Now that we have had a couple of successful SPOKEN events I plan to do more of this – make videos of our spoken word writers, presenters, readers, reciters, orators and speakers.
This gallery contains 30 photos.
Originally posted on Strathbogie Ranges – Nature View:
Attending Polly McQuinn’s to monitor platypus numbers in the early hours each week is a treat. I often take the camera. I thought it would be nice to share Polly’s early morning…
Trail Checklist
Extends from Noyes Lane, Ruffy.
This track meanders down an unused road reserve through open Narrow-leaf Peppermint forest until it crosses a walking bridge and enters the Ruffy Flora Reserve. A circuit of this reserve takes you through swampy riparian woodlands dominated by ancient Mountain Swamp Gums. The path continues past a tiny population of Snow Gums, remnants of a colder climate, and skirts a chain of dark deep billabongs into bandicoot and koala territory.
Responsible Authority:
Road Reserve: Strathbogie Shire Council
Ruffy Nature Conservation Reserve: DELWP
Acceptable modes of transit:
Walk (mountain bike and horse with track improvement)
Distance & duration
3km return, 1.5hrs to the Reserve.
Additional loops could be added:
GPS coordinates & map
36°58′4″ S 145°30′56″ E
-36.967745, 145.514873
Grading (using the Parks Vic Track and Trail Grading Manual):
Grade 3. Flat, but with some uneven ground and open woodland debris underfoot. Could be rated easy with trail clearance.
Amenities:
The walk commences at the Ruffy Recreation Ground, Maygar Park.
Parking at the Ruffy Recreation Ground
Shelter and picnic facilities at the Recreation Ground
Toilets at the Ruffy Recreation Ground
Horse containment at the Recreation Ground
Hazards
Tree & branch falls, uneven surfaces, bogs, flowing water, snakes
Restrictions
Take your rubbish with you
No potable water
Trailhead sign & Informational Signs
No trailhead sign in situ (there is one in poor condition that has been removed).
Directional signs / bollards or trail markers
No directional signs on nearby roads
No trail markers along the trail, but some exist within the Reserve
Brochure
Available
Conclusion
This trail has the potential to be a key feature for visitors to Ruffy. With some basic work, it could be improved considerably. This trail is currently accessible to walkers and is in occasional use. However, until the trail has been cleared for snake sighting, recommended use is probably best confined to the cooler months. With improvement, it would be a viable all year walking, mountain bike and horse trail.
Pencil on ceramic tile.
Ah, my chimeric and fanciful place
A world to inhabit when I displace
Where food is abundant and water is clear
Where choices are free I’ll ne’er shed a tear
Where sharing is normal no money spent
Home is a shelter without mortgage or rent
Ideas are born to be actioned for pleasure
Actions observed for outcomes or leisure
Thinking is respected intellectual pursuit
Everyone loves and all follow suit
Where judging is absent because no one judges
Where grudges are absent because no one grudges
Where religion only follows the Gaia led path
To planetary health such joy makes me laugh
My friends are my friends conflict unknown
We simply marvel at how friendship keeps growing
There is a Redback living in the didgeridoo. Lucky I noticed it tonight, sitting in its web just outside the mouthpiece. It nimbly disappeared inside as soon as I took the photo. The didgeridoo rarely gets used, but occasionally someone wants to give it a try. Could have been nasty! I will try to catch it and put it outside.
This weekend I organised the second annual “Strathbogie has SPOKEN” event. We had 22 presenters and an audience of 50-60. This number pretty well filled our small, and acoustically delightful venue, St Andrew’s Church in Main Street. It was a seamless and fascinatingly diverse set of orations that made the two hours fly by. I kicked things off with a shortened version of the political piece below, which I wrote last year. It felt good to give written work air!
you know where I’m going with this
to the crush of high density and population growth
my oath
you and me both
with the new city millions that come
to the bustle and hum
to the high tensile strums
of the energy guns
at our heads
pay the bills or family fed?
that is the question we dread
as executive bonuses build mansions and poseurs
as the export of gas ups the home prices real fast
and don’t talk to me about electricity duplicity
so mean to me
these corporate utilities
fat cats
and multinats
squeeze me til I’m dry
then have another try
so my life is a scythe
cut the stress with a knife
kiss goodbye to the wife
and the kids and the love that I loved
for love’s sake
it’s a home bake
you know where I’m going with this
to parliament house
the joint of no nouse
of no brain
of no gain
where celebrity reigns
where the state of the nation equates with fashion
our political ration gets smaller and smaller
as narcissism, self-interest and recidivism ism their way to the fore
we want more
no!
they want more
no yore
just more
for the future is now a cash cow to be milked at the fence
of public expense
as the full and the fat suck at the teat
for the treat
of squeezed taxpayers sweet forming rivers of milk
and honey
or is it money?
