Check out Jas and Kaz's garden!

Check out
Peak Food blog. What an inspiration! I look forward to hearing more of their gardening pursuits.

Pigface Point (where we live) tour coming up...

(Photos courtesy of Alex)


**** A VISIT TO PIGFACE POINT – AN ALTERNATIVE LIFESTYLE EDUCATIONAL SITE ****

Run by Ted Trainer (Visiting Fellow, School of Social Work, UNSW)

When: Saturday, October 28 – tour starts at 9:30am (2-3 hrs in length)Where: Pigface Point (see directions below)

Description: Affluent, industrial consumer society is grossly unjust and unsustainable. It is only possible for one fifth of the world’s people to have that way of life because they are taking and rapidly using up most of the world’s resources. We must move to far less affluent lifestyles, highly self sufficient communities and local economies, more cooperative ways and an economy that is not driven by market forces or profit, and has no growth at all. Pigface point is being developed as an educational site that will introduce people to these themes, especially the existence of workable and attractive alternatives, ie: “the Simpler Way’.

Pigface Point is not a community. Council zonings only permit 2 houses on the property. The main purpose of the site is not to provide an example of how we should all live, but to have displays, models etc, which point towards the sorts of change that will have to be made in our settlements, economy and technologies in order for our society top become sustainable.

We do not charge for our tours. Please bring lunch if you wish. Morning Tea is provided.

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If you want to come along or need directions drop me your email in the comments and I'll send them to you. Rachelxxx

margaritas on mondays

I had a fantastic birthday that involved French toast (thanks Alex), Lindt waffles (with Ange), Margaritas (yay for Alex), a great and fun surprise of Bess and Nicole arriving for dinner and an amazing chocolate creme brule birthday cake (thanks Bess and Nicole!)

27 aint so bad! yay for birthdays that revolve around food!

oh yeah and I can cross off 'drink Margaritas' on my 27 things list now... Though there will be more margaritas in the future especially when limes aren't 3 bucks each!

Revolutionary healthcare model!

When a dream takes hold of you...
We cannot separate the health of the individual from the health of the family, the community, and the world.
Much more than simply a medical center, the Gesundheit! Facility will be a microcosm of life, integrating medical care with farming, arts and crafts, performing arts, education, nature, recreation, friendship and fun.
Gesundheit! has grown out of a deep concern for the quality of peoples' lives. We want to subvert greed and selfishness and replace them with compassion and care.
We don't want to be a Band-Aid for ailing health care; we want to change the system, to bring about a peaceful revolution.

-Patch Adams

Ted came over last night really excited about his discovery of
Patch Adams and I have to agree his vision for healthcare is Good! Disregard the Hollywood movie and check it out!

There is life out there

we don't have a television. But we do have a radio and CD player. We love radio. Even crappy radio can be entertaining (hey have a listen to 'love song dedications' one night after a glass of wine or two...)

I think that little O has benefited from not having a television - he's a really good dancer and his current favorite pastime is to play baaaaRRR-boooOOOm!!! off the couches (throw himself onto the couches with 'loud' sound affects). My hope is that he will be a very imaginative curious inventive kid.

2ser (107.3 FM) kicks butt! Where else can you listen to an ad free radio with both awesome things like radio lectures (where I have heard the likes or Roy and Tariq Ali) and great music...? Community based and run radio stations are damn hot.

Anyway all Kudos to 2ser who have through their member on air comps practically doubled our CD collection. Just this year we have won Gulag Orchestra, Jolie Holland, Dirty Three, Bonnie Prince Billy, Mward and more!

Also I hear the presenter of 2ser Thursday Breakfast is the hottest radio journo in town...

27 things to do in my 27th year...

So I turn 27 in a week or so...

1. Finally get to Galiwinku

2. Facilitate dialogue in Christian communities Re climate change and Peak Oil.

3. Ride a Red Bike in Paris (not likely)

4. Get published (really not likely)

5. Shop predominately at Alfalfa House

6. Get my Steiner Craft toy-making group for mamas off the ground...

7. Facilitate discussion about THIS BOOK at my church and ways to incorporate some of the ideas...

8. Do a felting course

9. Learn to swim

10. Drink margaritas (nikki, jane and anne this one includes you!)

11. create my own zine.

12. get a new job...

13. Do every activity in my book "360 free activities for your toddler".

14. give up caffeine. for good.

15. become one of those kind of people that know where everything in their house is kept or is at any given time.

16. Attempt to not buy one more trashy magazine. ever again. or at least for one year. oh dear.

17. Go on a retreat.

18. Get fit and flexible.

19. create some imperfect crappy messy art. and not care that is crappy messy imperfect.

20. Go somewhere and stay the night... on my own (for the first time since the birth of O).

21. Finally go to Melboune and visit AZ .

22. Read the entire Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe series

23. Pull out the sewing machine and do something with it...

24. learn how to design and maintain a website so I don't have to use blogger...

25. s l o w d o w n

26. get a puppy (hey Alex there is always my birthday....???!!!)

27. Go a whole week (or two) without eating sugar ( i wonder if I would die from withdrawal?).

Love your enemies... (part 1)

I'm trying to think hard toady who my enemies are and though that part may be easy, how to then love them becomes a little problematic.

