Crystal waters pics

These highly colour saturated photos were taken by Mike New on the PDC tour up to Maleny

Another 2009 goal

I have enrolled in The Northey St City farm's Permaculture Design course.
My first day was great. I am always really nervous meeting a group of new people.
I also had these wierd half formed ideas, that maybe everyone would be uber hippy green and they would think that i was terrible for eating cheese, or using soap, or something. He he. After awhile, I felt really comfortable though, with everyone so welcoming. There was a lot of diversity, in age, political leanings, "greenness", etc.

I have learned so much, my head is swimming. It is so refreshing to study something that gels with your worldview. (Unlike so many university arts subjects, which are approached from either a feminazi, socialist viewpoint, or focussed on past world events, and really can't be applied to life.)

Lunch is provided for the students, by the students, on a roster. (And everyone has to pitch in with dishes and cleaning up after, which gives you a chance to chat. Not like uni, at all! Reminded me a bit of school camp lol.) Every week lunch focusses on a different subtropical seasonal ingredient. This weeks ingredient was Bunya Nuts. We had bunya nut stirfry, with rice, and bunya nut patties - think felafel, with lilly-pilly chilli jam. It was so exciting for me to see Bunya nuts 'in the flesh'. I've read about them before, and have always wanted to try them. There was also a presentation about the nuts, you know, habitat, uses etc. We also discussed how the Bunya nut is a special tree to Indigenous people. A lot of the significance of bunya nuts is only allowed to be shared within the Indigenous community, which I respect. For an interesting insight into the Bunya nut festival visit this blog. The festival is invitation only, which i think is great, because it stops it from turning into a tourist attraction.

I also loved that I was eating a meal prepared by other people, yet I could eat everything on offer... It was all vegetarian, yay! No making excuses, or apologising for putting people out. The ratio of carnivores to vegos was about 50/50, so i didn't feel odd.

I am thankful this is something I am able to do, and I hope to put my knowledge to use at home now and on our property, when we get one.

Fridge words

I love fridge words and the stream of consciousness poetry that some people create with them. However, I do not love the price. :)

So in the spirit of anti-consumerism and "refuse to consume", I made my own. Use any words you like, mine all lean towards ethics, creativity and politics. Include pronouns, adverbs and determiners, if you want to make up a narrative. Try to be creative. Pick strange words, e.g. "dastardly", or "autohagiographer". Pick a theme, use words from a poem or quote you love, or only pick silly sounding words.You can also include names of friends, family and pets. If you've got kids who have sight words or spelling lists to memorise, you could make them a set. Hmmm, fun, (yawn) better yet get them to make their own!

Materials:

• Sturdy card board or construction paper. I got some sheets for Christmas from my Mum and Dad, they came wrapped around a piece card board, I don't know why. I kept the card board, as you do.
• Magnetic strip. I used strips of magnets from off the back of those ubiquitous calendars politicians and real estate agents bombard you with at this time of year. Promotional magnets and magnetic business cards would work well, too. They are surprisingly easy to cut with normal scissors.
• Pens, Pencil, Ruler, Scissors, Glue. I used Glustick, but I would recommend using something a bit stronger, maybe UHU power stick, or craft glue. The magnets are slick, so you need something that will adhere to plastic.
• List of words.

Step 1: Write your words onto your cardboard. My handwriting is notoriously messy, so instead of trying (and not succeeding) to make all my letters neatly identical, I used a variety of pens and font styles. If you like, you could print out your list , then glue the paper onto your cardboard.

Step 2: Stick your magnetic strips to the back of the cardboard. Tip: Do this before you cut out individual words, working with one large piece of cardboard and a few pieces of magnetic strip is easier than dozens of teeny pieces of cardboard and magnet!


Step 3: Cut out the individual words.


Voila! Fridge words! Have fun :)