the healing energy of mountains

this is a photo of the breathtakingly beautiful sun sets here where I'm staying!




So, evidently ye olde swine flu is all but dried up, kinda. But in more exciting news, I heard my first kookaburra "laugh", they sound like a combination between a really hyper person and a monkey laughing so hard they could be peeing, but it does sound beautiful.





I've been spending loads of time in the mountains. Ah, mountains! They heal your heart, don't they? I suppose it's so many things, but mainly, for me it's the solitude and peace of the energy of mountains, and I've been to many mountains.





I've visited some exquisite mountains in Iceland ( you can check out my archived articles on Iceland if the spirit moves you) called Hels range. I climbed some ways up, sat and painted. I have been in the mountains in Italy, a lot, in Colombia, which were quite a surprise as they were really hot as opposed to the city in which I was living, which was both cold and extremely polluted, with both cars and therefore fumes. I've been to an amazing mountain in New England, the view was stunning. I've climbed one in Scotland's Isle of Skye; The Old Man of Storr (I HATE THIS COMPUTER!!!) which was a difficult but amazing climb! I travelled to an volcano face in Costa Rica. And now I've been to mountains here in Australia!





As I sit and write this I can see the misty morning of this chilly day breaking. Here it's autumn, and crisp in both the morning and night, but stunning.





Yesterday, I saw a tree believed to be at least 500 years old, just growing by the grocery store!

Oh the things you'll see...

I feel so blessed when animals choose me to love. I was gifted with a snuggle by a wallaby at The Sanctuary, the other day. And she was no ordinary wallaby, but a very rare and endandered brush tailed rock wallaby. There are only 2o left. That lonely sweet girl came to snuggle with us.

I saw my first ever platypus yesterday at the sanctuary. They were incredible. Up until then I had only ever seen drawings of them. It was like seeing a unicorn..a highly hoped-to-see-almost-mythical-being. Amazing. When I figure out how to post video here, I'll show it off!

This land is incredible. The size and age of the moutian ashes are incredible. You feel as if you're in the land of dinosaurs..it feels palpably ancient.
damn these infernal modern technologies! I just lost everything else I wrote..UGH!

Anyway, Saturday, I'll be taking a steam-engine train through the mountains..so stay tuned:)

And it's that beautiful!

Animals are funny aren't they? They are 100% heart-based. My kitty is apparently not eatingt at all..yet. And I've been gone now 5 days. However, when she heard my voice the other day on the phone , it waa all purrs!

This is an incredible land. The trees are enough manna for my soul to suffice without even having seen a koala yet..though I have so far seen a bandicoot...a small, furry, chubby endangered marsupial.

The idea that each and every bird I see I have never seen before and thetefore have no way of identifying os incredible to me.

Have a look at the sign in a national park, where I did indeed see the elusive bandicoot, as mentioned. And the second photo is of a giantmountain ash, aka a eucalypt , in an incredible forest. The tress are just amazing and sacred!

"... In the merry merry land of Oz."

Can you guess where that quote is from? It just happens to be one of my favorite films.

Well, dear readers, I am heading off today for the lovely land down under...in theory it's supposed to be for some respite, a break, regrouping and all that jazz, but geez, just the full on stress of packing will be enough to need a vacation from this vacation

Fear not, the kittens and my kitty will all be loved while I'm gone.

I have 2 days of travel to look ? forward to, good times.

So, I will probably be more sporatic than usual with getting to blog, but hopefully not too much.

My cat is a little distressed slashed upset, ok and let's be honest, sad that I'm heading off, she even stayed out for a few hours last night, just to spite me, and not snuggle on my bed. Eventually she came in and snuggle she did.

Here are 2 photos of her with me..she's adorable!








It's a lovely spring day, with prominent floral notes (like wine!)...ah I'll miss the lilacs, they're about to come out..but I have already seen the tulips, hyacinths, forsythias, bleeding hearts, violets, and though not a flower ...chubby robins!

May Day!!

I'm listening to flourishing piano and watching blossoms on the trees sway, almost in time.
I have kittens to attend to...

Happy May Day, by the way!

In other news, what gives with this crazy 'swine flu'? You think it'll turn people vegetarian? Or at least pork-free, and loving it. I say, save our pigs, not because, as religious patriarchal idiots believe, pigs are 'dirty', but because genetically they are so similar to us, that eating pig can be seen as eating a cousin; I'm not sure if that's first or second cousin, but all the same.


And anyway, what the hell makes a pig any more dirty than say, oh, I don't know..us? Geesus, we are grotesque, pigs are elegant. That stupid religious concept of 'dirty' stems from the fact that no one wanted to eat roting meat, or something pretty standard, but I still don't see why the pig gets insulted in the mix. Though, in truth I shouldn't complain too much, or even at all, because as long as the religious types see pig as 'dirty' it means the pig has that many fewer enemies to contend with, and that means more life for pigs!

L'chaim!

Signs of Spring

Ok...the kittens in the garage are also adorable. And smart as kitten-sized whips. I put a box for them to snuggle in, and they do and they are also using the litter box I just added.

