i hEart horticulture...

THe british friends Leona & Danny summoned me to the Woods Nursery for a new job. I am now potting, separating, weeding & fertilizing water plants, not to mention racing around on quads (dreamboat). The three of us are staying on the property for free which is cool except there is no shower so we use a hose in the old happy bamboo quarantine area. But after dark it's just us. It is sweet because we get the mobile kitchen trailer bathroom all to ourselves. We spend a lot of time in there because you can't see a thing after the sun goes down. The great part of living where you work is that you don't have any commute or ever have to prepare your lunch, the bad part of living where you work is that you never go home, you are home, always. kinda creepy.

!the main tent!
perk of living on site: fig trees to raid after hours

!quad-love!
the bosses are going out of town this weekend
so we will have a drag race

!this is where i spend a lot of time!
(talking to the plants)
they are noble

freedom is a state of mind...

there are many times i wonder why me?

why do i have the pleasure of enjoying this radical freedom?...

but then i am reminded that i am sleeping in a station wagon, the camp bathroom is way too far for a middle of the night pee (which means i am covertly popping squats outside my car) & i stop on the way to work to rinse all the dirt off my feet so i don't look as homeless. fortunately these are sacrifices i am willing to make...but yesterday i got to a point where i was genuinely over the vagabonding lifestyle.

first,

i thought i would accept a job cleaning bathrooms at a nice camp ground/cabins i stayed at over the weekend. why you ask?

a. i thought it would be an interesting experience

b. you actually make really good money!

c. it is right by my favorite beach in Denmark

but then yesterday morning the wife of the guy who hired me called to tell me i am not "required" anymore, which is a condescending way of saying: no job. granted i could tell from the beginning that it was her husband who favored me... and i did have visions of punching her in the face when she told me late check out was $50...and there might have been a towel missing from the cabin...but all factors aside, i never thought i would be "let go" from a bathroom cleaning job...it was too early for such a low blow to my ego.

then, i was driving the station wagon to the beach before work to clear the upset & i pulled into what i thought was a parking spot but was actually a walkway. i drove into a lovely wood post in such a way as to jar the passenger side door permanently shut. this means that only 3 of the 5 doors actually open ->last week the panel beater broke the back door in a similar way (which i thought was ghetto enough). oh & the rear view mirror fell off some time in between.

later as i was cooking, just as my tofu reached perfection, i picked up the fry pan & apparently the screw was loose on the handle & it flipped upside down, dropping my dinner in the dirt. this was the point of total frustration. actually i almost cried but then a Malaysian woman who witnessed the defeat yelled to me, "hey just wash it off, this is what they call 'roughing it'". i am proud to say i picked the tofu out of the dirt, cleaned it, & recooked it.

i guess this is what they mean by "freedom has its price".

sunDAy aftenoon hike, southwest australia

sAmson & deLilah

At first I was merely captivated by their artwork...

Beauty flows from the Aboriginal painters so freely as if possessed by the magic of the land they worship. To me, the color & simplicity of their artwork is seductive beyond any modern art of more "civilised" cultures.

Yet hidden behind these beautiful creations is darkness. Similar to the Native Americans, the Aboriginal communities have not adapted to the western ways inflicted onto them. THey are suffering from severe substance abuse, poverty & are almost completely removed from society.

While it might seem that Aboriginals are not a very advanced people, their simple perspective on the world is in a way far more advanced than the institutions that define us. Aboriginals are a people of the land: they belong to the land, the land doesn't belong to them. The concept of ownership doesn't exist to them & anything earned is shared amongst the tribe.That being said you can see why it would be hard to assimilate to western ideals. Standing one foot in society & one foot out, the Aboriginals are slowly loosing touch with their own culture while being defeated by ours.

As i have started to learn more about this situation (and taking a passionate interest in their artwork), someone suggested I see the film Samson & Delilah. Wow. I highly recommend it. There is hardly any dialogue (which in normal circumstances would instantly turn me off) but somehow you are still moved beyond expectation. It was written & directed by an Aboriginal & none of the cast had previously acted.

A day in the life....