We've been back from our holiday for three and a half weeks and it has taken me all that time to adjust back to normal working routine. Lib was away for ten days of that and she's back at work now.
I have had a busy time work wise since our return, firstly picking lilac and snowballs, then dogwood, and lately philadelphus. I have started picking beech now, this is a first, to be picking beech in October. We used to start late November, and I remember picking dogwood up to Melbourne Cup day...it was all over by October 16 this year. Such is the impact of climate change so obvious to seasonal harvesters of gardens, things just are coming earlier and earlier. I have also caught up on some jobs for people, and also my three months of book work and tonight I finished my BAS for the September quarter.
Slowly slowly I'm grinding my way back getting on top of things. Gord is the bathroom so I just took a walk out the back door to pee, not wanting to wake Lib by using the loo our end. The moon was full and there's a strong breeze, unusually from the east, skidding low clouds at a good speed across the bright smiling moon. It made me feel great to be alive. It was a cold day really. The weather has been up and down like a yo yo since we got back.
Despite that it has been a beautiful spring, growth and blossom wise. The rhodies have been exceptionally good, not that I harvest them these days much, the market driving me to work more with those things aforementioned.
The local council has rezoned us to residential one I can no longer burn off...ever. Therefore I have a large amount of flammable tree litter and prunings built up and I am not bushfire season prepared as I would like to be. My protestations to council about the rezoning when they invited submissions were totally ignored, the fact that we have 1.6 acres and 50 mature eucalypts dropping litter did not register with them. I'm not taking the issue further.. you can't argue with idiots.. well you can, but my decision is to continue cutting up the rubbish to spread it as mulching material all over the place, flammable as it is, and live with the fire risk, rather than waste one more word or ounce of energy arguing.
My little walk out in the moonlight just now reminded me of a wonderful feeling I had a couple of weeks ago when in our garden picking dogwood blossom. With the lush spring growth and blossom all around me I could not help but to be full of admiration for nature and mother earth. I looked at all the litter underneath the trees and shrubs and it was as if God spoke to me, the message clear and certain, "Don't worry about bushfire, you will be safe." It was powerful, and a reassuring feeling came over me. That was the second time in my life I have had the feeling that God spoke to me. The other time many years ago when many worries were overwhelming me, I went for a jog and the voice said to me "Persist".
Well there you go. I hope to tell you more about our holiday next time.
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