Friday 28 November 2014

Christmas-Schmismas

  Christmas-Schmismas.     I'm over it already.

  Bah humbug! 

Sickened by the crass, pointless, mad consumerist spendathon that it is, I don't intend spending anything on it.

Well, actually I have already bought a Christmas pudding, but that is because I like Christmas pudding and this is the only time of year you can get it.   But that is it.  No more.

Well, actually I may buy a carton of Brandy Custard to go with my pudding because I like that too.  And it is my only annual indulgence in dairy milk products.  But that really is it.  Nothing else.   I mean it.

So, because Yuletide in the southern hemisphere is in June and we are coming up to the Pagan festival of Litha (The Summer Solstice), here is an alternative seasonal wish for all my Meanderings Blogspot friends, followers, stalkers and casual readers:

  Wishing you a Blessed Litha.  
  May the Light always shine on your way.  

















Friday 21 November 2014

Not Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life", But Mine

I have often asked myself, in fact this is something that I continually do, and any readers of my various writings may have asked the same thing, of me or perhaps even of themselves, "Why do I do the things that I do, which separate, differentiate and individuate me from everyone else?".

Why do I take the trouble to step outside of the norm and express views that I consider to be important but which are not the type of thing prevalently expressed or even widely considered in the day-to-day society in which we live?

Why do I choose to take opposing stands to what is expounded to be the true version of events by supposedly expert and influential opinion?

Why do I even open myself to ridicule and criticism by trying to get people to see that the world that they/we know and are reasonably, to a greater or lesser extent, comfortable with and have expectations that this same world will continue in much the same way purely for our convenience for as long as we would like it to do that, at some not too far off point cease to match our expectations?

Why don't I just keep on planting and gardening, simply enjoying life and ignoring what I see as going on around me?  And if I see a future where life will become difficult, dangerous, and very likely deadly, with little prospect of continuing comfort and ease through technology, economic prosperity and their accompanying conveniences, why don't I either end it all for myself personally (you know what I mean, without actually saying it) or join the inevitable rise of lawless mayhem that is coming and go out with a grand bang of looting, rape, brutality and slaughter for as long as it lasts?

I am not alone in considering these things by any means, but it does take someone not too caught up in past tradition or the glamour (in the sense of blinded by illusion) of the rightness, entitlement and inevitability of and to a modern, civilised, cosseted and hugely privileged beyond any previous moment in history, way of life, in order to see it clearly enough to be able to stand outside of it for a moment and actually look at it dispassionately and objectively.

Such thoughts were recently raised in a comment to John Michael Greer's (I keep wanting to call him John-Michael Howson but that, while it creates an interesting mental image, would not do at all) Archdruid Report blog.  The commenter opined, and I paraphrase here, that with the coming devastation that many expect and others don't even want to consider, why bother going on, since a life without technological innovation and scientific discovery would not be worth living?

JMG, the Archdruid (yes, he is a real Archdruid, if such expressions of authority and learning have any actual value, but he is a quite learned and well read person), based his latest post on explaining a few things around this conjecture and the interplay of factual and value judgements.  A good job he did of it too, if I may say, with the inclusion of quite a number of interesting or provocative thoughts, to the extent that I recommend having a read of it here: http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com.au/2014/11/facts-values-and-dark-beer.html .   

I just want to highlight a particular quote from that blog post since it also sums up pretty accurately the way I think.  It was also the inspiration for this, my present post on Meanderings.  JMG said:

"As for me—well, all things considered, I find that being alive beats the stuffing out of the alternative, and that’s true even though I live in a troubled age in which scientific and technological progress show every sign of grinding to a halt in the near future, and in which warfare, injustice, famine, pestilence, and the collapse of widely held beliefs are matters of common experience. The notion that life has to justify itself to me seems, if I may be frank, faintly silly, and so does the comparable claim that I have to justify my existence to it, or to anyone else. Here I am; I did not make the world; quite the contrary, the world made me, and put me in the irreducibly personal situation in which I find myself. Given that I’m here, where and when I happen to be, there are any number of things that I can choose to do, or not do; and it so happens that one of the things I choose to do is to prepare, and help others prepare, for the long decline of industrial civilization and the coming of the dark age that will follow it."

