Between April and November each year, Australia’s southern and eastern coastlines blossom with magnificent displays of playful, acrobatic, humpback whales.
Although I diligently wear a mask when necessary these days, I can’t say I’m accustomed to it, nor will I ever want to be.
This is the story of a middle-aged South Gippsland farmer, who like so many of us, was unaware the harsh, intense Australian sun was silently damaging his skin during his years as a minor. The ongoing difficulties and challenges he has consequently experienced as an adult are a constant reminder.
The saturated earth is waking up and preparing to come alive with all the colours of the rainbow. The sun is finally radiating welcoming warmth and the grass is beginning to accelerate its growth. The birds are busily, vocally fluffing around, focussing on expanding their families, as are most creatures at this weather-pleasing time. It’s definitely nice to see and feels uplifting.
Our wildlife warriors, Sue Moore from Tarwin Lower and Kylie Laing from Venus Bay, both appreciate the responses to the wildlife story posted online and printed in week one of the hard copy South Gippsland Voices newspaper.
Thank goodness for newspapers we can fold under our arms, that fly in the breeze, crinkle, and blacken our fingers …
Speaking with some lovely elderly folk this week, I was reminded not all of us are living, or aspiring to live, in the digital world, preferring to hang onto familiar, comfortable ways.
Corona Induced Spring Clean
Today I chose to extend my otherwise rushed lunch break to sit on our veranda and soak in the welcoming August sun. It was a picture-perfect day, the first for a long while.
As I turned to face the inviting rays, I closed my eyes and realised how much I missed the comforting warmth. It felt sublime, and in an instant melted my worrying thoughts into a trance-like stillness. I could have stayed put for hours immersed in what seemed like impenetrable peace.
I’ve been quietly struggling of late, attempting in disbelief to decipher what on earth is happening to our precious world. It feels so broken, so sombre and surreal. Covid-19 is all-consuming in every direction I turn, and I’m constantly attuned to the undeniable heaviness spread across the global board.
Animals and birds seem to be the predominant theme for me this week. If I’m not attempting to rescue a seagull with fishing wire wrapped around it’s leg, I’m trying to hustle koalas and echidnas to safety off the middle of main country roads.
From Hamburg to Hamburgers …
Early one morning not long ago, I visited our local Tarwin Lower IGA store to buy some essentials for home. Wandering in, my ears excitedly pricked up as I happened to overhear a lovely couple, seemingly in their late twenties, talking amongst themselves in my native tongue. German tourists, I immediately presumed.
Big Red….
As I write, I can’t help but shed a tear for this huge, beautiful icon of a creature that had been a part of our lives for so long. He continues to be greatly missed on our farm.
Tarwin Lower is a small, picturesque, country township with a population of approximately 340 people, nestled on the banks of The Tarwin River in South Gippsland.
The delightful, talented Kaylah Thomas, currently completing year 12 at Korumburra High School, is proudly one of our own home-grown, rising stars in the music and performing arts arena.
As a young child Kaylah loved to sing, but it wasn’t until her later years in primary school, music transformed into an irresistible passion she knew she wished to pursue.
It’s been over five months since covid-19 reared its ugly, erratic head in Australia. It was on my birthday we were informed of the precedented, vicious, virus swells rolling in across our shores.
I’m at my wit’s end, ready to pull all my hair out! I’m a creature lover in every sense of the word, but I’m at the brink of insanity thanks to a pair of annoying mudlarks.
Recently my family uprooted our elderly mother from a busy, peninsula town to Foster, so we can be all be near to enjoy quality time and take care of, well, whatever arises. I visited mum the other morning and was pleasantly reminded of what I obviously take for granted these days, having lived the country life for fifteen years.
It’s mid-afternoon during the warmest hour of the day and I’m outside trudging in gumboots over our muddy farm, rugged up complete with beanie and scarf, dreaming of what could have been like so many Australians.
I happened to bump into a lovely friend this week, whose smiling face never fails to brighten my day.
Sadly, not being a mother myself, I was interested to find out how our local youngsters feel about corona induced social/physical distancing and isolation, and the impact it creates, through their unique, vulnerable perceptions, within their young lives.