zerostao Posted March 20, 2022 (edited) A day of balance. Most folks look forward to Spring; it is here ! How to make the best of it ?!! We could all join together in meditation with goals of Peace, Health, Happiness, Kindness, Respect,,, Ok, Ok, maybe everyone won’t join in. Still, what will you do? Humble and grateful, I am beginning the day in awestruck wonder of new possibilities, creative energies, Nature and Dao. the inconceivable Nature of Dao. My wish is that each of you make the best of today’s grand possibilities Edited March 20, 2022 by zerostao 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
steve Posted March 20, 2022 I appreciate this post. While I can’t say I have a specific objective in mind at the moment, I am inspired to face the day with a renewed sense of openness and possibility. Warm regards! 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RobB Posted March 20, 2022 How to make the best of it? By shaving your beard off! I tend to stop shaving on the autumnal equinox and take it up again in spring - in the future, my beard, and beards like mine will be the only reliable indicators of seasonal change! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Geof Nanto Posted March 20, 2022 8 hours ago, zerostao said: A day of balance. Most folks look forward to Spring; it is here ! How to make the best of it ?!! We could all join together in meditation with goals of Peace, Health, Happiness, Kindness, Respect,,, Ok, Ok, maybe everyone won’t join in. Still, what will you do? Humble and grateful, I am beginning the day in awestruck wonder of new possibilities, creative energies, Nature and Dao. the inconceivable Nature of Dao. My wish is that each of you make the best of today’s grand possibilities Yes, but please keep in mind that this is a worldwide forum. Autumn here in the southern hemisphere. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zerostao Posted March 20, 2022 13 minutes ago, Yueya said: Yes, but please keep in mind that this is a worldwide forum. Autumn here in the southern hemisphere. Also, a day of balance. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nungali Posted March 20, 2022 (edited) Indeed ! But still, there is bloom . A few things 'go off' here on the autumnal equinox . Some naturally , like my many 'coral' bromeliads that have just started flowering . But I notice other stuff, which seems unusual ; my lemonade tree has green fruit on it that where flowers last spring equinox but amidst that are more new flowers ? ? ? Lillipilli is flowering and fruiting . We just had a LOT of rain * and that seems to have stopped , its still soggy but now all the vegetation is brilliant and bright . I think we have had our wet season ? Hopefully we can settle down to a pleasant autumn . At least the rivers are full and healthy . I imagine the one at the front of Yueya's place is very full and flowing . * WE got off lightly , all up the coast, small regional towns got smashed , many still have no accommodation, shelter, water , food, fuel and ATMs out of cash Friend sent me a picture of a washed away bridge with a twisted car / washing machine / playground equipment way up in top of a huge tree ! Edited March 20, 2022 by Nungali 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dwai Posted March 21, 2022 Spent a few hours doing taijiquan and meditating with my friends. Happy Spring! 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Geof Nanto Posted March 21, 2022 22 hours ago, Nungali said: We just had a LOT of rain * and that seems to have stopped , its still soggy but now all the vegetation is brilliant and bright . I think we have had our wet season ? Hopefully we can settle down to a pleasant autumn . At least the rivers are full and healthy . I imagine the one at the front of Yueya's place is very full and flowing . Yes, weeks of rain recently! Even the frogs found it a bit much: I was flooded in for a week or so (as I imagine you were) but that’s not so unusual and it doesn’t worry me. Fortunately, the town where I do my shopping (about 50km away) wasn’t flooded. The levee there wasn’t topped, just, but smaller towns further down the Clarence River were inundated. But nothing like the terrible devastation they suffered a little further up north with unprecedented flooding. Here’s how the river at my place looks as of yesterday. It’s running fast, about half a metre higher than normal. Nothing like a couple of weeks ago when it was a raging torrent and where I’m standing to take the photo was almost 10 metres under water. (To give some dimensions to the photo, the river where shown is about 70 metres wide and you can see the water upstream to the first bend about 1km away.) There’s been several floods as high or higher than that during the 20 plus years I’ve lived here. But never before has there been triple flood peaks over a couple of weeks like happened this time. The riparian zone was saturated for so long I expected significant erosion and damage to the vegetation, but was very pleased to see how well it has survived. The native vegetation regeneration work I’ve done along my side of the river over the time I’ve been here is proving pleasingly resilient. It’s also now an amazing place to walk through, especially when it’s hot; it’s cool and shady with plenty of wildlife. The birds love it. And the river is great to swim in (when it’s not flooding 😊). 