Start by turning up your volume.

Then press play:

This was Pete and I playing Marimba whilst it poured outside. I'm on the bass beat-keeping.

There is a crew of Crystal Waters people who practice Marimba every Thursday.

Pete warmed me up by teaching me a few tunes on his Marimba at home.

It's made from piping, rope and plastic bags.

You could probably take your Marimba camping and turn it into a tent using the various elements.

Pete gets his over to the neighbours in a wheelbarrow.

This is Pete expressing love and laughter with a fellow Marimba player. Note the deep bass Marimba in made of serious plumbing pipe.

I loved this angle of Sara. She had a bag of curious percussion.

And if I had a marimba, this is what it would look like.

And it would sound something like:

Blue blue blue, yellow yellow
Green Green, Green Green, purple.

[current mood] Paw Paw Salad & Aussie Pub Singalong Classics

There are so many things one learns in the bush when you have the good fortune to be accompanied by a host who is prepared to teach you the ways of the wild.

This morning's lesson was purely experiential (and I must be honest and say I did avoid the above outcome). I must add that I'm not your over zealous fly swatter, but blood sucking march flies really do piss me off... I'm prepared to kill to get the pain to cease.

I don't quite have the bush-gear one should, but I make do.
This and a pair of Pete's gumboots.

Besides this, in the past four days I've learned a lot to apply to my future property...
Native species names/recognition, How to prepare a bed for seedlings, How to get rid of evil vines, How to divert eyes from nude people's nude bits, How to use a machete, How to play marimba melodies, How to plant lettuce... I must start writing things down as my brain has always been far too sieve-like. Retention is around 48 hours at best.

Now, this post is what I shall coin 'combo post'. Two posts in one...

Leaf Ladies

On my rainforest walk in Bellthorpe, the leaf-carpet path would occassionally display single magestic ladies lying in a shaft of light, highlighted by their very brown surrounds. They just lay there like model species. I imagined them being replaced by stunning nude women for a photoshoot.

Let me introduce them...

Esmeralda

Glenda

Cynthia

Betty

Barbara

[current mood] 10 cent avocado from the front of a house & marimba

Arrive 12pm. Crystal Waters.

I'm here for a week of 'wwoofing' (working on organic farms). I take the wrong route and end up on more of a category 5 four-wheel drive track going up hill. Van tyres gets wedged in... well, a wedge. I suddenly get that all over body shiver of 'what the f have I just done??' I manage to manevour the van out of wedge but brakes fail and it careers down the hill. Somehow I manage to not roll the van or die.

I also didn't cry which is a huge improvement. I head back to the correct location and finally arrive at my host's house. (Peter).

Pete's in his underwear and I'm just about to bolt (coming from a series of seedy old man scenarios) but like usual me, I give him the benefit of the doubt and discover pretty much everyone enjoys time in their undies, if not naked, here at Crystal Waters. It's like, that's totally fine with me if it's not a sleezy kind of naked. Do you know the difference?

Quite quickly I warm to Pete. A generous and cheery 71 year old. He's sharing an acreage with Les and Les (a couple). Chooks, veges, fruit trees, organic everything, overlooking huge dam, birdlife central... this is a paradise.

Afternoon begins with a visit to Les's little bakery where we pack up some loaves, mmm fresh bread smell.

Then we go for a swim in the dam. I have never slid into a lilly topped dam with water birds and squishy mud. It was bath temperature with shafts of cool. I wish I could photograph this from the water.

On the way back we collect some huge Bunya 'pine nuts' and I crack them open to find the big nuts which are cooked up and taste like chestnuts. I LOVE them.

And there, on the porch is a friend of Pete's. A mango farmer. He's brought samples for us to try and can't wait to hear our response. I describe it as 'an adult's mango. Both sweet and tangy. A touch challenging'. (It's absolutely delicious).

He shows us how to propagate the mango by gently prying the shell open and taking out the inner seed. I'm floored because I never knew and I want a mango orchard one day.

Then Tim turns up! A native bee guru (to the extreme). He is entirely generous with his knowledge, barely blinks, just talks with a huge smile and wide eyes. He reminds me of an incredibly likeable tv host.

He splits a hive and we taste the medicinal honey.

We learn all about how the bees operate and debate their level of consciousness.

The neighbours all just turn up and ask questions of Tim. It's freaking beautiful. Community at its best.

I grab my Brazilian Cherry jam from the van and share it - spread on Les's freshly baked bread and the experts enjoy. I am chuffed!

My first 'job' is to go pick Jaboticaba fruit for jam making. I'm a tad nervous about repeating my Braz Cherry success so I will have to do some hefty research. Much harder with an audience!

