Meeting an old friend. Part I

Four weeks ago to-day, Miss Eagle departed Upper Ferntree Gully and headed north and west taking a leisurely trip to Broken Hill, an historic mining and pastoral town in western New South Wales. As has been explained in previous posts, she was off to participate in God Outback, a desert retreat organised by her friend Ian Robinson from Perth.

Now, Miss Eagle had been corresponding - with increasing frequency - with Denis from The Nature of Robertson for many, many months. If you have been a regular reader, you will know that Denis has had quite a battle with lymphoma. It seemed to Miss Eagle, dear Reader, that, after his trials and tribulations, with stem cell transplants etc. a good holiday with a spiritual basis might be a good idea. Denis baulked at what might be involved in the spiritual side of things but your Miss Eagle assured him that there was plenty of room in the desert to go for long walks if it was all a bit much. Anyway, Denis decided to come and as the day of departure - for him this meant by train from Sydney - he was quite excited about the whole idea.

So it was that Miss Eagle turned up at the railway station at Broken Hill sometime just before 7pm on Monday 21 August to meet someone who had become an old friend sight unseen.

The train was late so Miss Eagle had to cool her heels here.

At the front of the station are these wonderful murals.

Here is the train bringing Denis arriving at 7.50pm

And so out to The Nine Mile for God Outback

The Desert blooms - 2

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The Desert blooms

This enamel bowl of fruit was on the table when we arrived.

When it came to Miss Eagle's first turn on the roster, we decided to eat in.

To make things nice and festive Miss Eagle picked wild flowers for table decoration.

She placed gum leaves around the fruit bowl.

Below, she selected a large piece of white quartz,

put it on a large glass plate,

surrounded it with gum leaves, and placed some

tea lights around it.

(She had thrown these in the car, in case....)

Below are a wild species of portulacae which grows

around the homestead at The Nine Mile and it sits

comfortably with what may be a bracken fern in a saucepan

The first day of God Outback - Part 3 - Acacia Vale

Skylights, Shearing Shed, Acacia Vale

View from the Shearing Shed, Acacia Vale

View from the Shearing Shed, Acacia Vale

Wool Press, Shearing Shed, Acacia Vale

Tank (this is what dams are called in The Western Division)

The first day of God Outback - Part 2 - Acacia Vale

Tank Stand, Shearing Shed, Acacia Vale

The Nine Mile

Pens, Shearing Shed, Acacia Vale

Remains of rock garden, Acacia Vale

Sorting/Classing Table, Shearing Shed, Acacia Vale

Interior, Shearing Shed, Acacia Vale

The first day of God Outback - Part 1 - Acacia Vale

Where does one start?

Miss Eagle drove to Broken Hill via Bendigo, Swan Hill, Mildura and Wentworth.

Photographs all the way. The photos en route will come later.

The photos taken at Acacia Vale, a part of The Nine Mile will begin.

Pages, photographs out of history.

Diny at the water trough at Acacia Vale,

The Nine Mile

Shearing stands, Acacia Vale, The Nine Mile

Interior, Shearing Shed, Acacia Vale, The Nine Mile

Shearing Stands, Acacia Vale, The Nine Mile

Wool pack stencils, Acacia Vale, The Nine Mile

Miss Eagle is back

Homestead at The Nine Mile, Broken Hill

Miss Eagle is back - but busy. But to get back into blogging, this is a quick post. The destination was The Nine Mile. The Nine Mile is a sheep station - sheep ranch to those in the USA - just out of Broken Hill and right next door to The Living Desert. It is the property of Greg and Mia. The trip was organized by Spirit Journeys Australia and our leaders were Ian Robinson and Ross Neville.

Below is The Shearers' Quarters where we stayed - a group of nine of us - and looked after ourselves. More later.................

The Shearers' Quarters at The Nine Mile, Broken Hill

Trippin' on out

Miss Eagle is signing off for a few weeks. She departs at the weekend for The Nine Mile where Mad Max and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert were filmed. For more details of Miss Eagle's destination see here. The focus at this time is not on blogging but on preparations. Miss Eagle is getting the desk cleared at work; getting the Mitsubishi in order (it has new tyres, it has been detailed, and to-day the mechanic comes); and organising the gear.

