Trees

My routine varied this morning due to a shortage of time. Lib starts work an hour later, at 8.ooam, every second Thursday when her day isn't working with patients, but catching up on documentation. So when I woke a little later than usual at 6.30am it was too late to get my walk in and still be around to make a cup of tea and discuss the day before she left at 7.30.
After she left I bundled both dogs into the van and drove up to the town, parking at Puffing Billy station and taking off for a short walk along the railway line. This was a quick easy option without the need to have them on a lead. I've been taking young 'Pip' on my walk for the last 10 days now and I have to admit it has tested my patience. She's turning out to be an excellent little dog, but taking two dogs instead of one has detracted from the sheer joyful relaxed bliss of the walk. It's OK on those stretches where I let them off the lead but otherwise both my hands are full and it's hard to stop to pick up a can or other litter without a juggling act. And young 'Pip' changes direction erratically, stops and starts, and even barks at passing cars and leaps at them, and wants to chase every bird she sees. Today
with 'Snowy' and 'Pip' free to run, but still follow me, I was free to look at the trees or the views. A mist hung in the valley, clinging to trees and dripping to the ground. There's a variety of tree types around the station and railway line, evergreen and deciduous, including bhutan, baltic, and radiata pines, cypress, fir, spruce, oaks, elm, planes, tulip trees, poplars, holly, bay, and of course messmates and peppermints, and they enjoy misty mornings. The ground round the base, under the canopy line can be quite wet yet bone dry away from the tree. They're expert at trapping moisture from the air.
Where would I be without trees to keep me sane. I have realized it so forcefully, trees are my major interest in life. The great thing is that just about everywhere you go there are trees to look at and try to identify. They're wonderful things. They give us timber for building, fuel for heating, fruit and foliage for food and beauty, and they suck carbon from the air and produce oxygen.
I'm reading James Michener's 'Texas' and I came to a part where Jubal and Mattie Quimper came across a new tree on their journey through the wilds, a tree with large thorns and rough large fruit, an osage orange. Immediately I remembered seeing a row of trees, unfamiliar to me, along a road out the back of Bendigo some years ago. After some investigation I found out they were the osage orange, Maclura pommifera, a native of Nth America. It's exciting. Apparently the fruit is useless to man and beast but because of the thorns they can make an impenetrable hedge and the hard, flexible timber is prized for making archery bows.
Last week I was in the garden under two Nyssa sylvaticas we have in the back yard and the hum of bees on the inconspicuous flowers was extraordinary. The Nyssa is also a native of Nth America and produces good honey crops in the south of USA, known as tupelo honey. The Quimpers stopped travelling and took up land and built a 'cave house' when they found a place on a river with a lot of bee trees and honey. As coincidence has it I'm currently applying for a grant from the Cardinia council under the shire beautification scheme to purchase and plant 6 Nyssa sylvaticas in Nobelius Heritage Park. The price from Established Tree Transplanters is $187 each for two metre tall trees next winter. I touch wood that the application will be successful. The Nyssa has spectacular autumn foliage, as good as it gets, all the reds through to bold yellow.

Rain Again, Thank Goodness.

I got wet through walking this morning. That's the first real rain since the magnificent 60ml on the 4th of this month. Since then it's been dry, with warm to hot weather and huge numbers of annoying flies trying to crawl into the eyes, ears and nose. There was a few spots and light showers last Sunday but not enough to wet anything properly. We've had 16ml overnight and this morning, and it looks like there could be more showers around.
I've been busy lately at the farm and around the traps cutting grass and picking foliage. We've started on the beech and some of the camellia new growth is firm enough. I picked thirty bunches of Gracie's yesterday. I met her gardener, he said it would be OK if I picked some beech from his place and get some camellia some time. Interestingly I learned in our conversation that he did his nurseryman's apprenticeship at Nobelius Nursery when it was run by Cliff and Arch Nobelius in the 1950's. And, he's been a water diviner all his adult life and is going to call in at the farm in a couple of weeks and try to find a underground stream we hope is there. Not that I'm keen to put in a bore, it would be costly with no guarantees, but it's an option worth some thought.

