Blog

Winter has arrived

As the last tangerine blush of the sun settles itself to sleep for the night, I note that it is only 5 o'clock in the afternoon. Observing nature and the seasons has been a delightful experience for me. The four seasons are truly experienced here where I live, and it makes me ponder the true meaning of winter in our lives. For a number of months (at times up to 9 months) I experience sub zero temperatures most nights, and cool, windy days that force one to wear layers upon layers to keep warm. I look out my window each morning and a thick, icy frost covers the grass, bejewelling each blade as if it were a crystalline fairy meadow. We dash out to our cars to drive to work and spend at least 15 minutes defrosting the windscreen, fingertips struggling to keep any sensation in them. The gardens do not grow. The flowers do not bloom. The trees have dropped their leaves, forming harsh skeletons, poking out from the earth. We light our fires. We turn on our heaters. We...

Water and the Arrival of Winter

In Western Australia, Winter is the season where we get most of our rain, and Summer sees our land very parched, dusty and dry. Water is pooling and puddling now and rehydrating the soil. In the local Aboriginal dialect this Season is called Makuru and it is the Season of fertility. The arrival of the rain is celebrated as it sees the return of Life to the Land.

Nature of Water

Water initiates seed germination and growth in the plants and trees, and it refreshes, purifies, cleanses and flushes out our creeks, waterways and rivers. All the water that falls as rain, mist or fog, makes its way by flowing downwards and out towards our coasts to expansive deep oceans and seas: massive storage sites of water where the cycle begins again. Water cannot be created nor destroyed but is always transforming through the cycle when put under pressure. When it is undisturbed it remains still.

In Winter when the days are shorter, darker, and wetter we can say...