pouring forth from a new scam
that’s rude
derived from ineptitude
it may be batts
it may be courses
they may be entrepreneurs
but they’re on the horses
bolted
after the gates have closed
you know where I’m going with this
to the US beholden
superpower
olden
folding the flag
turning for home
in the gloaming of their watch
withdrawing notch by notch
uncertain where the crotch of the matter lies
or whether their power even applies
exerting pressure as trade plies
but no so sure regarding human rights
and the rise
of the stateless states
the unreliable mates
the dates that became rapes
where the bright promising spring
quickly winged
to a cold dark winter
on the sling of David
and the Saudi flings
the belated failings
where democracy no longer sings
you know where I’m going with this
away from paradise lost
from the costs
from the Fausts
from the oppressive hosts
from the submerging coasts
to the ghosts of the past
rewritten to last
where my heart listens for hope in the sparks of principles sublime
not bereft
but to the time I have left in the cleft between life and death
in hope of nurture
in the sweet natural wealth of transparency ….. before stealth
you know
you know
you know where I’m going with this
My aubade for thee
Played lovingly
Under window thine
On morning fine
Post sleepless night
Love’s tortured plight
I sing to confess
Hand on breast
As my music plays
I see our days
Together ahead
In love’s soft bed
Rich with the melody
Of my love for thee
Listen my love
At rest above
Unto me call
To climb thy wall
Open thy window
Into which I’ll go
To lie with thee
In love’s company
You know how much I love you – much
I love so much to touch you – touch
Let’s not make a fuss about it – fuss
Just live and love together – just
I adore you I am all yours – adore
The more I see you the more I want you – more
Let’s spend our love together – love
Above the mundane we’ll rise – above
Be as one known one to – one
Like sun you light my world – like sun
Hark, hark to the word from the high empyrean
And bring with you your teeming hordes
Bow down before the ancient’s wisdom
Snatch hope from the teeth of devouring jaws
For dark, dark is the void of the Beezlebublean
Whose rivers of horror cross bloody fords
Whose principals are cast from demon and goblin
Where screaming of terror strikes chilling chords
Bark, bark the slavering hounds of hell
While nipping your ankles and corralling your soul
In fire and brimstone lose faith in death’s knell
For no death awaits you in hell’s fiery hole
Mark, mark aged words of the wise
From their learning of grace and all that is well
Where the choice of good versus evil applies
Ne’er beckon an offering for your soul to sell
Click on the link:
Click on the link
What Prospero said should not be decried
Give death its rightful standing in our lives
As a lens through which to view the good for which we strive
To ponder temporal versus the eternal that is always nigh
To elevate appreciation and despondency defy
And so, when vibrant youth immortality implies
When healthy vigour makes the future glisten in our eyes
When happiness is at its peak with all that it supplies
When prosperity creates opportunity many are denied
When security is such that all our fears it belies
Take a moment to remember it is only life that dies
Value life through death as on times fleeting wings it flies
The mind that honours death values life on high
I’m living the sci fi dream,
so it seems.
Where we understand the choices
and know what they mean.
Yet still sleepwalk into disaster
amongst the silent screams.
As liquescent a structure as ere had been born
Fluid in movement ancient evil forlorn
It rose from the surface as broken and torn
Through mirror like glaze the ragged head formed
Then took on the shape of mythological dread
The hunter and the scourge of the living and dead
Seeking blood and soul for a hunger ne’er fed
It rose every night from its hoard of a bed
The villages around at its mercy enslaved
To its will and its service when it sped from its cave
Deep within lake water cold as the grave
And it sought for its prey along tarns stoney shore
Cold hard rocks gave purchase to the legs at its fore
As snakelike behind it writhed serpentine lore
Dripping mucous dropped from the rank fetid maw
Scales of hard metal shed the pallid moonlight
Keen black eyed pupils pierced the night as if bright
Those who saw cringed at the terrible sight
Menacing and malignant beast’s cold beating heart
Razor like claws black knives of the dark
Terror inducing roar shaped the growl of blight’s bark
Spiked tail that it whipped left brutal spike’s mark
The villagers knew it would come just a matter of when
They planned and they schemed in their way of men
But against such a dragon who could they send?