Sunday 9 November 2014

At Last I Can Garden Again

For one reason or another I have not been able to garden for around 18 months now, waiting for my previous residence to sell, expecting to have to move, moving to a new home, settling in and adjusting.

I moved to a new (to me) home six months or so back.  The property is completely fenced in and is rurally located.  The house is surrounded by a sea of grass with lots of mature shade trees.  I posted some general pictures of the property earlier here, to give some idea of what it looked like before I started meddling gardening on this new landscape.

Grass, grass everywhere.  The prospect of spending much of my days cutting grass over and over again did not sit well with me but the possibility of doing something useful with that land did excite, so I always had the intention of reducing the area covered by that useless (unless you have grazing animals) plant as much as possible without upsetting the land owners.  I have not actually met those people but I do occasionally talk with their farm workers (cattlemen and a vineyardier, or whatever a person who looks after grape vines is called).

With this plan in mind, I searched the grounds for any places where it looked like some form of gardening  had been in progress at an earlier time.  There were a number of such places, which had all been allowed to overgrow in recent times.  They ranged from a single Yucca plant in a corner between the boundary fence and shed (not sure what the point of that was) through a number of straggly, dead or dying fruit trees scattered around, to a couple of three square metre vegetable plots (identified by the quality of the underlying soil and buried plant labels, mentioned here) and what had at some stage been a nice rose garden but had obviously been roughly driven over by some tractor-towed farm mowing machine.

I decided to reuse the rose garden and while digging it over, to remove the grass covering,  in addition to the two straggly roses remaining above the surface, found another four plants and a number of dead ones.  I also found buried in the soil a pair of still usable secateurs and a number of children's toys.

That operation has now been completed and the shape of the area follows a design that is entirely mine.  A small area of grass has been kept jutting into the garden space purely because I liked the grass at that spot and also I plan to add a bird bath and/or feeding table later and maybe some form of seat to provide a feeling of being surrounded by shrubbery.














The rose garden (I keep referring to it as that but it is intended to be much more eventually) has now been covered with straw for moisture retention and partly planted out with other shrubs including some fruiting varieties.  This is still a work in progress but at least for now allows me to continue with other tasks.


Slightly out of order, because I had earlier cleared and covered the two vegetable plots mentioned earlier, and had marked out an area around them some 21 metres x 4.5 metres to be fenced off as a garden area.  The fencing serves two purposes.  It marks off a place where there will be no grass and it will hopefully dissuade prowling Wombats from entering there.  At least I do not have to worry about Kangaroos and Wallabies here.

In the meantime the grass has regrown around the cleared areas and within the partially completed fence.  I will go into more detail on what I intend to do in that area in some future post.
Also in the meantime I have planted a number of fruit trees outside the fenced garden area.  Four apple varieties, a Nashi pear and two cross-pollinating Hazelnut varieties.  The apples are all heirloom varieties, a Cox's Orange Pippin, Egremont Russet, a Snow apple and a Jonathan which should act as cross-pollinator for the others.


















I intend to mulch as much of this orchard area as I can reasonably do, again as a means of grass reduction.  I also intend to interplant other useful shrubs within this area.


 What about a herb garden?  I had already thought of that and while clearing the rose garden I dumped some of the unwanted grass sods or clumps, as you prefer, underneath the kitchen window and fairly close to the back door of the house.  I formed a mound from this material and covered it with grass cuttings from my scything activities.  This was left for a few weeks for the grass to die off.


Next, I got to do something that I have waited around a year and a half to do.  At my previous home there was a spare garbage bin which I wanted to turn into a compost maker.  I added a tap near the bottom of the bin to drain off any excess liquid (to use on the garden of course) and started to place any kitchen waste in the bin, covering each layer of waste material with a little straw and adding a little waste water to prevent smells.  You should never compost meat or meat by-products but that wasn't a problem for me as I don't consume any meat.