4 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Geof Nanto Posted March 29, 2022 (edited) Heaps more rain again yesterday and last night on the already soaked ground. The causeway down the road is bound to be too flooded to safely cross for the next few days at least. But as I wasn’t planning on going anywhere anyway, that doesn’t worry me. What I don’t like though about extended wet periods is that I tend to spend all day inside rather than doing stuff outside and wandering the forest as is my usual daytime activity. I’ll check out the river once it stops raining but I know it has risen considerably because there is an automatic river level monitoring station about a km downstream from my place. This is what it’s showing now: Looks like it will peak about 9 metres, so not a level that’s likely to cause riparian zone damage. But the place where I stood to take the above photo will be over 6 metres underwater now and the river a muddy torrent once again. Edit to update: Well, I was wrong about the river peaking at 9 metres. It’s now peaked at a little over 11 metres. I didn’t realise how much rain had fallen further up in the catchment area. I’m not so optimistic now about minimal riparian zone damage, especially considering that the banks were already soft from previous inundation. This is the fourth flood peak in less than a month. Totally unprecedented in living memory around here. Nothing I can do though but wait and see. I do my best to heal the land where I can and give the native fauna a place where they can roam freely. I’ve gained plenty of wisdom (and healthy qi) through my relationship with the land and it is very much a part of my cultivation practice. We have a saying around here, “Help heal the land, the land helps heal you”. As part of this education, I’ve learnt through fire and flood to accept how nature both nurtures and destroys in massive ways. Edited March 30, 2022 by Yueya 2 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nungali Posted March 30, 2022 I am in a similar situation , 'our' bridge out went under day before yesterday . Local town is split in two by the flooded river and north and south parts are isolated ... as will everyone be that lives outside of town . Low parts of town got evac orders . Newry Island ; huge flat island near the river mouth ( that got approved for development year back ! WTF ???? ) just received evac orders . Many of the homes there are big expensive spreads and built ON GROUND on concrete slabs . Lismore , that got totally ravaged last month by a huge flood got hit again and emergency advice was to evacuate AGAIN ! But then early evening they cancelled that and said the river will not breech the levee so you can now go home . ..... at NIGHTFALL !!! Well, it did breech the levee in the middle of the night ! What an incredible stuff up ! ( My place is well upstream away from flood planes and well elevated many times above river flood heights ) . Poor Lismore ( and everyone else up that way ) ; 2 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nungali Posted March 30, 2022 Yeuya's area and my area are linked by one of the few roads that cross the eastern divide ( The Great Dividing Range ) on the mid-east coast . The popular and scenic, pleasant drive along 'Waterfall Way ' . Well ..... usually ; This pic from 2nd last flood a few months back .... the remedial work done collapsed the flood after , so they did it again and the mountain road opened ( with 'remedial work ' ) last week . I'm guessing its all collapsed again . 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nungali Posted March 30, 2022 (edited) Sun is out - amidst a tiny patch of blue . Weather forecast has changed , no longer another week of rain . Big atmospheric swirly has gone SE out to sea . Wow, are the two waterfalls opposite my place PUMPING . I can hear them very clearly this morning. I heard some terrific muffled underwater thumps yesterday , probably huge trees being washed down river and smashing into the submerged bridge . I assume the bridge will emerge in a day or two ..... intact . . . hopefully . I Hope Yueya survived his isolation okay ... I heard he ran out of cheese Spoiler Thats a bit of a joke about how some people around my place, all of a sudden have to 'get out' when there is a flood , some times for the silliest of reasons , and then get into trouble . yesterday I got sent a pic of a car nose down at 45 degrees in a mud sink hole . We where all told it had formed ( it has been obvious for a week anyway ) and not to drive along that bit of road , but someone did ..... dont know why , the property is flooded in and there is no where else they could drive to .... except their friends place on the side of the property .... a 15 min walk with umbrella and gumboots - now I feel like cheese too ! Grilled cheese on toast .... hmmmm , maybe if I could kayak to the shop ... Edited March 30, 2022 by Nungali 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
