This week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge is hosted by Amy. Her chosen theme is “less is more“. Amy’s inspiration for this theme is a quote by Antoine de Saint-Exupery:
“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
Now that is a very intriguing notion to me, because it seems to me that there is nothing more perfect than nature’s design. Read more
A post for the environmentally-conscious and chocolate-mad.
Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve got Friday on my mind. I’ve been waiting for this event all year. For many years it has kept me going — my National Folk Festival. It is a magnet for extremists. I say extremists because that is the language that is now being used by some leaders to describe the environmentally and socially-conscious. In the wake of the Christchurch terrorist attack, you would think that our leaders would have learned that scare-mongering can have dire repercussions. It legitimises the warped views of those who would seek to achieve their aims through violent action. It is the responsibility of our leaders not to characterise peaceful, concerned citizens as extremists. Instead, let’s have a reasoned debate on solutions given the evidence. In other words, let’s have some evidence-based policy making without the histrionics, and then we can vote on it. Read more
My February Changing Seasons post will be divided into two parts. Part 1 covers the serious stuff. Part 2 will be more lighthearted.
February – in the dying days of summer, danger lurks.
The shrill wind blew of the calamity to come.
But no one was listening.
Did you know that the UN declared 2010 to 2020 the Decade for Deserts and has called for urgent action to fight against desertification? The main reasons are land-clearing for agriculture, over-grazing and other land uses (eg. mining), unsustainable land management practices and climate change. In a vicious cycle, degraded lands hold less carbon and less surface moisture. It is estimated that it takes 1000 years to generate 3 cm of topsoil and if the current rate of soil degradation continues, all the world’s topsoil could be gone within 60 years. No topsoil. No life. Read more
Once upon a time, yellow box and red gum grassy woodlands stretched from Toowoomba to Victoria (Australia), providing a continuous wildlife corridor 100-150 kilometres in width and 1,500 km in length. Since colonisation, vast swathes of grassy woodland have been cleared for agriculture. Now there may be as little as 1-5 percent remaining. most of which has been modified in some way by grazing. Many birds and animals have become trapped in isolated communities, reducing valuable genetic diversity and leaving them vulnerable to threats of local habitat loss. It is not surprising then, that yellow box and red gum grassy woodlands have been declared a critically endangered ecological community. Read more
This is my response to the Ragtag Daily Prompt — Forecast. To join in, click on the link.
It seems that this month, there is a new temperature record broken every other day. Another scorcher is forecast tomorrow. When the temperature dropped below 35c yesterday, I quickly hightailed it out to the surrounding bush. Due to my mosaic project and hot weather, I’ve been terribly inactive and was afraid my legs would no longer work, but I can report that they are still in walking order.
This is what happens when water becomes a commodity. I predict that the former federal water minister will lose his seat at the next election over this debacle.
My thoughts are with Vanda from Our Other Blog: Two Sisters and Two Points of View, whose town has been evacuated due to the bushfire emergency in Tasmania.
Stay safe and look out for your neighbours.
Regards
Tracy
A satirical poem for the environmentally-conscious. Read more
I have been concerned for sometime about the environmental cost of disposing of my body when the time should arise. In Australia, cremation rates are increasing. According to some sources, there is a 50/50 split nationally between burial and cremation. In urban areas, cremations now make up over 65% of funerals and this figure is growing. Read more
Today’s word prompt from Margaret of the Ragtag Community is crepuscule, meaning twilight. It may be because I’m getting older that twilight for me symbolises the last days of life — my life or possibly life as we know it. I am not a religious person so I take no comfort in there being an afterlife. In fact, at this point of my life I find death a frightening prospect, if only because I will never see my children again and because of the state of the world that my generation has bequeathed them.
Read more
David Cox and Sally Davies escape the rat race of Vancouver and corporate careers for life on a remote island in British Columbia, Canada. Think of it as a mid-life crisis or perhaps even an epiphany. There isn’t much that Dave can’t learn from a book or the internet, or through trial and error. So Dave and Sally set out to self-build a house on a steep and difficult site on the tip of a peninsula (ie. no road access). Much of the book is devoted to the trials, tribulations and joys of remote living and the characters that form part of Dave and Sally’s remote community. Sound boring? It isn’t. Read more
Reflections of An Untidy Mind 