Insect Love

Yesterday's picture inspired me to write more about bugs. This in not necessarily your most favorite subject, but in Australia bugs represent a richer source of life and excitement than you can imagine. There are spiders, wasps, bees, stick and leaf bugs, butterflies and moths, termites and so on, just an endless list of amazing creatures. They are killers, such as the Sydney funnel web spider and even the centipedes or scorpions, but not many people die bitten anymore, as the anti-venome is widely available. Bugs don't kill people like people kill other people, in wars and criminal or terrorist acts, they just defend themselves and in the process they inflict some terrible pain onto us. What I wanted to write about bugs today was love. If you thought they are not capable of showing love, think twice. Just look at today's picture of two children’s stick insects, female in green and male in peach-brown! Seeing this natural affection certainly makes me feel love towards these bugs, too. I said in other posts that I rush out the door in the morning scared of the huge spiders hanging just outside the main entrance, but when I think about it, I realize I have to learn to ignore and respect bugs. They are not chasing me. I think they are after me, but are they? If I don’t bother a wasp nest in the garden, will I ever get stung? I think the variety of bugs and some of their incredible habits are a source of inspiration, too, which should make everyone love bugs. Tomorrow I will write about such a fact related to figs. Surprise!

Overprotecting Parents

Yesterday I got a message from my daughter’s school that was asking parents to react at the refusal of VicRoads to implement a 40 km/h restriction on a street that does not pass directly around the school, but in its vicinity, and is a main road. Currently, the speed limit there is 60 km/h. Children often cross that road at a traffic light near the school, but because the road is important, there is a lot of traffic and the associated dangers. Just yesterday morning, before reading this message, I saw a car crossing on a red light at a similar pedestrian crossing, where there was no intersecting street and no red light camera. So I agree that reckless driving is a danger but it is a danger to everyone, kids or adults, at all crossings. In my opinion this has to do with the fact that the law here gives priority to cars, not to pedestrians, thus instilling a lack of respect towards everyone walking. Pedestrians have to allow the cars to pass first at the corners of secondary streets, and of course, the number of drivers who have the courtesy to let a kid cross first even around the school is extremely low. I know that from my own experience and I have been scared to step into even a very small street to cross it if a car came in the same time, as most of the time the car would be passing very fast. Too fast! Cars drive too fast in general in all suburbs on the small streets because there is no sign for speed limit, like on the main roads. So back to the message from school, I think that kids must get used to the traffic dangers in this country and their parents have to stop being overprotected to illogical extent: for roads too far from the school, traffic lights are just enough. The kids have to learn to make eye contact with the drivers of the cars, to make sure they stop on red, and have to cross in groups when possible, to be sure they are noticed. Parental overprotection made me think of two things: big city traffic and the animal world. Primary school kids in New York and other big cities cross six lanes of traffic without ANY speed limit imposed on traffic. The centipede mother in the picture Tiziano took a year ago in Wilson’s Promontory is protecting its brood of eggs with understandable dedication, because if she doesn’t lick them continuously to keep them clean, fungus kills them…

Paradise Boat

A few years ago we spent one week in East Gippsland, three-four hours East of Melbourne. We stayed in Metung, but explored parks and beaches around Lakes Entrance and the Ninety Mile Beach (marine miles, which makes the beach 94 miles or 154 km long). Rivers coming towards the sea dump the water in enormous lakes (King, Victoria and Wellington) that eventually make way through quite a narrow opening into the Bass Strait at the properly named place, Lakes Entrance. A thin strip of land consisting mostly of bush and beaches creates this really fragile border between the lakes and the ocean. Just looking at the map of the area you get the feeling about the uniqueness and beauty of this place. The white sand is often covered with birds that nest or live in the area. People cannot reach the Ninety Mile Beach in most part due to lack of access, unless they own or hire a boat to navigate that way. We took a boat tour to visit some of the lakes and were enchanted by the birds, landscape and in some instances (see picture) by the places were people live or camp. After the large congregations of Australian pelicans and a few dolphins that greeted us unexpectedly from the middle of the lake, I thought this boat moored onto a shady area was the most beautiful thing I encountered in that tour. It inspired me to think of a very simple life in the middle of nature, halfway between water and land, paradise and earth…

Living in Peace Now

Eleven years ago I was seven months pregnant. I went to work (just behind the Flatiron Building in Manhattan) early because the number 6 train from the Upper East Side was so crowded later in the morning, I could not get in it. I picked up a small cup of coffee and a sugar-glazed donut from the cart on Fifth Avenue and 22nd Street. The friendly Afghani man who owned the cart knew me and my breakfast preference. He wished me a nice day and I went up into my building. I started to work around 8, but didn’t get much done because soon the phone started ringing. First it was a colleague who saw a plane hit one of the two towers and was too distraught to come into the office. She went home, but I comforted her by saying that I was sure it had been just a terrible accident. I denied anything wrong until another colleague rang to say that a commercial plane hit the second tower. I started to hear words like war, terrorists, fear and death. They were repeated so many times in the following years! I lost my peace of mind and hoped my baby girl would come out and live in peaceful times, hearing just about peace, love and courage. We do live in a peaceful place now here in Australia, and today’s picture certainly illustrates this, but I miss New York with its energy, character and style. Like most people, I do hope war and terrorism will end one day, when it will be no different living anywhere in this world, because it would all be just peaceful.

Cape Otway Lightstation (and Some Smiles)

Today’s post was really not meant to be about this lighthouse, which of course, since I am in Oz, I will call it lightstation, like the locals. My post is about finally seeing some people, who after more than a year of brushing shoulders with me in the hallway at work, started to respond to my smile and greeting. They ignored me and in general they ignore everyone with whom they don’t work directly. We pass each other all the time, we use the same toilet, and we take the same elevator (lift!). They avoid looking at me, making me feel like I am riding the New York subway again. Finally yesterday, I broke a conversation with two of them, they smiled and even held the door for me to pass. I saw some “light” and this made me feel like what I assume were the immigrants coming to Australia and seeing the Cape Otway lightstation after months at sea… The hope! Cape Otway Lightstation is indeed beautiful and I only saw it during the day. The light has been in uninterrupted operation atop the towering sea cliffs since 1848. I believe that lit on the night sky, the white station has a magical effect on those coming from the sea. And I must add here that it’s not any sea area. I am talking about the rough sea of the Bass Strait, where the furious waters of the Southern Ocean collide between Tasmania and Australia. I will tell you later in another post about the many shipwrecks that make the history of the South parts of Australia. The lightstation is on The Great Ocean Road, West of Melbourne.

First Days of Spring

Early spring time in Melbourne is full of confusing factors. There are sudden changes in temperature, and by that I don’t mean the usual variation between night and day temperatures, but significant variation from one day to the next. There are also sudden changes in winds, which then create stronger (gale-force) winds, and although I haven’t heard of tornadoes, I am sure the massive wind gusts of over 120 km/h would qualify as linear tornadoes. Last week the wind redesigned my garden and I dare say the entire property, as the fence in front and behind the house (yes, it’s old!) was split in pieces and fell down like a baseless Lego piece. And then there is the fog, which I call a confusing factor because if I didn’t drive and could follow the road, it’s so milky that I’d get lost in no time. This entire atmosphere reminds me clearly of the time I looked into a water pool on the side of the ocean in Lakes Entrance. I saw what you can peek at in today’s picture, a regular but confusing network of long algae that would confuse any small creature with its repetitive pattern and obstructing filaments. Well, I just hope spring will install itself calmly very soon…