And, dear Reader, your correspondent does not travel light. She has tried it and it doesn't work. She wishes she could say differently. So the spare bed has two small suitcases on it (one for undies - it already has the thermal underwear in it, one for the rest); an old Persil box full of writing materials - journals, coloured pencils and markers and calligraphy stuff; and camping and camera gear and a stack of CDs. To this will be added a box of books but a lot of those are still in her bedroom on the bedside table. Miss Eagle will be camping in her Mitsubishi wagon.

After The Nine Mile, it is over to Robertson to check out all that stuff that Denis and Anni blog about. Then down the south coast of New South Wales and across Gippsland to Upper Gully. So a few ks will get notched up as well as lots of good times.

So, blogging friends, see you in a while.

Thank heaven for little girls!

Lazy Cow has the most beautiful celebration of The Girl's sixth birthday. It led Miss Eagle to recall something she wrote back in January 1970 about Herself who was then six weeks short of her sixth birthday. So she has dusted it off and, 36 and a half years later on that electronic whiz-bang thing called a blog, here it is.

~~~~~~~

VACATION IN RETROSPECT

Tomorrow, school will resume. Girlish hands will be pulled and pushed into gloves and unruly locks covered with the regulation hat. Feet that have run free for most of the summer will be reluctantly shod in brown lace-ups.

As I look back over the past summer, I wonder what will happen to the companions of vacation time.

It all started with the "fair damsel in distress". A passion for pretty ladies found an outlet in an old green skirt (garb for many a tropical fishing expedition) and the torn-off bottom of a large paper grocery sack to which was attached an old very worn lace curtain. All this added up to one lady, mediaeval.

Through this love of pretty things, we discovered two of the greatest artists of all time - Goya and Michaelangelo. Goya's paintings of beautiful women ran a little ahead of Michaelangelo's wonderful "David".

Now, a school opening looms closer, culture and prettiness have given way to an adapted version of an ancient pastime.

Matt Dillon strides around the homestead with his Marshal's badge made from an out-of-date Chronicle; an old, upturned straw hat to shade his eyes; and a popgun and cap gun slung in an old port strap around the hips. We are asked to "holler" for a Marshal.

Tomorrow can't come quickly enough, and being in Grade 1 is a grand thing. New events will take precedence, and I wonder what will remain.

I hope that the colour and wonder of beautiful things will not fade, but I pray that Matt Dillon will, as all good cowboys do, walk off into the sunset.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Miss Eagle reports that the colour and wonder of beautiful things has never faded. Herself is a collector and a decorator and a stylist. A beautiful shop has come - and has just gone - but it is clear beauty will never fade from her life as she styles a corner here and a laundry there. Matt Dillon remains somewhere off in the sunset.

A garden meme

It's not fair, I tell you. That Denis! Wait 'til I see him! I'll hit him over the head with something round and heavy that has a handle! You see, dear Reader, Anni tagged each of us with a literary meme. Your correspondent did her bit and completed her meme and tagged some others. But what did that Denis do? He piked and changed the rools with Anni's permission. He says that he doesn't read ordinary books any more. He says

"In the past I have been a very enthusiastic reader. In recent years, I have found myself reading plant books - reference books about native plants, Orchids, Peonies. I love these books. In the past I have been a very enthusiastic reader. In recent years, I have found myself reading plant books - reference books about native plants, Orchids, Peonies. I love these books."

So Denis has transposed the literary meme to be a meme about plants. Now, as far as Miss Eagle is concerned that's OK and his plant meme is wonderful. Trouble is he tagged your correspondent. Now she gets to do two memes to his one. And Miss Eagle knows stuff all about plants compared with Denis who calls things by their proper names as well as their nicknames and seems to be on really intimate terms with them.

Anyways, Miss Eagle will NOT be known as a piker. She will struggle on and see what comes out the other end of the sausage machine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. One plant that changed your life.

Miss Eagle can't think of a plant that changed her life but here she wants to talk about two plants that live in her memory. When Miss Eagle was but a slip of an eaglet, her school used to have an annual ball in which we little ones turned up in long dresses and suits. Miss Eagle's mother always made her a beautiful coronet of flowers. These were made from crucifix orchids and sacred bamboo which just grew wild in our garden. We didn't yet have a refrigerator so once made the coronet was put on the block of ice in the ice-box to stay fresh.

