When European settlers came here they tried to force the seasonal weather of this part of the state into the four European seasons of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. It made no sense really and nearly two hundred years on we're still trying to work to that pattern and it still makes little sense.
In recent years, though, instead of simply ignoring the history of our indigenous people at last Australia is beginning to see that there was a rich culture here before colonisation and that we should not ignore the traditions our First Nation people. After all, they lived here successfully for many thousands and thousands of years. It would be surprising if they hadn't learned quite a lot about what works and what doesn't in the Australian landscape.
Nowadays, a 'welcome to country' forms a part of many gatherings and we're belatedly looking into bush tucker - indigenous foods - which it turns out is very tasty. I'd like to see us go further and look at the seasons.
South western Australia is Noongar country - the Noongar people are the traditional owners of this area - and if there's one thing that should be obvious to anyone who lives here it's that we don't have the four three month seasons of Europe. For gardeners like me trying to follow those artificial seasons just doesn't make sense so when I discovered the Noongar divided the year into six seasons I was delighted. It works so much better.
The Noongar seasons are governed by weather patterns and so aren't rigidly tied to the months although they occur approximately at the same times. They are:
Birak - December and January on the calendar and it's very hot and dry (it used to be the season when controlled fires were set to promote new growth).
Bururu - February and March and the hottest months of the year.
Djeran - April and May and the season we're just coming to the end of. This is when the nights cool down and the mornings are dewy.
Makuru - June and July is the coldest and wettest time of the year.
Djilba - August and September is when the weather is a mix from cold and clear to warmer, wet and windy.
Kambarang - October and November and the days are lengthening and warming with less rain.
I now work my plantings around these seasons and my garden is the better for it.
If you want to find out more about the Noongar seasons you can find it here.
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
Saturday, May 25, 2019
Age Isn't For the Faint-hearted
or so my mother used to say and the older I get the more I'm aware of just how true this is. I've had the misfortune to inherit an arthritic condition which I've had to deal with for much of my life so when my friends tell me how their joints are starting to ache I sympathise because this has been my life story. Age has added extra 'goodies' in the way of my health that make life even more difficult and that's not been fun either.
I'm lucky in having an understanding husband who goes out of his way to make life easier for me physically. He does the grocery shopping, which had become a slow and painful chore, for instance and is willing to take me anywhere I want to go now that driving, too, has become difficult. Trouble is he's begun developing aches and pains of his own - years of working in an industry which required lifting heavy items are taking their toll - as well as few other interesting ailments.
All this mean that we spend a lot of time at various doctors' rooms. We decided many years ago that we'd always go to appointments together because it can be hard to remember everything you want to ask during a consultation and, for that matter, to remember all the doctor has to tell you when things get complex or serious. We see so many specialists and receptionists that it's got to the point that we're on first name terms with many of them (and several of the receptionists know us well enough to have a friendly chat about our respective families).
While this is lovely - we get good healthcare as well as a chance for a friendly chat - we seem to spend more time in doctors' waiting rooms than on any social activity. Making appointments is complicated because there are so many and they have to fit in around both of us and while a short consultation - 10-15 minutes or so is the average - doesn't take much time in itself there's the time it takes getting there and getting back as well. Then you have to add in extra time because they're rarely on time. Before you know it half a day disappears with each appointment. Just as well we're retired. We wouldn't have time to go to work!
I'm lucky in having an understanding husband who goes out of his way to make life easier for me physically. He does the grocery shopping, which had become a slow and painful chore, for instance and is willing to take me anywhere I want to go now that driving, too, has become difficult. Trouble is he's begun developing aches and pains of his own - years of working in an industry which required lifting heavy items are taking their toll - as well as few other interesting ailments.
All this mean that we spend a lot of time at various doctors' rooms. We decided many years ago that we'd always go to appointments together because it can be hard to remember everything you want to ask during a consultation and, for that matter, to remember all the doctor has to tell you when things get complex or serious. We see so many specialists and receptionists that it's got to the point that we're on first name terms with many of them (and several of the receptionists know us well enough to have a friendly chat about our respective families).
While this is lovely - we get good healthcare as well as a chance for a friendly chat - we seem to spend more time in doctors' waiting rooms than on any social activity. Making appointments is complicated because there are so many and they have to fit in around both of us and while a short consultation - 10-15 minutes or so is the average - doesn't take much time in itself there's the time it takes getting there and getting back as well. Then you have to add in extra time because they're rarely on time. Before you know it half a day disappears with each appointment. Just as well we're retired. We wouldn't have time to go to work!
