Steering clear of political & other comment, here's a different 'worry':
Something’s amiss.
As animal lovers, where did we go wrong?
​
We brought our kids up in country Victoria to give them a rural, nature-filled, animal-loving childhood, away from the cities.
Over the years we owned - and cared for - dogs and puppies, baby lambs, calves, cows, goats, chooks, a white mouse, a ginger cat, even a donkey and (of course) guinea pigs.
We went on outings to forests and farmlands to experience the environment and to see native animals in their natural habitat. We saw kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, koalas, turtles, and echidnas.
The kids seemed to love them all—the ones we had at home and the ones they saw out in the bush.  We thought we had given them a love of nature as well as knowledge of how to care for creatures of every sort.
 
Our kids are well grown up now and have families of their own.
Our daughter lives on the Gold Coast in Queensland, in a big house that has no room for a pet of any sort.
Our son lives in UK with a backyard as big as a pocket handkerchief.
Animals? Pets? Zilch!
Where did we go wrong?

What animals have they had? Do they have?
What animals are they caring for?
Admittedly, the Gold Coast family had some guinea pigs for a while and the UK ones had a rabbit that lived in a cupboard for a few years.
But, as for now…the answer is nil.

But, wait! A grown-up grandson and his wife now own two cats.
Should I feel that the tide has turned?
Probably not!
 
 

Remember when, in 2014, the then treasurer, Joe Hockey, stated that “the age of entitlement is over” and it was time for “all Australians to do their fair share of heavy lifting”?

It seems that most Australians have been doing their fair share of heavy lifting over the past two years, with the careful and dutiful following of advice concerning Covid19.
Maybe not the sort of ‘heavy lifting’ that our Joe referred to, but heavy lifting, all the same.

We have willingly endured lockdowns, separation (sometimes painful) from family and friends, worked from home, home schooled the kids, worn masks, used gallons of hand sanitiser, eaten only home cooked meals, bought essential items online, saw businesses flounder and watched daily tv updates on the progress of the virus.

Cooperation has been widespread and, although the virus has taken a dreadful toll, the ‘heavy lifting’ has paid off for millions.
But lately the wheels seem to be falling off. Not least of all the politicisation of decisions – mainly what restrictions should be mandatory and what is ‘Freedom’.
Politicians are not helping.
Unhinged members of the community have been encouraged to display their “unhinged-ness” as they flout safety rules and parade around capital city streets (mask-less) wielding banners with often crazy messages.
(I am still asking what the “save our children” one is about!)
Eureka flags (inappropriate), praise for Donald Trump (even more inappropriate) and references to the poison that apparently lurks in each vial of vaccine, are but a few examples.

A recent count of Covid19 hospital patients has reached a rate of over 90% ratio of unvaccinated, as opposed to fewer than 10% vaccinated. (And the vaccinated patients reportedly are not as sick). 

So, after the Covid19 “heavy lifting” has been done, the crazies are wrecking the good result, leaving hospitals and hardworking medical staff with MORE “heavy lifting”.
 
 
 

It seems that we are now ‘an economy’ and no longer ‘a community’, which is extremely sad as well as worrying.
Listening to a television discussion last night, people spoke about how property development and real estate dealing had overtaken more social aspects of life (in Australia and the globe) over the past decade or so.

And it starts us wondering just WHO is leading this change and WHY.
Of course, it all leads to money being the driving force of whatever is happening.
Any idea of equality has seemingly disappeared as people clamber over others to climb the ladder of wealth.

We are told (lectured, sometimes) all sorts of theories about how to successfully ‘progress’ in this new world.
Sadly, it has been proved again and again, that the notion of the (economical) “trickle down effect” is a lie. Money never ‘trickles down’ to those in the lower socio-economic section.
The mantra of “if you have a go, you get a go” is total nonsense – and one example I have seen up close, is in rural areas, where farmers certainly “have a go” to amazing extents, but who will never, ever achieve an income of over half a million $ p.a. as is ‘earned’ by a certain PM.

Pondering the idea of social equity, I found this definition:
“Social Equity is the active commitment to fairness, justice, and equality in the formulation of public policy, distribution of public services, implementation of public policy, and management of all institutions serving the public…”
Can’t see much of that happening lately.

Writing from Robben Island, way back in 1970, long before being released, Nelson Mandela said: “I am influenced more than ever before by the conviction that social equality is the only basis of human happiness.”
 
