... so many horizontal pollies sleeping faces in their red borders. Cover your nose with the unmasked face of your favourite candidate. Let them catch your sneezes and the aerosol threats of all around you. Truly useful highly caring … Continue reading I will protect you…
The minister says "I am a Trump supporter. So are most of my congregation so we are not politically inclined to wear masks." My brain does a manoeuvre not dissimilar to a cockatoo i watched yesterday wobbling on a telephone wire, flipping upside down and swinging by one claw with its head undulating amusingly from … Continue reading Who is going to help?
I have a picture in my head of 3 monkeys; you know the ones. The one with its ears covered, that's the politicians. The one with its eyes covered, that's the general population. The one with its mouth covered, that's the scientists. Decades, they've known about viruses and aerosol spread. Decades. But WHO listened? … Continue reading Speak No Evil
You are awkward, you know, your reticence for days and days and then your suddenly aggressive presence. Even those who barely acknowledge you are sneakily manipulated into hurting their loved ones. It's dirty. A cruel game. And yet, you're the great assimilator moving between cultures and climates, smooth as lies. To threaten that you will … Continue reading To COVID19
As Victoria rushes to stem the tide of COVID, other Australian states look on, both sympathetic and protective of their own safety. Borders are closing. The Queenslanders (with the whole of New South Wales between them and Victoria) even suspect Victorians of smuggling themselves across the border on freight trucks. Maybe it's true but it … Continue reading Politics, Heroes and Victims
P came into the kitchen today, clearly with something on his mind. Turns out there was a 4Corners episode about the government's decision not to bail out Virgin but how they quietly have bailed out Rex airlines instead. Turns out the CEO of Rex airlines is an ex leader of the National Party. No conflict … Continue reading Rex vs Virgin
Right now, this pandemic (it seems to me) is heading into Phase 2. If you live where I do, it feels like a memory already but I tend to tell myself that we're just on holiday. We're simply in the eye of the storm. Even just a few hundred kilometres south, Melbourne is calling … Continue reading On COVID
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
I am fascinated by the dispute between Australia and China. China doesn't want the origins of COVID19 investigated by foreign nations. They are flexing their (not insignificant) economic muscles and threatening tariffs on some Australian goods. Australia doesn't need extra threats to its economy right now. But even I, who tries very hard not to … Continue reading A little dabble with Winnie
My mood is like a lung - the in and out of it. Some days it's all like nails down a blackboard - screeching and impossible. It's the sheer amount of work to be done. Cooking, schooling, cleaning, chickens, garden, shopping... it rolls on and on, ignoring the arms of the clock. Imagine if I … Continue reading The Essential Ingredient
I am not a sailor. I get seasick pretty easily and am quite terrified of big weather on land, let alone at sea. But I have heard that one threat to the sea-faring sailor, is the existence of submerged shipping containers, floating invisibly beneath the waves. Imagine the shock of running into one! The thing … Continue reading Submerged Containers
Last night, I sent a British friend a message wishing her Happy Mother's Day, just in case they celebrate Mother's Day the same day we do (they don't). Anyway, she sent me an article about Anna Jarvis... the woman who created Mother's Day. It was an interesting read. None of Anna's descendants celebrate Mother's Day … Continue reading Mother’s Day
The last ten days have been tough - trying to figure out this home schooling thing. And I must admit that I have blamed a lot of my angst on poor communication on the part of the teachers. As a parent with two children, I am having very different experiences with the two class levels. One … Continue reading The School Scenario
I learned today that there is a group of economists around who question the "cost" of the suppression method. How will we (as a nation) pay back the massive debt the government is currently incurring by trying to keep the economy afloat while having so much of the country shut down? It's a fair question. … Continue reading The thing I don’t get…
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
Generally speaking, it could be said that Australian politics has been pleasantly bipartisan for the last couple of months. We haven't had the opposition sprouting any completely nihilistic viewpoints just so that they can prove how oppositional they are (I hate to say it but maybe that's because the opposition isn't the Coalition - I … Continue reading The Great Debate
If you look at what's published as "News", it's easy to get confused about who or what you should be listening to. A few weeks ago, I remember reading an interview with Tom Hanks' wife after she was released from the QLD hospital where she and Tom Hanks were treated for COVID19. I can't remember … Continue reading The Hierarchy of Knowledge
Quite a successful first day of school at home for term 2. It's amazing the necessary collusion of child/parent/teacher/technology and with any of those four bits missing, nothing really happens at all. The Queensland minister for Education (whose name, it turns out, is Grace Grace) was reported to have said last week that parents should … Continue reading A pleasantly successful day…
For the last couple of days I have been trying to familiarise myself with the photo-inclusion process on this blog-site. I took a whole lot of photos of things that make me happy while I'm in lockdown. But I have struggled to get them arranged nicely around my words. So this is my fourth or … Continue reading Handy Pick-me-ups
Out of the Cave 