central

....painted ship upon a painted ocean....

  The Ancient Mariner was a school set text  what seems like about a hundred years ago.

  The spectre is covid. We are incredibily fortunate that covid is 'at bay'.

summer evening

sunset

After a day of maximum heat a pretty sunset was some consolation.

A town in a rare time warp.  The shops are not modernised. All is congruent. And one of the smallest buildings you would ever find.

Why can't a U S politican ever wear spectacles?  The absence takes them down in my estimation.

challenge

Don the con.  All the way with LBJ. Fans of the USA.  Any volunteers ready to flock to its defence?  Defend the Manipulator-dictator or defend the elected government? Will any mercenaries step up? Now's the time, take the chance - follow whichever hero.  Is it worth the effort? 

Imagine our days without USA no celebs, FB, Twitter, Google, glorious hair locks, violent media, senseless media (and I ought to know), unhealth, formal short shorts, hubris, guns.....what have we got to lose? 

 

apocalyptic

Strangly, I read 'apocalyptic' isn't weird, it means to unveil. Has  evidence based processes on virus prevention been unveiled or do we have a big individual fuss by each state? There is more than one way to skin a cat. Could be a good thing. Will the individual hoo-ha continue full-on for the next year and as long as it takes and change to state  borders every few days.

Social distance, hand washing and masks are our defence against every type of virus.

Riots

New house back to the 1950s..

If todays insurrection had been about action for climate change or racial justice it would have been a different matter. Its not the end of democracy.

That votes were cast this week still in support of Trump/republicans defies the imagination. Made no difference that a sociopath was behind the circus, it still worked with some.

From point a to b

Where was everybody?  The latest tunnel in Sydney was rejected and  was an unbelievable 'run' compared to Pennant Hills Road.  The M1 to Newcastle has the upgraded sections completed.  No stopping us now.

 Ease of motoring costs you when certain toll roads are too good to miss specially at start and finish of a thousand kilometre road trip.

Covid

Waltzing Matilda fantasie impromptu provoked by state imposed self isolation. Instead of winging about the border closure I held my tongue but Leonie Wood in the SMH says it all about the nonsense instant decision by the Victorian leaders to adjust border regulations.

 Most of the traffic on the Newell Highway was of Victorians returning south, a long journey to a terrible traffic jam on the border where the check up was very slack and with more sensible management by the team could have cleared the hold up in half the time so that stressed motorists would not jepodise their safe return.

State borders are unnecessary.  Closure is unnecesasry.   

 

Coda to the slow movements of a covid day sonata

covid que

a long que to enter the state of Victoria due to covid regs, this was fast compared to some and took two hours and 30 minutes to 'cross over' there was time to spot a koala, go walking and see the large river gum trees.

 Government ministers hold long press conferences every day when under twenty cases of covid infection are recorded each day.  Contrast this with the thousands upon thousands overseas.   

It is entirely up to us to prevent the spread.  Sadly the theatre in the image should be closed, maybe it is, crowds should not form at all. No long term gain without a big effort. Look at the western world alone to see what can happen.  Are they in denial?  Too little too late.  Take heed!

 

 

 

ABC fm radio classics play Max Bruch's violin concerto every so often. It is always a winner.  Noah Bendix Balgley is terrific.   Interpretations become steadier, deliberate no less brillant, possibly as it should be. 

However, other faster versions remain with you, it is hard to forget them.  Jascha Heifetz is heard on YouTube. I guess he was one of the outstanding violinists of the past. 

To the left watching the sunrise is a tall stark tree who, once again, is striving for photosynthesis and the will to live.

 It wants to belong to the global forest legions who take up the offensive against dreaded carbon dioxide to liberate an oxygen rich life force. 

To cling to a number one role in global climate is a mighty purpose not easily given up but easily defeated and lost by  thoughtless land clearing. 

Australiana

Sunrise, Kulin nation and Taungurung peoples, Lake Eildon. 

literary moves

As an unusual activity i read a book. burnt sugar from avni doshi.

 On one side, this work has a rather negative air or does it? Who can say. There are matters to identify with along with glimpses into modern Indian life where, off hand, the protagonist held some unusual understandings of her lived experience - occasionally that is.

 Yes, simple yet complex, needs more time to digest if it is worth it.

A Beginning or a Farewell? One of many in the days of our lives. Bitter sweet moments. "Multinationals" and an airport.

the face of yesteryear in Newcastle

Pandemic: So far so good. Newcastle is ok that way.  The saga of the city is alive.

Uncomfortable place between two trains. Lines converge sure enough.  We are converging from near and far into a virus free or close to free space. 

In the last four weeks pandemic infections have numbered in the high  hundreds then  down again to round one hundred in the south and between ten and twenty in NSW.

