Autumn

As the leaves of the oak turn yellow, and the Manchurian pear foliage turns that bright red in accompaniment with the Japanese maples, it becomes obvious this is the season of the large birds. The satin bower birds, currawongs, sulphur crested cockatoos, magpies and Choughs who are plundering the apples, walnuts and just generally busy round the place have take over for the time being. The wrens, flycatchers honey eaters, have gone though the ever present crimson Rosella's are here still, enjoying the continued feed on poultry seed and apples of various varieties. The smaller birds have probably gone to spend winter in the forest, the bushland where it's a bit warmer and will return close to spring as always. The falcon streams through the air here at a rate of knots and doesn't make a kill because it's getting too difficult to be unseen to alight in a handy tree on a hill, to chose a quarry. There are too many eyes about, and though she has come along the water race and through the open space of the cottage forecourt then out the other end and into the forest on the hill and not been observed. It was because of her speed and feeding time for the poultry. She didn't attempt to grab and kill something on her way through because her speed was such that it would have killed her as well to make any sort of contact with her prey at such a pace, so close to the ground.

There is never a time when it's not beautiful here, though I am aware beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that actually living in a place day to day rather than just passing through might tarnish its attraction because of the effort required to survive there. We enjoy living simply, which doesn't mean living easily. Nature is a great landlord, but has no care for her tenants, they must look after their own needs and leave the place better than they found it. To do otherwise will mean a forfeit of a kind that no one can afford.

Thought......

The tao is often called the way, the gate or the path, and yet what is it? Not a great deal has been written about the tao, because it is not for the telling, as it can't be told. It is rather how people live, look at life, the string of questions which life is. So being in the flow of the tao is simple and can be easily achieved if nothing is special or everything is special. The tao is a matter of appreciation, of being constantly questioning. I have written the tao in small letters, because it is as special as any other word and most words are written in small letters. A capital is used is to point out a significance, and that is not the way of the tao. Being and finding everything special and everything just as it should be. Not that it can't be improved, but first it must be questioned.