I’m finding it a bit hard to be cheerful these days. Heat, smoke, prolonged drought and more fires. Frustration at the lack of action on climate change, while its effects are becoming more and more obvious. My beloved Lamington National Park is still closed, so I can’t go and lose myself in its leafy depths. But life continues, in all its beauty. When I take the time to look about, and look closely, I find many reasons to be cheerful.
What are some of the things that brighten up your day?
Thanks for the reminder, Paula.
Thanks Kris!
Thank you for continuing to share your experience…
Thank you Igaikwad. It helps me too 🙂
Paula, thankyou for your enduring love of Nature and for reminding us all to get out there and look at whatever is available. I have not been through such a savage bush fire since 2001, when our home was threatened. Thankfully it has not been burnt out up there where I loved the bush so well but can no longer live. There are some strange things happening here in this barren town, with so much concrete, and just a few pallid gardens. I have some plants in pots, and a solo abelia bush growing along the path, with camellia bushes over the fence. I sat on my porch just yesterday and spied a silver eye and a rufous fantail. Haven’t seen either for over ten years. We are going onto bucket watering in a few days so it will be hard to provide a sense of lushness. Even my skin is as dry as a lizard. But I am lucky…I have a place to live, the cat and I are safe, we have water and bushland is close but not too close. I feel so much anger for those who should know better, and maybe should go out on a run with the firies just to experience the same things they do…the sight and sound and smell of dying animals, the fear of the people, the utter despair, the utter tiredness…perhaps one day a mighty gum tree will grow right up their bums, leaving them far from their precious life and power as they know it!
I love your pictures, your writing and your sense of hope…please do not give up. We need people like you.
Love Sue
Thank you Sue for these images of where you live, and also for your kind words to me, as always. But most of all thank you for making me laugh out loud at that image of the gum tree. We need to keep our sense of humour, that’s for sure. Take good care of you too, love Paula
I love this Paula. Beautiful. There is always something to see in nature, something to be thankful for. I hope you get some respite from the fires soon.
Thank you Sarah. The fire risk seems to have gone down as it’s become a lot more humid. Just looking forward to some rain now 🙂
Hi Paula. I really enjoyed your post, and the magpie page reminded me that, despite the distances in our big country, there is so much we all share. I’m in Western Australia, with the Stirling Ranges beyond paddocks that are dry and dormant now harvest has finished. I was woken early this morning by a juvenille magpie begging its parent for breakfast, and I hurried out in my pajamas to make sure there was enough water in the birdbath. It’s dry here; the western Stirlings have been burning for a week. But the air is full of young birds trying their wings and voices. 🙂
Hi Laura, thanks for your kind words of praise, and for sharing that picture of your world right now. I’ve only been to the Stirlings once (what an amazing place!) but your words enable me to imagine it again – complete with magpies and pajamas. Thank you!