2. One plant you've planted more than once.

Miss Eagle loves her herbs. It is hard to choose between them but for this exercise she has chosen Italian parsley and has a picture of it growing in her own garden.

3. One plant you'd want on a desert island.

This is a no-brainer. Miss Eaglet would want the Tropical Lima Bean otherwise known as the Madagascar Bean. Miss Eagle, when she was living in the desert in Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, came across the description of the Tropical Lima Bean in the Permaculture Journal. It was described as capable of being grown to make a green wall - just what Miss Eagle wanted for her back fence. She asked everywhere - no one knew of it. Miss Eagle has only just discovered its proper name. In desperation she wrote to the people who had written about. They were in WA and back came a packet full of beans. They are wonderful. They are productive. Miss Eagle had a teeny weeny garden in TC but what she grew made her rather sustainable if not 100% so. The garden grew rocket and silver beet. A wonderful basis for salads. Tomatoes and basil - those wonderful companion plants. And the tropical lima bean. The bean cooks wonderfully and becomes beautifully tasty and tender. It is wonderful in a salsa accompanied with pasta. It is ideal in bean burgers. Just keep on picking and it keeps on producing and it does become a very high green wall if you train it on a trellis.

4. One plant that made you giddy?

Miss Eagle thinks the plants that make her giddy are the breathtakingly beautiful ones. She recalls a rose from over forty years ago. It was so red it was nearly black and it was like velvet. And the scent. Miss Eagle longs for a rose like that.

But there are other beautiful flowers. Here is a picture of one, a camellia, from her own garden.

5. One plant that wracked you with sobs.

The ones that wrack me with sobs are the ones that are needlessly destroyed. Miss Eagle recalls the declaration of the World Heritage listed rainforest in North Queensland. It included the Daintree. This area received all the publicity during the campaign to save the rainforest. But the rainforest covered by the listing began just up the road from Miss Eagle's home at Bluewater, half an hour north of Townsville. The National Party was still in power and it, along with its cohorts, fought tooth and nail against the listing. Miss Eagle remembers travelling along a road she wasn't supposed to be on behind the Wallamin Falls near Ingham and seeing absolute destruction - the width of a four lane highway through the forest. No coverage for this. This was out of site and out of mind. When will we ever learn!

6. One plant that you wish had been grown.

Miss Eagle can't answer this. There are so many. The wishlist is best summed up in the Garden Plans ofEdna Walling. Edna's garden, her choices of plants, her designs are the stuff of dreams and wishes.

7. One plant you wish had never been grown.

For a Queenslander like Miss Eagle, this is a no-brainer. It is of course the Prickly Pear.

8. One plant you are currently growing.

Currently this Azalea is in full and glorious bloom. It is a gay plant in the best sense of the word. It reminds Miss Eagle of a wonderful dancing lady in a gay yellow ball gown. It is a joy in this season of Risorgimento.

9. One plant you've been meaning to grow.

Miss Eagle realises her limitations as a gardener and her ignorance as a plantswoman. So she is not meaning to grow anything. It is all she can do to maintain what is there now and replace those that are annuals or of limited life span.

10. Now tag five bloggers.

Alice at A Growing Delight

Tanya at The Purple Giraffe

Mary at Devonhouse Recollections

Jane at yarnstorm

Kali at Enjoying the Journey

A literary meme - Part 2

This follows on from the previous post.

6. One book that wracked you with sobs?

Miss Eagle doesn't think she was wracked with sobs when she read this book - and she can't remember the last time this happened - but the tears flowed. The book in question is Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer. What a beautiful book! How Miss Eagle would love to be able to write a book such as this. Miss Eagle is a great fan of Kingsolver. I only have three of her novels under my belt (the other's are the Poisonwood Bible and The Bean Trees) but Miss Eagle's project is to read all of them.

7. One book you wish had never been written

If anyone is writing another conspiracy theory/mystery thriller which includes gnosticism and the marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, could you please desist. Put down that pen! Delete that stuff from your computer! The world does not need one more piece of this drivel!

