rescue me
autumn is here because i can smell the strange scent of smoke in the air, even when there doesn't seem to be a fire any where close. the air is cooling noticably, and whilst i still go out of just a t-shirt, the air feels refreshing against my skin rather than stifling. blackberries are falling out of the hedges, and everything around is producing fruit. i'm taking in my last glimpses of the swallows and housemartins because i know it won't be long before they leave here, and i'll have to wait all winter, until next summer when i will look up in the sky one day and smile as i see they have returned. the swifts left weeks ago, and i miss their calls.
since he left, the trees have started to turn. they stayed green for him, while he was here, but they won't stay green for me, they know me too well. autumn always creeps up on me and surprises me.
freedom. beauty. truth. love. (?)
3 Comments:
G'day Captain, it's me, Poetpete again. Maybe "piratepete" would be an appropriate name on this here goodly ship! Whatcha reckon?
While you are heading toward winter we are charging onto headlong summer. As you said you like to know about Australia I will do my bit for you and try and give you a feel of the place here. But, I must apologise, for I don't think I could ever match your vivid descriptions, such as what you have written on autumn above. You seem so intouch with your surroundings, which absolutely amazes me. You show me that teenagers do care about the gentler things around them like housemartins and swallows. And good for you too!
We must live in entirely different environments (duh! of course!) but what I mean is more along the lines of what I imagine England to be like... cosy little villages with canals, hedge rows and skinny lanes, old buildings full of character and history, built onto the edge of the road, and stuff like that. (Maybe its too much BBC television over here). Do you live in a village like that? It is all so appealing to me, such beauty in the constructed landscape. Of course 'you' have had thousands of years of living on that island. Australia doesn't have anything like the history you have, the oldest building here is only abou 200 years old.
My ancestry goes back to Britain and so I am a little familiar with the Huntingdon, Culworth (where my g/g/g..grandfather was hung as a highway man over 200 years ago), Isle of Wight and Kent (Eltham, Hamstreet); with which I have strong historical connections.
Above you spoke about trees, again, and a few posts below about trees growing out of churches, and about trees growing out of people. I am not quite sure what you are getting at, except to think there is an analogy of somekind that I don't appreciate. If you would be kind enough to let me in on the concept I would greatly appreciate your thoughts -- but if the idea is private for yourself then I understand and respect your privacy.
All the best,
Peter J
Australia
you're heading into summer? how odd, i hadn't really thought about that! england - well, actually your description was pretty good, at least for some of the places around here! i, to my disappointment, live in a not-so-nice town, instead of a pretty little village, but i shouldn't complain because it's only a few minutes walk to many quaint place such as the one you describe.
well yes, i doubt many teenagers would understand if they saw me standing still gazing up at the sky (well perhaps one person would, but reminding myself of that will simply make me sad) which leaves me in an odd situation. certainly i know i am very much in love with the world, and it gives me a great deal of pleasure, but it leaves me feeling uncertain of myself. just in the sense that i'm 17, why am i going for walks in the dusk in order to watch the bats and spot the first stars of the night, instead of going to parties and getting drunk and stoned? something wrong with me surely? i don't mean that of course, i just mean theres a certain peer pressure to conform which is hard to deal with.
*watches as reply to pete becomes ridiculously long*
trees. well. where to start? it would take too long here to explain exactly what my obsession with trees is, i'm sure they will pop up in my blog often enough, and if you read for long enough maybe you will be able to piece together a better explanation than even i have. but the church thing i can explain. near here there is a small village church which has a tree growing out of the tower. it has been living there for hundreds of years, despite having no soil to grow out of, just the rock of the building. the trees growing out of people (the tree growing out of me) well, that was a very sketchy desperate attempt to describe the feelings i was experiencing: the weight, the feeling of being taken over by something else, the way the air around my head seemed to have become solid (leaves?).
When I was going to my sister's party in the car, a 50 minute drive, I was sharing with Sharyn, my wife, how much I appreciate being able to read your blog. I told her how it is a really enjoyable experience. Some people find pleasure in this, or that, but I find it so often in words -- and your words bring about the satisfaction and pleasure as much as a walk in a beautiful botanic garden or even a rainforest.
I mentioned my thoughts about you as a teenager and how blessed you are to be able to perceive as you do, at your age, and be able to express yourself as you do. My hope is that you will never loose it, rather give thanks to God for bringing about the circumstances in your life that make you as you are. The peers that pressure don’t realize that your life is your own, they often do that so that they won’t feel rejected (for some odd, self-deceiving reason. So I would encourage you to pursue your interest and be your own genuine self. Don’t worry about those out drinkin and drugin (as I did, wasting my youth those many years ago). I am sure you have a wonderful future ahead of you. In fact I think you could be a decade ahead of your peers, or even more, as far as understanding things of life. Some, sadly, will never mature and so miss out on the reality of life about them.
Oh yeah, give no mind on my account how long your replies are, I am happy to read and write all day.
Thanks for your update to me on your ‘tree-thing’. Rather amazing, really, because I just love trees. In the country side where we drive there are so many beautiful specimens of eucalypt trees, many standing out in paddocks so one can get an uninterrupted view of their sheer size, and form, and every other wonderful thing about them. We have spotted-gums, stringy barks, ghost gums, iron barks, and more. I have said to Sharyn I want to go photograph these marvelous structures, and now I am motivated again to do so. Sadly, though, there are no remaining red cedars for which this region was known from early settlement; all logged out by about 1850.
Here is where I live, Paterson NSW Australia. (I must get these links onto my blog.)
http://www.walkabout.com.au/locations/NSWPaterson.shtml
there is a picture of the old courthouse museum, of which I am a member.
But I cant find one of the local tree-scape for you. But you have the view from our home in my blog.
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~oldpunthouse/
We drive past the Old Punt House B+B regularly. When you look from their little dining shelter you can see the hill we live on, the one in the distance on the right. Our hose is on the other side, out of sight. This area is just so totally magic!
http://www.tocal.com/homestead/admin/whereis.htm
Tocal homestead is about 8 kms south from our home and is where my ancestors first work and my g/g/g/grandfather was born in 1836 (probably in the first building on the left of the main picture.
Hey, those trees growing out of buildings are just too neat, aye! I remember seeing one years ago, out of the parapet of an old late 19 century council building. Just goes to show that the ‘earth’ reclaims whenever it can. Your metaphor of being ‘taken over’ is very good and would work well in a poetic sense. I think I am on the way to understanding what you mean about a tree growing out of you. (bit different to potatoes out of the ear, as my parents spoke about when I got filthy as a kid, probably from playing in the bush) I will keep a lookout for any future tree reference/s .
I will move to your next comment below now…
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