Well I am a bit of a tree nerd and my latest fascination is with gymnosperms, all kinds, but trees especially. I see them as an interesting kind of ancient artefact of the Mesozoic, and the times before there were really any leafy or flowery trees. They have some funny characteristics, like their odd cones … Read more
One of my favourite times in London was circa 2000 when I lived in West Hampstead, at 13 Ravenshaw street, with Jula the bellydancer and her many cats and dogs. The window of my little first floor bedroom looked out over the garden onto a patch of wilderness and a railway line beyond, the metropolitan … Read more
The challenge for humanity in this century is to coordinate itself into a single organism. With the internet we now have the beginning of a central nervous system and are able to be conscious of the state of ourselves as a coordinated whole. We are conscious of the challenges we face more clearly than ever, … Read more
Freedom is a very basic personal instinct. I think all creatures want to be free, free from fear and desire, free from hunger and pain. The protection of key personal freedoms has been central to the rise of civilisation, and this has continued in modern societies through activities like the abolition of slavery and the … Read more
new poems.. like new leaves on trees soon to be felled. the darkness the darkness.. what is the simplest path now? the straightest path leads into emptiness .. the vast gasp of new verbiage heaping onto blogs, spilling from pages into vacant minds, pictures pouring into eyes. the heart like a tickertape machine, printing painful … Read more
There is plenty of promise held in the future’s tightly clenched fist, and I look forward to prising those surprises from its grasp as the years unfold glorious and slow. I want to explain a concept i have had lately. I would like to introduce a thing I call a “belief sphere”, which occupies the … Read more
a difficult wigwam walk down into Ettrema gorge.. the remotest place in the Budawangs perhaps.. endless scrub and scratches.. rock hopping starry nights, bottle of wine aka moorhose, wet splashy waterfall washes naked hopping into streams.. endless birdsongs hopping thru twiglets. big dark humanity just a whisper in the sky.. satellites and meteorites.. we alone … Read more
I was lucky enough to hear Bob Brown, former Senator and Leader of the Australian Greens party, speak at the ANU Crawford School yesterday evening. I always admired Bob’s lonely contributions of sanity to parliamentary debates and have always voted Green in past Australian elections. He is an interesting man with a very special story. … Read more