I think he may be right.
But, then again, people who mine the land into oblivion, becoming billionaires, seem to be happy. Are they? With more than enough money to last many lifetimes, they have multiple opportunities to bring happiness to millions of their countrymen and women and yet …. and yet….
​
I have to admit, it has only recently that I tried to understand the true meaning of the word, ‘kleptocracy’  - and I am wondering if we are now living in such a state.
The Cambridge dictionary defines kleptocracy as “a society whose leaders make themselves rich and powerful by stealing from the rest of the people”
 
Heck! Is this what we have become?
I don’t think I like it.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 


 

 
 
 

 

Hear this:
“We are the first generation to feel the effect of climate change and the last generation who can do something about it.”  
Barack Obama, (Former US President).
 _____________________________________________________________________
I have lived through some frightening times (2007), when living in rural Victoria, and I know the fear presented by the blackened sky of bushfires, and the worrying - and oft frantic - fire prevention preparation of our home.
I have witnessed floods that washed away bridges and I have bottle-fed motherless lambs in time of drought.
There is a certain visceral knowledge of climate change effects that is possibly best understood by experience, more so that lectures and video footage on the tv news.
 
We should now mourn the wasted years, when we could have effectively dealt with the horror of what is to come, as our children and grandchildren inherit extreme weather events that may ultimately prove to be deadly for some.  
 __________________________________________________________________
 
And still politicians waffle on meaninglessly as they defend the fossil fuel worshippers (beneficiaries) as if we, in Australia, have nothing to worry about.
 
As Australia’s deputy prime minister makes a hash of pretending to care for our country’s contribution to alleviating the effects of Climate Change, he turns crucial ‘debate’ into mock decisions based on bribery and shonky dealing with our already shonky government, then utters the ridiculous: “There is no pantomime here; this is fair dinkum serious business.”
(Barnaby Joyce 19.10.21)
 
Ha!
 
As Richard Denniss, Chief Economist at The Australian Institute says,
“It’s not climate change that needs to be tackled. It is the political power of the fossil fuel industry.”
___________________________________________________________________
 
I am using quotes from people far more knowledgeable than I am, as they are able to put the situation most succinctly, such as the brave 17 year-old Swedish Activist Greta Thunberg, who says, 
“Adults keep saying we owe it to the young people, to give them hope,
but I don’t want your hope. 
I don’t want you to be hopeful.
I want you to panic.
I want you to feel the fear I feel every day.
I want you to act.
I want you to act as you would in a crisis. 
I want you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is.”
 
____________________________________________________________________¯
 
(Quoting WWF): “To adequately address this crisis we must urgently reduce carbon pollution and prepare for the consequences of global warming, which we are already experiencing.”
 
What is Australia going to do?
Mr Morrison?

​In May of this year (2021) we visited the site of the Myall Creek massacre.
Myall Creek is a place, where, in 1838, a group of twenty-eight Indigenous people, sitting peacefully around a campfire chatting and working, were brutally killed.
The group consisted mainly of women and children, with a couple of old men, no longer able to go hunting.
The young men of the tribe had gone after food for their families.
A group of colonists who came upon the group, simply massacred them.
Now, a warning here: These peaceful people were not shot, they were savagely massacred; their bodies chopped and slashed into unrecognisable pieces, heads were severed -  by white men who objected to ‘Natives’ being on ‘their’ land.
This was not an isolated case of murder, committed by white men. The victims were First Nations people, going about the activities they had been involved in for thousands of years. Similar atrocities happened elsewhere. 
The reason that the Mile Creek Massacre is often mentioned is that it was the first time the colonial administration created laws making Aboriginal people equal in the law.
As a consequence, the murderous Colonists were arrested and seven of them executed.
 
The site today is a peaceful place. There is a gentle path winding around the hilltop, over which some bodies were thrown in 1838. Information plaques offer some of the story and people have built small memorial rock cairns along the way.
To walk along the path, on a peaceful, blue-sky day, surrounded by eucalypt trees and bird song is very moving, as visitors take in the meaning of the site.
It is hard not to feel emotion and even blink back a tear, while also being horrified at the details of such a happening.
Despite its horrendous history, it is somehow a beautiful place; and very peaceful.
Up until NOW.
We have just seen in the News, that someone has desecrated this peaceful site, with racist words and wreckage.
I cannot fathom the ignorance and mindless action that would make someone do this.
Myall Creek is not a ‘handy’ place to visit. These fools must have planned such an action. Surely not, but why else would they have visited?
It is unimaginable that this could happen. It seems that 183 years later, there are bigoted and racist individuals still to learn the meaning of equality.
Or respect.
 