Saturday, May 18, 2019
It's Nearly Winter
Not the greatest of photos I know but I found these paper white jonquils in flower in my garden today and that's a sure sign that winter is just around the corner. Mind you with last night's minimum of 3° C I don't think there's much doubt about that. My initial thought was that they were earlier than usual but when I looked back I found that they are in fact a little later than last year.
Wednesday, May 15, 2019
I'm Electioned Out
While the campaign for the 2019 Federal election here in Australia has technically been running for only five and a half weeks in fact we've all known there had to be an election no later than around mid May because of the way our election cycle works. This means that the assorted political parties have effectively been electioneering for months with their advertising getting more and more strident since the election date was announced. It's getting more and more nasty as well and I for one am sick to death of that nastiness, the half truths and down right lies being told. These are people who are asking us to appoint them as our representatives. The least they could do is treat us with respect.
I've already voted - because we have compulsory voting we make sure that those who can't get to a polling place on election day have the opportunity to vote before the day or by postal vote (there are rules as to who is eligible for this, of course) - but the endless advertising is still taking its toll. It's everywhere and honestly it's verging on the ridiculous. Quite apart from the advertising on television and radio and in the newspaper there's the huge volume of mail being sent - in the last three days alone we've received seven separate pieces of electioneering material - and don't get me started on the phone calls at inconvenient times. We've actually given up answering the phone for now. It may make a change from the scammers but in reality the disruption from the political calls is just as annoying.
All advertising on commercial television and radio is by law supposed to stop at 12:00 AM tomorrow so there's that respite to look forward to. The only trouble is that the law was made back before on-line streaming and digital platforms existed so if I want a break I'll have to avoid all social media and digital media sites until polling closes. Then it'll all be about the vote count and that could go on for days. Sigh.
I've already voted - because we have compulsory voting we make sure that those who can't get to a polling place on election day have the opportunity to vote before the day or by postal vote (there are rules as to who is eligible for this, of course) - but the endless advertising is still taking its toll. It's everywhere and honestly it's verging on the ridiculous. Quite apart from the advertising on television and radio and in the newspaper there's the huge volume of mail being sent - in the last three days alone we've received seven separate pieces of electioneering material - and don't get me started on the phone calls at inconvenient times. We've actually given up answering the phone for now. It may make a change from the scammers but in reality the disruption from the political calls is just as annoying.
All advertising on commercial television and radio is by law supposed to stop at 12:00 AM tomorrow so there's that respite to look forward to. The only trouble is that the law was made back before on-line streaming and digital platforms existed so if I want a break I'll have to avoid all social media and digital media sites until polling closes. Then it'll all be about the vote count and that could go on for days. Sigh.
Saturday, May 11, 2019
Family
These ladies are my grandmother, great grandmother, and great aunt in a photo taken in 1915 for their son and brother to take with him to war in one of the few surviving family photos I have of them.
They're here because last night I was watching a promo for the SBS program of 'Who Do You Think You Are'. The next person to be featured is actor Marta Dusseldorp and she was saying how important family is to her. It is to me as well and with all the memorabilia I've been finding in the decluttering process and a reunion for one side of my family coming up later in the year it's something I've been thinking about a lot.
It has always seemed sad to me that once a person passes away their life experiences also fade. I know I'm not the only one who regrets the fact that there was so much more to know about people who have been important in my life or my family's history and wishes they'd asked more questions when they had the chance. It's one of the reasons why I am making the effort to sort and scan what photos I have because these folk deserve to be remembered. I'm not sure who it will all pass on to when I'm gone but perhaps someone in the current generations will take up the task.
Not everyone feels this way, though. We have a dearth of family photos from my maternal grandmother's side of the family largely due to the fact that my grandmother and her sister were ladies who always preferred what was new and modern and on one memorable day they made a bonfire on my parents' back lawn and proceeded to burn any photos where they thought the clothes were old fashioned. My mother came home in time to save a few precious relics but the bulk of the family photos had gone up in smoke by then.
This loss was compounded when my other great aunt died and a distant family member took it upon herself without any consultation to throw out all her photos and other memorabilia. There was a lot since Aunty had kept a detailed record of everything she could find relating to family, all filed in at least a dozen albums of photos and newspaper cuttings. Since the family was well known in the town where they lived and had often figured in the local press it would have been a treasure trove of information.