Back in the 80s, Miss Eagle read Holy Blood, Holy Grail which talked about the marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Interesting ideas but nothing to write home about. Then in the 1990s, Miss Eagle came across Foucauld's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. This tour de force by one of the world's great public intellectuals covers everything - every mysterious organisation ever thought about by a conspiracy theorist. A sort of history of everything laid out in 600 pages with a satirical edge. Coming from the intellect of Eco, it is sometimes difficult and is nothing if not comprehensive. After that, Miss Eagle decided, why would one waste time reading The Da Vinci Code.

8. One book you're currently reading

Miss Eagle is currently immersed in Karen Armstrong's latest, The Great Transformation: the world in the time of Buddha, Socrates, Confucius and Jeremiah. This is going to be another tour de force from a great public intellectual. And, while on the subject of public intellectuals, can we name Karen Armstrong - who describes herself as a freelance monotheist - the most intelligent woman in the universe? Now this topic takes a huge sweep through time and across cultures, regions, and religions. Miss Eagle will suspend judgment on whether this Axial Age concept is worthwhile or merely another bundling book of life, the universe, and everything. Miss Eagle got in early with her copy on backorder from Readings based on a review in The Age. You see, dear Reader, the eight century BCE holds a great fascination for your correspondent because of the eighth century prophets of the Judaeo-Christian tradition. This was a period of strong voices, often from simple backgrounds, speaking out on ethics, justice, and humanity's relationship with its Creator - and the consequences should we contravene these natural laws. So if this was the situation in the middle-east of that period, then Miss Eagle was eager to participate in Armstrong's exploration into this period in other spaces and places.

Miss Eagle thinks that the purpose in Armstrong's epic is to help us to understand one another better at the deepest levels of the human spirit - something she lives out in her own life. This understanding is something that humanity is in sore need of at this point in history. Let's take up the challenge and join her on the adventure into these little known realms.

9. One book you've been meaning to read.

Miss Eagle keeps a list of books she means to read in a Task on Microsoft Outlook. Now, this doesn't mean she gets to actually read these books but as interesting ones come to her attention listing them means they are not forgotten. One from this list is Traumascapes by Maria Tumarkin. Traumascapes is a book about place - places scarred by tragedy. Miss Eagle, dear Reader, is a great believer in the spirit of place and so the theme of this book is appealing. But let Miss Eagle tell you one story that almost certainly has not made it into this book. A friend of Miss Eagle's from her Mount Isa days is a keen historian. In her research, she visited Linda Downs. Linda Downs had been the site of a battle between Aboriginal people and police. Seven police died. The police then decided to take their revenge and killed ten Aborigines for every police killed. 70 people. My friend tells me that, in accord with Aboriginal spirituality which says the spirit of a dead person returns to a tree, there are 70 trees at this site. All are dead and the atmosphere is one of ethereal silence. A sacred place of great trauma, indeed.

10. Now tag five bloggers

Aah, who gets tagged now?

Suse at Pea Soup, Lazy Cow,

Pete over at Crooked Paws Retreat, Clarice at Storybook Woods,

and Barb at Woofnanny.

A literary meme - Part 1

Big Tree, Gardiner's Creek - Louis Buvelot

Collection of the City of Whitehorse, Melbourne

Anni Heino has tagged Denis and Miss Eagle with a book meme. So here is Miss Eagle's literary effort, Anni.

1. One book that changed your life

Miss Eagle's earliest memories of reading are the volumes of Australian poetry on her grandparent's bookshelves at Wilston in Brisbane. Here began her love of the Nationalists - those new generations of Australian poets whose stories of the social life and character of a newly discovered continent became woven into our lives; those poets who were published in the Pink Pages of The Bulletin.

Nana O'Carroll's particular favourite was Fair Girls and Grey Horses by Will Ogilvie. Needless to say, Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson were there. But Miss Eagle's earliest very own copy was a volume titled The Australasian Book of Verse for Boys and Girls. This book was on her bookshelf for decades until it literally fell to pieces. All the greats were represented along with people who talked about "out where the crow flies backwards and the pelican builds its nest". In adulthood, this love of Australian poetry became a love of the bush and transferred itself to art in the form of the works of Louis Buvelot and the Heidelberg School and the novels of the period of which the foremost is Such is Life.

And then, of course, there is no substitute for seeing Australia for oneself which Miss Eagle has been doing consistently for three decades and will continue to do. Next weekend, Miss Eagle traverses central and north-western Victoria en route to Broken Hill and then across to Robertson in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales up behind the Illawarra where she may, at last, get to meet Anni.