I looked at the bees on Saturday last. I'd noticed them hunting around the shed for weeks making me think there was a shortage of nectar, for them to be sniffing out the stored combs. I was right, there was very little coming in and the hives had struggled to draw out the foundation I'd put in them late in October as a swarm control measure. I put all my supers of combs out on the hives to stop the wax moths destroying them which isn't ideal when there's no honey coming in but it's either that or start fumigating the stored combs which I don't want to do. Wax moths, or more correctly their larvae, hatch and grow quickly when the nights warm up, and chew through the stored honeycomb searching for protein in pollen. (They could be called pollen moths)
It's not shaping up as a good year for honey but this rain might improve things temporarily with the blackberry and cotoneaster flowering.

Galah Paddock Update

The excavations went for the best part of a week. The machinery, a bulldozer, an excavator, a bobcat and tip truck, have all left. the tip truck carted many loads of topsoil away, not far, because he was back quickly. There's a big gouge now on the high side of the paddock, levelled presumably as the housesite. There's a big depession or hole on the low side of this gouge, perhaps for the septic tank. Then away from the house on the low side of the paddock is another levelled area, I'd say for a large shed.
The galahs were in the paddock next door on the weekend, I counted sixteen. On Monday twelve were sitting on the electricity wires. This morning with all the machinery gone and no human activity they were back in their paddock, browsing through the disturbed earth, looking for whatever they forage for.
There's a blue and yellow portaloo on site ready for the tradesmen who'll soon be working, and a layer of metal (gravel) has been laid on the driveway to the housesite.

Election Market Update

Who would have ever thought that with four days to go to the election Labour would be at $1.25 and the Coalition $4.50? This with a 16 seat majority held by the government.
In La Trobe, Labour's Rodney Cocks has shortened to $1.50 and the sitting member, ex policeman Jason Wood, has drifted to $2.40. I took a little of the $1.50 offered.
In Bennelong, Maxine McKew has come in to $2.20, while the incumbent PM is $1.60
I had another little bite at $2.20. I caught a little of the joint Howard/Costello interview on TV on Monday night. What a comedy act! But unconvincing.
I can't wait till it's over, I'm so sick of politics and so is just about everyone I talk to.

Hipocrites

It has been logically asserted that we're all hipocrites and hipocrisy is an essential basis of civilization, as a lubricant for the smooth running of private and public life. I don't disagree, however it should be considered that there are degrees of hipocrisy and the consequences of the different forms vary greatly from beneficial to extremely damaging.
There are probably numerous times every day when I conceal my real thoughts and emotions in the interests of tact and good manners. In so doing I maintain good relations with other people including family, friends and neighbours. Call it diplomacy or common sense, but without it I'd quickly become odious, obnoxious and objectionable to those around me, and therefore counterproductive. A bit like brother Jod on a bad day.
Now I don't say that to criticize Jod. Readers who have known Jod will understand me clearly, others may not, but I was discussing this very thing with my alter ego, sister Meredith, during the week. Bear in mind that for all of our respective 55 and 53 years we have shared Jod as older brother. For the first almost 20 years of our lives we lived in the same family home and for much of this time he was the archetype tyrranical bully.
Meredith's first husband was a local policeman. The marriage lasted ten years before Meredith left and, after some more years, a divorce was finalized. There was pain and trauma in that block of years and we, i.e. Meredith and me, have an insightful if somewhat cynical view of the police force. We discussed briefly last week the front page controversy raging in the Victorian Police Force, which has resulted in the resignation of two assistant commissioners and the suspension from the force of the head of the police association, amidst allegations of corruption and tipping off murder suspects.
Meredith told me that in the early 1980's she remembers one of the leading characters in the present controversy being awarded a police valour medal for shooting a dangerous criminal. His partner in the car at the time was the 'Toff'. The 'Toff', later to go on to the special operations group, was an Arnie Shwarzeneger body builder type and a gun freak. He was ultimately sacked from the force over a serious sexual indiscretion but he's in this story because he was married to a policewoman who worked at the same local station as Meredith's husband. (They are now divorced and to complete the musical chairs the 'Toff's ex wife is now married to Meredith's ex husband.)
Meredith, on the subject of hipocrisy, asked me did I remember the time in the early 80's when the new sergeant at the police station where Meredith's husband and 'Toff's wife worked was trying to find them during one night shift. The sergeant was straight, and therefore hated by the less than straight staff under him. He tried his best to get Meredith's husband and 'Toff's wife to do some work but hit the proverbial brick wall. There was a prevailing notion at the station, not shared by the sergeant, that if you were a 'twenty year man' you didn't have to actually do anything.
On this occasion, the sergeant became so frustrated, and worried, that he couldn't contact his senior constables on the car radio, he organized a car from another station to look for them. They were found inside the home of another policeman, who was off duty, where they couldn't be contacted on the radio because the car was unattended. This enraged the sergeant, who ordered 'Toff's wife to be breathalyzed, her being the listed driver that night. She was well over .05 and was charged internally with misconduct. There was a hell of a hullabulloo at the station but the sergeant stood his ground and proceeded, but somehow at the subsequent internal hearing there was no penalty.
We might all be hipocrits, but there's hipocrisy, and there's hipocrisy. Another contrast with the harmless type is that in recent times of Richard Pratt and Steve Vizard, found guilty of price fixing and insider trading, to skim hundreds of millions of dollars, while shining in the glow of philanthropy.

