Musing The Muse Tuning out from the News

Enough of the world! Let's muse some beauty!
Some songs have been haunting me lately so I thought hey let's listen to them and just fall in love with the sound.
Don't read too much into why I posted Veronica. I don't know anyone by that name I just like the song and particularly the way Elvis Costello sings/plays it. If you like it go out and buy it!
As for Nina... Well she just knocks me out so I have to share! You can go out and buy a few of her CD's too if you like. Ain't Got No is a great one to meditate on.



(Veronica: Elvis Costello)



(Between the Bars Madeleine Peyroux)


(Ain't Got No... I got Life Nina Simone)



(No spectacle... just a change of perception)

Time for a fresh set of glasses, I'll see what's before me through my own filtered lenses, so long as the music remains so good.

Intervention... Rally Rock

Just keeping it on the radar... This won't go away; will it?
The people will speak.

Demand a Bill of Rights! Demand fair treatment for all people. End the racially discriminatory Intervention.

The Patch Open Day

Today was another Patch Open Day.

I headed down there on my lunch break and was very pleased to see that The Patch is going from strength to strength! I can't begin to describe the beneficial vibes this place is putting out! I am always blown away by the sense of connection, belonging and purpose everyone has when they become part of the life of The Patch!

There were so many young people there today and all of them seemed to be completely engaged and actively creating a space where we all can flourish! What was really inspiring this time (as with every other time I've visited) was how the young men and women take on a sense of ownership and pride in the jobs they are doing and the space they are creating! This stuff is GOLD!

I won't bore you with a long story about why I think The Patch is so important or how I believe that it is projects like this that will lead our society towards a brighter more inclusive future. Towards interdependence and away from a destiny of social apathy and self interest.

Just have a brows through the images and enjoy the green, feel the peace, imagine the garden of sensory delights that is growing.



(New Permaculture project)


(Just another great banana tree)


(Snake: To be planted out with sweet potato)



(Paving: It's all about teamwork. Mentoring is a crucial element)



(This is a safe place for even the smallest of visitors)


(Winged beans... I am not going to stop posting photos of these)

Apple trees in suburbia

Recently I saw an article about councils down in Melbourne coming around to the idea of urban food production to the point that they are talking about planting fruit trees on curbside nature strips.
What an awesome idea! I sometimes think back to when I was a kid and our neighborhood still had elements of the rural area that it had been. I remember the creek at the bottom of our street, the open paddocks that were all around, and a horse that would sometimes wander into our front yard.
Our area had been old farming properties and there were remnants of those places that still remained long after most of the land had been converted into house blocks or roads.
I remember the old open aqueduct that used to be full of water and visiting the remaining cow paddocks to collect manure. There was an abandoned farm on a large patch of open land that eventually became the Northern Ring Road. And there were old plum pear and apple trees that in many cases wound up fenced into peoples yards or bulldozed.

Lots of things have changed but some still remain my memories are strong and I miss some of those old things. So many people have come and gone from that place where I grew up. I wonder if any of them notice the changes or the remnants of things that existed before they arrived.

Apple tree survivor of many changes

A year or so ago I was walking down the main road of my home town and noticed one of those special remnants from the time before. It was a single apple tree perched on the tiniest of scraps of land between a busy road that has undergone some widening through the years and a railway line that has been excavated to several meters below the surface of the land.
Ever since I saw that tree my mind has often drifted back to what my town was like when I was a kid. I wondered about the farms and the farmers, their animals and their lives. As I got older and roamed further I often wonder also about what and who was there before them. I explored and made all sorts of discoveries. Old gold mines abandoned quarries, discarded machinery all those kinds of things. Although I dreamed and I wondered I never found anything of the people who were there before them all. The people who must have lived around and loved the river that I swam and fished in. The people who would have known all the waterholes and special spots I liked to think I'd discovered. There were no obvious signs that they'd been there at all. It was only my wondering that seemed to give them any life at all...

When I go back there I look for that apple tree and wonder how many apple trees had there been. Who remembers them? How many are left..? Who notices them? I hope someone does. These things are special to me. Amid all the changes; the concrete, bitumen and steel, that tree is still there. It might survive long enough to see more changes. It could bloom one day to find a street full of apple trees have sprouted, and the songs of the old people might be heard.
Is there yet time for these life giving fruits?
(another rant!)

NT Gov policy on Carbon Emission Reductions?

What the....!???


Oh man! What are those lights shining in my eyes?



I had no idea they'd built a sports field near my home



Whoa hang on a minute thats not a sports ground!



It's the chief minister's brand new White Elephant! The Leanyer Water Slides



The whole place is lit up like a Christmas tree stacked with the landing lights of a 707 jumbo jet!
What the f--- is that all about?

I hadn't been there for a while and so never noticed that some very large and very bright sports ground type lighting had been installed at the Leanyer Water park. What on earth could they be for? That's what I'd like to know...
I can't think of any activities held there that could possibly require such heavy duty lighting. Besides which the park was closed! Please don't tell me they burn all that electricity just to keep the vandals out!

I think I'll go and check out the Territory Government Policy on Climate Change. They must have discovered a zero emission replacement for the Diesel generators they've been using to supplement Darwin's excessive power use.

I swear the lights in my eyes were so bright I could barely see the road in front of me! Maybe next they'll construct an enormous wall to reduce the glare!
(Good on you Northern Territory Government, that's really screwed up!)

Whale

Have you ever listened to Lou Reed and said yeh? That's right!



Have you seen any of those Whales lately?
I wonder if I did.