Some sunny day

It was a sunny day, in the Darwin wet season, no rain, humid as ever. 

After cutting back a some of the exuberant growth from around the garden I’d worked up a bit of a healthy sweat. It felt good to sweat out some of those fruit mince pies from Christmas. 

A couple of hours into the job I decided to drink some H2O instead of coffee, wow that felt good, who'da thought? 

Peaceful place - Portion of painting by Geoff McKenzie

I’d just finished mowing the lawn, the grass was thick and green, the sweet smell of freshly cut grass was rising in slow convection through thick January air, Paul Kelly piped directly into my ears, good volume passionate soulful tunes absorbed into my spirit. 

On the grass

No humbug, no other thoughts a euphoria was rising through my body and then I felt an odd cramp in my chest and I thought… 'THIS is IT'!

Wow what bliss! I could fall backwards to the ground in perfect peace and die now with music in my heart and the soft green grass beneath me and the clouds and sky and trees above me.

The moment passed, the cramp vanished and I went inside and had another cold glass of water. What joy to live and die in this thin space of peace and beauty?

Long grass sinking

Long Grasser by Geoff McKenzie

There's a freedom you can't buy and a slavery you can't buy your way out of

There are a 1,000 sails calling me to sea and a crack in the earth keeping me here

I hug the earth

A bed of cans and foil plastic pillow

drinking sinking, no sailing today

Finaly the rain

A good morning is when I rise early and spend some time outside sweating toiling with a hoe in my hand or peddling my bicycle. After yet another very late night I didn't rise early, but, I did make it across to one of the local schools in time to chip in for a working bee. The school principal with support from the community has decided to open the, recently erected, gates and invite members of the local community to join them in creating a food garden! 

I may have got there late but I soon got into the action and yes I raised a sweat. (Not hard to do in the Darwin buildup, especially when your working with a body whose primary tasks have been striking a key board and lifting several coffee cups to the lips per day. 

I got home sweaty and covered in hay, happy!

Back at home the neighbors get kind of fussy about our messy garden and I can see their point but the back lawn is so much more interesting now than it used to be. I still mow it a couple of times during the wet season but I've really enjoyed watching it evolve naturally. Once it was a monoculture of cooch grass but now there's a variety of grasses and sedges popping up and seeding. The kids and I also threw a handful of rosella seeds around which are sprouting in odd spots through the lawn and will hopefully give us some fruit for jam when the dry season comes around. If the neighbors want someone to blame for our lawn they can look to Masanobu Fukuoka!

Oh yeah... the rain. It's been hot and muggy but there's been no rain for such a long time all the buildup greenery has wilted and shriveled. But tonight the waiting was over. Just as I arrived at a meeting a couple of suburbs away, a great wind came roaring through the verandah where we were sitting. Leaves came swarming into our sheltered gathering place with the ferocity of a tornado! Leaves and dust and scraps of paper were swirling around us in forceful willie willies that were blown horizontal by those huge gusts that always precede the first tropical storms of the season. Awesome! Pretty soon the rain was pelting down hard! After just an hour it slackened off to an even drizel and it's still going now 4 hours later. And the garden cries 'Finally The Rain!'