Joyous day

It may be Friday the Thirteenth but what a glorious offering from nature

The first of the autumn winds arrived from the south of the country bringing a further downward change in humidity and temperature

Oh wild west(south) wind

Thou breath of Autumn being

A piece of Shelley which seems to fit so perfectly

It was a day to feel alive, thankful ,and spiritually in touch with all one cares about

Old contacts by post

It was the shrill whistle of the postman that roused me from my reading and sent me off  to collect the daily delivery

The usual assortment of bills etc fell to hand with the exception of one particular letter

I recognized it immediately as a card posted several months previously and now returned It was the writing that hit me like a line lifted from Banjo Patterson

A reply had come directed

In a writing unexpected

For I think the same was written

By a thumbnail dipped in tar

It was an address, hastily scribbled on the envelope, that now gave me a feeling of hope and satisfaction. It was my chance to make possible contact with a mate whom I had lost touch with so many years ago.  A mate who had left the area and sadly as is the case with us men we had let the communications lapse.

Retirement with its capacity for pursuing these things has begun to make its mark

A change of season

In an earlier post I mentioned that living in the dry tropics means there are really only two seasons of the year  The green season and the brown season when the rains cease and what we know of autumn and winter arrive.

Change, however slight, is now with us and there is an air of expectation of better weather around. The humidity has dropped considerably and morning temperatures have reached a low (for us) 17 degrees C

We walked the foreshore this morning and from the sheer beauty of the clear sky and calm blue sea one would think all was well in the world

On returning home a quiet cup of tea on the porch allowed time for a close look at the hill tops where the grasses are beginning their transition to brown and the soil beginning to harden without the falling rain

The words of John Clare in his poem Autumn  came to mind

Hill tops like iron glitter bright in the sun

And the rivers we’re eyeing burn to gold as they run

Burning hot is the ground   liquid gold is the sky

Whoever looks round sees eternity there

 The gullies on the hill sides still hold moisture and that keeps the native trees that line them green causing them to stand out like veins on a large leaf .

The Wood swallows have arrived and have begun their dry weather clumping and the first leaf on our only exotic tree has begun to turn yellow

Yes all is well in the world again as nature takes her course

Democracy at work

We have in this country always taken great pride in our commitment to democracy and have in the past even gone to war to defend this status .It underpins our very being of the country we are

After a recent election in this State I have become alarmed at how fragile democracy can be
There has just been  a democratic   election and the outcome was a great surprise.  Whilst few believed the incumbent Government would survive even fewer could foresee the outcome with the opposition party completing almost a clean sweep of all the seats in the State Parliament.

It was almost a comprehensive victory and whilst a lot rejoiced (the Government of the day has lost popular support) a   few reflected on this result

It was not really about which side won but the sheer size of the win and the responsibility that comes with such power that caused me to wonder .It was almost possible for the opposition to have won every seat and have no opposition to place an alternate view or apply scrutiny to policies. The very thought of a one party State is sobering and its possible in an extreme case a dictatorship could be easily delivered via a ballot box

Political parties of most persuasion have had times of questionable actions and policies and we have seen this first hand in this State when Ministers of the Crown have been goaled for corruption  including in one instance a Premier facing Court and even a senior Police Officer being stripped of a Knighthood and goaled for corruption  Almost all in cases where power was not monitored sufficiently

My friend and I discussed this at length and concluded that absolute power can easily corrupt unless that power is subject to examination. My friend was of the optimistic  view and said quoting from Hartley “The past is a foreign country – they do things differently there “

I however was a little more pessimistic on this occasion and countered with Santayana who said- “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”