The Heel - usually best avoided but this is a good one.

We arrived as the sun was setting and the queues by Avis grew long. But the wait was fine, the car is brand new and Google Maps is the app to have, so with some trepidation and lots of excitement we set off on the right side. 

The roads mercifully empty as we adjusted to the changed traffic signals and the very abrupt lanes which lead into motorways but our trusted maps told us we were on the right track and after a small adventure in an olive grove we met Antonella, Francesco and Jianni who welcomed us not only to our home for the next week but to a plate of parmigiana, polenta and yellow pepper, and a local white. 

We looked around with cats eyes but had to reserve the best for the morning after. Waking early to the bird calls (endless fun for a certain man) to the warmth of the sun and that piercing perfection of the morning light. 

You come in through this magnificent gate. 

The houses, the farms, are all built in beautiful sandstone, some with the characteristic troulli which are so much part of the architecture of southern Italy. The stone is cool and warming at the same time and so reminiscent of the Greek world. These worlds grew side by side and there are still villages in this part of Italy which speak an ancient dialect called Grecko. 

Equally wonderful is the courtyard or garden. Hedges of rosemary and lavender that you brush past and leave a trail of wonderful scents, strawberry plants low on the ground ripening in the sun and pomegranate trees laden with flowering fecundity.  

And then the tranquil setting of the pool surrounded by the olives - and on these magnificent age old trees another blog just for them. 

A walk with a twist

Today's walk took the usual path down Ithaka Creek. Ibises scavenging, top knot pigeons cooeing and  a couple of ducks in the creek. Dougall was hell bent on having a ball. We ran down the hill to the path at such a pace, he was definitely walking me. He is my neighbour's pup, a boxer full of wonderful energy and enthusiasm. We have a great system. I borrow him when I want to take him for a walk and then give him back. Perfect.

I decided to let him off the leash and he bounded about. There was happiness in each of his jaunts, never too far, running through the long grass and the low lying branches as if playing hide and seek on his very own and delighting when he found me again.

It was an unusually quiet day and we saw no one, which was just as well, as I had him off the leash, until a couple appeared in the distance. I screwed my eyes a bit because I could see there was something on the ground and to my surprise I realised it was a cat. A cat out on a walk ?? That is unusual. So I rushed forward to put Dougall on the lead and as I approached the couple, she said "This is not my cat, but she has been following us. I was just taking my pet snake out for a walk". The snake was draped around her neck and the cat was now in her arms and she feared one might eat the other as we made our way past them with maximum enthusiasm.  

Well I did not want to risk carnage, so I hurried along with him and then looked back - was that for real? Yes it was, the snake, the cat, the tats and all of that ! 

What is the best thing about taking to the skies ?

Landing of course ! 

So that accounts for most of us out there. There is a small percentage who would still be up there...

What do you give the woman or man who has everything ?

A lot of us these days have most things, though we know many, many others who don't. A very first world problem for sure, but we are only here once, so I guess we are all looking for what may give us maximum pleasure and enjoyment in our short time on this planet. 

I got a bunch of barnacles for Xmas and how much pleasure or enjoyment I get out of those I am still weighing up. A more exciting Birthday present came from a dear friend who consulted hubby and came up with a Helicopter Ride over Brisbane. I took that as a hint that he would like to do this too, so it was a belated Birthday one for me and an advance Birthday one for him, when we took to the skies on a gorgeous autumn day. 

The helicopter could have been a toy. Raven is tiny, glassy, and my favourite colour, a dark blue. Does that count for attraction to the attraction and had it been yellow would it have been a no no ? We clambered in and put our safety belts on, " just like in a car" the pilot said, though I thought the distance you travel, fall, crash, may be vastly different. The engine was turned on and there was an undoubted tractor noise about it, chug chug chug, the rotary blades started up and behind us we could feel the engine warming up. Lets hope it doesn't get cold for it up there. We put on our head phones and talked into our mikes. A little nervously, but also hopefully. And then suddenly we were literally lifting straight off the launch pad and floating at an angle down the tarmac. An odd sensation and it almost felt like what fairies do in stories swooping in with their wands to spread their magic.Gradually we lifted to the 1000 ft that we would be cruising at and headed straight for the CBD. We looked down, where else, to see a well organised city, gridded and neat with homes and pools, roads and parks and the river snaking in and out. 

Then in we flew to the skyscrapers around the CBD and we literally circled them which was quite a thrill and admired the city as never before. Over to the western suburbs where C spotted the Medical School and our home not much further away, hovering over the Gabba Stadium and seeing how it dominated that landscape, before doing a south eastern turn to head back to the airfield. Methi, our trusted pilot brought the helicopter in to land exactly where we had taken off, a gentle setting down, unlike anything you experience on a plane, where you have the sensation of being forced back in your seat and brakes making unmistaken contact with the earth. Almost imperceptibly as if on a cushion, we were on the ground  and we waited for the rotary blades to come to a stop talking about the cityscapes and what we had enjoyed.  

Suddenly I was ravenous and wanted nothing more than a big brunch. All that nervous energy churning round inside not unlike those blades. Feeling alive and hungry.  A great Birthday pressie. 