Anyway, today I emptied the bin for the first time.  You don't have to wait as long as I have to use it, six months should be enough time, but I was expecting to have to move home, which of course eventually happened, and I didn't want to waste this material on the previous garden.

Not all of the waste recently added had rotted of course, so I removed that part separately and kept it to place back in the empty bin to continue its good work for next time.  The rest of the contents of the bin are glorious compost which I think my herbs will love.  I added a layer of this compost material to the herb mound.
From the day I first cut grass here with my scythe, I have been piling it up behind the water tanks out of sight, with a view to using it as green manure for the garden.

That process was started six months ago, so some of it was ready to use about now.   I started to remove the top material onto a new pile next to the old one until I came to a part of the pile that looked like I could use it.
 


A layer of this material was added to the growing mound.
Now, I wanted to add some good organic soil.  I mixed a 25 ltr bag of organic garden soil with a 25 litre bag of vegetable and herb mix and found that this was enough to provide the mound with a thin covering all over.  I think this is all that is needed as the good topsoil from around the dead grass roots together with all of the other additions should provide a good growing medium for the herbs.  In any case each plant will be set into additional organic soil as it is positioned on the mound.
 
Finally I added the ubiquitous layer of straw, gave it all a watering since no rain is forecast near term and will leave it for a few days to settle before planting out.

I have quite a number of herbs and other plants waiting for a spot somewhere, including a couple of varieties of Rhubarb currently sitting on top of a plant pot.

 
 
 
What else has been going on here?  Well, I have been visited by a number of King Parrots who seemed to take a fancy to the Sunflower seeds that I offered to them.  They would call out to me from the verandah fence and one cheeky character actually clung to the side of my window and peeked in to see if I was there.
 
I have learned that the birds with the red heads are the males and the green headed ones are either female or the younger birds.


I have also finally got my 2.5kW gas powered generator to start, after replacing the dead battery it came with by a new motor cycle battery.  It works very well but I can't yet say what the consumption may be like.
 
It runs on either LPG (Propane) or Natural Gas, plus it is capable of using a biogas supply if available,which was a selling point for me with an eye to the future when there may be no available LPG or Natural Gas any longer available. I didn't want a petrol generator since I think that fairly soon petrol will be either too expensive to run such tools as this, in short supply and restricted to military, emergency services and possibly food distribution purposes, or not available at all. That is also why I have taken to using a scythe.

The generator has electric start (from the on-board battery), a 240v AC mains outlet, a 12v DC outlet, a voltmeter display, an isolating circuit breaker for emergency cut-off and a usage counter in hours for controlling the servicing cycle which I think will be simple enough for even me to do.

It is fairly portable, having two wheels at one end and rubber feet at the other. The generator itself weighs around 50kg but I can move it around using the folding handle in one hand while carrying the 9kg gas bottle in the other hand.

This has now enabled me to supplement my scything activity with electric mower power.  I have owned an electric mower for quite a few years but while I was living at my previous home I had nowhere to put it and it lived outside, subject to all that the weather decided to throw at it.  I was surprised that it still worked after that and perhaps as was to be expected it lasted about 45 minutes before it reached a sad end to its useful life.  
Still, I got some mowing done and maybe I can re-purpose the base of the thing as a trailer cart to carry my gas bottle behind the generator.  Add that to the to do list.
I have been bitten by the bug now and will have to get a new one.  Even though that goes against my philosophy of leaving behind the consumer society as far as possible.  I have to be realistic about my age and physical capabilities looking ahead.  I intend to continue to scythe as much as I can, both to maintain and increase my fitness and to nurse as much life out of the mower as possible. 

I have chosen a Bosch Rotak 43
machine, the corded model, since I do not trust battery powered tools.  I am just waiting for it to arrive.  With 50 metres of power cord and my generator, I will be able to mow in any part of the block that I wish with relative ease.

And so, hopefully the story will continue.  This is just the beginning.









Tuesday 23 September 2014

He For She. Dig It!

Of all the things I have ever blogged here, I think this UN speech by this 'Harry Potter girl' is perhaps the one stand-out moment for me personally.

