slabs

slabs are good. we have a slab where was once a teapot with toast and jane. its a nice slab. for awhile it was wrapped in plastic like a christo installation (he wrapped up north head once so this is a small christo). we planned to polish the concrete which has become my way, particularly because it doesnt cost so much money. last weekend i did that so the builders could come and turn the slab into a building. grind grind, sweep sweep, hose hose. do that 20 times and you’re there. quite therapuetic. helps to temper my need for a quick result. after the grind sweep hose i am ready to paint the little thing trouble is the paint i get is wrong and the builder doesnt get to make a house for longer. i must get my paint from sydney. is anyone coming our way you could drop it off. still slabs are good and we get to enjoy it a bit more. i am hoping that everyone who reads this will sleep on this slab. thats my dream.

Back in Web World

After several weeks of fading and intermittent and then no web access, tonight all seems to be working as it used to. I spent 2 hours today trying to communicate to Telstra, the telecommunication giant. I think I must have got through. Any way, we’re on again! When you live in the desert you can’t take these things for granted.

So much has happend since the last blog I don’t know where to start. We have had many visitors and important progress is being made on cabins. And we had a couple of days of rain and my tomatoes are growing and the weather has got cold. And we wish we were in Guatamala for a certain wedding in about a week.  And last weekend we did Finke! What’s Finke you may wonder. Well, I might let Keith blog that one as he has photos.

But we’ re back in the land of the net living.

the things we’ve handed down

It was always the same whether by phone or in person. “Hello darling”.
The voice lifted at the end making it almost a question, or was it the expectation of this little time together. What will we get up to today? Perhaps it was saying ‘I don’t really mind what we do, we’re together and while we are it will be good, and at the moment I don’t really want to be anywhere else’. A declaration of the ‘now’, a declaration of happiness.

Since Mum started to seriously deteriorate last year I have thought a lot about her. The energy of thought seemed to escalate in direct proportion to the speed that I was losing her. Sad really that we appreciate things as they go. But maybe its for the best. Given that she was a ‘now’ woman it was better to just enjoy the now and reflect later.

Life was about participation. Didn’t really matter what the idea was if we were going to play together all necessary ingredients were in place. The details weren’t that important, they would sort themselves. Whether it was digging into her interminable supply of fun things to eat and drink that she brought for sustenance at the footy, sitting happily for some hours at Ryan’s birthday at Nielsen park just two years ago, catching a train to Brisbane with me and tucking into the pies we got at the faded glory that was once the dining car, the joy she had in looking after her grandchildren in such a grandmotherly way or, going back even further, the practical jokes she used to play to trick three odd boys trying to become adults ….slowly.

Our family basically was glued together by the gaps and cracks she bridged. Dad was the ideas man she delivered the vision with panache but, always in the background. She never let us see her total being. For all her playfulness I never deeply knew her nor she me. How do you really let people know you?

She was a non interventionist mother keeping instructions minimal, creating safe places for you to figure things out. I have learnt well to watch others do things. That’s how I’ve learnt to build things and how I learnt to play sport. Watch people who are good at something and try and mimick them. Whether that was deliberate on her part or whether she wasn’t sure how to deliver instructions without suggesting lack of love I don’t know but I have no complaints. I couldn’t answer that question of myself.

Stella is of the view good memory retention comes from paying attention. We remember what we pay attention to. Based on that corollary of life I fear that mum didn’t always pay attention. Perhaps her greatest failing she struggled to remember people she had met many times before and also the events. Maybe that was taking the ‘now’ thing a bit too far. I understand well but don’t approve her lamentable memory.

A story that has haunted me all my life that I did talk with Mum about but for which I have never forgiven myself. At the age of probably 16 I was successful in getting to the Milo Tennis tournament State finals which was to be held at White City tennis courts, the most salubrious competition courts in Sydney at the time. Mum offered to come and support me because it was a pretty big thing for me. I envisaged mum in the stands of Centre Court clapping as I dismembered my opponents.

Reality was different. I was located on court 23 where there were no stands. It was hard to even see the clubhouse from there. Mum came a bit later and eventually found me on court 23 and so there was me my opponent and mum standing on the court. No other mothers were there. I was humiliated. I went over and asked her to go home. Mum went home as instructed with a farewell of “good luck darling”. I never won a match or even a set that day, but did reflect that the lot of a mother is not an easy one.

Margery Louisa Castle: You’ve always believed in me and that’s all I could ever ask or want. I’ve even started to believe in myself, which I’m not sure you ever did of yourself. Hard work that.

‘The thing’s we’ve handed down’ is the name of a sublime song by Mark Cohn.

all my lifes a circle

enjoyed our long weekend (NT special) by going to the NT writers festival which involved lots of interesting events at olive pink botanical gardens, a funky family’s front yard, simpsons gap etc. i had decided to have a bit of a break from working at home although did a few things. it was all fantastic but funnily still felt a little bit heavy and couldnt really identify why because i was having a good time. turned out to be the report i had to do for work which had to be done by Tuesday. had some interesting relational issues which weighed a bit heavy. as tuesday went by we worked through all the issues to the point we created a good proposal (this was to the CBA some will recall me coming down back in Feb to see them and its now taken a further step) so now i feel on top of the world. why did i feel so down and why do i now feel so good when life just continually oscillates this way circling between ups and downs. funny really or is it sad.

nice times but no john

i am trying to be a better blogger and so i am hoping i think of something to say before i sign off. work is a bit quieter this week which is nice. its nice mil and martin are here. the birds are nice at the moment as chipper and chatter. there are port lincoln parrots, major mitchell cockatoos, black cocatoos with red bits, babblers who babble and look at themselves in the window reflection. they hit the window so hard i woke up the other morning thinking it was john french trying to wake me up to go running. i felt really bad that i had slept in again (as i did so ofeten) and it took me a bit to realise john wasnt waking me up. that made me feel less guilty but also sadder because i really thought john was up for a run. anyway mil adn martin werent all real impressed by the chatter and stuff either but it is pretty cute. anyway the birds are all pretty nice but john for a run would be better.

