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

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've been completely unable to pull together a post. It's lead me to seriously consider dropping the blog...

But now that I've slowed down on my journey and have settled into a peaceful space, creativity is arising, bubbling, I can feel it hitting the surface..... perhaps posts will emerge!

I have felt myself go from numbness to electric. In 36 hours.

To explain the new head-space, here is the literal-space.

Yep, that is Oscar, quite at home in Permaculture Paradise.
I'm wwoofing (Willing Workers on Organic Farms). The arrangement is that you work approx 5 hours/day in exchange for learning, accommodation and food. I really don't believe I'll ever want to leave this place (my first stop). The combination of my open verandah bedroom that has me wake with sunrise and birds, fresh organic food on tap, intense and delightful conversation with an incredible family, and a world of learning to be had.... in a place that is my fantasy home in every aspect.

I'm half perturbed and half popping-corn about this:
I was expecting a long and difficult journey to arrive at my perfect space. I was expecting a lot of challenges on an often dry and bumpy road. But I just landed in perfectville as soon as I started. I'm going to have exercise a lot of patience instead of just buying a plot next door. There is so much more that I need to see first. And a heck of a lot to learn before I begin my own journey creating a permaculture paradise.

Stars Photoshopped in as they won't appear at this exposure :)

[current mood] Frozen Blueberries & Group Singalong

In Cottesloe you can get lost traipsing through alleyways. You lose all sense of direction and it is delightful! I started worrying about Perth's gentrification disease though when I saw this laneway:

Bad Laneway:

And contemplating how this wouldn't happen in Melbourne because they understand! They know the value of character. But not in Perth. We like concrete. But it also has to do with our age. We are still trying to prove we are a city, and quickly. So we are building cheaply and uglyly because developers don't know shit, are just after a quick buck and anything creative or environmental is so token!

God, I think this could be my biggest angry-issue. If you can't beat it, move. So many creatives already have...

But anyway, in celebration of character-filled, overgrown delightful laneways, I bring you today's posey picking extraveganza. It's a hark back to my days as an 8 year old where I'd pick posies and sell them outside the corner store for 50cents to buy lollies. They always sold!

Good Laneway:

On the weekend I was talking to this lady and she said 'How old are you?' and I said '31' and she said 'Keep it up!'

So I am continuing to grow the child-like qualities which are concentrated at present on the top of my head. Namely two buns and coloured ribbon. Sometimes accompanied with skipping but mostly with humming.

Now I add to it flower collecting.

And as a conscientious thief, I will only take from a plant that is plentiful in flowers and growing over a fence. Not a feature and not really cultivated. Verges and vacant blocks are good too. These roses for example were offcuts I found outside someone's garage!

Here are my treats. Yes, the laneways include things like lemons and chillies. cute!

Posey number 1:

Posey number two:

So much better than buying some generic overpriced bunch from a flower shop!

tra la la...

[current mood] Oscar's yawns & uncurdled soy lattes