A long way from Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film series, Emma Watson demonstrates a maturation and wisdom far beyond her 24 years.  Bravo, girl.



 Men, take a stand, show your commitment at http://www.heforshe.org/.

At the time of making this commitment I was the 51,860th man across the world to do so, the 3,620th man in Australia.  C'mon, Make a difference.

Note: Unfortunately this video should have been cut at around the 13.00 minute mark.  The remainder is just a repeat of the first half of the speech.

Thursday 21 August 2014

A Pleasant And Unexpected Surprise

Every day is a good day...

...but some days are really special.  Today was one of those days.

It is now well over three months since I moved to my new address, and I have settled into some sort of routine.  I like routine.  As long as it is good, progressive, purposeful routine, it adds structure and framework to the day. One of my daily routines (weekdays only, though in my world it is hard sometimes to know if it is a weekday or not) is, at around 11.30am, to stroll down to the mailbox (which for some obscure reason is situated on the opposite side of the road, making a round trip of some 150m) to see if any mail has been left for me.  That turns into a particularly joyful occasion on those days when I find one of those little green and white post office cards there, indicating that a parcel is awaiting my collection at Yea LPO.

As I said earlier, today was one of those days.  So, in my little car, I trotted off to Yea to pick up my parcel and buy bread plus a vegetarian quiche and something nice for afternoon tea (my routine, in recent times, does not include any regular spot for baking).

I was expecting two parcels to arrive about now and I was hoping this would be the dozen hand-crafted wooden arrows I have ordered from CAS Custom Arrows (Greyarcher appears to be delighted with his package) in the US (I do a little archery, which I may blog about at some stage).  But no, it wasn't that parcel, although from USPS tracking I know it arrived in Australia on August 17.

The other package I was expecting was a seed order from My Home Harvest online shop.  I can't remember how I came in contact with My Home Harvest but a week or so ago I had ordered three different sets each of three different packets of seeds.  I already have lots of seeds, some saved from my plantings at the previous place I lived in and some not yet planted from earlier years, but I needed more.  Even though I had only a week earlier received 33 packets of seed varieties in an order from The Diggers Club, which is my usual source, I believe that maintaining a collection of heritage/organic seeds will prove invaluable in the coming years of food shortages brought on by economic, climate, population, and resource depletion upheavals.  Forewarned is forearmed, if acted on.

I would never buy commercially produced seeds from a nursery, supermarket or similar.  All the seeds that I purchase are heritage varieties and/or organically grown seeds from trusted sources.  Seeds are vitally important to our welfare and none of us would be here if it were not for food propagated from viable seeds.  Since there are global trends to copyright all seed varieties and invest all production and ownership of seeds in a few giant global corporations, which are the same businesses that own and produce all of the chemical fertilisers and pesticides used in global food production, the fate of humanity rests on these entities who have proven many times to not have your and my best interests at heart.  They are driven by profit and are owned and operated by unscrupulous people.  I do not want my future food consumption to be in  any part  reliant on these organisations.  

Anyway, that aside, my parcel was in a sizeable Post Office carton, which struck me as odd for a few seed packets.  Yet it didn't feel very heavy.  Imagine my surprise and delight, when I opened it at home to find, handwritten on the invoice in addition to my requested seeds "plus the Felco prize" and another parcel wrapped in red tissue paper which contained two pairs of Felco secateurs, the Felco 300 and the Felco 310 .  I had no expectation of such a windfall and there was no mention of such an opportunity when ordering.  I consider myself very, very, lucky, and whether I am the only one to have received them, or not (I have no idea), I am extremely grateful to Tash for the gesture.  Felco tools are said to be among the best in the world.

Consider taking a look at the wealth of advice, information and resources available at My Home Harvest.

~~*^*~~

Thursday 14 August 2014

Gardening From Scratch



I have not Meandered here for a while.  Well, it has been a cold, wet, windy Winter and there is a lot of interesting things going on in the world at the moment which have kept my keyboard running hot, plus with a plethora of good Kindle books to read and the introduction of the new Western Front armies in Company of Heroes 2, I have actually been quite busy ...just not outside.

