A murmuration of starlings
Interested in good communication? Me, too. But who of we humans can match this: get ready for one beautiful vid: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/11/starling-flock/ Mmmmm Read More
Advertising in Chippo
Ad industry welcome in Chippo Chippo’s streets are rich with artists’ work and the better for it; walking here is a delight to the eye, mind and all the senses, tho’ challenging to some sensibilities. And this effort on a wall in Cleveland Street by the advertising industry shows it trying hard, too. Ads that work, M Read More
When is a park not a park?
Three years of fenced off park . . . Promises three years old of “Park Renewal” When is a park not a park? When it’s Peace Park, Chippendale. For over three years we’ve watched in growing wonder at the succession of failed attempts to manage the park, in particular to grow traditional grass there. The latest grass growing effort has seen the park fenced off for some nine months. If a park is not used for over half the... Read More
A six star evening
I was sitting watching the light fall less in my garden. Evening coming on. It’s slower, isn’t it, than the sun rising? Lingers. And I thought of all the shadows soon to be complete. My neighbours in full dark night. And out of all this, the seven billionth human being born somewhere. But left all that, and with cold, soft red wine, just stopped thinking. Listening and watching with my body’s senses all. “You get like this, I suppose”,... Read More
Bill, the sustainability apprentice
Bill, who loves coffee and works at Toby’s Estate in City Road, Chippendale, has begun his sustainability apprenticeship. Bill, along with the whole of the Toby’s Estate lot are going to reduce the waste, energy, water and other resource uses of the business. Starting with the coffee-making and cafe business in City Road, Bill and his fellow workmates will garden, compost, gather data and work out where the business can save on resources and avoidable costs. He’s... Read More
Death of Duck n Swan
The Duck n Swan Hotel closes at the end of this May – this weekend. Many of us miss it already. Unpretentious. Good food. A place where we could talk. Quiet enough for conversation. Imagine that. All the staff will go. We’ll miss them, too. The new owners are apparently from the UK and, according to some who have met them, have some knowledge of the class system there. And so it goes, M Read More
Enough of me, what about you?
The Sydney Writers Festival runs from 16 to 22 May. In the city it’s at The Wharf, and out at Parramatta, and at Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. The venues and program has been published and is on the Net here: http://www.swf.org.au/ It’s a terrific moment in Sydney’s life and there’s so much to read, listen to, join in and enjoy. You’ve been invited to tell others how you would save the planet. The event is called, You save the planet. The... Read More
Clean up Chippo this Sunday 6 March
Clean up chippendale A new local, Thais, has set up a group to clean up Chippo this Sunday 5 March Read More
How to repel stink bugs from citrus
Auntie Fran, an elder from the Dharawal people (aka Frances Bodkin, author of Encyclopaedia Botanica, etc), walked with me around the gardens here yesterday then emailed me today about the stink bugs on the fingerlime tree: “The Stink beetles on the citrus, one sure way of getting rid of them is to hang an empty plastic bottle in their viciinity. When the sun shines on the plastic it gives off a vapour that repels the beetles. (If it does that to StinkBeetles, what... Read More
Jessica’s Xmas story
Jessica Perini edited the second edition of my book, Sustainable House. During the editing we became good friends. Jessica’s professionalism was a delight. Her editing greatly improved the book. We discovered a mutual interest in food, gardening and nature, and it was partly through that friendship I discovered the Asylum Seekers Centre in Surry Hills and gave them the native stingless bee hive we split at my place – for more info search using the tag, bees. Now... Read More
