And this is the year I become a Coastal Ambassador!  A great thing to combine with walking for a good cause - I aim to do some coastal walks to give me some insight into what's happening to our coastline.  One thing I've already learnt is that seagrass is a vital part of our environment.  It used to be all over our coast, but has virtually disappeared from many urban coastlines.  I've also been learning about the hooded plover which I was completely unaware of until I moved down to the coast.  Until their nests were marked out and protected by simple fencing, people were quite obliviously walking over them and crushing the eggs.

More to come this weekend - we are kayaking in the mangroves at Port Adelaide.  I'll be taking my camera, hoping to get some interesting wildlife shots!

Happy Chinese New Year!  Now is a good time for me to resume blogging after a very quiet period.  Black Dog is getting very arthritic these days so we are taking far shorter walks, but she's still determined to help out with this year's Walk in Her Shoes Challenge
She has allowed me to put her image on a tshirt to suport the cause: anyone who joins our team can have a free tshirt!
But you might just like to donate to a good cause

radio plays rock

I saw this on stage and the radio version's almost as good!
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/airplay/9-fragments-of-sappho/3992040

Poetry goes viral

When the Radio Adelaide 101.5FM show 'Poets on Air' had its funding withdrawn at the beginning of this year I assumed  poetry was going to remain permanently unfashionable, but it seems to be spreading slowly but slyly not just over the Internet but onto the airwaves and podcasts as well.  Thanks to acclaimed poet and fellow blogger Mike Hopkins, Adelaide poets are getting a fair hearing at last.  Follow their progress on http://mistakenforarealpoet.wordpress.com and listen in to The Poet Stripped Bare on RN on Sunday June 3 at 10.05am.  To hear more about the Nameless Project, look up Streetcast's interview with Royce on Radio Adelaide.

While all this was happening, I was being enthralled by William Kentridge at ACMI and the Persian illustrated poets at the Victorian State Library.  The first one is sadly finished now, but the other one is on for a while to come - the catalogue is well worth investing in, as the pictures are very small and the room dimly lit.  For a dose of Rumi, try this.

The Endeavour departs

This is the Endeavour replica leaving Adelaide, photographed by my friend Jose. She's aided and abetted by a pair of very modern engines - in the old days the original ship couldn't go anywhere without a wind.

Bon voyage! Adios! See you next time!

Sense at last!

I was listening innocently to Classic FM today when I heard David Gillespie talking clear common sense at last about the overweight epidemic that has the health systems of affluent countries on their knees. I had long ago decided that there's nothing wrong with eggs, butter and animal fat - we've been eating them for thousands of years, unlike that revolting invention called margarine, and canola oil, the petrol substitute that is now being grown instead of other genuinely nutritious crops.

When I googled him I found suspiciously little about him (he is after all just a lawyer, not a nutritionist or a doctor, or even a food producer with a vested interest in marketing certain products), apart from this site:

http://www.sarahwilson.com.au/2012/03/six-big-fat-myths-about-fat-a-podcast-with-david-gillespie/#comment-202977

I suggest that if you've tried everything else, try cutting out sugar. The strongest message was his opening statement - that on average we used to consume 2kgs of sugar per year - now we consume 50kg per year.

well I'm not too good at keeping up this blog, but I could say that's because I'm too busy... have been trying my hand at recording fringe reviews for Radio Adelaide, which is totally new and has nothing to do with what Black Dog considers is my real job, i.e. carving her image in blocks of wood and taking her for walks by the sea. She was also highly insulted when I forsook her company for three nights and spent them shipkeeping on the Endeavour replica in Port Adelaide. A wonderful experience, it's a shame they don't let dogs on board. This is what part of her (the ship) looks like in the dark.

No, I didn't have to climb the rigging, but I had my first experience of sleeping in a hammock, and did reasonably well.