CROWS! They start squawking at 4.45am. So big and loud! (These are Qld Torresian crows, much bigger than the Victorian ravens).
There are about 20 of them and they don’t perch so much as fly around a particular stand of trees about 300 metres from our place. They fly and squawk all through the morning – sometimes all day. And I am sick of them.
Nevertheless, I am still pleased that we have birds around us. Even crows!

Daily, when I am sitting outside eating breakfast, a friendly magpie comes and sits beside me – on the veranda tiles or on the chair next to me - and I share some of my toast with him (or her?). He eats some and then gathers up a few extras and flies off to a tall gum tree over the back fence.
Babies, I presume.
Then another one comes, sings to me, and looks for a handout. They are beautiful, these magpies, and I almost forget the noise of the crows.

Then come the noisy miners, to feed on nectar from the grevillea bushes.  They are soon joined by the blue-faced honeyeaters. The noise they make is loud, but not annoying as the crows.

A little later, rainbow lorikeets fly into the grevillea and the miners and honeyeaters leave the bushes to concentrate on bath time.
We have three bird baths – all used frequently. The miners splash around in the baths, but also dive into (yes, into) the swimming pool, quickly immersing themselves before zooming out to the pool fence, pausing to fluff up and dry their wings.
Blue-faced honeyeaters do the same, but a bit more cautiously.

While I’m watching the birds, I will often have an extra visitor, in the form of a dragon.
Eastern Water Dragons live in and around our garden and sheds. They disappear over the winter months but are back with us as the weather warms up. One or two of them will also share my breakfast… and sometimes lunch…and I know it is time to start making safer food for them and the magpies to share.
Too much bread is not the best for either of these creatures. (Even home baked!)

The crows are still squawking but have settled down a bit.
Despite the crows’ noise (Now I know why it’s a “murder of crows”) I am contemplating how fortunate I am to be surrounded by birds and nature every day, even though I am not living ‘in the bush’.
​
It can’t be good to be a city slicker, apartment dweller, if there are no birds – not even crows.
 

 What has happened to us?
Remember this?
Kevin Rudd, speaking after Australia’s 2009 ‘Black Saturday’ fires:
“…In some countries, tragedy exposes the fault lines in a nation.
The strong abandoning the weak; one region indifferent to the sufferings of another, one culture uncaring as to the needs of another.
But ours is a different nation. Our nation has been as one.
Australia - a nation of compassion. Courage and compassion…”*

IS AUSTRALIA STILL A ‘DIFFERENT NATION’; DIFFERENT FROM OTHER, MORE DIVIDED PLACES?
ARE WE STILL A NATION OF COMPASSION AND COURAGE?
I’m not sure anymore.

This is what we have:
State against State.
Region against Region.
‘Haves’ against ‘have-nots’.
A worshipping of money by those in power.
Imprisonment of (genuine) refugees.
Persecution of folk on ‘Welfare’ – (that use to be called ‘Social Security’)
The use of the National flag as a sort of weird nationalistic authority, accompanying rampart racism.
 
I feel there is a nastiness that is unlike anything Australia has seen – or felt - before.
I don’t like this ‘new’ Australia.
​
Should we blame it all on the mental fatigue presented by the COVID19 virus?
I don’t think so.
 
 *Address on the National Day of Mourning for the victims of the Victoria Bushfires, Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne. 22/02/2009
 
 
 
 
 

“Behold! a giant am I
Aloft here in my tower…”
Every time I see - in reality, or on television - those gigantic wind turbines, I cannot stop Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s introductory words of The Windmill from popping into my head.
“Behold! A giant am I!”
 
When I was a child of primary school age – seemingly a hundred years ago - poetry was a thing, and we enjoyed it. And ‘The Windmill’ was one of my favourites.
Of course, Longfellow’s windmill was unlike our modern wind turbine. The old one “ground …The maize, and the wheat, and the rye” into flour.
Today’s ‘windmills’ are helping to save the planet.
They are majestic and wonderful, and I can’t help but wonder why the proliferation of these mighty machines is not a topic on the front page of newspapers, or more frequently in the News. 
I don’t understand how politicians and others with influence are not singing the praises and promoting these giant turbines that are supplying us with so much renewable energy daily.
The same goes for those acres and acres - actually some at 15,000 hectares (kms & kms) - of solar panels that can be seen in all parts of rural Australia.
It’s difficult for a layperson to estimate the cost to governments and consumers of wind farms, and I have little understanding of subsidies concerning megawatts – or whatever - produced. Farmers and others are trying to make money from ‘hosting’ wind farms, but it is sometimes unclear how long it takes to make a profit.
Likewise solar farms. They seem owned by a variety of companies. It’s a growing industry, but who owns or runs all these solar farms is a bit of a mystery.
Nevertheless, wind and solar farms are part of what MIGHT save our ever-warming planet. 
Verse 4 of ‘The Windmill’ goes like this:
I stand here in my place,
With my foot on the rock below,
And whichever way it may blow
I meet it face to face,
As a brave man meets his foe.
 