That's not quite true.  I have been clearing what seems like vast expanses of grass around the house with my scythe on the days when the weather has been a little kinder, and that is progressing well.  A couple of really clear, sunny days this week have helped.  I am using a 65cm Austrian scythe blade, the length being known as an All-rounder.  It is a good length for most jobs that a scythe might be used for.  Since deciding that using a scythe is something that I want to and can do, and which fits in with my philosophy of gathering mainly non-powered tools ready for the day when that will be the only way to perform work tasks, I have recently bought two more scythe blades for future, and more specific use.  One is a 75cm field blade, the longer sweep being beneficial for mowing large open areas, plus a 40cm veggie blade for close work around growing plants.  I have yet to use them, or even sharpen them properly, but if you don't have them, then you don't have the option.  That is another part of my philosophy for the future.


Today I discovered a little garden over near the fence.  Actually I already knew it was there, I just hadn't gotten around to clearing that area yet.  But today I did, and discovered some partially buried seedling trays which confirmed for me that it must have been a little garden at some stage.  It is the only area of the land surrounding the house that shows any signs of cultivation except for a couple of straggly rose bushes at the front of the house plus a couple of fruit trees.


This is where I will start my new gardening adventures in what is basically a clean unpainted canvas.  Can't wait to get going.  I did do a little digging today to see what the soil is like in this little 3m x 3m square bounded by sleepers, and was please to find that it is good and clean under the grass cover, down to a spade blade length and it is replete with worms.  A good sign.  I have left the grass uncut as I intend to dig this area over completely very soon.

I do have other plans that have been formulating while I have been scything and observing, but more of that another time.

I was standing at the end of my driveway earlier in the week, something I have done several times now, being impressed and awed by the beauty that surrounds me.  I have never had a camera with me on these occasions, but I did today (just my phone cam), so I took a short panaramic video of the sight.  I keep forgetting that I have a Gopro and will have to find it and retake the view at a better time of the day when to Sun is behind or overhead.  Anyway, here it is, for what it is.


 

Friday 23 May 2014

A Fresh Start?

Old News

I am a little late in delivering this post so for me this is old news, but a picture needs to be completed.

Some time ago I wrote a post here advising that my life was about to be temporarily disrupted by the need to move home, to  ...who knows where?  I made somewhat of a big deal of 'doors closing' and an expectation of 'other doors opening', though I really did have no more than vague ideas of what I really wanted, nor what opportunities might be available, nor where (regionally) I might end up living.  I was open to, and at the mercy of, whatever market forces, or the gods of fate and fortune, may have in store for me.

As is my wont, I didn't bother sitting down to make lists of where, why, what, how, who or when.  Well, not on paper anyway.  That is what the brain is for.  At least that is how I usually operate.  Thinking.  Making mental notes.

I am also not big on tripping around, eating up the miles, wearing out shoe leather or tyre rubber, looking at things.  That is what the internet is for.  And very good use of it I made.

I quickly realised that there was not very much on offer, locally, ie. in the same hamlet in which I was currently residing.  I also quickly realised that there were not very many options open to me at the price (rental) that I had been paying or wanted to pay in the future.  Nor did any of the available options fit my wishlist of expectations for a place that I could call home.  Visions of me sleeping in my tent or going on the road in my little car crept into my re-imagination of thoughts from times past.  I began to look further afield.  Tasmania, Dunolly, Mansfield, and I saw (still on the internet) places at the right price which in other circumstances I would have jumped at instantly.  A beautiful, newly renovated little cottage with solar power and solar heating right on the edge of Devonport.  A large straw bale house, equally sustainably equipped, with more than adequate land but on the Dunolly flood plain.   A gorgeous, strong, very old country home with ready made orchard up near Mansfield.  There were a few other places, far afield, that I could have happily aimed for,  but a stern rebuke from my daughter about moving any further away meant that I had to close off such ideas as these.  For now at any rate.

