It's four weeks nearly since I last posted. My my, a lot happens in four weeks. I thought I'd better write it up before it all melts away in my distant memory. It's raining and cold outside and in about 48 hours time we'll be officially in winter.
Libby has Covid. She came down with a bad cold about last Tuesday. We didn't think much of it, until she got an SMS from Anne Oberg saying her and husband Steve had tested positive. Anne and Steve, old neighbours from Gembrook, had stayed with us for three days last week, from Wednesday to Saturday. Steve had a bad cold when they arrived, he coughed regularly the whole time he was here. He said he caught the cold from a friend they stayed with in Ballarat. By the time they left us, Anne had come down with it too. After we got the SMS we did the test thing and Lib's was positive. Gord and I were negative and we've had no symptoms till today although I'm now a little concerned as I have developed a runny nose and am a bit sneezy. I'll do another test in the morning, not that knowing it's Covid means much, as it seems it's no more than a cold for most people. But you are required to isolate for 7 days and I don't relish that.
That was a tough week leading up to the election. We had visitors staying and Lib had an old nursing friend and her partner in town also. We had lunch with them on the Friday and they came for coffee on the Saturday. Grace did her training with Lib, 3 years at the Wangaratta Base hospital, in the mid 1970's. She married and moved to Perth soon after. Lib and two other nurses visited them in the late 70's, and apart from a brief visit to Gembrook some thirty years ago when her 3 kids were young, Lib and Grace had not met up since. So it was a good catch up. Grace was divorced some twenty years ago and now has a female partner Sue. They were travelling back to WA after a trip to Vic to see Grace's dad at Mt Beauty. They had a caravan and stayed five nights at Pt Elliot. Grace lost a son about ten years ago. He was aged 23, out in a boat at sea fishing with two others when a king wave hit the boat and it sank. One survived after treading water for 19 hours and finally being spotted by the Channel 7 helicopter after a massive search. One body was recovered but Grace's son was never found. The survivor helped him stay above water until exhaustion caused him to let him go. A sad story. Grace and and Sue searched the coastline for years looking for some sign of him but never did.
In some ways having visitors was a distraction from the mad media in the last days of the election campaign. So now we have a new government and a restructured parliament with some real people. Let's hope for better than what we've had for the last decade. The well heeled have prospered certainly, but it seems it has been at the cost of huge social and environmental issues that have suffered neglect. I was amazed and horrified at the blatant bias shown by the Adelaide Advertiser. That factor, Australia wide, may have worked in 2019, but not this time. All praise to the Independents is my view.
Hot on the heels of the election was news of another school mass murder in Texas. And the ongoing war in Ukraine. The news was full of rape trials and murders here in Australia, Adelaide too, and if you are not careful you could end up in total despair at the apparent downward spiral of humankind. History tells us it is not new. Evil and atrocity have always been with us.
On a happier note, I have been enjoying pulling weeds down by the river for half an hour or so when I take Pip for a walk. Slowly, slowly, section at a time, I'm making good progress. It's a real joy to be there in the quiet of the trees and do something to help. The Friend's Group, which has two working bees a month now there's no heat or snake season, does a mighty job. It's great to be part of. I'll copy and paste below an email one of our conveners sent to The Deputy Premier who is also the Minister for the Environment relating to pollution the river.
We and other local residents are extremely concerned with the pollution - being observed as an extensive slug of creamy grey discolouration of water and associated foul pungent smell.
The pollution resulted in an extensive 'kill' of small native fish and we believe negative impacts on the diverse aquatic ecosystems of native fish, frogs, and macroinvertebrate communities, many of which are deemed rare and sensitive. Since the event, there is a noticeable reduction in visual evidence of fish and water insects normally observed.
There appears to be a corresponding reduction in bird numbers, that rely on the river for food (fish, insects, plants).
Also on a happier note, I was listening to ABC radio a couple of weeks ago. They have a nature guy on every few weeks or so. Apparently there's huge colony of tree martins moved into the Adelaide Parks where they roost at night. This has been good news for the city birds of prey like the Peregrine Falcon, I think was the one he mentioned. There's been sighting of two Canada Geese on Kangaroo Island. This is not good, apparently they are a problem in New Zealand, and the worry here is they may compete and displace our Cape Barren Geese which are native on these shores. Aren't birds amazing the distances they can fly.
Winter will be over before we know it. We need more rain in these parts.
PS Edit. Also good news. Two southern right whales seen the other day locally.
Edit 2 My test this morning negative. Gord's too.
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