Month: January 2021

Wild Moment: Thomas Keating-Jones, Published by John Muir Trust

colleen Grandchildren, Poetry , , , ,

A wintery hike on the Downs inspired nine year old Thomas to write An Ice Poem.

An Ice Poem

Glittering, glistening glass gleams and glides across the top of the frozen pond.
Mother nature’s classical music singing as it slides
Like stained-glass, the shattered shards  catch all the colours
It cracks, twinkling across the top of the ice…the ice…the ice…
It twinkles. jingles, like magic on the air.
Shining cracks appear wherever your foot rests on the shelf edge,
Chasing air bubbles, full of life,  out of their frozen prison.
It’s the top of the hill.
It’s the top of our world.

Thomas Keating-Jones, age 9 (with help from Eleanor Keating-Jones)

Thomas K-J ice pond 2

So proud to find my grandson and grand-daughter writing their thoughts about their wintery days on their nearby Downs while on a short exercise time from their strict lock-down

Welcome to Wild Inside – a fortnightly window to inspiration, activities  and a little bit of joy and wildness close to home.

We are incredibly lucky to have some great hikes on our doorstep. This poem celebrates the ice covered pond at the top of the Downs!

 

Praise by Rumi: A new dawn and hope for the planet.

colleen Poetry

 

Praise

Every war and every conflict
between human beings has happened
because of some disagreement about names.

It is such an unnecessary foolishness,
because just beyond the arguing
there is a long table of companionship
set and waiting for us to sit down.

What is praised is one, so the praise is one too,
many jugs being poured into a huge basin.

All religions, all this singing, one song.
The differences are just illusion and vanity.

Sunlight looks a little different
on this wall than it does on that wall
and a lot different on this other one,
but it is still the same light.

We have borrowed these clothes,
these time-and-space personalities,
from a light, and when we praise,
we are pouring them back in.

by Rumi

 

The Ocean Wonder by Jacinta Van Eyk

colleen Grandchildren, Poetry , , ,

 

The Ocean Wonder

 

Waves crashing on Keating Beach.                      

The bright sun cuts through

the dark grey clouds.

The water sparkles on top

of the shimmering rocks.

The dolphins leap peacefully

over the crashing waves.

All morning butterflies flutter                                      

past our window.

All different people walking, riding, running .

The ocean wonder is so

extraordinary.

by Jacinta    8 years old

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

written while on holidays at The Dolphin House, Central Coast

A moment of reflection with Hildegard

colleen General , ,

 

 

You are encircled

by the arms of the mystery

of the universe

 

 

Sydney Summer Festival January 2021

Hildegard being remembered and performed.

 

The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra celebrates the remarkable creative achievements of Hildegard von Bingen, the twelfth-century polymath whose life story and body of work continue to resonate through the ages.

Hildegard was a visionary and entrepreneurial German abbess who travelled widely as a linguist, mystic, scholar, naturalist, scientist, philosopher, poet and a composer. Nine centuries after her death, Universal Woman pays tribute to this iconic trailblazer with a moving and thought-provoking program curated by the orchestra’s celebrated artistic director, Paul Dyer.

The program also features a selection of Hildegard’s own songs and poems, narrated live by a prominent Australian actor.

A Sydney Festival exclusive, Universal Woman takes place inside the spine-tingling acoustics of St Mary’s Cathedral Crypt, with five performances led by singers from the Brandenburg Choir as well as the Brandenburg musicians on period instruments.

Runtime: 80 mins

Sydney Festival exclusive, Universal Woman takes place inside the spine-tingling acoustics of St Mary’s Cathedral Crypt, with five performances led by singers from the Brandenburg Choir as well as the Brandenburg musicians on period instruments. Find out more about Sydney Festival and Covid-19 planning.

 

 

Waitara Creek first ramble for 2021 and finding balance with nature

colleen General , , ,

 

Waitara Creek at Normanhurst

 

New Year’s Day and a resolution to find more balance in life between nature and a writing  project at home. We set out on a pleasant warm drizzly sort of January day thanks to the La Niña pattern which is giving us respite from the dry, brittle, fiery heat of last summer.

 

 

 

 

Something beautiful is happening before our eyes a cycle which is a new year (January ) phenomena  – the eucalypts are shedding their bark –  the most spectacular, because of its blood red colour is the Sydney Red Gum, standing like a maiden with her elegant gown puddled at her feet .

 

The clean pink dimpled trunk has the cool alabaster feel of touching smooth curving skin.  One of theses three in the Wahroonga remnant of forest actually has a sign on it  ‘Hug Me‘. Hmmm here is the seed for a very sexy poem.

Angophora Costata or  Sydney Red Gum or Smooth-barked Apple  note the kino stains and careful observation you can imagine grey pink purple and muted tones of browns

The next is the Scribbly Gum  and there is the Narrow-leaved Scribbly Gum also stripping off its bark all the way to the ground

Sush an appropriate moment for us to experience this on the first few days of walking this same track after New Year.  It has become a moment of Contemplation  as we let go of 2020 with its anxities, fears,concerns, worries and  disappointments of missing  the children and grandchildren, missing holidays, having to adjust to celebrating milestones of our family life and my writers lifein new ways. Letting go to begin a new.

And having back my rambling partner and  friend to enjoy and share the beauty of nature with is the best Christmas and New Year gift of all. We have lots of adventures to share.

These past few days we have had some wonderful bird displays and we have been finding hidden gems of  wonderfully coloured fungi and all the stages of a fern in its growth to share.