 What a great description.
 
Not much publicity is given to today’s windmills.
It would be nice if media outlets became more rousing in the praise of these and other methods of renewable power. IMHO The populace needs to be aware of these positive growth- industries – and be more informed. 
Can we please have some good, positive news about fixing the horror that is Climate Change?
With so many other sombre and depressing reports, especially of Covid19 virus infections and so much boiling unrest about so-called Lockdowns, it would be nice to have a smidgeon of good news every day.
 
As for poems such as “The Windmill”, I plan to write about those another day, as I ponder how poetry seems to have disappeared from primary schools.
Meanwhile, good news, please.
 
 
PS:
As the need for good news increases, I have no words about the current horrible uncertainty created by the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and the fear it is generating.
 

 
After being immersed in children’s literature for some time -  as a teacher, a mother and a grandmother -  of late I have obviously not kept up with modern trends in kids’ books..
 
Although I have a four-year-old granddaughter living in U.K. to whom I send books on a semi-regular basis, these are usually books well known to me from my years as the aforesaid mother, grandmother and primary school teacher.
 
But apparently, I have ‘dropped the ball’ (as they say) and have been left behind as far as what’s trending.
 
I must admit I was a little surprised to read a glowing review of a new children's book by a previously (to me) unknown author, Zoe Foster Blake.
The book’s title is “Fart and Burp are Superstinkers”. A posted comment was, “What could be better than a Fart with a heart? A Super Fart of course!”
So, it must be a happy and positive story.
Please do not, for one minute, think I am disparaging Ms Foster Blake’s expertise as a storyteller. From what I have (now) read I believe she is a wonderful and very popular author of children’s books. I am perhaps the only one who missed out on reading her previous book (“No One Likes a Fart”).
On a brief search of other kids’ books containing (previously thought) “rude” titles, it was easy to find such titles as “Bumageddon”, by Andy Griffiths, who also wrote “Zombie Bums From Uranus” and “The Day My Bum Went Psycho”.

It somehow brought back memories of my teaching days in the 1990s, when a parent complained to me about a small reading book I had sent home with her son, that depicted a father wearing an apron and washing the dishes. This overly-religious mother felt that this little book was inappropriate in its portrayal of a ‘man-of-the-house’ doing household chores – and wearing an apron.  She requested that, in the future, I lend her son only books published before 1980.
Yes, that’s an extreme example of reaction to children’s literature. But I am now wondering if my reaction to the current fart and bum stories is similar to the 1990  objection to seeing a dad in an apron. I hope not!

Way back, in the 1950s, kids delighted in reading Enid Blyton’s chapter books, including ‘The Secret Seven’, ‘The Adventurous Four’ and later, ‘The Famous Five’ series.
Those books ensured that most kids were happy readers for years. No television in those days, of course.
There were other books and series and perhaps Enid Blyton appealed more to the girls than to the boys, but they were the main literature of the day.
Perhaps if there was a bum or fart reference, the boys would have read more?
Would that have been shocking?

But get this:
As well as much loved and much read books, in the 1950s there was an absolute favourite poem for eight-year-olds in the Victorian Grade Three Reader, called ‘Little Boy Blue’* a poem , written way back in 1888 by Eugene Field about the death of a child.
Can you imagine that?
It seems amazing – and perhaps a little weird that this literature was presented to children. Perhaps more amazing is how much the kids loved it.
Would there be complaints in 2021 about allowing small children to read a poem that alluded to a child dying? I think there might have been.
What a huge difference in so many ways has come about in kids’ reading matter.

And now, I am wondering about that huge reading topic gap in the decades since kids enjoyed reading a sad poem about a dying child or fantastic (and most improbable) Enid Blyton adventures experienced by groups of children, towards book topics that would have been unimaginable in the 1950s.

Of course, in the middle of this, we have had the popular Harry Potter series and plenty of other books that have hopefully encouraged children to read.

I know that in times of modern smart televisions, smart phones, and computer games everything has changed, it must be a challenge to have kids read a book.
If it must be Harry Potter type fantasy or even books about bums, farts and burps, then the means possibly justifies the end.
Is that so?
But, whatever will be next?