This left me really with only one option that I could consider, without compromising my wishlist of ideals, my comfort factors and my preferred financial limits.  Could this be the door I was looking for, to providentially open for me?   It didn't look promising.  There were hurdles to cross.

Good News


Suffice to say that without any unpalatably difficult, dramatic episodes or debilitating worries, or even excessive effort other than the actual job of shifting from one place to the next, I am now settling into my newly adopted home with some degree of satisfaction and gratitude.  Not to mention, Ah say, not ta mention,* the hope that I will not have to repeat the process any time soon.  I am looking forward to a nice long stay here.

* Imitating Foghorn Leghorn

So, what about those hurdles I spoke about?  The first was that the owner would not permit any inspection or even entry to the property until I was holding a fully completed and approved Rental Application in my sticky little hands.  The owner I was told is a business, so I was not dealing with an individual or a family but some impersonal entity.  The agent did tell me however, that the owner was looking for a long term tenant.  That was a plus factor.

Things have changed in the rental market since I last tested the waters three years ago.  This time I was required to jump through hoops just to get the application form filled out and accepted.  It was necessary for me to obtain references, payment ledgers and details of all of my accomodation history going back to the late '80s.  I am not sure if this is a legal necessity or just an over-zealous real estate agent intent on protecting their reputation.  Anyway, it took me a couple of attempts, many phone calls and emails, in order to satisfy them and eventually obtain the owner's approval and get to see and go through the property for myself.

With my feet now standing on the property for the first time I could see that it ticked a number of my boxes but there were also some disappointments too, chiefly that a piece of land to the back of the property which housed some empty chicken runs, another small animal shed, and an area that I thought would be the best place to start growing produce, was not included in the lease.  I think the reason for that may be that while the rest of the property was well fenced and gated, this area would have needed some investment in extra fencing on one side.

While I felt that I could be happy to live there I couldn't bring myself to make a decision on that day because of the reduced expectation from the unavailable land and a few other things which I may talk about at some stage.  However, having slept on it I called the agent the next day and set the wheels in motion to move there as soon as possible.


A Fresh Start


That is probably more than enough information at the moment so I will just describe my new home a little and load up some pictures.

 This is a fairly old building which stands on part of a ~1500 acre farming property and was for some time the residence of the farm manager.  The owners of the property lived in a big house, not visible from here, just over a hill.  Some years ago the farm property changed hands to be owned by a business and now the manager lives up in the big house.

Most of the farm is given over to cattle pasture but just over 100 acres is a vineyard that provides a variety of grape types to local and international wineries.    
The vineyard is adjacent, but not close,  to one side of the land I lease.  On the other major side  is part of the pasture land.  Below is a picture of some of my neighbouring beasts on an early misty morning.

The house has three bedrooms, one of which now houses my gym equipment which I haven't in the previous three years had the room to spread out sufficient to make it useful, nor really the desire to use it.  I am hoping that will change a little now.

Just over a third of the house is taken up by the kitchen and lounge room which have been opened up to form basically a single living area.  The kitchen area is large enough to also house my 6-8 seater dining table with more than adequate space to still operate as a kitchen.  This cosy, open living area is one thing that sold me on the property.  I still smile and feel grateful every time I enter there.  Nothing is new of course, but it has a nice feel to it.  Feels like a home.

Adjacent to the house is a three bay agricultural shed which means that my long-suffering little A160 now has a roof over its head and I have a huge area to store all my stuff out of the weather.  There is also a lockable shed attached.

My water supply comes from rooftop rainwater run-off stored in two 25,000 litre tanks so I should hopefully never run short.

Another thing that sold me on the place is that there is no-one else around.  My nearest neighbours are some 300 metres away in any direction.  I am happy to be living practically on a hilltop instead of down in the bottom of a gully.  Hopefully any winter frosts up here will be very light.  Happy thought: I may even try to grow some coffee again.  Whether by accident or design I do not know, but the house has been built facing due north with most glass on that side and practically no glass to the south side.


From the shed the driveway curves around for some seventy metres to the property gate and then by a shared driveway with the vineyard another forty metres or so to the road.

