creating western port

Christmas on the southern ocean

Every year at this time I come to wonder...

"What does a southern Christmas tree look like?"

The thought came from

A day when edie learned the words to "oh Christmas tree

Oh Christmas tree

How verdant are your branches"

And I realised

Of course the Christmas tree came to be so sacred in the northern winter around this time

Of year! It was the only tree that looked full of

Life still

A sign of hope and lifefulness.

We don't have the same experience in the south. It is wet

And warm

And the garden grows greedily!

Our pear tree has shot up out of nowhere and a sunflower has suddenly

Sprouted on the fence line.

More broadly then

What does Christmas on the southern ocean look like?

Yesterday Edie and I were driving in Wimbledon Heights and a reindeer leapt into the titree

- Remnant swamp vegetation so very sacred and symbolic of this area -

The reindeer glowed with bright white spots and wore a fawn coloured coat.

Her eyes darted dark brown

long slender legs almost carried her

Unbeknownst to her following head

too occupied with eyes on us.

It occurs to me

Even richer for us is the play between a southern Christmas and its northern influences.

Something a little less sensical,

Nonsensical and fantastical

when it doesn't make sense to worship a pine tree -

A weed -

it makes it easier to cut one down for decorating

And what a sight,

A special event,

to have a reindeer escape

From Santa's palace and dart around Phillip island accounting for all the new children to bring gifts!

So the story goes

That the reindeer were released from a

Local farm when schoolies tried to take a short cut through the farm and left the gate open.

They caught all but two

One was hit by a car and before the owers could collect it

A driver by had spotted its tasty potential and collected it up

The last is still "loose"

Apparently there are deer on the island

They are hog deer

And they travel over here from the mornigton peninsula

From the mainland

by swimming across western ports western channel

Imagine the tidal negotiation

The timing

And the knowing required to wander

into watery terrain

Just to see where one may "land"

Its a good distance across

and a deep strongly ripping current between -

Now isn't that fantastic!

Any thoughts this month

Images

Stories

Toward this space between a southern ocean and a northern traditional Christmas are

very

Welcome!

Sarah

A Perfect Place

Drawn to your coast
Vasy
posted 16th September 2014, 8:18pm

A Perfect Place
paper collage

Some of my favorite collages were inspired by the calming hues of blue
along the Bunurong Coast and tranquility of the Tarwin wetlands along
Anderson's Inlet.

"Imagine yourself in a perfect place…
touched by the beauty of the South Gippsland coast.
Along the rugged Bunurong from Kilcunda’s rise to Inverloch,
sublime views of Bass stretch endlessly out to sea.

Serenity abounds as evening descends on the Inlet,
as sea mist gently embraces the bay.
Time flows seamlessly on the Tarwin,
as the sun bids farewell in this, a perfect place."

- Vasy Petros

water gives your brain a rest

Carolyn Gregoire Why Being Near The Ocean Can Make You Calmer And More Creative

Since ancient times, humans have assigned healing and transformational properties to water. In early Rome, baths were an important part of cultural life, a place where citizens went to find relaxation and to connect with others in a calming setting. In ayurveda, the ancient Indian medicinal wisdom, and traditional Chinese medicine, the water element is crucial to balancing the body and creating physical harmony. Rivers have long been seen as sacred places, and in a number of different spiritual contexts, water has symbolized rebirth, spiritual cleansing and salvation.

Today, we still turn to water for a sense of calm and clarity. We spend our vacations on the beach or at the lake; get exercise and enjoyment from water sports like surfing, scuba diving, sailing, and swimming; refresh ourselves with long showers and soothing baths, and often build our lives and homes around being near the water.

Our affinity for water is even reflected in the near-universal attraction to the color blue. We're naturally drawn to aquatic hues -- the color blue is overwhelming chosen as the favorite color of people around the world, and marketing research has found that people tend to associate it with qualities like calm, openness, depth and wisdom.

Wallace J. Nichols, a marine biologist, believes that we all have a "blue mind" -- as he puts it, "a mildly meditative state characterized by calm, peacefulness, unity, and a sense of general happiness and satisfaction with life in the moment" -- that's triggered when we're in or near water.

"We are beginning to learn that our brains are hardwired to react positively to water and that being near it can calm and connect us, increase innovation and insight, and even heal what's broken," Nichols writes in Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected, and Better at What You Do, published in July. "We have a 'blue mind' -- and it's perfectly tailored to make us happy in all sorts of ways that go way beyond relaxing in the surf, listening to the murmur of a stream, or floating quietly in a pool."

Here, Nichols speaks about how water can heal the mind and body and help you tap into your most calm and creative state of being. Here are six important benefits of finding your "blue mind."

Water gives our brains a rest.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/12/mental-benefits-water_n_5791024.html

Some photos from 2013 collection

Nanette

Posted 12th september2014, 10:46am

I am drawn to the coast by a need to dwell in rhythms

Drawn to your Coast

September 2014

Nia
posted 10th September 2014, 10:16pm

"I am drawn to the coast by a need to dwell in rhythms. Being filled with the feeling of tides, moons. The play of light and water, the textures that make me remember what it is to live in a body. And the sky... seeing a horizon and being awash with metaphors of limitless existence."

Pako and I

Drawn to your Coast

September 2014

Pako and I walked the Colonnades

Mika
Posted 10th September 2014, 9:49pm

"Here is a photo I would like to share. Pako and I walked the Colonnades beach every morning for the last 2,5 years, maybe I missed one or two mornings. I got to know the beach, the sky, the rocks, the pools, the colours of the water, the shifting sands and the dunes very well, like a continually evolving story with familiar friends. With Pako always in the picture, as he walked in front of me, he too would notice slight changes, alert and curious, a new fallen down bit of dune or grass, something washed up, or just a new shape in the sand.

I have lost my friend, and with him I lost a bit of the story of our beach. With time I hope to start a new story with another special loved friend."

Call for contributions - a new exhibition

Drawn to your Coast

September 2014

Recently our friends lost a loved one

a dog

a dear darling dog

with spirit and spunk

and a lotta love to give.

Our daughter Edie loved this dog.

There is something about them

Something about a dog that draws out deep love

care

affection

attentiveness

so we can like and even love ourselves

through their eyes.

They also take us places

like the beach.

Its got me thinking

how many people have come to love our coast

through their daily visits

drawn by their dogs or something else

to sandy stretches

rain

hail

shine?

I'd like to hold an exhibition on what draws us to the coast.

This exhibition is in honour of Pako who drew his owners

into western port and bass coast

taking them to the beach daily

rain hail or shine

bringing them to make friends, and make a home here,

creating western port

What else draws US to the beach, coast, into places around home where we find a space to breath and be a little deeper in a rich life, come to feel at home, nested where we live?