*Little Boy Blue  
The little toy dog is covered with dust,
   But sturdy and stanch he stands;
 And the little toy soldier is red with rust,
   And his musket molds in his hands.
Time was when the little toy dog was new,
   And the soldier was passing fair;
And that was the time when our Little Boy Blue
   Kissed them and put them there.

"Now, don't you go till I come," he said,
   "And don't you make any noise!"
So, toddling off to his trundle-bed,
   He dreamt of the pretty toys;
And, as he was dreaming, an angel song
   Awakened our Little Boy Blue
Oh! the years are many, the years are long,
   But the little toy friends are true!

Ay, faithful to Little Boy Blue they stand,
   Each in the same old place
Awaiting the touch of a little hand,
   The smile of a little face;
And they wonder, as waiting the long years through
   In the dust of that little chair,
What has become of our Little Boy Blue,
   Since he kissed them and put them there.
 

 
I decided to write about trees as an antidote to the awfulness surrounding us.
I am choosing to calm my mind and concentrate on the healing power of nature’s garden - that is, trees.
I am sick of the state of the nation – and the whole world - regarding everything: inequality, corruption, rorts, inability to deal constructively with Covid 19 and the tragic neglect of the urgent Climate Change situation.
So, I’m letting my mind wander off to trees….
 
I have always loved trees. I look at them, I breathe them in, and I often photograph them. Recently returned from a road trip around outback NSW, on reviewing my photos, I was not surprised to see that many of them were of trees.

I am currently reading “The Heartbeat of Trees”, by Peter Wohlleben*, who also wrote, “The Hidden Life of Trees”. Both excellent and enlightening books.
The amazing truth is that trees have a large input into how humans are “deeply connected to the natural world”.
They are lifesavers in more ways than one.
To cut them down and cause destruction of forests is unthinkable to many – including me.

Recent publicity around so-called, ‘forest bathing’, shows that it is proving to be a salve for stress and anxiety. No, it does not involve shedding of clothes, nor a bathtub! Search Google to find out more about the ‘Japanese wellbeing phenomenon’.  

Part of what I wrote in March last year echoes what I have been reading lately, as it seems that it’s not only humans who need trees, but trees need other trees – and creatures – and humans should – and must - take trees more seriously!
…’Trees need each other to survive, and trees need what’s below the ground as well as water and sunshine and soil.
Trees are social beings. Trees have a symbiotic relationship with many creatures—insects, animals and birds…’
‘Trees do need other trees—and plenty of them. Leafy canopies protect them—and the underground, almost mysterious, symbiotic relationship between tree roots and the helpful subterranean fungi makes for healthy forests’.
‘Healthy forests’ are what we desperately need.

Here’s another interesting fact: When a tree dies the resultant nutrients nourish other nearby trees. Also, it is thought that ‘mother’ trees can detect distress signals from ailing trees and increase the flow of nutrients to them. Amazing!

Importantly, the contribution trees make to the ‘saving of the planet’ cannot be underestimated.
​
Trees are a wonderful and necessary part of our lives.
We neglect them at our peril.

*Peter Wohlleben is a German forester. 
 
 



 
 
 
 
 
 

In the 1970s, we, as a family with two young children, used to explore the banks of the Avon River in Boisdale and the Freestone Creek in Briagolong, in country Gippsland, Victoria.
We enjoyed finding ‘treasures’, especially agates and other interesting rocks.
Occasionally we came across what we thought were remnants of Aboriginal settlements from many decades ago.
We found some cutting tools and signs of early ‘industry’, never thinking that we were trespassing – just being intrigued by what we imagined to be signs of much earlier times of the area.
We discovered this beautiful rock which we assumed was a grinding stone and treasured it for many years. Eventually it accompanied us to our new home on the Gold Coast in Queensland.
While we still admired and loved ‘our’ rock, we felt an unease and came to realise that it definitely was not ‘OUR’ rock at all and that it was far away from where it should have been – perhaps resting.
On a long journey south, we took the grinding stone to the nearest place to its home, that of the Krowathunkooloong Keeping Place, in Bairnsdale, Gippsland, Victoria, where there is a gathering of artifacts – not a museum, as such, but a place that recognises the history of the Gunaikurnai people.
The person who greeted us was not angry with us for keeping the treasure for so long, but graciously accepted it and thanked us.
After a final touch, we said goodbye to ‘our’ rock, feeling relief at knowing that it was now where it belonged.

