Sunday, March 25, 2012

Getting more settled

Getting more settled now. Last Sunday it was an amazingly beautiful day. The sun was out and a cool breeze was blowing - so I headed for the Point Cook Coastal Park. Found a good log to sit on took a big book to read - which I didn't because the bay was just so beautiful.  Its strange to be looking out at a bay that faces south when for 58 years the ocean has always been on my east - its rather disorientating  - I think it amuses the kids to see me confidently point in one direction and declare that its "North" when it is some other total direction. May have to get myself a compass. I am pretty good with sunrise and sunset as one would expect but when out of sight an bushed.
My spot down at the Coastal Park Point Cook

I am aware that when my ancestors came here in 1841 and 1855 (mainly) it was into Port Phillip Bay they came and what on earth took them up to the Upper Hunter area of NSW has me beat - you would think that after travelling in the hold of overcrowded ships for months on end they would have been happy to plant their feet down as soon as they could. I am assuming they might have sailed up to Sydney from here - but I know one branch found their way up gradually after spending some time in Corowa. I was thinking about this and trying to imagine their feelings - this area at least would have been closer to what they were used to looking than say Brisbane or further north or west - that's if they arrived in winter. I know my mother's father's people buried a daughter at sea on the trip and when I look at the photo of that mother 9taken in old age) I feel a connection - I used to think how brave they all must have been but am revising my concept of bravery. i think we can all be just as brave if we have no choice - and they had no choice. it was stay in Ireland and all starve or leave and at least have some hope. When faced with these choices we would either take the road of hope or just let go of life. Once the "choice" was taken then the only choices were that we forge through and do the best we can to stay sane, to stay civilised and to hold together  - or again to let go. Both choices as brave as the other. One has to hope never to be put in situations like this... but no doubt most of us will be called upon in our lives to make what appears to others as "brave" decisions. This is not to say that they weren't brave - but that we also have that ability in us if called upon.


Its getting colder much more quickly that I am used to and realise I may need some warmer footwear - as well may need to revive coats i have bough over the decades which are unworn because it was just never really cold enough to wear them even in winters on the NSW Mid North Coast.


I am getting used to not having my beautiful tank water to drink, cook and shower in. For a few months my hair went crazy and my youngest agreed with this. I looked like a wild woman from Borneo. I has to spend money and get decent hair products but realise we wouldn't need all this garbage if we used tank water to wash hair because the change was so dramatic - noticed more because my hair is long. I bought a water filter which takes out 99% of everything including fluoride which is notoriously hard to remove. you can boil away Chlorine but if you do this it actually concentrates the Fluorides. We don't even use fluoridated toothpastes - there is already too much of it in the atmosphere and it is not a nutrient - as they still use it as a rat poison - years ago it was proudly emblazoned on the packets and which i have seen - years ago fluoridated toothpaste was marked as an S4 poison in the US not any more - http://www.google.com.au/imgres?um=1&hl=en&sa=N&rlz=1C1SKPL_enAU418AU421&biw=1280&bih=647&tbm=isch&tbnid=L8_T4p9vWQ47TM:&imgrefurl=http://www.uaff.us/understanding_fluoride.htm&docid=ZF37hPI14LCMXM&imgurl=http://www.uaff.us/fluoride2.jpg&w=400&h=258&ei=IVhuT-LGBdCwiQfTppXvBQ&zoom=1
Only added this to prove the point - its up to individuals to accept or not - I choose not to. As soon as I can I will be getting a water tank - my advice to anyone who is in doubt is to just type in "Fluoride" and "side effects" and then make up your own mind as is our right in s free country. Something the health Authorities have kept from us as they only ever present the viewpoint of the Pharmaceutical and Chemical industries in this area. 


Enough about that. The last photo I sent to my Port Macquarie friends because how odd it is to take what is obviously a rural coastal scene in the foreground is contrasted by the high rise so close in the background...this is so incongruous.


I am liking living here - am finding it hard to deal with having to keep my voice down when i talk to myself because the houses are so close. I am missing the amazing sunsets that were just outside my front door and which spun gold across the paddocks from the horizon to me... a friend suggested I put  cameras on my aerial and point  them to the east and west - hook in into my Tele and there they would be sunrise and sunset- the bastard was joking! I am getting closer to getting stuff started such as picking up the Tafe course started last year (and finished) I need to refresh this and this starts in July - after a few weeks I should then be able hopefully pick up some work - am following up on improving some health issues which are long overdue.


Its so good to be closer to family and I love this. When I am close to our youngest I find myself really missing our eldest - would be wonderful to have them all close but they have both been left home now longer than they were living at home as our children. I am used to it just as my own mum had to get used to it - am lucky that I am such good friends with the girls - they are just about the sanest people I know and they keep me in line!!! (they try to)

Seaweed and seabirds
Homestead House shore and Melbourne Highrise


3 comments:

FoxyMoron said...

Well I'm typing this from the south coast and I don't want to go home tomorrow, I forgot how much I missed the ocean.
Love the photos, we are definitely coming down to Melbourne this year, hope we can meet up.
Loved the bits about your ancestors, fascinating stuff, I love it when you write posts like this.

Mom said...

How I would love to come sit with you on your log and gaze south to the sea

jacqui boyd alden said...

Its always been my dream to live by the sea as I find it very soothing. Here, in TX we are the furtherest we have ever been from the sea and I miss it. If we return to Europe when we retire, we plan to move near the coast. Gulf coast is beautiful but dangerous - too many hurricanes, so I don't think we would ever move there.
Glad to hear you are settling down well. No Grand kids in the offering yet? That would keep you occupied. Can't wait for our grand-daughter to arrive in the summer.