When the sun is shining it is a time to go outside! After all the time I have been inside working from home and doing my Uni work I thought I had better grab that sunshine and get some vitamin D. Man I am happy that I did that Saturday morning as it was just beautiful! While I was walking I was listening to hope and all the inspiration from the Michelle Obama podcast on Spotify – seriously I love this so much!! As I wandered around the streets I even took off my winter coat discovering remnants of spring at every turn.
I went walking to our house to check out how our concrete project turned out and I was pretty impressed with the gum leaves on the left and the conifer trees on the right that remind me of the beloved Redwoods in California.
Garden inspiration at the Royal Melbourne Hospital at Parkville. This garden is absolutely stunning with the waterfall in the centre. Its strange I felt I had been there before but maybe it has featured in films, who knows?
This was my work project last week as I created a Spoonville community for our kindergarten, hopefully this little fella survived the crappy weather this weekend and did not get washed away! I am sure the afro is looking a bit damp now. I love this idea as there are little communities popping up everywhere where the kids decorate an old wooden spoon to give it a new life. A perfect project for the children in lockdown and our kindergarten community.
Oh and can 2020 get even worse! My yoga teacher friend posted the above picture of the visitor centre at Big Basin State Park in California after a lightning fire engulfed the park. It is so sad to see this as we spent a lot of time under the redwoods camping, hiking and enjoying nature. California is where I really got to appreciate the environment (I love banana slugs) to become who I am as an environmentalist. Seeing these fires year after year, not only in California but here in Australia has brought me to the realisation that government is doing f…k all! We all need to get busy, so I am now listening to The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis because if we don’t get a start soon we are all gonna be screwed. After time in lockdown with this pandemic we now have an opportunity to turn our future around and this needs to begin ASAP.
In times of crisis humans collectively get together to help each other and get stuff done! After feeling so overwhelmed at the mass destructions and loss with the Australian bushfires (that are still burning) I wanted to help. I saw online that the Animal Rescue Collective Craft Guild were looking for items for all the rescue animals, so I started doing a few at home. Later I discovered that our local library has a MakerSpace and asked if we could use the room and get a group together to sew for the animals. I was so excited when they said yes as long as I organised it. It was such a surprise that I have had to put study on hold for a few hours this week to make it happen. So I advertised on the Good Karma network and at the gym and got a group of 5 to 7 people for the three days this week to help out with ironing and cutting fabric donations and sewing on the four machines at the library.
While we were working at the library, the librarian shared the above article with us and it was so exciting to see the love for all the animals plus we got to confirm who we were sending the pouches too at our local hub in Melbourne.
So by the end of the week we have made close to 100 between our little group and have cut out some liners ready to go next week. We are planning to do some more sewing this week on Thursday and Friday to keep the momentum going! All with for the animals 😀
Oh and if you are keen to help the animals they need monetary donations to transport everything around this massive country of ours.
Now I better get back to my assignments and study for this week!
Firework blur – New Years Eve in Melbourne reminds me of the many bushfire photos I am seeing in the media
The first post of the year is taking a stance on how I really feel about the state of the nation. I usually write in a neutral tone as I do not want to upset anyone, but this year I feel it is important to be brave and stand up for what I believe in. Now is not the time to give up or give in as Australia is on fire and the leadership in this country is pathetic and hopeless! I lived in America with that orange fool as the president and everyone in California felt the pain daily with no hope for reprieve. Now I have come back home to Australia with the hope of a little progression but alas there is none! Currently, the news is on the current bushfire crisis stating that these fires are unprecedented which means “never having happened or existed in the past”. The destruction of what is happening now cannot be compared to what has happened in the past but according to our PM ScoMo he has no idea and feels that Australians should just carry on and face the challenges as they have done in the past!
According to what I have read about the current state of the climate in Australia we are dealing with a national emergency. Today I checked my Instagram to see videos posted of victims of the fires in regional NSW and the PM going in to shake hands and apologise — seriously no amount of apologies will bring back the homes and livelihood of these people. ScoMo has no clue, as he speaks to one of the residents and says that these people who are now homeless, are tired! Yes, of course they are but they have also lost everything. Where is the empathy in this person and why can’t he listen to the scientists, the chief fire officers and environmentalists who are calling this a climate emergency. We have not even hit peak summertime and most of Australia is burning and it is only January.
The post below rings true of my time in America after mass shootings and the NRA with their stranglehold on guns but what is the driving force in Australia? Is it the natural resources and coal driving the agenda, heck there will be nothing left if the country continues to burn.
Last night I found it hard to sleep as I got up in the middle of the night and started thinking how on earth can we find a solution to these losses. It is so hard to comprehend these tragedies and how we as a community can fix them. Yesterday we had a neighbour come by and collect food for people in the Gippsland fires in Victoria. She came by with a cart and asked if we had any food to share. This is what I love about community we come together to help each other, but knowing that this national emergency in Australia is hurting everyone in this country is so frustrating – what else can we do to help? Those poor defenceless animals as well.
When I couldn’t sleep, I had this picture in my mind of a fire fighter and a koala looking at this bushfire. I am finding it hard to concentrate when I know every time I look at the news something worse is happening! How much more can we take when the whole country is on fire even in places that were rainforests and beaches cannot escape the fires. There are tourist fleeing these places.
Extinction Rebellion states, “this is not business as usual” and this year it is the time to get these people in government who are blindfolded to notice what is actually happening. Carrying on like this level of catastrophe has happened in the past is just ridiculous and I will continue to write to my members of parliament and ask them to declare a climate emergency in Australia. This behaviour of ignoring the truth, will not be tolerated by our generation and generations to come we will continue to fight for our lives.
I remember living in Northern California when the wildfires destroyed thousands of homes and was spread over 99,148 hectares, the state was then declared a state of emergency by Governor Jerry Brown – the day after the tragedy! I remember the air quality living in the SF Bay area, the skies were misty and the EPA stated children could not go out to play (I was working at a school at the time). Now I am witnessing these horrific bushfires in Australia where just in Queensland alone 180,000 hectares have burned and that was November 2019. It is hard to even conceive the amount of land lost now in January 2020 as now the state of Victoria burns.
I am supposed to be studying but trying to focus is extremely difficult but I needed to write my thoughts down so I can process this nightmare to try and think of ways to help. I know that from Monday I will be volunteering with CERES, my favourite place to be in the north of Melbourne to help in their vegetable garden. Their mantra is fall in love with the earth again. When I am with others who fight for the cause at a local level it helps me process the bad stuff. Now to continue to study, I can promise my future students one thing is that they will be educated in climate change and science where everyone deserves the truth to do something positive for our future.
I am happy to have found some places where people can help with donations for people and animals in need:
poppypeach 