Mil and Martin have arrived!

Well, need I say more! There I was, doing my laps in Alice Springs swimming pool and I get to the end of my 16th lap and there’s Mil on the side of the pool having just arrived in Alice. I guess she knew where to find me. I was very surprised. They arrived a lot quicker than we thought. I think they get on the road earlier in the day than I normally do. Any way, it’s been just lovely having them here. They arrived just in time for Keith’s birthday so Mil baked a cake because she was home in the day. She and Martin also scrubbed our kitchen clean. It feels so lovely having them here. Tonight Martin wanted to go into a bike ride around ALice as part of a protest against the ALice uranium mine so we joined him for that. Then Mil and I rode home along the bike track. It took abit longer than we thought and we did the last couple of kms in the dark. But that was OK. Keith has learned not to worry abut me on that bike track any more.

and they will leave home and one shall become two

well i am replacing my last post with a multiplication in the desert. the second cabin has now been delivered and is sitting next to the the first one. it all looks beautiful. stella and I were thinking of swapping with mil and martin. we live in the cabins they live in the house. actually there is still a bit to do but it sure feel better being on the site. the crane guys were just magicians. ended up being a very tricky job but they just sorted stuff as they came to it. we are going to pour the footings early next week. getting the building before the foundations makes every thing back to front with transportable cabins.

we are really appreciative of the love and work put into these cabins by student builders and feel very privileged to have these buildings. they sit very happily in their setting and we are looking forward to them coming to life.

new cabins sprouting in the desert

there is quite a bit happening here at the moment with verandahs, awnings, cabins, tracks and yes the chicken coupe is still there to be done. i might do a blog series. AI guess you can do things like that. anyway today its the cabin/s. the first of two cabins i bought at an auction got delivered todaty and the other one comes on monday. one of teh best things about this stuff is talking to tradesmen. i really like that because they alwasy seem pretty cheery types and they always solve things i cant so i get very impressed. this has taken longer thn athey thought because whne they lifted them the footings started to rip off so they came up with these very elegant brackets that they made and bingo problem solved. all done with a smile and jolity.

one is now in place and there is another one to come the same size. this is where mil and martin will live and its a very nice spot. it feels like its coming together altough there is still so much to be done. Our friend from last year rodney is coming up next week to work on the cabins so thats good. It is situated near the chookless pen and has a nice view of the mountain

Martin’s mining meal

We have had some pretty interesting times sitting on our verandah sharing a meal and having a chat. We had another last Wednesday. It was the night before Martin,  Daniel and Jeremy headed back for Sydney. To celebrate the farewell, Martin decided to cook up a big Peruvian meal and invited over our aboriginal neighbours. Keith’s old school mate, Greg, was staying with us and also joined us.  Greg is a geophysicist from Perth and works in the mining area. He was here for some geology conference. Most of you would know that Martin has very strong anti mining views based on his experience in Peru of local people being exploited by mining companies. Our neighbours come from country east of ALice that has a mining history that involved a whole community having to move because the water was poisoned by gold mining. There is currenty mining exploration happening on their land which they are deeply concerned about. ANd all of us have been concerned about a uranium mine that is proposed for about 20kms south of ALice called “Angela Pamela” and have signed petitions and been to protest meetings. I don’t think Greg quite realised what he was getting into coming to dinner that night. But I have to say, we had some really interesting and passionate discussion where stories were shared and respect was maintained, even if we didn’t fully understand each other. Greg is such a scientist and tried to explain stuff but most of it we couldn’t grasp.  He maintained a balance and was willing to listen. John, our neighbour who is usually quite reserved, really spoke up expressing his viewpoints but also expressing his desire to find ways we can all work together. Martin broguht the expereinces of another country. It was an intersting cross section of people addressing the issues.   I  really enjoy being able to have these sorts of discussions.

Courses

I meant to try to blog more this year but life takes me over. My most recent excuse is that I’ve been in Adelaide for the last couple of weeks doing a course - “Working with Hardship and Trauma”. Sounds particularly joyful, doesn’t it. Well, it was great. There are a dozen of us from all over the world doing the course. It continues throughout the year as we have to do a project and all this reading and wrtiting and keeping in e-contact. Then we all meet up again in Africa in September for the next teaching block.  I’ve never been to Africa so am pretty excited about that.  Any way, I feel I have a few more clues about how to approach the work I do so I’m feeling re engergised which is good. I also got to hang in Adealide when the Fringe festival was on and that was fun - got to go to the Speigel tent again and see a pretty funny and raunchy cabaret. While I was there, half of the inner city of Adealide was turned into a car race course for some event called the Clipsal which causes all manner of inconvenience for the locals. I flew home yesterday in time for the inaugural “bush medicine tour” of our property by our aboriginal neighbour, John. Martin and his 2 friends staying here have spent the last 5 weeks helping John create a track, put signs labelling trees and plants, and build a humpy, and now the course is set to go. They invited friends to come for the trial tour and had a bbq afterwards to celebrate.  John was really happy and said that guiding the tour made him feel strong. How good is that!