When so many had tried and then failed again
One day came a stranger of the land of yore
So it seemed by his weapons and the clothes that he wore
Confidently speaking with the villagers he saw
Not intending to stay as he travelled some more
But the people saw a chance to hold him by law
And they plotted his detention by creating a score
As a bond so he’d fight at the dragon’s front door
A maiden they ‘suaded of rape she would cry
Of shame and dishonour and that he should die
They held him in prison for a year and a day
They said they’d release him swore on their shades
If he’d fight the dragon and marry the maid
Before he would agree to do things their way
He thought and thought how the dragon he’d play
And a plan took some shape as he thought that he may
They fitted him with fine armour a new double edged sword
They released him to freedom as a man of his word
And he stood proud and strong in the sunlight en guarde
The road to the cave was hard wearing stone
The chill of the wind cut to the bone
He was cold and was tired as he advanced on beast’s throne
The dragon saw him come as many had before
It counted the notches three score and four
It drooled and it schemed as it watched from haunt’s core
The stranger he’d come from the land of the Goth
Where courage and valour were never enough
Shrewdness and cunning were part of his troth
His weary limbs clambered to the lake mountain loft
He spelled at the mouth of the ravager’s chamber
Took sustenance, slept and awoke with more vigour
For the maid who truly loved him gave magicked liquor
He advanced down the passage to scents of rot and despair
Knowing his fate awaited down there
Each step his last as he rounded each corner
Each shelter inadequate behind massive boulders
Fetid smoke clung to the walls and ceiling of each room
Grey light only to guide him through darkness and gloom
With the breathing of the dragon loud all to soon
His sense of foreboding filled the space as a tomb
Then the roof disappeared the walls out of sight
A gilded shape on the floor sparked as stars in the night
And the massiveness of the creature depicted such might
The stranger sang noble songs to himself to fend off his fright
Apparently sleeping he skirted the great shape
Hidden partially by his stealth and the grey of his cape
He sought out a soft spot near the neck or the nape
As he held out his sword and shielded behind plate
The dragon knew he was there as a dog knows a flea
Playing fearlessly with the stranger nonchalantly
Arrogant in its power of vast energy
To kill with a furnace quick violent deadly
The dragon’s eye was a slit tracking the moves of the stranger
The stranger was calming unaware of the danger
As he prowled and he sought with the skills of a ranger
The dragon plotted its move as for a babe in a manger
A flick of the tongue burnt much as acid
A drop of saliva turned all fresh meat rancid
The tip of its tail was as sharp as a lance head
It’s chances of murder it very much fancied
The stranger noted the eye movement below the eyelid
He realised under veil of sleep a wakeful dragon hid
And he thought of his plan to play the dragon with a bid
He called to the dragon. “I know you are awake you cunning thing
And I think I can beat you, of lake mountain I’ll be king
Because I have something you have not, a secret magic ring
The only way to use it is with the magic words I sing
Now the greedy dragon was curious and true to dragon lore
It wanted answers fast it cut to the core
Because if there is one thing a dragon must have to adore
It is the thing it hasn’t got because a dragon always wants more
The dragon gave up its ruse of gentle breath and sleeping
It stirred its mighty body to a better position for peeping
It opened its emerald eye to seek the ring it should be keeping
And followed the agile stranger over dragon’s hoard leaping
The ring he said I hold with me has power to turn lead to gold
If you can sing the song of the ring I’ll bring it from its fold
And you will have riches beyond all the riches of times old
But in exchange for the ring I challenge you, your fire must go cold
Three questions you can ask me to learn the words to sing
If you learn the words I’ll give up the power of the ring
If you don’t you will give me what the people want to know
How to quell your fire until it’s cold as snow
The dragon thought on this and being arrogant and mighty
It took up the challenge knowing it’s intelligence to be weighty
To beat a human would come easily and the ring it did so want
There was no fear of losing when it was effectively savant
Question 1 Where are the songs words to be found that I might read them?
Answer 1 They are unwritten in my memory is where I keep them
Question 2 What do they say that I might use them for myself?
Answer 2 They say that only I may use them or give them for another’s health
Question 3 When my health is so good, how may I learn the song please?
Answer 3 When you ask without threat and villager’s wishes you appease
The dragon considered pondered deep long and ready to refute
Then It came to a decision to make the whole discussion moot
Why not agree to these conditions accept riches share the wealth?
After all it had so much was tired of loneliness and stealth
Not to mention it still had home hearth and many years of health
I withdraw the threat of storming fire and death
If you share the rings secret I will quell my breath
If we can all manage this land without suffering for all
I will accept the people’s offer I answer yes to their call
Th stranger sighed the deepest sigh ever heard from any man
As the weight of responsibility lifted and he raised his hand
Friend dragon unto you I make this oath.
We will share the wealth of our land from coast to coast
With that he turned to go to find his way back
Aware that the peace of the land was now a fact
A new purpose was in him with promise of a new life
Ahead lay a new community a new home a new wife
And he sang the song of the ring as he wearily trudged to the town
As each foot passed the other as each mile passed going down
“I sing the song of the power ring
For turning lead into gold
The ring that sings of powerful things
That only the truest can hold
For lead be lead and gold be gold
And none can change the two
Except the one who can answer the question of
How to share wealth away from the few?”
This may be the last of the best of times for much of humanity. This may be the first of the worst of times for indigenous animals and plants. SM
To read the monthly Newsletter of the Strathbogie Plateau click the link below http://strathbogie.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/201906_nws_TT.pdf
Acting on fear
Fear to employ
What they hold dear
Prepared to destroy
Life has value when you choose to be interested and active.
Victoria’s marine emblem.
Joining Murray Goulburn Birdlife has been a treat. Sharing birdwatching with friendly experts in the field guides you to locations of wonder and delights the senses in the process. Visiting the Rushworth / Whroo iron bark country on a perfect autumn day after the big dry might not have secured as many species sightings as some of the more experienced would have liked. However, I just love being out there, exploring a new landscape, appreciating its special features and every bird is a bonus.
Soft touch
Soft lips
Hug held
Soft hips
So precious
Sublime
So perfect
All mine