PS: I would possibly have preferred it to be back on the riverbank

​An elderly woman sits in her spacious living room surrounded by comfortable, yet starkly empty, sofas and armchairs. An array of family photographs, alongside ornaments from a previous time, are on display as the woman speaks of her four-bedroomed home with love and a little despair.
This has been her home; her place for family, and her place of comfort, for many decades, yet now it offers only loneliness.

Watching the delightful, yet slightly unsettling, television series (‘Old People’s Home for 4 year-olds’ ABC Tuesdays 8.30 pm) that gathers older folk together with a bunch of four-year-old children, you cannot but be struck with the intense comparison between what has been and what is now.

The elderly people featured in the program are all living alone – mostly because their life partner has died. Most of them feel they are living a meaningless existence, as one participant stated, ‘really just waiting for the lights to go out’.

Over a course of weekly activities with the guileless endearing children, the older people’s lives change. Some more dramatically than others, but all for the better.
The elderly who had trouble walking, gained a new confidence in their own ability and fears were dispelled as the little children guided them and shared with them all manner of activities.

But the elderly folk still went home to their empty homes.

And here lies the dilemma.
There are, in fact, two dilemmas. One is about loneliness, the other perhaps more political.

This is the crunch:
Politicians and younger folk say, ‘Come on, oldies, sell your three-bedroomed house and make it available to young house buyers, and you, old people, downsize and move to a smaller place that is more appropriate to your present life.’

BUT – and it’s a very big BUT…
The old folk love their homes. Every aspect is so well-known; its layout, its furniture and fittings, its surroundings, its much loved and lived in familiarity. They do not have to wonder where the kettle is and in what cupboard the tea and biscuits reside. (Sorry, that’s a simplified example, but you know what I mean).

What right have others to expect the elderly to uproot their lives. To find a unit or small house in a retirement village – or whatever?
With families often scattered across the globe, they may be lonely, but to have to down-size, get rid of much of their furniture and belongings to fit into a small, neat apartment is a mammoth task beyond many of them. Cruel, even.

To have to leave all that is familiar to them; to leave a community, that, although they may be estranged from it in a way, it looks familiar. It feels familiar and they know what is there for them.

Imagine at 80+ years old, having to find your way around a new neighbourhood, a new set of shops. Perhaps a new GP.
For those oldies who have been driving, to navigate a different set of streets and highways is often too much and the car is discarded.

And, where the hell is the light switch for this new room in this new place? And how do you manage the heating? And why is there no telephone? And where is the nearest pharmacy?
And my sofa doesn’t fit this room - and the bathroom taps are strange and difficult – and how do I operate these ugly curtains – and I can’t lock the back door easily like my old one. And why is there no clothesline?

Then, if it’s a unit in a retirement village, there is the unfathomable ‘Body Corporate’ with its rules and exorbitant fees. No friends or grandchildren to stay without permission, no rugs on the balcony, no airing of clothes in view of other units, no changing the look of the frontage, no smoking in view of other residents. And, for that privilege, please pay $500 per month.

Any new ‘friends’ have to be almost forced upon them, as opposed to developed over time, and the new life can turn out to be even more lonely that the familiar one left behind.

There may be a shortage of houses for families to buy, but it is a serious dilemma that cannot be solved simply by moving old and perhaps lonely folk out of their homes to make room for the next generations.
​
Does anyone have a solution? It seems like a bunch of four-year-olds can help more than anyone – at least with the loneliness aspect.

Turning on Friday morning’s early news bulletin we are informed that a sixteen-year-old boy has been fatally stabbed in Brisbane. He is found, close to death, alone on a footpath, bleeding profusely and dies in hospital shortly afterwards.
Police are not discounting ‘gang’ activity.

That evening, as we sit engrossed in an episode of ‘Vera’ on ABC television, the broadcast is interrupted by an announcement that Prince Philip has died at the age of 99.
The announcers go on and on about the Prince’s demise and his history of how he met the future Queen of England and so on and so on. The Governor General appears and begins a long and dreary talk on the prince’s life and involvement in activities or whatever - and we give up on ever finding out how Vera discovers the villain in the story we were watching. We turn off the television.

And I can’t help but think how some lives – and deaths – are more important than others. In fact, how some lives are more valuable, or valued than others.

Reported deaths of at least 500 brave protestors in Myanmar are given two minutes of reportage on our news.
Grieving relatives of the hundred and more people killed by the horrendous floods and landslides in East Timor and Indonesia are shown on Australia’s news bulletins, before being brushed aside to concentrate on domestic issues.