The state borders are closed resulting in great inconvenience to many people all over the country and federal government looks on helpless - after all they are redundant.  Mask wearing is adopted far and wide. Other regulations are in use. Tight suppression of virus seems within reach. 

'Communists have no class' worn by an activist i know from in the day when activism was active...   now so infra dig? Disappointing.

"Anyone who thinks that the Communist regimes...are exclusively the work of criminals is overlooking a basic truth: the criminal regimes were...by enthusiasts convinced they had discovered the only road to paradise....they defended that road so valiantly that they were forced to execute many people. Later it became clear that there was no paradise, that the enthusiasts were therefore murderers.

Then everyone took to shouting at the Communists: You're the ones responsible for our country's misfortunes....

And the accused responded: We didnt know! We were deceived! We were true believers!...we are innocent!

Did they really not know or were they merely making believe?"

Orchids.

rich, soft, sweet, chocolate 🍓

double dose of statins before and after🏥

The topping looks like s### 🤣 

Food of love? 💝

Fathers day 🥳 

Oh! Thats next week! 

This text appears as usual and published on cue even while this mob needs attention as lately it wont accept any text input or is the big-name-search-engine out to get me because in anger and haste some access has been denied by myself. Well, good, it prevents some on-line shopping and form filling-in.

  E-mail is also a casualty along with comment writing not that that is undertaken very often. Will it get sorted and soon.

spring is in the air   

looks like summer but for the cold brisk wind 

Ms Enid circa 1950s

Final year of school circa 1940

Once upon a time we had the New age, the age of Aquarius, mysticism and counter culture.  It held promise, a Belle Epoque in the making. What happened?

Media, exercise, fitness, quasi-Buddism.

In any time or place there can be brief wonderment and powerful heightened awareness as a change.

On another tack, nothing explicit is heard about ethics and being 'decent' people. It must rest on example, legislation and fines or how will community ideals continue and why ever?

Some say we have inate right and wrong that undergoes maturity. Do we all shoulder efforts to further maturity? 

In the pandemic the young are reminded to protect the most vunerable. We expect to rely on them and somehow hope they know a worthy course of action.

from 7th century and Tang dynastry

The hair style is back in again. 

Federal gov is throwing money at the mental health 'silos', terrific if it is effective. 

It means more fragmentation of health services. EXISTING STATE funded services need significantly more assistance instead of the feds dabberling and justifying a role.

Thats the way, reinvent the wheel over and over.

a truly delightful work from the Jin dynasty 1115 -1234 Shanxi Prov.  Wood, pigment. 

preschoolers art: so what? The work serves a purpose sure enough but it is really very important for developing fine motor skills as I discovered.

Learning to write and hold a pencil requires skill from a big school child but it is not unusual to find, more recently,  that they do not have this ability.  

It is suspected that children who use touch screens from a very early age fail to exercise their fingers in a useful way and fail to prepare themselves for precise tasks.

Hence, in general terms to my limited knowledge, maximum activities best involve handling sorting building threading and painting from the earliest years to build strong competent fingers when screen time is best banned altogether. 

Aged care needs to change from Federal control to become the responsibility of the states and long before the recent interest began.

It makes no sense to have certain health services in federal hands. It seriously muddles up the dual areas of care for no good reason and is to their detriment.

And believe it or not, every resident in care is under the care of a GP.  What is the wider role of the G P?  How many G Ps have we heard publicly advocate for their senior clients?

 

Ammonium nitrate is not uncommon in our  Port city. Large quantities are transported to coal mines in the valley. Relax.

Shocking but the pandemic can save our world but at exceptional cost.  Is it the price we have to pay? Lock downs and supression result in a society that will curb the issues that lead to climate change.  

Latest is that a covid vaccination may not be developed and even if there is one the inequalities and the anti-vacs mean that many would remain unsafe and a threat to the rest so the risk would be prolonged with society adjusting to a more sustainable lifestyle.

A social deep-freeze strongly backed by government is ideal.  Unwittingly climate change is addressed at long last.  Enforced sustainability will reign.

 

the joy of vegetable soup...the estatic...    simple binary form soup is very tasty but in compound time almost any ingredients may be added.  Parsnips are in, turnip, celery and celery leaves may provide enough sodium before they are retrieved or not, sprinkling of  rice, quinoa which still has to been checked each time it is reached for as to what exactly it is. 

 Oriental flavours can transcribe the soup and orchestrate it with colour and warmth you as maestro....

Old pop song..... How much is that doggie in the window? The one with the waggerly tail....

Anyway, the shop in Hunter Street Mall is very successful with retro print textiles used in handmade items. Interesting masks are stocked. The dog keeps the seamstress company. Front paw is bandaged.

During July the covid infections increased in Victoria despite the usual preventative measures in place and every effort at control. Concerns are growing. The infections have been as high as the 700s daily.