today

Four illustrations by Margaret Hodgson from A Field Guide to Australian Wildflowers, published in 1971. I bought this book in a second-hand bookshop. When I saw the illustrations it seemed as if something in them was answering something in myself. One of those things that's hard to explain, I guess.

Labels: field research

Toward the end of Ursula le Guin's book, The Dispossesed, the scientist Shevek speaks with the ambassador from Earth (Terra), Keng. She tells him about 'her Earth' —

My world, my Earth, is a ruin. A planet spoiled by the human species. We multiplied and gobbled and fought until there was nothing left, and then we died. We controlled neither appetite or violence; we did not adapt. We destroyed ourselves. But we destroyed the world first. There are no forests left on my Earth. The air is grey, the sky is grey, it is always hot. It is habitable, it is still habitable — but it is not a world as this is. This is a living world, a harmony. Mine is a discord. [...] We survive there [...] People are tough! There are nearly half a billion of us now. Once there were nine billion. You can see the old cities still everywhere. The bones and bricks go to dust, but the little pieces of plastic never do — they never adapt either. We failed as species, as a social species.

I found this creature sheltering from fierce south-westerly winds on the north-east side of our gate. What's amazing is that it matches so perfectly the rust and green paint on the gate, so much so that I almost walked straight past it. ... I imagine that it had been blown off-course from the Merri creek down the hill during the weekend storms. Though I have noted, with some pleasure, that despite our somewhat exposed position, damselflies and hover flies regularly visit our garden to feed on larvae of white-flies and aphids. (Perhaps, to encourage such friendly gardening assistance, it's time to incorporate somekind of water feature in the back yard?)

It is an emperor dragonfly, I'm guessing, & we were honored to have it visit.

One of the best birthday presents/occasions ever.

A bike trip to the central creek grasslands in Reservoir with my friend L. Starting in the Coburg mall with one of the best and cheapest cups of coffee around, we rode along the Merri bike trail to a protected remnant of western basalt plains grasslands. (remnant actually means part of the surviving 0.1% of native grassland habitat in Victoria, and it is literally in people's back yards...). A beautiful morning.

Highlights included:

spotting what I think was a beautiful firetail along the creek between Fawkner and Reservoir,

observing three gray kangaroos grazing on an oval in suburban Reservoir,

the Grasslands, which are small but very exciting, and finally

lunch back in Coburg, where you can find the best dish of ful medames anywhere.

Unfortunately my camera's battery was running low, but I did pick up this lovely rock on the grasslands. The new bike works beautifully.

Labels: field research, public amenities

Labels: field research, public amenities

Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed and Tove Jansson's Moominvalley in November, both of which feature characters in search of a kind of imaginary, perfected state of being that exists somewhere between the society of like-minded friends and the exquisite loneliness of an Emersonian self-reliance.

Labels: field research

...from a link on the Mammalian Diving Reflex website. Time Management for Anarchists comic by Jim Munroe