Even set back at that distance I can hear traffic passing by, something that I will have to get used to.  It was usually so quiet where I came from.






The photographs show the quite extensive grass area that I have undertaken to keep in order.  I fully intend to reduce this area by introducing fruit and vegetable gardens as time goes by.  I will talk more about this and the grass problem another time.

For now, I am just happy to be settled again, somewhere I think I will be happy.  Well, getting settled anyway.  Lots of things are still in boxes just now.




Saturday 29 March 2014

One Consequence Of There Being No God

A short, but I hope original thought.  With apologies to whoever owns it if it is not.

The following just came into my head and, at the risk of attracting critical contrary opinion, I thought I would like to share it.




The only 'morality' in nature is that which we place upon ourselves. 

Therefore each, perceiving life through the lens of their own thoughts, 

can argue no validity for, and owns no right to, 

a consideration of anyone else as being 'immoral'.


- - - : x x x : - - - 

Saturday 15 March 2014

Teachers: life inside the exam factory - An Article From The Guardian

 Before I start, here is the Guardian article that induced me to write this post:  http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/mar/14/teachers-life-inside-the-exam-factory   This post is fairly unstructured because it started life as a Facebook status update that got out of hand, so I will continue in that vein.

The problems arising around education cannot be laid at the feet of teachers.  Teachers are fighting a losing battle against the societal need and goal of producing a population of complicit, unquestioning, consumption units, willingly led into a life of induced 'happiness' and provided with just sufficient means to continue buying stuff without any real sense of purpose, in order to allow to continue the growth of that society ad infinitum.

Those students who display tendencies to break that mold are either pushed out of the system and banished into a life where they will inevitably end up incarcerated and no longer a visible problem, tolerated and allowed to pass through the system by manipulation of records and thus become virtually unemployable except at very basic levels but can still act as consumers, or are trapped into debt through higher education and still meaningless employment but of sufficient complexity to keep them quiet, occupied and complacent consumers.  A very few are selected to become society's 'helpers' and 'policy directors'.

Most of that societal induction and indoctrination goes on unchecked outside of the classrooms and influence of the education system.  What chance do even the most dedicated teachers have of 'reaching' and 'influencing' students to expect something more from life?  Very little.  Their influence is fast becoming restricted to assisting their charges to better 'fit in'  to the pattern and so gain the most that they can from a highly structured life.  The ranks of dedicated teachers are themselves becoming thinner as time goes by because they are being replaced more and more by those who are also just products of the system and basic consumer units themselves.

I don't think there is any going back from this.  Society is almost completely but not quite yet operating under the 'glamour', in the sense of a manipulative magic spell, cast by its own self-preserving agenda.

I can even pick the time when things started to turn that way.  Back in 1957, I think it was, when I was starting my second year of Grammar School education in Lincoln, UK.  I was twelve years old.  A thinker.  A dreamer.  At the beginning of what was to become my most successful year of secondary education.  Well, perhaps a close second to my final year, when I exceeded even my own expectations by dint of hard work and dedication. 

Beginning that second year, I looked around me at the fresh faces of the new 'fags' as first year students were known at the time.  I was shocked.  I became worried about the future of the human race. 

A little aside before I continue:   We, at my school, were told by the masters who taught us (they were called 'Masters' in those days and the school principal was known as the 'Head Master') that we were the 'creme de la creme' of the local intelligentsia.  There were at the time four Grammar Schools in Lincoln.  Two boys schools and two girls schools.  The other boys school was housed in a magnificent old building and still back then took on 'boarding' pupils, kids who lived at the school during term time because their home was too far away.  They of course looked down on our school whose pupils were drawn merely from the rank and file of local citizenry.  We knew though who was really the 'creme de la creme'.

Back to my story.  Yes, we were taught to think.  The Masters, the good ones at least, would spend considerable periods of class time off curriculum, teaching us about life, relating their own experiences, getting us to consider and ponder how things really worked.  Not merely preparing us for examinations.  Not merely readying us for a life of 'work'.  Not just fitting us for a 'job'.

