Through a combination of prior planning and neglect I’ve discovered that I have fish in my dam. Not just fish but many, sizable Silver Perch. It must have been about 4 years ago I bought a bag of 100 fingerlings at the Epsom Field Days. I released them into the...
“I feel very rich.” So wrote my sister Beth when relating the story of her “new” second-hand fridge. Beth is a writer and poet. I’m sure that I don’t need to tell you that in Australia that is a euphemism for being poor. Beth could have been anything. She was Dux of...
I’ve spent a week following the footsteps of Major Thomas Mitchell when he explored Victoria in 1836. The Major Mitchell trail was a Bi-Centennial project. I’ve seen the signs to it for over 30 years, but the signs always seem to point at right angles to the way I’m...
I’ve been reflecting a lot on weeds for the past couple of weeks as I’ve been out on my morning walk. I stay on the backtracks so the roadsides have been left pretty much to themselves for many years. I’ve been struck by the wide variety of weeds that survive and...
I am the youngest of four brothers and grew up on a dairy farm at Yarra Glen. There were six children in our family, but the two girls were spared from farm work. As the youngest brother, I was assigned the most menial tasks. My older brothers on the other hand took...
We bought a new fermenter. It was big, and bright, being made of shiny, stainless steel. Three times as large as our existing fermenters, we expected it to significantly increase production. And it almost worked! The brewers were very keen to begin using this new...
I’ve been hand-rearing a couple of lambs. One of the lambs is an orphan, the other rejected by its mother. They are cute looking little beasts, Merino/Suffolk crosses with black markings on their heads and legs. I’m going to give you the long version of how I came to...
There are moments in our lives of transcendence when we see ourselves and the world clearly. We are inspired, floating above the trivia of life. Perhaps we are in love for the first time, perhaps we have found our true vocation, the birth of a child, we receive...
Sometimes I feel like a rebellious child who just wants to do what I want, when I want and with whoever I want. I didn’t need Timothy Leary the famous figure of the counterculture of the 1960s who told us to “think for yourself and question authority”....
This is one of my favourite Bruce Springsteen songs. It seemed to be saying something to me during this Covid-19 Pandemic. The message that we need to support each other and wait for each other seems very relevant as different states and countries make progress at...
