add yeast to make bread. add yeast to make wine. my brothers work in wineries, one in an aluminium factory. the wine makers…

if they had still been farmers, which is what i guess they would have been had we not had the recession we had to have – thanks Paul … they would have been growing wheat, ultimatley making bread, or growing wool, making blankets and jumpers and maybe even fancy Morrison undershirts.

In 1984 my mum and her partner went bust on their farm in the central wheatbelt district of western australia. hit with huge intersest rates on a property brought at the peak and then double triple whammied with drought year after year. we all worked the farm. we all contributed to the growing of the wheat, shiftting sheep, waiting for rain.

so we walked off the farm, a special term, we didn’t go bankrupt, we walked off. sold the piano. the furniture. the tractors and machinery. tried to sell the farm. we walked off, suticases in hand and moved to the city to find work and to make some money to buy food.

it was my first year out of school, my first year at university. i was the first in my family to go to university. my mum and i lived together with jenny the nurse, we shared house, shared the cost of goons and food, shared cooking nights and cleaning duties.

my brothers learnt to make wine.

now instead of appreciating the origins of my Tip Top loaf, my Burgen loaf, my Coles Own home brand loaf, i sip Semillon Sauvingnon Blanc crafted by my oh so clever brothers. so much better.

The ceiling fell in.

My Mum and her partner moved to a seaside town to retire! Good on them! they are the most amazingly resilient people with such a capacity to give with such generosity of spirit.

This is pictures of them moving house … so much happened here.

I brought my first born up for his first Christmas here. And my second born.

My brother and my father died while they lived here, and this is where we cocooned ourselves between funerals and wakes.

My little brother had his 21st birthday party here – a cowboy and western party. I was pregnant!

Hair the dog lived and died here. Ross the dog died after running down to the Highway while I was supposed to be looking after him. I’m sorry Ross.

Mum and Ian worked and lived and retired from here – it was the first home they owned (they bought) after having left the farm.

Its where my brother and I dreamt of a ghost in the spare bedroom – a fierce Aboriginal warrior man.

I helped Mum paint this house.

I listened to Mum’s musings about which particular shade of green she would paint the gutter.

It was my source of lemons.

My source of fresh vegetables and herbs after Mum retired and got stuck into her veggie patch.

Last night i dreamt I was lactating, i looked down and my shirt was soaked wet with milk.

I was sick last week. The only other person in my department is also sick. Now there is work piled up to buggery.

Miserable me.

This song helped me make sense of the world when my Dad died.

Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee – God and Man

(spoken) In the beginning, there was just God, So God made man in his own image… a little image that is.
Man asked God, “My God, how great art thou?” And to show man his great power, they played a game.
Sonny, I’ll play the part of the man, and you’ll play the part of God

God and man played hide-and-go-seek.
God told man, “Now man, don’t you peek.”
Man counted to ten, and then looked around,
But God was nowhere, nowhere to be found.

Man looked on the mountain. He looked across the sea.
He looked in the stars, in the skies, in the trees.
He looked in the wind, in the sun, on the ground,
But God was nowhere, nowhere to be found.

So man made an image and he gave it a name,
But this man-made god brought nothing but pain.
Man started shouting “God! Where can you be?”
“I’m right here man, inside of thee.”

Oh, man was so shocked, he was really surprised.
‘Cuz he looked everywhere, but right there inside.
Now when man found God, man found love,
And man found out what we all are made of.

God is in you and God is in me.
To love all of God is to love humanity.
God is in you and God is in me.
To love all of God is to love humanity.”

Did you see the 4 corners episode last night on the cult in New Mexico that was saying the world would end on October sometime?

The cult leader used to be called Wayne Somebody and then God told him he was the living god and should now be called Michael.  He got a gang of adventists and moved to New Mexico and started talking about the end of the world. Some of the pilgrim followers had kids, they went too. Very sad … to see those kids with so much optimism and joy about the world ending and blind faith in one kooky guy. Faith that led them to lying naked with a creepy old guy.

The people were so at peace with the idea, but so pissed off with the world too, with the cult leaders’ manipulation of their world. The cult leader slept with his son’s wife because god told him to. And the son was saying bring on the end of the world – no bloody wonder!

Weird ass stuff.

Trying to find peace in my world is more complicated, but I’d rather it were this way – I would rather make my own decisions about the world and how to live in it and with it peacefully.

I would load up photos of my ceiling disaster if I could. But I can’t – I’m being “shaped” by my ISP so it’s taking toooooo long to load photos.

pstpweerzzz gazrrrmpt

A beautiful woman wrote this poem. I found it when I moved house. Em wrote it. She is an extraordinary person. I wish I’d written back. As part of the unpacking I found a letter from her in which she’d written this poem.  Her words  helped my spirit to slip back in place.

Em – if you’re out there, I hope your spirit is soaring, that you are still enjoying grand adventures, and that you’re soul is still as generous as ever. Thank you.

Em’s poem

Your voice is like a child’s arm

Your face is lifted like a song

Your eyes iridescent moons of balm

Your spirit, wide, and deep and strong

I’ve been a bit lax on the postings … but what a lovely set of suprises to get some bling from my blogger girls!

Two sites I love so fine praise indeed!

One from Joh Blogs and one from the Lady Sultana

The first one from Lady Sultana

1) Choose 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award based on creativity, design, interesting material, and overall contribution to the blogger community, regardless of the language.
2) Post the name of the author and a link to his or her blog by so everyone can view it.
3) Each award-winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award.
4) The award-winner and the presenter should post the link of the “Arte y pico” blog (click on the image), so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5) Please post these rules.

My five blogs that this award goes to:

Craig Childs

Nigel’s blog

Joh’s Blog

Meet me at Mikes

And the kind award from the generous hearted Joh! Thanks for the spurring on!