2011 has passed in a busy, happy and rewarding flash for both of us.
We were not directly affected by the wide-spread floods in Eastern Australia at the beginning of the year which emphasised that our climate is becoming more changable, extreme, and challenging to live with.
We enjoyed the resulting beautiful tea-tree coloured water and plentiful flowers of the Bribie Island bushland, and can all too easily forget that many are still coping with severe damage from last summer.
After a very dry spring, we are wondering what the summer will bring - more floods, or fires in the luxuriant and now dry vegetation following the earlier rains.
Our lives are enriched by involvement in many local organisations. Bob's energies are focused around twice-weekly golf and his second year in the demanding role as Treasurer of the Bribie Island Community Arts Centre. Joyce continues her exploration of music and the arts through 2 choirs (and singing in 3 different 'scratch' performances of major musical works hosted by larger choirs ), the yearly musical on Bribie, the Bribie Island Orchestra, the Maleny Recorder group (now in about its 18th year), drama through U3A (University of the Third Age), and a weekly Laughter Group - as well as slowly developing her skills in glass slumping and fusing using her small kiln at home, and the larger one at the Arts Centre.
We are now enjoying using many of her early pieces, which hopefully will someday grow to a complete dinner set. This year's Christmas cards contain a small sample of this glass work, which is, like many of the plates, made from window (float) glass decorated with special coloured frits (crushed glass) that are compatible with the float glass. Hopefully it survived the post in one piece!!
,
Our main joint activity on Bribie is cycling, and supporting the Bribie Island Bicycle Users Group (the Bribie BUG). For the last 3 years we have organised a yearly clean-up of the main cycle paths, as well as regular and special rides both on and off the island.
We both made several trips this year, but mainly separately!!
Bob went to Houston to learn about an industrial computing package, and then to Singapore (twice), and Newman, Western Australia to teach several short courses on using this package which is sold by Daesim Technologies, the small company he still occasionally works for.
Joyce had a week in Melbourne catching up with friends, 2 weeks in Albany and area, Western Australia with Janet (including a fantastic choral workshop in Denmark WA, and 4 days walking on the Cape to Cape Track near Margaret River), and a further 2 weeks in the Simpson Desert trekking with camels. (See also http://www.bob.newell.bigpondhosting.com/Camels2011.html).
Our main trip together was a 2 week intensive bird watching tour to Cape York with Chook Crawford. Although we are definitely not serious twitchers, we enjoyed having very good views of many birds we would not have otherwise found, improving our birding skills and visiting a beautiful remote area we would not otherwise have seen.
Bob's mother, Kath Matskow, celebrated her 90th birthday in September after spending April in the local Esk hospital after collapsing from internal bleeding from an unknown source. She recovered after a transfusion, good hospital care and socialising, and eventually moved into a very comfortable room in the local nursing home next to where she lived for 15 years in an independent living unit . She is now settled in her new home and very positive about her adventure of continuing to live with macular degeneration, constant pain from osteoporosis (which is well managed with morphine patches), and slowly decreasing energy. We are all increasingly more thoughtful about questions of how we can learn to say enough is enough, and not to demand extra years from aging bodies in a world of limited resources. There is no simple answer except a desperate need for everyone to be able to be more open and flexible about all the issues involved.
Craig(now 36) is still working for VMWare in Cambridge Massachusetts, with lots of
travel to France and South Korea for variety. In his very limited spare time, he enjoys walking and exploring the Boston area
with his partner, Karen Donoghue, and downhill and backcountry skiing, this year in Italy.
Janet (now 31) is still working from contract to contract for the Department of Conservation and the Environment in Albany, Western Australia, presently as the environmental watchdog over construction of both a road and a walking trail through "pristine" wilderness in the Fitzgerald National Park east of Albany.
We both continue to be concerned about what we see as rapidly approaching disasters from many fronts as it is becoming increasingly obvious that mankind has damaged our natural environment beyond repair, and that most of our social, political and economic structures are unable to cope with the complexities of our consumption-based society, our greed, and the 7 billion people who now inhabit our planet. Soon, probably much sooner than the 2100 or 2050 mentioned by many commentators, our civilisation will follow many before it into oblivion - and the evolution of the planet will continue in other directions.
We are responding to this uncertain future in 3 ways: - first by living as responsibly as we can - minimising the use of our car by cycling and using public transport whenever we can, and generating solar electricity for the grid with our solar panels, using rainwater and cutting our water use as much as possible, and trying to buy consciously only things we really need,
secondly by working to build community locally through the many groups we are involved with in the hope that when the crunch comes we might be able to handle its challenges a bit more gently,
and thirdly, and most importantly, to live more and more with awareness and gratitude for all we have, and appreciation of each day as it comes. (With our aging bodies, and Joyce's bout with shingles last year, we are all too aware of how fragile the future is for us individually, and thankful for each day of health.)
We may all be living on a knife edge - but it is giving us a rich and exciting view of our planet and ourselves that has never before been available.
There are very interesting and challenging times ahead. We feel very fortunate to be part of it all.
All things equal (both on personal, especially health, and societal levels), we hope to spend February 2012 as caretakers at Kalamurina, a remote Australian Wildlife Conservancy Sanctuary in the desert just North of Lake Eyre, and 3 months from November 2012 to January 2013 as caretakers at the Eyre Bird Observatory half way across the Nullabor Plain in Western Australia.
We are both looking forward to these opportunities in immersing ourselves in the natural environment.
A version with this blog with more photos may be available at http://www.bob.newell.bigpondhosting.com/, though this link is at times unavailable - hence this blog.
Modified 5 December 2011.
No comments:
Post a Comment