Husband Father Teacher Pilgrim

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I was tagged today in the 25 random things meme in Facebook. I wrote up the 25 random things and posted it and duly tagged 25 others.

One of those others worked out that I had lived in Woomera during my childhod. She suggested that I look at some of he Facebook groups for Woomera.

I did. I joined the group of people who had been to school in Woomera.

In doing some research to write an intro, I used the google map for Woomera. The emotions that it envoked were almost overwhelming. Childhood memories came flooding back.

When was the last time you visited a child hood place that had significant meaning for you?

Sharing our world

Sharing our world with other creatures.

The picture on the left, is the pile of left overs from the rodent feast on the grapes on the grapevine the night before.

Our yard is a strata title block. The original block belonged to a retired farmer. Its full of fruit trees and there is a large grape vine that has ended up in our yard. There is plenty of tucker for small creatures.

Usually the word "rat" brings a reaction of disgust from most people. There are good reasons for that. The rat has been the carrier of deadly disease. Yet the rat is always with us.

The cat is always with us too. This fellow in the second picture sitting a safe distance away, but bold enough at that distance to sit there while I took its photo. We don't own a cat but the neighborhood cats have worked out between them who owns our yard.

The cats stay out of the backyard mostly. That is the domain of the Jack Russel terrier who lives with us.

Between the cats and the Jack Russel the rats get a hard time. We used to poison and trap the rats but that has its own problems.

At this stage, I think, we all seem to have an understanding with regard to the environment we share. Even, If it it means cleaning up the left overs from another creature's evening meal.

Am I maintaining a balance?

I managed to leave school by 4:40 today.

There was a bit of a hitch, because I was organising some software. Actually, if I'm honest, I was playing software. I have to be careful of this. It's easy for me to become distracted by interesting little pieces of software. The cost of spending the time on such software is not worth the benefit I get from their application.

On the plus side, I have managed to eat might lunch today, to drink enough water, and I am leaving school before five o'clock. Also I am on my way to the gym to get some exercise.

In terms of keeping balance: among one of the really important keys, apparently, is to attend to what is important in front of you at the time. As an example I am going to the gym now before I get home. I need to go to the gym. If I put it off, went home, mucked about before I went to the gym I could lose a couple of hours by the time I finally got round to it.

Students aren't at school yet so the real test of whether I can maintain a balance has not really begun. However the first few steps are looking reasonably positive.

Johno's First Home

27012009219.jpg
Originally uploaded by montgorp.

I was driving my son home today and we went past the house we brought him home to from the hospital just after he was born,

Its still the same. The block has been subdivided. So there is a house on the back now. But the original house is much the same.

I drove up the street explaining the history of the street to him.

My wife lived a few doors up from this house when I first met her. That house was gone, unfortunately, before we came back to the street to live there.

I pleasant moment sharing memories with my son.

Reading novels again

On Friday night when I met with Tim for Coffee, I mentioned that I would like to read novels again but had not found anything that gripped me.

I have so conditioned myself to read quickly that I find it difficult to read novels. Novels have to be read slowly and savored.

After talking about it a bit, we wondered over to the second hand book store that was over the road. Having said that I liked action adventure he guided me to David Morrell.

I am about halfway through this one, "The Protector". As TIm said it is any easy read, He described it as at  the pulp fiction end of the market. I'm not sure what he means by that. He's an English teacher. I'm a Maths teacher.

Tim would like me to be reading something more challenging. He reads novels more for the ideas that they present. Its an intellectual pursuit for him. I'm not sure that I want to go there. I think that I'd prefer to read for entertainment.

Friday Night in Fremantle

Every second Friday night I am in Fremantle.

Clicking on the mosaic on the left will take you to my Flickr page where you can see a slide show of the images I took with my phone camera when I was there this last Friday night.

I go there to catch up with an old friend. Usually we sit at Gino's on the pavement, watching the world go by, sharing news and talking about our lives and interests.

Its my friend's favorite place in Perth its the only part of Perth that could be called cosmopolitan. Northbridge might lay claim to such a tag but its a small quarter just north of the city. Fremantle exists on its own as a port city.