All this means there's a huge gap in that part of our visual family history although we do have a number of photographic portraits from the paternal side of the family - photos on the walls were a big part of home decoration back in Victorian and Edwardian times. Some of the oldest of these are now deteriorating badly and I'm trying to find ways to preserve them for future generations, hoping that someone else will take up the torch after me. It would be a shame for all this history to be forgotten.
Wednesday, May 08, 2019
Australia Votes and Democracy Sausages
For this Federal election polling day is May 18. and we've been under siege with political canvassing for what seems much longer than the three weeks or so since the election date was announced. What with the robo calls - automated political spiels on the phone, the endless advertising not to mention the photo ops you couldn't miss it if you tried.
So far so simple but voting in Australia for those who don't live here works differently than in some other democracies. For a start, while the incumbent government sets the day for the election which can be any date within the four year cycle, that's as far as their influence goes. Our elections are held under the supervision of an independent statutory body, the Australian Electoral Commission. The AEC handles voter registration, electorate redistributions to ensure fairness as population changes, runs polling places, prints ballot papers and counts the votes.
Voting is compulsory for every citizen over the age of eighteen with a few exceptions like diminished mental capacity or imprisonment and this taken very seriously. You are fined if you don't vote. To ensure that everyone can vote teams are sent out to remote areas and portable polling booths are taken to hospitals and nursing homes. If you aren't covered by all this and still can't get to a polling booth on the day you can either vote early at a pre polling centre or apply for a postal vote. Pre polling opens three weeks before polling day. I've already voted that way because I find standing in line at the polling booth too hard on my back and so have many others but sometimes I apply for a postal vote. There really is no excuse for not voting.
Unlike many other countries we have a preferential system of voting which is a little complicated but ensures that our votes do all count. It can also mean that with assigning preferences and postal votes trickling in for several weeks after polling closes close fought seats can take a while to be decided. The vast majority of results, though, are clear on the night so we usually know who has won by the end of the first evening's counting.
Are you wondering about democracy sausages? These are a real if unofficial part of Australian elections. Many polling places are located in schools so they take to opportunity to raise money. Some have cake stalls, a few might include handcrafts but the most popular is the democracy sausage stall. These sell barbecued sausages served up in a bread roll or rolled in a slice of buttered bread topped with sauce and/or fried onion. It's such a thing that you'll hear people say they're going to get a democracy sausage instead of going to vote. There is even a website telling you which centres have democracy sausages plus a Facebook page which tells you where you can find other kinds of stalls. We take voting seriously but we do like a bit of fun as well.
So far so simple but voting in Australia for those who don't live here works differently than in some other democracies. For a start, while the incumbent government sets the day for the election which can be any date within the four year cycle, that's as far as their influence goes. Our elections are held under the supervision of an independent statutory body, the Australian Electoral Commission. The AEC handles voter registration, electorate redistributions to ensure fairness as population changes, runs polling places, prints ballot papers and counts the votes.
Voting is compulsory for every citizen over the age of eighteen with a few exceptions like diminished mental capacity or imprisonment and this taken very seriously. You are fined if you don't vote. To ensure that everyone can vote teams are sent out to remote areas and portable polling booths are taken to hospitals and nursing homes. If you aren't covered by all this and still can't get to a polling booth on the day you can either vote early at a pre polling centre or apply for a postal vote. Pre polling opens three weeks before polling day. I've already voted that way because I find standing in line at the polling booth too hard on my back and so have many others but sometimes I apply for a postal vote. There really is no excuse for not voting.
Unlike many other countries we have a preferential system of voting which is a little complicated but ensures that our votes do all count. It can also mean that with assigning preferences and postal votes trickling in for several weeks after polling closes close fought seats can take a while to be decided. The vast majority of results, though, are clear on the night so we usually know who has won by the end of the first evening's counting.
Are you wondering about democracy sausages? These are a real if unofficial part of Australian elections. Many polling places are located in schools so they take to opportunity to raise money. Some have cake stalls, a few might include handcrafts but the most popular is the democracy sausage stall. These sell barbecued sausages served up in a bread roll or rolled in a slice of buttered bread topped with sauce and/or fried onion. It's such a thing that you'll hear people say they're going to get a democracy sausage instead of going to vote. There is even a website telling you which centres have democracy sausages plus a Facebook page which tells you where you can find other kinds of stalls. We take voting seriously but we do like a bit of fun as well.
Friday, May 03, 2019
100 Day Goal
You might remember that I signed up for this in January and I was surprised to find at the end of March just how much I'd achieved even with breaks for surgery and dealing with the vision scare. I achieved so much - daily microactions really do add up - that I've decided to do it again. Gulp.
