Wednesday, October 23, 2013

WWOOFers 2

Part of the business of being good WWOOF hosts is finding time to show the WWOOFers some nice places. The request was for pelicans and kangaroos yesterday. At the tourist information centre, getting maps, we also learned that there were whales in Jervis Bay the day before. We went looking for them late in the afternoon but saw no whale. We saw one pelican, not this one, which I photographed years ago:



We found two large mobs of kangaroos, at least thirty in each.

Here is a little film of one kangaroo mob. filmed roughly from the car:



Tuesday, October 22, 2013

WWOOFers


We have had two French WWOOFers, David and Nicolas, for a few days.

After a day of mulching and tidying at Dennis's garden, we had a weekend at Helen's garden installing three tall narrow water tanks, two to collect from the roof of the house, the third up the hill - pumping up to it to provide gravity delivery to the whole garden: a kitchen sink in the back garden for cleaning fish, a Porcelaine de Paris basin in the front yard and three ordinary garden taps.

We had a lot of fun. Here we celebrate the work:


 
In the front garden, the French workers, the French porcelain, the happy clients!

... a little more artistic and structural work to be done! And the tap will be lower!

The proud expert installer!!!



The Adoration of the Banana



The view from the front - highway construction



and we had time to go to the sea, five minutes away


and more fortunate in these days than the people in the Blue Mountains, from where David and Nicolas arrived Thursday.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Climate urgency, micro and macro

I have written a couple of entries recently at my main blog about climate change and the urgency of dealing with it at global, strategic, national, community and individual levels. 

My immediate concern in relation to my 'sustainable food forest' is to sustain it through what seems likely to be a hot and perhaps very dry summer. I am pleased to have some tropical plants growing well (at 34 degrees south).

However much people may throw up their hands and say "even if it's true, what can I do?" that fails to address the core individual need to avoid being sucked into a hopeless practical helplessness marching between social media, the supermarket and the fridge. Resourcefulness important, in context of understanding the real world.

No, I'm not expecting to survive on the garden alone, but it is one of an array of ideas and practicalities I am working through and should write about soon.