The murdered Brisbane boy is named as Yannis and photos of him appear in newspapers and online. He is a big and mature looking sixteen-year-old, but he is still only a boy.
Sure, he and his mates were possibly ‘up to no good’ – we don’t know, but he was still a schoolboy, with friends – most of whom would not have wished him to be murdered.
What was his story?
 
Prince Philip had led a life of privilege and luxury. He had lived to be 2 months short of 100 years.
He travelled extensively and had a busy social life, enjoying wealth and extreme advantage.

What chance had Yannis to achieved fame and fortune in his short life of sixteen years? You can bet that his was not a life of privileges and luxury.
​
And now, I admit that I would rather hear about the life story of Yannis more than that of the prince. I would like to know and understand what leads a sixteen-year-old boy to be out and about at night-time with a group of friends – one of whom was in a possession of a large knife and prepared to use it – and did.
 
 

You know what I think is the missing element from all the argy-bargy that’s been going on in politics, and life in general lately?
It’s kindness; simple kindness.
There’s trouble with Covid vaccinations.
Trouble with gender equality issues.
BIG trouble with Climate Change.
And I’m wondering about a novel approach to problems -  using kindness.
 
I listened to the PM the other day, reciting one of his ‘word salads’ that he uses to try and placate his critics and, as he tried to say that he was on everyone’s side, the reason he sounded insincere is that there were no accompanying words of kindness offered. The word ‘respect’ was flung around, with no attached note as to (or from) whom this ‘respect’ would be delivered. There was a lot of ‘look at me’ and much of how he ‘understands’. We know he speaks kindly of his family, but he never seems to speak kindly of – or to - his fellow Australians.

The vaccination debacle is one of the best illustrations of the undesirability of putting all one’s eggs in one basket. (Definitely no kind thoughts there!)

Then from many commentators, the current explosion of women’s rights and the (necessary) push for gender equality is often met with either derogatory comments about ‘militant feminists’ or the defensive, ‘not me – not ALL men’ claim.

Few people stop to think in a kindly way of their fellow human beings, male or female.

Albert Schweitzer once said,
“Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate”.

Notice the words, misunderstanding, mistrust and hostility. (A lot of that around, lately).
That those things may ‘evaporate’, once kindness is instigated, may well be correct. But we don’t seem to have the time to devote to being kind.
Does it take too much effort?
Too much thought?

Is it possible that lack of kindness could be halting real progress in the Climate Change dilemma?
If the world’s population, especially the world’s LEADERS, applied a truly kind attitude to OTHER PEOPLE – their fellow man - then perhaps it would be an easier task to make Climate Change an imperative - and begin a huge desire to get working together on solutions to save us from inevitable destruction.

Instead of pandering to the god of money and the money-men, whose only thought is of themselves, how about thinking of everyone as needing consideration.

General KINDNESS towards our fellow man would achieve this.
Nothing less is my guess.  Futile, I suspect.

“Be kind whenever possible.
It is always possible.”  (Dalai Lama)
 

“When day comes….” Begins the poem.

How amazing to witness the changes in the U.S. in just a few days.
I have only just had time to watch the entire Biden-Harris Inauguration.
The world can breathe again…hopefully!

To see and hear Amanda Gorman read her poem of hope (“The Hill We Climb”) was something I was not expecting.
An unusual and beautiful poem with rhyming word-bombs dropped seamlessly into a recitation of perfect meter, accompanied by hand gestures more graceful than you’d see in a ballet.

And…never having taken much notice of the singer who goes by the name of Lady Gaga, imagining her to be suited to a much younger generation to the one I inhabit, I was joyously stunned to hear such a magnificent voice. And what a wonderful National Anthem the Americans have. (Poor Australia).
Lady Gaga’s golden peace dove attached to her dress was a gorgeous unspoken message.

There was an extremely noticeable presence of LOVE and caring during the procedures as the Biden family - and that of Kamala Harris - greeted each other and, despite face masks and attempted distancing, there were hugs of genuine care. And it wasn’t only between family members - there were obvious warm feelings from friends, former leaders, and the crowd in general. What a sight to see.
A big difference from four years ago, with the awkwardness and posing of that self-promoting Trump family.

Yes, I think we can perhaps breathe again…it will take time, but the world – not only USA – has seen what can happen and a warning has been noted.
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A destroyer who spread hate and division is gone and may we hopefully never experience his likes again.

And now:
“…there is always light, if only we are brave enough to see it.
If only we are brave enough to be it.” (Amanda Gorman)
 
AND, may the “land of the free, and the home of the brave” be very brave.
 

Something’s amiss.
As animal lovers, where did we go wrong?

