I feel a bit like Tom Bombadil from Lord of the Rings. Storms, disruptions, crises, plagues and depressions have swept by leaving me quite untroubled in my little enclave. Nothing disrupted Tom’s daily joy in the beauty and bounty of nature and little intrudes to inconvenience me in a traumatic year. I have no financial worries being free of debt, I can’t be fired, the B&B is busier than ever as people can’t go overseas or even interstate and are seeking private individual accommodation rather than crowded venues. So as usual, I’m about the luckiest person on the planet. Luck does take a little planning and an appreciation of what you have rather than what you lack. Bad luck often comes from bad choices that leave people vulnerable. Then there is genuine bad luck that no encouragement can fix. The Guinness Book of Records cites a man who has been struck by lightening 7 times. Somebody should have told him to lie flat on the ground.
So in the tail end of winter Possum Valley is basking in 26C temps and cloudless skies. Being a big country, the south of Oz has blizzard warnings from Tasmainia to the Blue Mountains. Very welcome winter warmth at Possum Valley and entirely predictable as global warming tightens its grip. California has record temps and out of control bushfires in record temps. Nothing new here folks, move along.
Last week I was entrusted with an echidna by my friend Margit, a wildlife rescue worker, to release into the rainforest as my place is far from roads. Most wildlife and especially echidnas do not negotiate roads very well. When threatened or surprised they hunker down in a defensive posture presenting spines to the world. On roads, this doesn’t work very well for them. So I took this rather unsocial (Margit’s description) echidna in it’s happy home (plumbing pipe) and deployed it in old forest with lots of dead wood and all important termites. I gently laid it next to a dead log as night came on, lovingly sprinkled it with leaves for camouflage, and waited for it to emerge into its new home. And waited, and waited. It backed up to the end of the pipe presenting its spiny posterior, but did not emerge to explore its new home while I was watching. Next morning it was gone and has not retreated to its former home. Not seen since. One can view this as a successful wild release, or an abandonment of a helpless creature. Not surprisingly, I choose to view it as the former and a completely successful enterprise. I hope it adds it’s bit to the local gene pool.
I have refurbished the meditation hut which had a crumbling floor due to it’s location in a most humid and hostile environment. It was an overdue repair, but I hope honoured guests will forgive me waiting until the weather was favourable. Union rules forbid working in the rain despite management desire that work continues. Fortunately sense prevails and I have a lie-in. So nice to lie in bed as the rain drips or cascades off the roof.
Paul or should I say TOM, untroubled indeed! A life most of us suburbanites long for but only get to have occasionally up there with you at Possum Valley. Like you I have no worries whatsoever, no debt, either financial or moral, no enemies, just good friends, face any crisis head on, get it fixed, chuck it out, whatever, so my life can return to trouble-free ASAP. But my only problem is that I can’t leave my 3 inside-kept felines for longer than two nights, therefore, I can only visit P.V. for two nights, and then scurry back to my suburban living, and my furry responsibilities. But as a Wise Man said to many many decades ago “You asked for it, you got it!”. My pussy cats are my family, they come first, my escapes are minimal, but that’s my life. As for your “rather unsocial echidna” rescue and deliverance wow!! You don’t mind putting yourself out for any animal, whether human or otherwise! You make it sound so effortless, a walk in the park (rainforest), yet you have to leave your jobs, and I know there are many at P.V., take the little critter deep in to your property, stay with it until it gets too dark to do anything but head back to the homestead, now that is commendable my friend!! Keep lieing-in as often as you can, you deserve it Paul (Tom)…..