In the evening I head to a gig at the Crystal Waters community area, help sell pizza made by Les and Les before sitting back with my slices and a bottle of locally brewed lager to enjoy the band and conversation with friendliest-ever lady sitting next to me.

I feel like today was really one of the best afternoon's I ever had.

Good luck to tomorrow!

[current mood] Beans off the vine & Hopping

The idea just seemed so preposterous that I had to take it on.

I'm walking past this tree covered in strange fruit and the farmer Dave says
"apparently it makes good jam, that's what they told us when we bought the place."

"Ever tried it?" I asked.
"Nup"
"Maybe I will"
"Better hope it don't poison ya"

So I googled about and confirmed by 'the truth source' that is the www, that it is edible. And the Brazillian Cherry does make good jam.

I've pulled over near some falls in the most gorgeous of towns, Maleny in QLD. I'll stay here a night or two. It seems just the place to have a little cook up.

So from within the extreme confines of my campervan I began the process of making jam. AND it is to be my inaugural jam-making experience.

I collected the berries in a container. Really tart things if you take a nibble.

I got onto google and found no recipe for this particular fruit. So I adapted from another cherry recipe.

I stewed the cherry berries in some water, added some lemon juice and rind then the sugar I just happened to have. Half white organic and half brown!

Bubbley goodness, I think it's working!

I then picked out the dozens of seeds which are poisonous.

In some ironic way they reminded me of the gallstones i have FLUSHED OUT of my system. I've been warned by family and friends not to post them on my blog, so I'll just point out that if you add a touch more green, you can imagine what I'm releasing!

Once the jam looks ready, I pour it into my jar and label.

I had a little taste and it was really really quite delicious!

Will buy some bread tomorrow.

[current mood] Crickets & Imagining Eating Scones with my JAM and cream.

I said I'd write next from the bush. This is the only way I can do it. I've climbed to the top of a hill and I have to hold my little antennae in one hand and I can just get a couple of bars of reception. SO, hello!

I came to QLD, a place that draws me in. I can't say why but I know I must be here, now.

Within 24 hours I was welcomed on to a farm, with rainforests and waterfalls. This morning I traipsed the curly trails, flicking leaches and photographing stunning leaves and strangling branches.

Life is good to me more times than not. Thanks life.
I often wonder who do I thank? Lady luck? Myself for doing what I do? The god of good things? The universe?

I'm back in my van for the next stage of my QLD adventure. It's definitely is coming at you in chapters (with big perth intervals).

[current mood] Macadamia Nuts (fresh and unsalted) & The sound wind makes with tree leaves

I went to a ten day vipassana meditation course on boxing day.

Ten days of silence, introspection, all focus on meditation and learning the technique of vipassana.

We meditated from 4.30am til 9pm with few breaks. We lived like nuns. We didn't look each other in the eye. We were there because we are seeking enlightenment. We knew why we were doing this and it was this willpower that helped us through.

Vipassana meditation is non-religious, does not focus on any external being, object or vision. Instead the technique is about the observation of sensation on the body, with a balanced mind - without craving or aversion. The theory is that we react subconsciously to sensations and that is what causes emotion and ultimate misery. If we can observe these reactions on the body then we do not emotionally engage with them and eventually they disappear. This is the real-living-experience of impermanence.

This would be the hardest thing I've ever done and I have been meaning to go for 9 years. I worked up to this point, I meditated, I grew my wisdom, I practiced, I worked, and still, being at vipassana was the hardest thing I've ever done. And the greatest.

We aren't meant to visualise, but it seems an automatic process for my mind to feel sensations in pictures. I thought I'd share the progress of my experience.

A mind full of jaggered thoughts, leap-frogging, chaotic and unreliable.

Slowly the mind quietens to single thoughts you can see and dismiss.
Other unpleasant sensations on the body begin to show up, heartburn, sore shoulders, gallbladder pain.
But I can focus my awareness on the breath coming out of my nostrils and on to my upperlip.

I travel across my body and the pains become more severe, the pleasurable vibrations become more prominent. I am starting to be able to feel every inch of my skin.
The strangest sensations come out, then fade away. Each one a reaction I have 'let go of'.

I feel like a galaxy, shooting star sensations, electrons all over, subtle pains.
Observe Observe, do not react... I can feel my crown tingle the most.

At the end the sensations expand, they lift off the skin and I can send them out to others around me.

This only lasted a couple of days, then I was all used up again.
I'd almost consider being a full time meditator to stay in this zone. Life just zaps the hell out of me. And for those that say 'you gotta live in the real world'... well, this real world isn't the real world at all.

I'm off to the bush again by myself to find my bliss.

Will write next from there......

x

[current mood] Mushroom Risotto & The Family Guy