Of course it was easier to do that in those days.  The consumer society was only in it's infancy,  had not yet established for itself a modus operandii,  and was not then all pervading through every aspect of life.  Things are very different now.

What did I see in the faces of my young successors that made me fear for our future?  They were simply idiots and simpletons compared to us one year older than them.  At least that is how it appeared to a twelve, almost thirteen year old who knew that he was part of the 'creme de la creme'.  How could humanity's future be allowed to rest on the backs of such weak and insipid creatures as these?  And what of years to come?  As the gene pool weakened further, the outlook would get worse until we were all idiots running around and bumping into things, getting up as though nothing had happened and running around some more.  Endlessly repeating the process until we all passed away.

Of course I cannot deny that these thoughts may have arisen partly through my own indoctrination into elite status, but we did at least come out of the process as independent thinkers and more rounded personalities than maybe we deserved to do.  Or maybe we were just privileged to have obtained such a liberating education.  I hope that I am not the only one of my peers who thinks that way.

It makes me sad to think that the passing of the years to my approaching sixty ninth birthday have not given me reason to alter my views on this.  On the contrary, everything that I now see around me only strengthens those views.

I feel even more saddened for those, including my own children, who have been born into what is now a fully fledged self-serving and self-preserving society that has almost total control over many aspects of life of its denizens.  Even though they may have been entranced so deeply into the murky depths of the 'glamour' that they cannot begin to imagine it to be that way.  Human beings who are being stunted in their personal growth and blinded to the glorious panoply of experience that humanity was intended to enjoy, imbibe and blossom from.  The form of control is there because without it people might become unmanageable, wanting to pursue interests that might be to the detriment of society, thinking thoughts that might lead them to question the way things are and possibly see through the thin veneer of the acceptability of societal norms.

The sausage factory that the education system is fast becoming, has been drawn, despite the valiant efforts of many of its teaching staff, into that foul system of impoverishment of human experience.

There is one bright spot in all of this.  That self-serving societal system is also self-defeating because the end result of the process is an inherent instability that will eventually lead to its own demise.  Bring on the day.

Sunday 2 March 2014

A Door Is Closing...

Just a quick diary note to record an important event.

After being placed on the housing market just about a year ago, the house I have lived in for almost three years has sold recently and I was notified a couple of days ago that I have to vacate within the next 60 days.  Whilst I was hoping otherwise, I was kind of expecting this even though the new owner said he was an investor.  C'est la vie.

It was not long after I moved here that I started blogging, so there are photographs of my time here scattered thoughout this site.

I was standing out on the rear deck this afternoon watching the wildlife that I have become accustomed to seeing in this hidden haven of rural tranquility. 

A Currawong was bathing in the water dish that I have placed for the birds to drink from over the hot days.  It is normally the sole property of Magpies but today there were also green parrots around, ground feeding.  Among them appeared one of the 'ginger bunnies' for which this gully is known.  She is a female.  The males are the normal greyish colour.

I was thinking that I would not for much longer be able to stand and look at the hillsides towering above on either side or see the fruition of the gardens that I have created here.  I have enjoyed my time here and I know that I will miss it. 

However, I also know that nothing is forever and everything that happens is for the best.  Time for a new adventure.  Maybe I will find somewhere where the Kangaroos don't eat all the leaves from my fruit trees.

I often look back over my life of 69 years (in a couple of weeks) and realise that I have never needed to worry or struggle to find the paths that I have taken.  I always trust that whatever it is that guides our lives will open the way to the next stage.  I am not suggesting that this guidance is from anything outside of our 'self' (if we can only open up and marvel at the wonder of that).  I always try to 'feel' for that opening and together with a modicum of research, follow my feelings.  

Yes, we can 'struggle and fight to make our way in life', to 'get somewhere', to 'reach a goal', to 'take control' of the situation.  It is very tempting to do that.  But that is the hard way to do things and we may lead ourselves down paths from which it is very difficult to return to the one we were meant to take and we may never actually achieve that in the space of one lifetime.

But it all works out for good in the end.