Joyce's 2012 North American trip

Here is a brief overview of my trip (16 May to 7 September 2012).

Boston 16 May to 9 June visiting our son, Craig, and his partner, Karen

A great visit with our son Craig, his partner Karen, and her son Max as they made time in their very busy lives for walks, lots of talk and meals together, mainly on the weekends. 

I spent the week days away, mainly camping and enjoying the spring weather and exploring Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard (a large island south of Cape Cod known as a haunt of the rich and American presidents - and for me, an island dweller, the joy of visiting another beautiful island) mainly by bicycle.

Camping near Provincetown on Cape Cod

Roses growing right on the beach

Spring orchids everywhere, with  large turtles in ponds behind the dunes

Martha's Vineyard camp                                                                    Dunes a bit like home - except with oak trees

I flew to Ottawa, saying goodbye to Craig at the airport as he returned from Silicon Valley a couple of hours before I flew out.

 Ottawa Area 9 June to 8 July

First a 5 day beginners Whitewater Kayaking course on the Ottawa River north of Ottawa ,http://www.ottawakayak.com/ where I learned that although I lack the strength and coordination to roll a kayak without a lot more practice (I have always dreamed about rolling a kayak like an Eskimo), I now know how the rolls are done - and enjoyed 4 days running Grade 2 rapids on a beautiful wild stretch of river - with a guide to turn me over whenever I flipped the boat (which happened all too frequently as I slowly learned how to stay upright).

Next a week exploring Ottawa, staying with Jane Wilson, a friend who I met at McGill University in the 60's, and cycling around Ottawa.  I enjoying sharing her love of music (and of life in general), and playing chamber music with some of her musician friends.  I also enjoyed seeing the noisy sea gull colony on the river across from the Canadian Parliament building, and reflecting that both the squabbling gulls and the parliament sounded very similar (Canada and Australia both have disturbing problems with deteriorating quality of parliamentary debate.)

I next spent the next 2 weeks with Jane at the Lake Macdonald Music Centre halfway between Ottawa and Montreal at a bilingual CAMMAC (Canadian Amateur Music) camp  cammac.ca/en/- 1 week focusing on the music of Schubert, and the second on Early Music - where I enjoyed playing recorder with some very talented tutors, singing, listening to some great music, meeting lots of interesting people, canoeing and seeing loons and beavers - and the beautiful bush surroundings of the camp. 

Then sad farewells, and bus and train  with a quick visit to McGill University in Montreal  en route to Toronto.

Environmental art in Ottawa River in Ottawa

CAMMAC in the morning mist

Toronto 8 July to 20 July

A very enjoyable visit with my cousin, Sally Mason, and other Davidson relatives, catching up on family history.  Also with two other friends from McGill, Brenda Birkin, and Cynthia Ng-Littlejohn.  Toronto has grown greatly in the 15 years since I last visited, and now, at over 5 million people, has a very big city feel, with multi-story buildings and apartment blocks reaching far from the downtown area. 

I left Toronto at 1 am by bus for Wawa on the north shore of Lake Superior.  In a city that size, there is nothing unusual about moving around in the middle of the night by subway or bus.

Slate Islands Lake Superior  21 July to 27 July

I had visited Lake Superior, the largest fresh water lake in the world, in 1986 on a cross-Canada trip with Craig and Janet, and taken a picture of the clear water - and memories of this water drew me back for a sea kayaking trip on the Slate Islands about 10 km offshore in the very north of the lake www.naturallysuperior.com .  Six of us and 2 guides spent 5 days exploring the islands which are known for their population of woodland caribou which is the most southerly population remaining.  

Lake Superior

The boat which transported us to and from the islands

Campsite close to the water

Woodland caribou - not overly attractive!!!

Indian pipe - an intriguing  flowering plant which is a parasite on a fungus which is attached to roots of another plant, and helps feed that plant.  The host plant feeds the Indian Pipes through the fungus. 

After the trip, I went overnight by bus to Winnipeg, then caught a Via Rail train (which had the same carriages that were in use when I went across the country to McGill almost 50 years ago), and enjoyed a more luxurious trip overnight to Edmonton.  

In Edmonton I stayed with Grant Fisher, Bob's PhD supervisor, and met his wife LaRie, and visited with Mary Spencer, my PhD supervisor and her husband Hank.  I enjoyed walks through the University of Alberta Campus, much expanded since we were students there, and along the Saskatchewan River in Edmonton, plus a most amazing and extraordinary exhibition of large photographs of moths (http://www.moths.ca/) at the Royal Alberta Museum - we had to struggle with ourselves to keep from touching the pictures to feel the velvety surface of the insects.

Then by bus to Calgary.

Calgary and area  1 August to  7 September

In Calgary, I was based with my brother, Alan, his wife Linda, and their youngest daughter, Heather, who have provided me a welcome home away from home several times over the years.  I also enjoyed catching up with their son and daughter, Philip and Jayne, who swept through twice while I was there on their motorcycle trip from Alaska to the tip of South America (www.ultimateride.ca), once arriving from Alaska and heading south in a camper to the Burning Man Festival in Nevada, and then returning from Nevada to pick up (and repair) their bikes to head on south.  I wish them much joy in their adventure.  

In Calgary, I extracted a bicycle from their garage to explore Calgary, and visit several friends from school, university, and previous visits to Calgary.  I enjoyed visits, walks and long talks with Lydia Smith,  Marilyn, Harvey and Betty Johnson, Cathy and Art Sanden and Ruth and Jerry Westland - it is great to be able to renew ties and share experiences of where life has taken us.  I also spent a week in Lethbridge with Patty and Graeme Greenlee, and Patty's 102 year old father Lyman.

Calgary was hosting an international fireworks festival (www.globalfest.ca/)when I was there, and we went to all 6 nights of it, fascinated by the variety of dramatic effects each group achieved in their 20 minute display.  I also hired a car twice for overnight camping trips to the mountains near Banff and Lake Louise, cycling on some of the beautiful trails with my trusty bike, and hiking in the high alpine meadows, first in brilliant full bloom, and a couple of weeks later starting to show their fall colours. Alan and Linda and I closed my trip with 3 days hiking and exploring in the mountains in Waterton National Park, where we were delighted to see several bears feeding on the fall berries.

Then finally, home to Australia via Dallas/Fort Worth.... for the magical jump from fall and the summers end, to early spring with first flowers and birds starting to nest.  It is an amazing world.

Lake Loiuse

Moraine Lake

Mountain meadows near Bow Summit

A pika - a resident of the high meadows

One of many mountain butterflies

Crypt Lake, Waterton, is in the high valley to the right, and reached through a 20 m tunnel starting in the cliff just left of centre - there is a track approaching it across the scree just above the trees. A beautiful 18 km return hike well worth the effort.

I sat on the plane next to a man coming to Brisbane for a conference on Inner Peace - and realised that my trip for me had been a journey to a deeper understanding and discovery of inner peace through the combination of renewing ties and exploring my capabilities more deeply.  

Thanks to the many friends who shared so much with me and helped me on my journey, and the many others who enriched my life during the trip - thanks to you all for being part of my life.

Newell News 2011

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!!
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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.

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Modified 5 December 2011.