extinction rebellion

2020 – time to be brave and strong

| poppypeach
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.

Source: The Guardian

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:

https://www.facebook.com/arfsncrafts/?eid=ARBALQaZxuuxnXAi3_Vi73PpxB5Ldc7gNoy1z6xASmIsPoWeQOGrE2_W1N6mJ-Gb50-kwJjsgQZd746e

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/here-s-what-you-can-do-to-help-those-on-the-frontlines-of-the-devastating-bushfires

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-01/bushfire-relief:-how-you-can-help-frontline-services/11835156

https://chuffed.org/project/organic-farmers-bushfire-appeal

A Birthday, some city disruption and creative vibes

| poppypeach

Last week turned out to be quite a busy week with Ash turning 14 on Friday! We enjoyed “our own birthday” school strike for climate change in the Melbourne CBD with Extinction Rebellion with their Disco Disruption dancing and marching in the streets. It was the best climate action rally I have experienced, with dancing in the streets in the middle of an intersection and then a die in in the middle of Bourke Street mall. I do hope we managed to create an awareness for a lot of the people who were taking video and photos with their phones .

Creating civil disruption works up an appetite so Ash wanted to go to ramen for dinner and we took the tram down to Brunswick to Misoya Sake Bar. I had a vegan ramen which was delish and the rest of the fam had special ramen and chicken broth ramen which they loved!

While we were there we found this beautiful artwork which was drawn on the loo, I love Barek’s style and would love to have some of this art in our house in the future.

Saturday came around and I was volunteering at Peppertree community nursery working at the cafe making coffees and toasties for the locals in the morning. It was very exciting for me as this was the first time for me making coffee and working at a cafe rather than eating there! I really enjoyed hanging out with the community and chatting to the local peeps. Afterwards it was a stunning day, I went for a bike ride – only to be swooped by a magpie at the back of my head and on my back. Luckily there was no blood but I did not want to take any chances as maggies remember the people they have attacked so I took an alternative route home and found the drive in! It is a shame we do not have a car to take there 😦

Then Sunday came around and we hired a rental car and drove to Bendigo. We stopped off at Kyneton for a cuppa and to meet up with our friends and then we drove over to the Bendigo Art Gallery. It was so beautiful to see the churches and heritage buildings in the countryside, and Bendigo is about 1 hour 30 mins away from Melbourne so a perfect drive time for a Sunday day trip. We parked our car at the beautiful Rosalind Park and found these tulips planted amongst the green, then we heard the sounds of flying foxes in the trees, it would be lovely to go back and wander the gardens. I just realised they have a sister city of Los Altos, and is represented with a garden of dry climate plants from California – cool!

The main focus of our Sunday day trip to Bendigo was to see the Balenciaga exhibition from the V&A in London. It was a truly inspirational exhibition for me as I loved his attention to detail and the way he worked was to use the fabric as the inspiration for the designs. The x ray pieces were presented to show how the fabric was in relation to the body. One of his dresses was designed to puff up with air as you walked and the inspiration was from harem pants to puff out a ball gown – he was an absolute genius. Having the combination of tailoring and design Balenciagia created some contemporary silhouettes that truly shaped and inspired fashion throughout time.

This is an item we could play with in the exhibit and it was made from muslin. It was an ingenious piece as it was presented in the collection as a gorgeous skirt. We had the opportunity to work it as a cape or a skirt, I love how clothes can be designed this way to have the ability to be worn various ways. Using inspiration from cultures around the world Balenciagia used fabrics to create bold shapes and designs.

As we were leaving the gallery an exhibition called Desert Lines with a collection of fabric by Australian Indigenous women was on display. I am such a fabric fan but we were in a hurry to go to lunch so I just captured their colour and design as I wandered by and they are absolutely beautiful.

And as I was on my first week of holidays away from Uni work I took a small break and did a little bit of sewing using a Japanese pattern book I found as I had a bolt of stretch fabric my friend gave me to work with – the red top at the end was my fave. But as I was enjoying working with the patterns so much I found some of my vintage fabric and made a summer top from Hawaiian fabric. I also used the eyelet fabric using the Square top pattern from She Wears the Pants – another Japanese sewing book. Now I have a bunch of tops to wear but I need to wait for the weather to get warmer first!