Image: a male superb lyrebird, but I think the one I saw was female. It made a jukebox of sounds: a mixtape of birdcalls and one that sounded like a hip hop track on the radio.
Hey all,
A quick one this week because it looks like some of you haven’t gotten around to last week’s yet.
Also, as you might have guessed from the title of this newsletter, I’m not in the city at the moment. We’re staying in a house nestled between the Ku-Rin-Gai National Park and Pittwater, north of Sydney. We’re surrounded by bush and lots of birds, as well as wallabies at dawn and the occasional echidna. At the same time that the lyrebird was sounding off, we had a brush-turkey digging up the front garden, and a kookaburra sitting nonchalant on the balcony, preening.
Images: Australian brush-turkey and the actual kookaburra friend we had on the balcony
Today I went for a bush walk and for the first hour or so I was completely alone. You start the walk by wading across a tidal inlet at the end of the beach, then climb up a few large rocks to where the track begins. You then wind your way around the headland among eucalypts and ferns, and if the mood takes you, as it did me today, you can climb straight up to the ridge and walk along a fire access trail. Along the ridge there is an abundance of grevillea, and the high-pitched twittering of honeyeaters and fairy-wrens.
Images: grevillea and superb fairy-wrens (M+F)
It’s a privilege to be able to get away from the city during the pandemic and the spike of COVID cases that hit Melbourne a couple of weeks ago. Sydney has so far kept its small outbreak under some control, but living where we do in a high-density suburb has kept us on our toes. On our way up to the National Park, it was interesting to note in which suburbs face masks were on full display and in which ones the residents seemed cavalier. It’s interesting just how difficult it is to learn a culture of wearing face coverings for some people.
Speaking of, I finished the book, Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes, and in the final chapter a passage stood out as a real paradigm changer. As I don’t have the book with me, I will write more about it next week. The gist is that we, in the ‘West’, are far more culture-bound than we think. Freedom of the individual is a concept that can take a culture only so far, and the US is showing us to what extent as we speak.
OK, a round up of Things of Interest this week:
The Unravelling of America: how COVID-19 signals the end of the American era
Why We Need to Save the Parasites — unfortunately, we really do
Fantastic documentary about the Marshall Islands and how climate change is threatening a whole nation:
Speaking of climate change, Craig Reucassel and the ABC have made a new docuseries called ‘Fight For Planet A: Our Climate Challenge’. If you can, watch it on iView.
Funny and unsettling — The Honest Pre-flight Safety Demonstration Video That Airlines Are Afraid to Show You:
The Cinematography That Changed Cinema:
And two channels for those of you who enjoy Japanese cooking. One is called ‘Peaceful Cuisine’ and includes serene videos of cooking vegan dishes:
The other seems to have been started during lockdown in Japan and includes a young mum and her ridiculously cute daughter cooking homemade, and easy, Japanese dishes at home:
That’s it from me! Stay safe and please share if you think someone would enjoy receiving these. Also, please share any videos or articles you’d think I’d enjoy.
Later! x