Are you as happy as this ?

And if not why not ? 

Last night I had the opportunity to go to a concert which was unlike any other I had been to. It was a collaboration of creative minds and Buddhist sentiments and it worked beautifully. On stage was Tenzin Choegyal, Tibetan singer and musician with a number of other talented musicians, an amazing tabla player Shen Flindell, a guitarist with a lovely Italian name, a talented songwriter and singer, Marcello Milani, a violinist Richard Grantham  and a brass pot and gong player, Michael Askill.

The other guest on stage was Michael Leunig, Australia's celebrated cartoonist, http://www.leunig.com.au/about/biography with his shock of white hair and his paintbrush. The story begins some fifteen years ago when Tenzin met Leunig busking in Melbourne. They have been firm friends ever since and last night was a coming together of their friendship and creativity in aid of Tibet.

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Music and song accompanied Leunig's doodles and drawings.The Theme was "Nurturing the Earth" and it was a feast for the senses and the soul. In the course of the concert he created five canvases of his familiar and much loved happy humans who dance with light and laughter, love and lightness. His strokes were assured and his explanations humble, this is what he knows how to do, and he has been doing it for years, and people respond to them, and appreciate the sentiments expressed in each one. 

At the end of the night two of these canvases were auctioned off to support the Australian Tibet Council and the Tibetan Children's Village. I was floored by people's generosity of spirit and can tell you that one canvas fetched $7,500 and the other a whopping $9000. That is amazing for the cause. I was sitting next to a woman who was a passionate fan of Leunig and his work and bid loudly and hopefully for both. She was out bidded by a little in each auction but I am happy to say that she felt so strongly about it that she went to meet him and secured one of the canvases where the funds once more will support the cause. 

We live here with freedoms that are fundamental to our happiness and creativity so it is hugely important not only to remember those places in the world which do not  have these freedoms but to actively participate where we can to make sure each day they are one step closer to achieving them. 

St George's Day

A strange week has gone by. Alone, so enjoying the liberty that it brings, free from the need to cook, and do anything but essential housework, and going out to events with friends. But also one where emotions ran away in helter -skelter moods. Friends came to lend soothings words and balance was  restored.

The sun has come out on this Monday morning as I set off to do a normal shop, complete with trolley and hat. I am celebrating my George whose nameday it is today, and I come across this on the pavement, so striking in its colour and simplicity, symmetry and softness that I know the week is off to a splendid start. Happy Nameday my lovely G. 

Balmy Brisbane in the Autumn

So this is what inner Brissie life looks like on a balmy Sunday morning when I am heading through the bougainvillae path to the Botanical Gardens to catch Botanica - a show of Contemporary Art outside. A city beach complete with sand and pools of varying depths, open and free for all to enjoy. 

The interesting thing to note is the mother wearing shoes but all the kids are barefoot ! 

Not uncommon here but still a complete mystery to me given how health and safety conscious they are. Why would you allow your toddler to go barefoot on tarmac and paths when the outside temperature is 31C??

As I enter the Botanic Garden in the city,  I feel there is energy in each of these plants. By contrast this is one of the rare times where the art work which is supposed to be interwoven with nature has left me cold and not very impressed.Look at the colour of this ginger plant. 

Look at the symmetry of that trunk - you could not measure it more accurately.

 These things in the pond are just messy to the eye and add nothing to those lovely lily pads.

As for these two photos, I hardly need make any comment. Their intensity, their sexuality is all there for the eyes to feast on.

And then we have some interesting additions to a beautiful fig tree, one of the biggest in the park. These were called Trophy Specimen - and the blurb points to the practice of fetishing exotic species whilst suggesting the paradoxical effects of human interference in nature. These were made from recycled plastic and other waste and light up as you approached them. 

There were other art works made from recycled tents and cubes, paper flowers to fill a common and even branches of trees which were activated by your presence and waved back at you to ask the question of how humans and plants would interact. Would we understand one another and take better care of one another? Well at least this one had a message that I could relate to !

Sharing ...

On a dull and overcast day I head out to a little boy I am very fond of and whom I am helping with his numeracy and literacy skills thanks to the http://thepyjamafoundation.com. I walk along the road and think about conversations I had recently with my boys about the Third Industrial Revolution. If you want to find out more, like I did, here is a link https://impact.vice.com/en_us/article/bj5zaq/watch-vices-new-documentary-the-third-industrial-revolution-a-radical-new-sharing-economy

I didn't even know there was one but apparently it is all about sharing. The fourth revolution is on its way but I am not sure what that is about. Going to Sydney to probe them further. 

So when I see expressions of sharing in the community it makes joyful and full of optimism. A cute little home for books, children and adult books for sharing with others in the neighbourhood. Optimism makes my eyes even bigger, so that colours and shades are popping right out at me despite the weather system which is doing its darkest. 

I came home full of the joys of life and nature and here they are. 

And then the skies as if to make amends borrow the colours of the flowers and paint on a much more acceptable canvas to end the day and all is well.