Galah Paddock Excavation

Well, I've been dreading it, but yesterday morning Nov 13 there was a bulldozer in my galah paddock pushing the rich chocolate brown earth into a heap. Last week fresh pegs went up, so I knew something was imminent. This morning an excavator was there as well, some serious earthmoving was underway.
My view into the Shepherds Ck west branch valley (beginning with three springs amongst trees to the left of the photo), which I've enjoyed so many times over the nearly two full years that I've been walking in the morning, will never be the same again. Sad for me.
But I musn't be hypocritical. I live in a house myself, and twenty six years ago I hired a bulldozer to knock down a heap of trees and scrub on our block to clear our house site. That no doubt was a sad day for some people, and birds and animals, who liked it the way it was before my house was built.
The thing is, I conclude, at some point we have to have less growth, no more houses, people, and all the cars, iron and concrete that comes with it. With the climate change factor it has to be sooner rather than later.
I'm voting 'Green' at the federal election on Saturday week. God, I wish more of our politicians could think like Bob Brown. And I say that with no intention of blasphemy. I mean it and pray to God for it. What about China?, you might ask. Well, as Kevin 07 says, we have to set an example. And, the Chinese have at least taken serious and effective measures to reduce population.

The Humble Blackbird

I tossed in a fresh bone and locked little dog 'Pip' in the laundry with a hot water bottle wrapped in its favourite blanket, and took off down the steps. This morning I felt full to bursting with energy, wanting to power my way up the Quinn Rd. hill. 'Snowy' took off ahead of me as if sharing my impatience to scan the horizon from the top of the hill.
Just as I threw the carry bag up over my shoulder and felt the rhythm of my trekking boots taking over, I saw two blackbirds flitting around the window of the shed. I'm sure they were trying to catch my eye, fearful I'd forgotten them, which I had till I saw them. Every morning I put a handful of mini dog yummies on the windowsill of the shed and at a couple of other strategic places. The blackbirds love them and are there waiting every day. They come up close and almost take the titbits from your hand, as bold as you like.
On the weekend I disturbed a blackbirds nest. It had 3 speckled blue eggs inside and I had to remove it from my burning heap so it wasn't incinerated when I burn the heap, which I'll do in the next few days before the fire restrictions come in on the 12th of November, as has been advertised. I was glad it didn't have fledglings, I would have had to abandon plans to burn and have a dry firehazard heap there all summer. Even disposing of the eggs didn't come easily to me, the birds are a part of the garden and the whole ecosystem that keeps us alive and I have affection for their effort to raise young.
It made me think of Paul, a fellow who lives adjoining Nobelius Park. We had a discussion about blackbirds, and birds in general, a few weeks ago. Paul is a 'greenie'. He loves the natural environment and he approached me in the park to ask what vegetation was being removed. I'd put a sign up, in conjunction with the council, advertising the removal of vegetation and inviting objections. He approached me wanting to know what vegetation was to be removed and when I answered that in the short term the first things to go were the three Japanesese cedars near his place he asked could this be delayed because there were butcher birds nesting there at the time, could we wait till the fledglings had left the nest.
I replied this would be no problem, there was no urgency. I told him that once this permit to remove vegetation was obtained it meant that the vegetation management plan had been approved by council's planning section, which meant that over a period of years, as funding allowed, we would remove more things due to overcrowding, inappropriate siting, etc, without having to obtain a permit each time. I pointed to a prunus niger tree nearby suggesting it as an example.
Now you learn something every day. Paul said he'd be sorry to see the prunus go because the leaves were a good food supply for the ring tailed possums which had drays in the Thujya nearby. We went and looked and saw a blackbird's nest as well. I said "Actually Paul this Thujya is probably to go eventually, as this area in front of the packing shed is zoned for open vista, meaning there will be low growing plantation. The Thuju grows very large and will block the vista."
He said he understood the need to have a longterm plan but before anything was removed, could I let him know so that if the possums were in that dray he'd move them gently to another dray before the tree removal. He said he was unconcerned about the blackbirds, they were an introduced English bird and should not be here at all. He regularly searched the park for their nests and destroyed them.
This struck me as a bit odd. If the blackbirds shouldn't be here because they aren't native, neither should the Japanese cedars, which provided nesting sites for butcher birds and others, the prunus, which give food to ring tails, and the thujyas, where the ringtails nest.
I told him this, and added that if you followed that logic through, he and I shouldn't be here either as our origins are European, and the impact of our population has been devastating to just about everything indigenous over 150 years.
He saw my point, and we agreed that it's very important to maintain wilderness areas without European species and to preserve large areas of native indigenous bush but this couldn't apply to the whole country if you wanted to house and feed 20 million people.
The humble blackbird plays a part in the whiteman's food chain, establishing itself along with us, in our gardens. It has a role to play eating grubs and insects and I'm sure has a beneficial role in the scheme of things. I know they are territorial but so is nearly everything. I'll keep feeding my brave little blackbirds.