Fremantle has its moods. On a Tuesday night if you were to go there you would find a quite old world place: a place to sit, read the paper and take in the sea air.

On a Friday night, however, it is a sea of people of all kinds. Early in the Evening, families dominate, with Mums, Dads and kids out for a meal, going home with a waffle cone icecream. Older couples are there also, enjoying alfresco dining.

As darkness falls, trendier younger people come out looking for fun, friendship and the rest of it. The younger and older sets retire leaving the young people milling around the entrances of the night clubs and the hotels.

This eb and flow of life is a wonderful context for the discussion of the problems and issues of the modern world.

The blessing of a garden

I was working in the yard this afternoon. 

The front grassed area still has craters in it from where tree and a shrub were taken out last year.

I went to work on the tree crater. I took the turf off and put it to one side. Then I leveled the soil underneath and scattered the turf around on the newly leveled soil.

This way the turf will grow out and cover the areas where the turf was lost when the tree was removed.

 

While out in the garden I was struck by the blessing that our yard is for us.

It doesn't require much maintenance.  All I do is keep it trimmed, throw anything I can on the garden as mulch and give it enough water (which isn't much).

Yet this garden produces these wonderful plants that were once prized indoor potted plants. It even grows maiden hair fern in its darker damper corners.

  One of the remarkable things about our garden is that it is self healing. We thought that we had lost this row of Camellias on the western fence to a virus disease. They were badly infected. However, in time and with a bit of care they have come good. No chemicals.

  Yep. I love our garden. It is a real blessing.

I am glad to have spent time in it this summer and trust that I will be able to spend more time it this year as I learn to say no to work.

 

Some energy at last

I have finally recovered from the 2008 school year. I now have enough energy to get out into our long neglected house yard and give it some tender loving care.

As you can see from the photo the front fence now has all its pickets back in place. I'd like to give it a coat of paint before school starts again.

The lawn, though still looking like a war zone, is starting to respond to my rehabilitation efforts. The dead crisp grass is being replaced by green shoots. We had a tree and a shrub removed last year. So there are still craters that need filling in. In fact, the whole area needs to be re-leveled.

It now feels better to walk out the front door. There is life. There is hope. :)

The rest of the property is also beginning to look like the owners live here (which we do) rather than the neglected rental property that it was looking like by the end of 2008.

This year (2009), as I keep saying to myself, I want to have a more balanced life. I want a life that has room for healthy things like spending time working outside in the yard.

We'll see. Teaching is an all consuming vocation. Will I have the maturity to say "No, enough is enough"?

New Monasticism and Anabaptism Conference

This coming weekend there is a conference in Melbourne that I would love to go to. Its purpose is to explore the connections between the Anabaptist network and the Neo-monastic movement.

Some of the speakers and participants are people that I would very much like to spend time with and explore ideas with.

My wife and I looked seriously at me going. We priced Airline tickets and considered the logistics.

But in the end timing beat us.

It is the weekend before all staff are due back at school. I would begin the year tired and with a head full of ideas and a gut full of emotions that would need to be worked through and processed.

Loading myself with this kind of burden right at the beginning of a school year would not be wise.

I take heart in the fact that the Peace Tree folk will be there and will be able to feed the results of the conference into the Perth Emergent/Radical/Anabaptist networks in various ways over time. All of us will benefit from that.

Catching up with Harry

My friends garden
Originally uploaded by montgorp.

I spent a very pleasant morning this morning working with Harry in Peace Tree's garden.

Peace Tree, for those of you that don't know, is a small community that lives in Lockridge, Western Australia. They attempt to model alternative ways of living that are more gentle on the earth and other people than mainstream culture.

I have known Harry for a while and enjoyed catching up. I found our conversation this morning most refreshing. It was great to have my hands in the dirt and my mind in philosophy.

I've heard it said that every Scottish farmer is also a philosopher. I like that: the combination of earth and mind.

I haven't seen Harry much in the last couple of years. My work has kept me away, as it has kept me from many things. I want to change this. So, I am trying to lay down some habits that will help me have a more balanced life. Staying closer in touch with my friends is one of the habits I need to cultivate.

Harry and I have agreed to catch up again in the same way next month. I am looking forward to it.