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The latest from Justin on Instagram

 
Turns out that the cyclone is a fizzer but whatever, the light on my walk this arvo was a pretty fair consolation.
“The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
By my reckoning, this is usually the greenest paddock in Hampton, the holdout that is the last to brown off and the quickest to bounce back after a shower or two. The owners reckon it’s the driest they’ve seen things in the 70 odd years their family has been farming. It’s worse than the millennium drought, which was supposed to be a one in 100 year event. Try one in 10 year event. But hope, as always, is never lost. A cyclone is spinning toward south east Queensland and the latest advice from the weather bureau is that there’s a fair chance it will cross the coast. By this time next week this paddock could be green again. Or, it might be a shade browner. One of the things I’m trying to learn with the weather is that what will be, will be. It’s out of my control, and it ought to be something I take day by day. Climate change is another story. We could have prevented it. We can still limit the potential damage, which would make my hometown difficult to inhabit. But the hour is late. If you want to do something simple and tangible to make a genuine difference, plant a few trees, then plant a few more. Ideally, after it’s rained.
I’m reading this obscure little book at the moment. First published in 1979, it’s really best described as a long essay that packs a pretty full blown punch about the use of nature for our own purposes and the creativity that can erupt when we relinquish control. “This addiction to finding a reason, a function, a quantifiable yield, has now infiltrated all aspects of our lives – and become effectively synonymous with pleasure...the modern version of hell is purposelessness.” A message for our time!
“When summer lies upon the world and in a noon of gold, beneath a roof of sleeping leaves the dreams of trees unfold.” Treebeard, The Two Towers.
The mighty 120 year old live oak at my kid’s school recent got heritage listing, and will soon be immortalised in a musical being written by my talented wife @kyliedeearmo. How ironic that “Virginia” was planted by a logger.