Money Talks

Rain, sufficient today to prevent my morning walk for the first time in months, may well be tinkling on the iron roof, but it's the whispers from the betting markets that I'm hearing.
Last week I put $10 on Maxine McKew to rid the Australian parliament of you know who on election day, 24th November. The price at Lasseter's Sportsbook was $2.30 for a dollar, a bit lean I thought, but I like the lady's pluck, and this election promises to be the most interesting in a long time. So I win $13 if bold Maxine makes history. I liked her when she did Lateline, admiring her poise with political heavyweights. She's lost some personal appeal to me now she's a politician, but I still think she's a bit of alright.
The news bulletin this morning gave the results of a poll in Bennelong which indicated she was the preferred candidate on first preference, 48% to $47%, so I checked Lasseter's again and she'd drifted, surprisingly, to $2.40. I went to Centrebet, they have her at $2.60. I couldn't resist and put on another $10. So in total, so far, I'm risking $20, a chance to win $29. GO MAX BABY, I wish you well over the next three weeks and I'm trusting that your background journalistic professionalism will prevent gaffes, unlike nudenut Garrett.
I looked at the other NSW seats and according to the betting there are only three marginal or close- Centrebet has Page $1.83 Lib/$1.87 Labour, Paterson $1.50 Lib/ $2.40 Labour(hardly marginal) and Robertson $1.77 Labour/$1.95 Lib. Lasseter's has them Page $1.80/$1.90, Paterson $1.60/$2.20, and Robertson $1.80/$1.90. The other seats are shoe-ins if you believe the money.
In Victoria much the same applies. Our electorate, La Trobe, is the closest at $1.80 Lib/$1.90 Labour, then there's McMillan and Deakin both $1.72 Lib/$2.00 Labour, and Corangamite $1.65 Lib/$2.10 Labour. It's already over in every other seat if the market's got it right.
I haven't looked at the other states, but on the election result, the betting is Labour at $1.28 and the Coalition $3.50. Much can change in three weeks, the serpent pit is writhing, but that price is a compelling indicator that we may well have a change of government.
Should it happen I will be happy on election night to visit my friend Maria with a good bottle of red to drink in celebration. Maria, my writing teacher, has a strong interest in politics and a dislike for you know who and his politics. She has offered open house on election night. As I look out the window at the rain belting down I'm reminded of my wish, at the end of October, for a wet November. I'm sure Maria's wish for November would have been for the downfall of the Howard regime after 11 sad years during which social justice and much of what Australians were once proud has been degraded and diminished, while the rich and powerful and greedy have raked it in.
As for me, I'm for the Greens. Nature and the environment is my scene, for the good of us all, longterm. Raise taxes I say, especially at the higher income end, to protect the environment and help the needy. My second preference will go to Labour candidate Rodney Cocks. We need change and a new vision.
Aussies be brave!