Rita in Charters Towers

Rita sat on the back steps of her house in Charters Towers. It was late afternoon. She watched the aboriginal men being herded along the gully out of the town. This happened every afternoon when Rita was a young girl in the early 20th Century.

Rita told me when she was in her nineties. I must have been a powerful memory because she did not tell me of any other memories from her childhood.

Rita was my grandmother and she lived to celebrate her 100th birthday. I remember what she told me.

Winter home

An ear out for trouble

A possum - probably a brushtail - is using one of the nest boxes I made.

Qapla'

Hairpin Banksia

Banksia spinulosa var cunninghamii

The local environment group planted this Banksia about four years ago and it has already flowered. The site was tough - hard ground facing west and there was drought.

The natives grew up and made their own more hospitable environment. today the area is shady and flourishing.

Okefenokee

A great cover.

At the age of 12, I read this book. I loved it and remember it still.

It was about a boy who explored a swamp near his home. As a child I explored the mangrove swamp near my home- sand and mud and tides and fish and birds and crabs and snakes. I even found a stash of stolen goods and cash once -but I will save that story.

Now my swamp has been filled in and multi-storey mansions built over it. The area is barely above sea level and will likely flood as the sea levels rise.

Climbing

A couple of years ago I planted a Climbing Deeringia. It flowered in its first year and about eight fruit grew. I planted the seeds and most grew. Meanwhile the original plant died.

I planted the seedlings around the yard; they continued to grow and this year they fruited.

Sign of the times

This sign is at a hospital entrance.

I thought that hospitals were for sick people.

Paradigms Lost and Regained

I just finished Paradigms Regained by John L. Castro ( ISBN 0-316-64816-7).  A great science read for the Big Questions. His conclusions-

1) Life arose out of natural physical processes here on earth, probably via an RNA world.

2) Human behavior patterns are dictated primarily by genes.

3) Human language capacity stems from a unique, innate property of the brain.

4) Didital computers can ( in principle ) think.

5) We cannot communicate with extraterrestrial intelligent beings in our galaxy even if they exist.

6) There is an objective reality independent of an observer.