2. One book you have read more than once.

For this, Miss Eagle has singled out a little known 20th century spritual classic, A Testament of Devotion by Thomas R. Kelly. Miss Eagle tries not to be without a copy of this little masterpiece but has given away numerous copies. Last year though, on Ebay, she obtained from the USA a first edition complete with dustjacket. What joy!

3. One book you'd want on a desert island.

At the age of 17, Miss Eagle fell hopelessly in love with Boris Pasternak after reading Dr Zhivago. Since then, she is never without a copy on the shelf. Pasternak's masterpiece gives the appearance of prose but it is, quite simply, poetry paraded as prose. And if you loved the movie, Miss Eagle wishes it to be known that the movie is only a very small portion of the book. But the main reason Miss Eagle keeps a copy on the bookshelf is not the novel itself but the collection of Dr Zhivago's poetry which comes at the conclusion of the novel. Aaah, the romance, the religion and the tragedy of Russia!

4. One book that made you giddy?

The award for this goes to The Outcasts of Foolgarah by Frank Hardy. Outcasts is a political satire published in 1971. The book is dated now because the politicians it lampoons are virtually unknown even to people of middle years these days. The Outcasts were the dunny men. The thesis of the novel is that the only ones with true freedom are those who are very wealthy who can own or flout the system or the very poor who are outside the system. The dunny men were too poor to have mortgages from the bank over their homes. They built their homes out of materials salvaged from the dump. They owned their own homes and so had a wonderful freedom. Miss Eagle had led a sheltered Catholic girl hood in a respectable family. Frank Hardy gave Miss Eagle an education in amongst the hilarity of The Outcasts.

5. One book that you wish had been written

Miss Eagle has a dear friend, Jenny. We live far apart these days and our friendship is the occasional email letter interspersed with funny emails. Jenny is older than Miss Eagle and a former animal control officer and pound keeper. She is or was a world expert in her field and what Jenny does not know about animals and their owners is not worth knowing. Jenny is of British origins and grew up in Kashmir where her father was stationed with the British Army. Jenny had a privileged lifestyle. She came to Australia, completely helpless but ready for adventure, when she was 18. She knew precious little so when she wanted to learn something she asked someone to take her on and teach her. This was how she came to be a panel beater at one point in her life. Jenny's adventures were many and through them all she became a woman of great wisdom and great humour. Miss Eagle used to say to her that she had to write her story and, if she didn't, Miss Eagle would follow her around with a tape recorder. This has never happened and Jenny emailed Miss Eagle a couple of weeks ago to say she has lung cancer. She has returned from treatment to palliative care. Now Jenny is at an age where news of life coming to an end is not a surprise. But I don't think this what she or her friends would have chosen for her. So, it looks like Jenny's story will not reach a wider public. But there are those of us who love her very much and there will always be a very warm space in our hearts which is especially hers.

Miss Eagle will take a pause.

The second five questions of the meme will be in the next post.

An adventure on the journey of life.

Miss Eagle's good friend, Jim Phillips of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, was diagnosed yesterday with bowel cancer. Miss Eagle asks for prayers for Jim - particularly as his work, business, and family life have to be sorted out to enable him to seek treatment interstate.

In the Territory there is a saying: Get a pain, catch a plane. So next Thursday Jim is on a plane to Brisbane.

Tennant Creek (pop. 4,000) and Alice Springs (pop. 25,000 and five hours away) is not the place to deal with something as serious as this. Jim's dearly beloved, Sylvia, keeps the admin part of the business going. An excellent supervisor keeps the real work going. We need prayer so that Sylvia can be relieved of her admin duties - which are vital to the sustainability of the business - to be with Jim in Brisbane.

Jim and Sylvia walk and work closely with God day by day in every way.

Please be with them as they journey with Him on this adventure too.

Nature v Nurture? Or kids being their own individual selves?

In response to my previous post, Denis talked about the nature v nurture situation in his experience in daughter-raising. Miss Eagle's own experience was her determination to steer her two sons away from a military mindset. Miss Eagle's sons did not join the Boy Scouts because of the Scouts' tendency to get involved with the army. Sons joined the Boys' Brigade instead. No guns were allowed in the house. Gun shaped water pistols were barely tolerated. But then what happened?

