MEETING AN OLDIE IS NOT SO PAINFUL. LINGER AND GIVE IT A GO

I invite you to visit also my literary blog: Journeys in Creative Writing where I post original fiction including short stories, poetry and 'Paternity', a full length mystery novel.


Sunday 21 September 2008

Of Spring and the Environment in Oz

Spring has really sprung in Australia in the past week with nature declaring that it's time to move into a new cycle.

We're expecting 26 degrees celsius today - by far the warmest day for many months, and unusually hot for this time of year.

One tree that's saying welcome to spring is my mandarin which is laden with blossom, pursued vigilantly by dozens of buzzing bees.

Bees were everywhere in my garden this morning and I had fun trying to photograph them before they moved on in their busy way.

I managed to catch a few but most were out of focus! I JUST got this one in the photograph below.



The entire tree is covered in blossom, and so is the ground beneath. Seems as though I can look forward to a crop as good as last years:



However, I do wonder for how long bees will continue to feel comfortable in my garden, what with climate change and the sad outcome of our local government elections just announced.

Almost three years ago councillors were sacked in our area on the
beautiful North Coast of New South Wales, and an extended inquiry was held into connections between some councillors and huge developer funding for the elections. The council was making decisions that were beginning to cover our soil with concrete in a very unbalanced way. The Commissioner's report was scathing, but no charges were laid.

Administrators ruled for the next two plus years and and two weeks ago we had our first new elections.

Initially it looked as though the pro-environment candidates would win in a landslide, with the first two - both women - coming in with thousands of primary votes more than the others.

However, we have what's called a preferential voting system here and, as usual, the devil was in the detail.

Unless you really understood what each candidate stood for, it was very easy to make a mistake with this system. You could give your preferential vote to a person about whom you knew nothing, and who could turn out to have a contrary point of view.

Now it looks as though the ballot paper was stacked with obscure pro-development people who apparently had done secret deals on preferences, and the clandestine scheme won the day.

The result will probably be: green councillors 3, pro-development councillors 4. The old pro-development mayor could be in again, with a casting vote at his disposal.

There are a lot of voters here wondering just what has happened.

Tweed is a beautiful mostly unspoiled area that makes the crowded Gold Coast high rises just across the border look monstrous.

We now wonder if this is our future as well.

Wish us luck!

9 comments:

  1. Good luck June! Politics can be so deceiving. I just hate the way this type of thing is done without the people having knowledge of what is even going on. I love the bee picture. It is great. Isn't spring wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for your empathy Judy.
    I'm afraid that this is the way beautiful places can become concrete jungles. Let's not hope so this time.
    So far as the bees were concerned - they treated me as a friend. No stings!

    ReplyDelete
  3. June,
    Thanks for stopping by my blog. Sylvia and I have are friends and began blogging about the same time. She lived in Portland, OR for a while and I got to know her then. She now lives in Seattle, WA but comes to visit me from time to time. Hopefully she'll be coming again in October. We're both having a lot of fun with out blogs. I'm thrilled to meet a blogger outside the US. Yes I am extremely curious and I don't have a lot of patience with people who aren't. In fact it's sometimes a problem because I appear aloof and disinterested in their chatter. I don't mean it that way but I have a way of intimidating non-curious people.

    I looke forward to reading your blog. I'm adding you to the list I check daily.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good to meet you Linda - you're on my Google Reader as well now.
    Blogging is certainly fun and I enjoy (being so curious) talking to people in other countries. My latest person is a lady from India ...
    I hope that I'm not intimidating too much - I try to hide my impatience with those who are not curious - but perhaps it seeps out occasionally.
    I look forward to your comments. You might like to peek at Journeys in Creative Writing as well ...
    My fiction.
    Cheers
    June

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is my first visit to your blog. You've really created some "food for thought." I have a good friend who is bi-polar. She had finally found the correct medication. There is such a stigma attached to mental illness. You are absolutely correct - no one knows where mental illness will strike next.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for the chat Sweetie. Yes, we really must speak about mental illness - that's the only way such difficult problems will not be ignored.
    I'm pleased for your friend with bi-polar - it's so often trial and error for a long time. It must be hard for people to persevere.
    I hope your family difficulties resolve themselves in some way.
    Hugs
    June in Oz

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi June. Thanks for visiting my blog. I wanted to return the favor,and am very glad that I did. I think we'll get along just fine.

    Forgive me if I don't write much today. Just had an eye exam, and the drops still have my pupils dilated so that I can barely see what I am doing. More very soon, I promise.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Welcome Bobbie
    Take care of those eyes!
    See you soon ...
    Cheers
    June

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for your comment. It's good to know who's taking a peek! I will certainly reply to your message.
Maybe you'll also be interested in my other blog www.journeysincreativewriting.blogspot.com