The Hopenfogels

My lil ol' blog is two years old today, and to celebrate, I have decided to create an award.

Every year on the 29th of May, we here at the Land of Meg will announce the winner of The Hopenfogel award. Hopenfogel means Hoopoe bird in German.

Hoopoes were considered sacred in Ancient Egypt, and symbols of virtue in Persia, but I have chosen them as the namesake for my annual award because Hopenfogel was my great grandmother Edith's maiden name, and it brings to mind all the impressive women in her lineage.

There are no criteria for the award. Some years there may be more than one winner, some years there may nominations in several categories, some years I may forget all together, but for this year's award, there is a single winner.

And it is Norrie.

From The Age, March 10, 2010:

This Mardi Gras, Norrie received a gift that no other androgynous person in NSW has had before.

The night before the parade, the postman brought a certificate from the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages that contained neither the dreaded ''M'' nor its equally despised cousin, ''F''.

Instead, it said ''sex not specified'', making the 48-year-old Sydneysider, who identifies as neuter and uses only a first name, the first in the state to be neither man nor woman in the eyes of the NSW government.

(Norrie has since had zie non-specified gender status withdrawn by the government who said that it is not permitted in law to state anything other than male or female on legal documents.)

But to us you are a winner. Congratulations Norrie! This inaugural Hopenfogel belongs to you.

All in Good Time

The found plastic we hung on the hook when we took down the kitchen clock.

The bit of scrap paper I stuck on my laptop to cover the clock there too.

I don't know which gardening metaphor I like better: companion planting or self-seeding.

If I were a slug, I would have eaten this too.

But I'm not.

If you live in Central Victoria but don't have a garden of your own, feel free to come and share in our bountiful bounty in exchange for a green thumb workout. We have a listing on Shared Earth. Come share!

Portrait of the blogger as a bandita in her balaclava bought to make the frosty mornings bearable on her bike.

Rednesday: Streaming

From here.

I Made Cheese

I made cheese today. We had a choice of about 10 different kinds and I chose feta.

The class was held at a Community Centre about 30Km away. I have been working quite a bit at our local Community Centre so it was great to see how another one works. I was just as interested to see their kitchen and bathrooms and notice boards, as I was to do the course.

This is Dorothy our teacher. She was wise and funny and said it's her dream to see everyone in Australia making their own cheese.

This is the cheese I made. It's currently in the fridge bathing in brine. Tomorrow I will drain it and replace the liquid with olive oil, garlic, black pepper and a bay leaf.

How did they make cheese in the olden days? How did the Greeks make feta all those centuries ago without all our modern technical know-how and gadgets? Homer, in The Odyssey wrote: "Every one in that country, whether master or man, has plenty of cheese..." What lucky folk they were! And me too, even though I'll have to settle for being a man with this one, as the art of it is not something I'm ever likely to master.

Rednesday: Kapow

From here.

The Honour

International Women's Day is on Monday, and to celebrate, our town had its annual IWD event to add the names of exemplary local women to its Honour Roll. In this photo, midwife Sally McCrae is accepting her honour. Under extreme political pressure, Sally fights, and walks the talk for women who choose to birth at home.

Later in the night, the keynote speaker from the International Women's Development Agency spoke. In her speech she pointed out that although women have so much to celebrate, we still have a long way to go until equality for all is reached. I agree. She read out some statistics including: only 3% of the CEOs in the ASX companies are women.

This percentage represents an enormous gender inequality and reminds us that although women may vote and live independent lives, we should remember who really holds the power.

I say, you can shove your corporate power up your ass. This statistic is not a measure of women's deficiency, but of their virtue.

The planet is in serious trouble because of greedy CEOs, so why would we want to participate in the corporate model? When decisions are made because of shareholder profits instead of forests and air and flowers and fish, why would we want to play with you? We don't value you what you value. We value what you cut down, what you poison, what you maim.

Some might argue that the system needs more women in order to turn it around, but I don't think that's true. What we need is a brand new systems approach; not one that is measured by a disembodied GDP, but one that functions within in a steady state economy.

I hope you have a great International Women's Day on Monday!

May our hearts be strong, and our vaginas, happy.

A Food Forest

My cheesy tourist shot.

View from the 5th floor of the MCA.

As a result of the Artist as Family project we did in Newcastle, I am very excited to share the news that we have been invited to participate in the In the balance: art for a changing world show at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in Sydney from 19 August to 23 November 2010.

The project we have proposed is a community food forest. We will have a presence in the gallery, though our main body of work will be in a public park.

We have been to Sydney twice in the last month to meet with the MCA and the City of Sydney to discuss the details of our project and to agree on the right site for the work.

We have just updated our Artist as Family blog with our first post of the project. Do check in on us there from time to time to read about our progression. We will be listing the details of our workshops and working bees, so if you're in the Sydney region, please keep in touch and come and join us.

Fieldwork

Things are changing in the Land of Meg. For the next three years, PJ will be a student again, undertaking research for his doctoral thesis in the areas of ecology and poetics. Part of his research is to document our family's transition from being oil dependent to as self-sufficient as we can be in terms of water, energy and food.

Here is the nerdy student this afternoon building some small raised vegie beds along our permaculture swale.

He is lucky enough to be on scholarship for the duration of his studies, which means he won't have to work and I'll have to work a lot less, which will give us both a lot more time to work on our individual projects and a lot more time to work on nothing, together.

38 18 7 33 37 20 40

These were the winning numbers for the lotto ticket I bought. Of the seven numbers, I had four, which entitled me to the princely sum of $20.80, which I spent on groceries for tonight's dinner.

PJ went out, so it was just Z and I sitting out on the deck eating the winnings, talking about all the wonderful comments people left to say why they are happy to be alive.

"Today I am happy to be alive because I saw a tree reflected in a heart-shaped puddle," I announced.

"I'll be the tree and you can be the puddle that holds it," Z said.

And so I was.

A Death Defying Giveaway

We have been camping the last 5 nights at Lalgambook (Mt Franklin). We have been coming home during the day to let the chooks out, replenish supplies and swim in the beautiful Lake Daylesford.

Last night we drove up the mountain late. Some friends had set up camp nearby and their kids were going to sleep just as we rocked up. It was cold and windy. We ate our dinner in the safe cocoon of the tent, while watching a movie on our laptop.

We were about three quarters of the way through the film when we heard an almighty CRACK then the terrifying sound of a tree falling. PJ and I jumped into each other's arms, as if love was going to protect our flimsy bones.

"Is everybody OK?" a voice called out. We raced out of the tent to inspect the damage: a huge branch, about a metre in diameter and 15 metres long had fallen from the tree above our heads. It missed our tents and narrowly missed our car. All the campers on the mountain came with lanterns and torches to see what had happened and to inspect the inside of the tree that had been hollowed out by white ants.

It would have been romantic to die together, squashed into the earth by a tree. But I'm much happier to be where I am today, walking in the land of the living.

To test our luck even further (and to celebrate my birthday on Monday), I have bought a lotto ticket for this Tuesday night's $30 million draw. If I win more than $100, I will divvy the winnings amongst all those who leave a comment listing one reason why you're happy to be alive today too.

Comments close Tuesday, January 19 at 5pm, Australian Eastern Daylight Time.

The giveaway is open to all residents of the world.

Winning payments will be made via PayPal only.

Bonne chance!