No. 2 Son while still in his high chair would chew his crusts of bread into a gun shape. When he was barely big enough to hold a hammer, he would get two scraps of wood and a nail and attempt to hammer them into a gun. But No. 2 Son is a pacifist. He grew up to be a very quiet and peaceful man interested in poetry and the environment. So nature v nurture. Horsefeathers! The cards go up in the air, in Miss Eagle's view, and land where they may. What are your experiences of nature v nurture?

Vive la difference!

"Women have an eight-lane superhighway for processing emotion, while men have a small country road," Louann Brizendine writes. Men, however, "have O'Hare Airport as a hub for processing thoughts about sex, where women have the airfield nearby that lands small and private planes."

This is from a book just out in the USA called The Female Brain. Louann Brizendine says - with the back up of her scientific research - what Miss Eagle has long believed. Neither the male nor the female brain are superior to the other, just different. But how different! And how does society recognize this and take the facts into account. Read about it here.

We are clever girls - and don't you forget it. A man's brain may be bigger overall, says Brizendine, but the main hub for emotion and memory formation is larger in a woman's brain, as is the wiring for language and "observing emotion in others."

Miss Eagle loved this bit:
Connecting through talking activates the pleasure centers in a girl's brain. We're not talking about a small amount of pleasure. This is huge. It's a major dopamine and oxytocin rush, which is the biggest, fattest neurological reward you can get outside of an orgasm.

Miss Eagle knows this feeling. Talking and talking and more talking was one of the reasons why Miss Eagle took to her late great Dearly Beloved. Not to mention that friends of Miss Eagle and her sister, The Director, have been known to comment that they would talk underwater! Now here's why. Clearly, we get off on it in a big way!

And there is a warning about hugs:

Research shows that the female brain naturally releases oxytocin after a 20-second hug. The embrace bonds the huggers and triggers the brain's trust circuits. So Brizendine advises, don't let a guy hug you unless you plan to trust him.

Gainfully - and permanently - employed!

Since late May, Miss Eagle has been temping in a certain public institution in the eastern suburbs. After approx. two months in the position, it was advertised. Your Miss Eagle, dear Reader, applied for the position and has been appointed. On Monday next, she becomes a permanent employee (albeit on six months probation!).

Now Miss Eagle is pretty chuffed about this! Miss Eagle is no spring chicken. She does not look good in a mini-skirt and is well and truly over wearing long spikey heels and pointy toes. And, as a friend of Miss Eagle's once said, the competition tends to get younger, better looking, and better qualified. But here she is. Permanent employment is at hand! What with one thing and another - mostly ill health - Miss Eagle has not been an employee for four and a half years. So when all this is considered, the whole deal seems rather miraculous to your correspondent.

But Miss Eagle knows what human nature is like - particularly her own quirky brand of it. She keeps telling herself that in six months time, when the job may then seem mundane and repetitive, she must remember how she feels right now!

Happy Birthday to horses everywhere

To-day, August 1, is the birthday of the horse. So Miss Eagle takes the opportunity of wishing horses everywhere a Happy Birthday and hopes the next year brings lots of green grass, considerate owners, and a fruitful time of breeding, and winning.

Here are some famous Australian horses, including a reference to Miss Eagle's childhood favourite, Radish.

Bernborough

CarbineWinner
Gunsynd

Kingston Town
Might and Power

Phar Lap
Tulloch

Soap and fire : froth and bubble?

Recently, the back of the Nunawading Public Library underwent a metamorphosis. It became the Erinsborough Hospital. Neighbours had turned up. Stickers went on to doors and the roof of the library was alight with TV trickery. Miss Eagle was there to give you a behind the scenes look.

Any further bids on Risorgimento?

Denis Wilson from The Nature of Robertson posted a comment to my previous post. Denis, as will be seen from his blog, is a naturalist, birdwatcher, and photographer. So no one misses his beautiful thoughts on the seasons, Miss Eagle is copying them here:

As soon as the Winter Solstice passes, and days start to get longer, many things start to grow, (or bud, or flower). It is a huge seasonal divide, which is not noticeable to Eurocentric, and insulated, urbanites. I think country people (and gardeners) might be more in touch with this than true city folk.But the plants and animals know all about it (it is breeding season for Wombats).

