Restoration

I've been flat lately. Too much to do. I almost sapped myself of energy.

I've been trying to get up a capital works grant application to the the Cardinia Shire on behalf of the Emerald Museam and Nobelius Heritage Park committee, to have replaced a delapidated concrete mishmash retaining wall in the park behind and to the sides of The Green Shed. I started out planning a stone wall replacement, gathering quotes and going through the paperwork. I was nearly there when a heritage consultant's report came in saying the wall could not be replaced with a stone wall, it had to be conrete/brick render as is the existing wall. Start again Carey, with 2 weeks before the April 5 cut off, Easter Monday, which makes it effectively April 1 it has to bein by. I'm still at it. I'm hoping two quotes come by email tomorrow, or my efforts will have been in vain.

The application may well fail, due to council's judgement on what are the most deserving and valid applications for council expenditure. That's OK, but if I fail to get the bid in, after so many hours of work and meetings with contractors, because I haven't met the criteria, well, that would be demoralizing.

As I've ploughed through, some good things lately are starting to give me a feeling of restoration, beginning to grow. Firstly, 22ml of rain on the weekend, perfect timing, Then, yesterday, because of the rain I worked late to get some seeds in at the farm. Violas, cornflowers, calendulas, brocolli, in some ground I forked over a week or so ago. The seeds I put in a few weeks ago, just before the big rain, are up and away and this is encouraging. And some salvia cutting I hastily stuck in some newly dug ground seem to be taking.There's something rejuvenating about putting in seeds and cuttings and seeing them grow. It's renewal.

Then this morning, walking down Quinn Rd. on my way home, I was feeling good that I was fit and well and able to walk and soak up the superb autumn atmosphere. Big John McCann came up the the other way.
We stopped and talked briefly, sharing our feelings of good fortune to live in such a place and walk in the morning fresh air. John's about 80 years old, a tall thin man with lifetime of rich experience and a bent for philosophy. He was once a minister of religion, has spent a lot of time in the bush as a pilot, and in New Guinea. Right up until recently he was travelling to Monash doing honours in a theology degree, I think, part time.

He said that last year he was in Shanghai on a holiday with his daughter. The air was that thick with pollution you could hardly breathe. We looked across to the Warburton ranges, breathing deep the fresh cold air, across green paddocks and forested valleys.

We are lucky indeed to live where we live!