Fire has cleared out this section of scrub, but also opened native seeds lying on the ground.

I’m reading Mulvaney and Kaminga’s Prehistory of Australia (1999) and getting a really vivid image of how the country would have looked before European settlement, and in particular how vegetated the countryside and deserts were before being wiped out by livestock. This country of grasslands and forests, managed by Aboriginal people with fire. Much easier to walk around in than the scrub blocks of my childhood, travel corridors were burned, ports and landings were burned out of dense bush, open woodland was the norm. Fire kept the land clean, fulfilled ancestral obligations and encouraged the regrowth of edible plants (as well as the flushing out of moveable food). It was (and still is) fun to play with. Small fires protected people from devastating ones. The native vegetation has adjusted to it.

It was a different country. It was a cultural landscape. It must have been beautiful. I can almost see it out of the corner of my eye as I ride around the city…

Abbie Cardwell at the Spiegel Tent

Things have been pretty quiet recently, this whole 3 days work/4 days off has been fantastic and I have been practicing for the International Sleeping In World Championship coming up in March as often as possible. Training is sometimes interrupted by family phone calls and garage-sailing, but other than that, little can stop me from turning over and giving it another good hour. Ah I love it.

Mind you, on the flip-side my motivation to do stuff is pretty low right now, so not much is getting done. Which means that I feel like I’m wasting my life… But its not all wasted. I spent a day up at Sean’s place in the Hills helping to get the place a bit tidy ready for a valuation, and on the same day - Valentine’s Day to be precise - we went to the Garden of Unearthly Delights to see Abbie Cardwell play tracks off her new album, which we immediately purchased seeing as it was available only on that evening at the venue. We are big fans of Abbie’s version of bluegrass and country. And there has been a good amount of catching up with family. Not much hooping going on due to body malfunctions which are currently under investigation - nothing serious. There was a bit of accounting going on there for a weekend, but its over now, thank goodness. I’m surprised by how much I like it, that limited world where everything fits and makes sense.

I have in mind a couple of sewing projects, and I really want to rustle up some motivation and get going on them. I keep changing my mind about how best to do them, but I think they have been percolating for long enough now, and it’s time to just take the plunge and start laying out the fabric. All I really need now is an entire clear day and I’m sure that once I get the ball rolling, the motivation will kick in.