We brought our kids up in country Victoria to give them a rural, nature-filled, animal-loving childhood, away from the cities.
Over the years we owned - and cared for - dogs and puppies, baby lambs, calves, cows, goats, chooks, a white mouse, a ginger cat, even a donkey and (of course) guinea pigs.

We went on outings to forests and farmlands to experience the environment and to see native animals in their natural habitat. We saw kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, koalas, turtles, and echidnas.
The kids seemed to love them all—the ones we had at home and the ones they saw out in the bush.  We thought we had given them a love of nature as well as knowledge of how to care for creatures of every sort.
 
Our kids are well grown up now and have families of their own.
What animas do they have?
What animals are they caring for?
The answer is nil!

Our daughter lives on the Gold Coast in Queensland, in a big house that has no room for a pet of any sort.
Our son lives in UK with a backyard as big as a pocket handkerchief.
Animals? Pets?
​Zilch!

Where did we go wrong?
 
 
 

Recently, a publisher informed me that something I wrote was unacceptable, as it involved ‘old learnings’.
I was gobsmacked. Not because I thought he was wrong so much as I didn’t think that anyone with anything to do with (decent) writing would stoop to using such a word as ‘learnings’.
I had heard a politician use the word not so long ago and was mildly appalled; it is turning into a word that (to me) almost rivals the expression, ‘going forward’, that seems to have infiltrated so many announcements - and simply popped on to the end of every second sentence  – and, indeed, now heard in general conversation.

I am now wondering if I am being too sensitive about words.
Am I Madame Pedantic?
I admit to keeping a 2B pencil by my side when I am reading and (gently) put a line through any typos I see.

Being a fan of Twitter, I occasionally see a misspelt word or a wrongly used phrase and shudder.

I tell myself that there are far more important things to worry about than small grammatical hiccups.

Recently a journalist was criticised for making fun of someone who made spelling errors.  She was more than criticised; she was attacked! She was told to stop being a literary snob and was reminded, in no uncertain terms, that those who don’t have an advanced education are entitled to express their thoughts, without being laughed at, when their spelling does not measure up to someone who ‘thinks she’s smart’ – or words to that effect.

I felt sorry for the journo as well as whoever made the mistakes.

I don’t know why misspelled words and grammatical faux pas annoy me so much.
I honestly can’t help it!

Perhaps it was the old fashioned and strict teaching (NOT learnings) I experienced in my early school days. Perhaps it has expanded because of my 30+ years of being a schoolteacher. But it is imbedded in my DNA now, I fear. (There’s another frequently misused expression – as if your DNA sequencing can influence your ability to spell! Or can it?)

Here are a few annoyance-producing expressions and spelling faults:
Twice lately I have read about someone ‘towing the line’ instead of ‘toeing’ the line.

The use of I, where it should be me…. ‘It was a lovely gift for Jim and I’…NO, it’s ’Jim and me’ (take away Jim’s name & see how it sounds!) ‘Jim and I were thankful’ Yes, that’s okay!

Fewer/less…  ‘Less people came to the park’ No, it wasn’t bits and pieces of people coming to the park…. It’s ‘fewer people came…’

And why have we stopped using the word ‘who’ when referring to people?
Who/that. People deserve ‘who’. It is not ‘I like people that give generously’ NO, it’s ‘I like people WHO give generously’.

Minor, though it may be, the phrase ‘thin end of the wedge’ was the original statement and is preferable to ‘thin edge of the wedge’ – even though the latter possibly sounds better.

A person wrote of politicians ‘full of dribble’ and I’m sure they meant ‘drivel’, but, then again, perhaps there was some dribble involved.

Then someone referred to the latest ‘poles’, when I think they were talking about ‘polls’…but I can’t be sure.

A recent spate of shouldn’t OF instead of shouldn’t have makes me grate my teeth. Only today, a tweet lamented if only someone could of done the right thing…aarrgghh!!!

The use of ‘impacted’ in place of ‘affected’ is so commonplace now, I can almost ignore it.

A frequent mistake is the confusion of your/you’re. That drives me crazy!

Then there’s Its/it’s – Please, people, there is NO possessive apostrophe in its.
It’s should only display an apostrophe when it is a contraction of ‘it is’.

I could go on……
 
Please don’t attack me. I can’t help it!

Just as I was writing this, I was made aware that our Prime Minister has praised ‘his’ people for being ‘overcomers’.
The word made my flesh creep – not only because it sounded like a made-up word, but it is a word connected to a weird and dangerous religious cult of which our PM seems extremely fond – connected, in fact. Now that really scares me!
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Words do matter!