The latest round began on 1 May and I hope I've been more realistic this time in my goal setting. The house declutter is still ongoing as is my commitment to continuing with the family history and photo sorting. The last is something I've been intending to do since my father passed away. When that happened I just bundled any papers that weren't needed immediately along with loose photos and photo albums into boxes meaning to go back to them at some indeterminate future time. Well, that time is now. In the decluttering process I've discovered a lot more photos and memorabilia scattered around the house because Pisces is a great one for randomly shoving things out of sight and then complaining because he can't find them when he wants them later. I'm amazed at some of the places these items have ended up. For now all this is safely in some large plastic containers and I've skimmed through them so I know what is in which box. As well I've scanned some of the very old family photos. Many of these are starting to deteriorate and saving them on the computer will ensure their survival at least. The next step is to sort thoroughly and cull the dross and I suspect there's a lot of dross. I don't expect to get all this done in this 100 Day Goal period but I can make a start.
The reason the 100 Day Goal worked for me was that it kept me accountable. No more making large scale plans that fall apart because they're simply overwhelming. Instead you keep track of each individual microaction - those on the list you made at the beginning - and cross them off. Some days you finish a lot, and other times you're lucky to achieve one but even one microaction a day off the list builds up.
The other area where goal setting really worked for me was in writing. Because I was struggling with my vision I had pretty much stopped writing except for the daily journal I've kept for years and even that was difficult since I couldn't see what I was writing without a magnifying glass. But I could enlarge things on the computer so I set myself a target of writing 500 words a day or editing for 30 minutes, increased the size of the print until I could read it without a magnifying glass and set to work. My aim was to not break the chain - this in the context of the 100 Day Goal means that you don't miss a day - and this worked very well for the most part. I did break the chain when I was ill for a few days and when I was in hospital but other than that I did what I set out to do every day. I'm doing this again this time and, surprise, the more you write the more you get into the rhythm of writing and the more your creativity flows. For some unknown reason somewhere along the line I'd forgotten this.
So there you have it. I have my list of microactions plus determination. May this 100 Days be as productive as the last. Here's the link if you want to find out more about it. I admit I did modify some of things suggested on the website to suit myself but, hey, that's fine. Whatever makes it work for you.
The latest round began on 1 May and I hope I've been more realistic this time in my goal setting. The house declutter is still ongoing as is my commitment to continuing with the family history and photo sorting. The last is something I've been intending to do since my father passed away. When that happened I just bundled any papers that weren't needed immediately along with loose photos and photo albums into boxes meaning to go back to them at some indeterminate future time. Well, that time is now. In the decluttering process I've discovered a lot more photos and memorabilia scattered around the house because Pisces is a great one for randomly shoving things out of sight and then complaining because he can't find them when he wants them later. I'm amazed at some of the places these items have ended up. For now all this is safely in some large plastic containers and I've skimmed through them so I know what is in which box. As well I've scanned some of the very old family photos. Many of these are starting to deteriorate and saving them on the computer will ensure their survival at least. The next step is to sort thoroughly and cull the dross and I suspect there's a lot of dross. I don't expect to get all this done in this 100 Day Goal period but I can make a start.
The reason the 100 Day Goal worked for me was that it kept me accountable. No more making large scale plans that fall apart because they're simply overwhelming. Instead you keep track of each individual microaction - those on the list you made at the beginning - and cross them off. Some days you finish a lot, and other times you're lucky to achieve one but even one microaction a day off the list builds up.
The other area where goal setting really worked for me was in writing. Because I was struggling with my vision I had pretty much stopped writing except for the daily journal I've kept for years and even that was difficult since I couldn't see what I was writing without a magnifying glass. But I could enlarge things on the computer so I set myself a target of writing 500 words a day or editing for 30 minutes, increased the size of the print until I could read it without a magnifying glass and set to work. My aim was to not break the chain - this in the context of the 100 Day Goal means that you don't miss a day - and this worked very well for the most part. I did break the chain when I was ill for a few days and when I was in hospital but other than that I did what I set out to do every day. I'm doing this again this time and, surprise, the more you write the more you get into the rhythm of writing and the more your creativity flows. For some unknown reason somewhere along the line I'd forgotten this.
So there you have it. I have my list of microactions plus determination. May this 100 Days be as productive as the last. Here's the link if you want to find out more about it. I admit I did modify some of things suggested on the website to suit myself but, hey, that's fine. Whatever makes it work for you.
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