I'm watching the sun set behind me...it was raining all day, but the sun came out and was just beautiful, cold, but beautiful.


Decisions are damned difficult, maybe this would explain why I seem to be having problems spelling this word..or so says the spell check. And this blog feels fit for the compost.

But on the brighter side..I have made some break- throughs with the kittens! I spoke with someone fromThe Humane Society who said I need to try and socialize them, and voila, I got to actually pick one little monkey up today. S/he was eating and the others had scampered away and this little one was so engrossed in the eating, that s/he didn't run away, and so I gently picked her/him up and held ( I'll just say her from here on in, ) her and petted her, and then she realized. " Hey, I'm not on the ground eating!", and just like that she leaped out of my arms and back to the waiting food.


And since that initial snuggle I've given a pet to someone else, and they all don't seem as timid anymore. Skinner I am not. But socialized they are a gettin'! Apart from them, I am also looking after their mom, and the other homeless kitty, C.P, plus my own kitty..that's 7. It's a lot, but I feel blessed that they have chosen our garage to live in!

I also saw a baby raccoon on my porch the other night.

Dreaded Misfits

"Me and you, your momma and your cousin too
Rollin down the strip on vogues
Comin up slammin Cadillac doz"

Awah!

Patriarchal words and expressions to reclaim
Below this first list you'll find all the corresponding reclaimed words

1. Seminal
2. Penal
3. Mankind, Man made
4. the verb "To Man"example: "someone to man the door"
5. Erect, Erected
6. Gay
7. Spunk or Spunky
8. Husbandry--meaning farming ,economy
9. Genocide-w/ reference to the females or witches (let's reclaim this one too, shall we?) who were killed in the Spanish Inquisition
10. Manhole Cover
11. Penmanship
12. Sportsmanship
13. Workmanship
14. Walkman/Disc man
15. Manager
    

The Reclaimed!!!!

1. Vulvic, Ovic, Oveal or Ovarian
2. Vagic, Ovaric,Vaginal
3. Womankind, Womanmade
4. To look the fuck after, to watch, To oversee, To guard
   
5. Raised , Built
6. Queer, Sexy Mutherfucker
7. Passion(ate),Tenacity
8. The art of Farming, Farm labouring
9. Gynocide
10. Utility hole cover
11. Writing
12. Athletic/ A good Athlete
13. Work ethic
14. Portable cassette/CD player
15. Supervisor
    

And now, a wee excerpt from a zine I used to write...

"I'd like a nice , Jewish( which is an adjective) girl, w. dreads, who
loves cooking and cats ...kissing and the rain...mmmm, sounds dreamy,

I think people have a genuine allergy, its a medical condition really. It's called emailum phobilaius, honest ingin it's a real and true condition. It dates back to the time of the pen; that awkward utensil used for both stabbing a random opponent in their ocular cavity or for writing handy things down like cute girls #s, thoughts, film reviews, whatever...

Well, at first this new, fandangled instrument of both destruction and joy was praised and loved...but then...as time grew on, people started getting ill, a girl would see a hot girl in the street, and instead of getting her number---they'd talk!!! right there in the open public!!!
the horra! People would go to see plays and other cultural
things...and instead of writing their requisite review in the local cultural rag... they would sit for extended periods in mead halls and coffee shops and discuss these plays, films, what have you, together! People were becoming ill, the disease was taking over...the deadly hand cramp was causing people to become extroverts!!!

Social interaction was becoming the norm.!!(insert mad gasp here!) Needless, to say, when the Internet was invented and we were given the fine
technology of email, people thought "Oh look, a better and ?? faster way to communicate my thoughts, hopes, dreams, wishes and desires; better than the lowly pen." Well, this is not an entirely accurate portrayal of people...becuz actually no one could remember the name
for the pen...all they remembered were the stories their grandparents
had imprinted on them about the deadly and lethal "handius
crampius". And thus, after a short time people began to first, lose interest in the new technology...emails would go unanswered for days then weeks, and then finally people started catching "the disease" --emailum phobilaius --the common thought was "why email when I can
talk.".. plus , people, started saying, "it isn't that speedy,there are glitches in this so-called new technology...we're tied of it, we want to start a revolution!!"
And so the brilliant sheep herd all thought they were so cool coming
up with their very revolutionary anarchist mores, cuz none of them had
evidently heard of their far more intelligent precursors...
The Luddites!( sheesh!)

I bring you this little cautionary tale, kind readers, as a reminder:
we are given the gift of technology to use as a means of communication,
if we don't use what we have , we lose not just the forms (the net,the
pen, zines!!!) but we soon forget their basic function, (to link
people together) and the deep, pensive , inward thinkers of the world,
will be forced to make polite conversation at parties, smoke cheap
cigars, and only hope that their cute dreaded misfit still values the
importance of community built through the written word!"



"As Gregor Samsa woke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found
himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect" Franz Kafka


A tree in Ireland near the Hill of Tara