Presumably the Aboriginals would have been in tune with this seasonal sense of anticipation (I believe there are many different names for "seasons" in the NT, for example. But I don't know about this in the southern states.I cannot come up with an "appropriate" name, just now. But something like the "return". What about the Italian historical term: "risorgimento" (resurgence) - it sounds better in Italian. It actually encompasses the sense of recovery, and the sense of passion and urgency which turns into the frenetic burst of growth with which we are familiar in Spring.The more I think about that name, the more I like it - "risorgimento".

Australian Spring

To read "Australian Spring" click on the picture for an enlarged version.

You should then see an enlarged version with on it a little square with arrows.

Click this little square and you will find the picture is now readable.

It is only July, but - after some clear Melbourne weather this week and seeing wattles and jonquils and fruit trees in blossom - Miss Eagle feels as though Spring is in the air. We Eurocentric people of the Southern Hemisphere still rely on the distinction of the Northern Hemisphere seasons turned upside down. So officially, Spring does not arrive here until September 1. Miss Eagle believes that we should pay more attention to our own environment not just in the Southern Hemisphere or in our own nation but in our own locality.

Miss Eagle thinks that if we were sufficiently in tune with our environment there would be a name for what is happening now. And for lots of other seasonal changes as well, seasonal changes that may not happen for a period of three months but may only last for three weeks or six weeks.

What would this present season be called? The Harbinger? Newness? Please let Miss Eagle know what you think.

The poem, Australian Spring, by Australia's leading suffragette and face-on-the-five-dollar note, Catherine Helen Spence, is from the State Library of South Australia and reminds us of the attitude of transplanted Europeans. Things have changed a century later - but not enough. Generally speaking, we Australians have not come to terms with our land. We have not paid sufficient attention to what it can tell us. In fact, let's ask ourselves if we are listening at all.

We are still seeing things through the eyes of elsewhere, not the eyes of the native born.

Melbourne Shopping Festival

Miss Eagle is gobsmacked. Who ever heard the like - a shopping festival!

Miss Eagle realises that there are many temples distributed around Australian cities dedicated to the gods and icons of Consumerism - but a festival! What does this mean? Does it mean that Consumerism, as a free-standing religion, will now establish its own religious calendar instead of converting the feasts of the Christian calendar for its own ends? Will the Melbourne Shopping Festival become the Hajj of Consumerism with Melbourne its Mecca? Will Melbourne business offer indulgences of huge percentages off in the same way that indulgences were sold once upon a time?

Miss Eagle thinks that one of the attractions for the powers-that-be in Melbourne is that a shopping festival could be run concurrently with at least one other major event on the Melbourne calendar. Perhaps there can even be more than one shopping festival fitted into the calendar. Shopping Festival and Grand Prix! Shopping Festival and AFL Grand Final! Shopping Festival and Melbourne Cup! You see juggling the circuses of Melbourne has become a game of increasing difficulty. This year the Grand Prix and the Commonwealth Games were jostling one another in a packed calendar.

Talk about Bread and Circuses!

Now Miss Eagle cannot say how many bakeries Melbourne has but this city - which boasts that it is the sporting capital of Australia - is well set up for circuses. There are more sporting arenas within walking distance of the CBD than in any other city in the country: the MCG, Olympic Park, Rod Laver and Vodaphone Arena, Telstra Dome, Albert Park with Flemington Racetrack being only a short cab or train ride away. And we won't go into the subject of theatres and public places and spaces like Federation Square.

One thing, though, that Miss Eagle wants to know. If there is to be a Melbourne Shopping Festival how will the Opp Shop clientele such as Miss Eagle and Gina be catered for? Or will we have to establish our own Fringe Festival?

The Man in Black for Breakfast

There is not much time for music on Radio National Breakfast on the ABC but for the last few mornings - including Geraldine Doogue's show on Saturday morning last - Fran Kelly has been playing a track from Johnny Cash's posthumous album, "American Five: a hundred highways". The tracks from this record were cut while he was ill in bed. He would sit up in bed and sing until he was to tired or exhausted and the tracks would be taken away and produced. Miss Eagle finds it difficult to listen without tears coming to her eyes. The great Man in Black in a weakened condition but still the music will out! And it has gone to Number One.