The people that I am thinking of are perhaps not MY enemies but enemies of others that I care about...

So Philip Ruddock, Vanstone, and the main man- JH, come to mind... Do they qualify in a biblical sense? How do I go about loving them (sending them a bunch of flowers and an 'I think your great' card does not seem very sincere...)

Could it mean to write them a letter and tell them about how some of their policies have deeply affect people that I know and care about... Feels rather futile...?

I could perhaps also say enemies are people that have a differing ethos to mine- how do I love them? How do I love racists and sexists? How do I love the people who live in the McMansion Estate that I have to drive through to get to our property? How do I love those that live for financial gain? How do I love those who are willfully destroying the environment? Ho do I love those that vote for people that think placing individuals/families in detention centres is a great idea?

Now that I have broadened my 'target' enemies it seems that my enemies are closer to me than I realised? It includes now some friends and family....

Birthdays...

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."

-George Bernard Shaw

piss-weak prayers

I just wrote a little comment (maybe a rave- oops) on The Blogging Parson
about praying Big Bold Prayers in regard to world issues (eg David Hicks, current wars etc)

I seem to get frustrated at church when prayers do not seem to accommodate that we believe in a God that can do anything. A God that can cease AIDS, stop wars, bring fulfillment. Rather prayers seem to become piss-weak with the new fandangled concept of "justice".

Justice is not new and maybe one of you who are more educated than me may be able to fill me in on the origin of the word and the true meaning. But I suppose what I am perceiving is a learned helplessness when it comes to praying. We are confused because on the one hand we are told that faithful prayer consists of 'your will be done Lord' but on the other hand we are also explained that "we do not receive because we do not ask..."

I fear that we pray "bring about your justice Lord..." When we really mean "May every man place their weapons down in places of war, please Lord let not one more person contract AIDS, let not one more child die of hunger, let countries compassionately accept those fleeing their nations....."

Yet we do not pray these prayers but we long for these outcomes.

I wonder if we fear disappointment? I wonder if we fear appearing loopy or too optimistic or too naive? I wonder if we think God is not big enough to deal with something as big as AIDS or war?

Praying for justice is good. But I wonder if praying for specifics is gooder (sic). I wonder if those that hear such specific prayers are shown Christ's justice more clearly?

I know there are times when it is impossible to know what to pray. I remember praying for a client when I worked in child protection and I just didn't know what specific I could pray for them. Every night I was praying and crying that God would just do something anything for this child. I prayed for justice. I wasn't sure if this child should be with their parent or not and I know that at times like these that our sheer 'groaning' and 'sighing' reaches God like incense to Heaven.

In many ways all of our prayers are piss-weak and we are entrusting them with a powerful loving God and that is where their 'power' lies.

What are your thoughts?

My favorite time of day.

Currently my favorite time of day is reading Oscar a book before bed. He rests his back against me and a miracle takes place- he actually sits still! Sometimes I really have to work it to keep his concentration by singing a song about a picture in the book or by using funny voices for the characters (there is a particular book where I have every animal with a different British accent - Alex is usually in stitches in the other room!)

We really had to work hard to get him to appreciate books . He used to think they were only fun if they had flaps and though Spot is a great book I needed a bit more variation to keep my concentration.

His all time favorite is:
Though My favorite is perhaps:



What was your favorite book as a child? Mine was quite funny.....

I'm very excited!

I'm about to start a monthly Steiner- craft mamas group.

This is something I've wanted to do for ages and when I saw Rosie's beautiful handmade doll on the weekend that was the clincher for me that it was time.

I love the idea of raising my child/ren with natural handmade imaginative toys rather than commercial plastic toys that leave no room for the child to use their imagination and often foster commercialism or TV watching.

The Steiner doll will be our fisrt project (pictured above) which is an amazing concept of a doll made with minimal identifying features so that the child's imagination will not be restricted and also so the child may be able to project any of their emotions onto the doll.

The pretend food made out of felt pictured above may also be another project.

What was your favorite toy as a child?

Diane Arbus.

"What I'm trying to describe is that it's impossible to get out of your skin into somebody else's.... That somebody else's tragedy is not the same as your own."

-Diane Arbus

My friend Cathy lent me the biography of the photographer Diane Arbus after we were talking a about her. I devoured the book in 24 hours and feel that I have had a glimpse into this extraordinary woman's life. I love her paradox's and ambiguities such as the fact that she was hugely shy and had very low self-esteem yet she found the boldness to ask many strangers to take their photos even going to nudist camps to photograph.

I love the stories of Diane throwing on her camera at midnight to catch the train to the seediest parts of NewYork and take photos of so called 'freaks'. She was terrified yet that very fear was the thing that drove her.

Being afraid yet following that fear was what made Diane feel alive. She took photos of 'freaks' to overcome hers and the rest of societies desire to look away. By taking a photo of the tranvestites, develop-delayed, nudists etc we are once again allowed to look at them and their humanity is once again reclaimed.

When the best things in life aren't always free.

We won some free tickets to the Australian film Macbeth on Monday. We thought to ourselves why not, surely you can't go wrong with Shakespeare?

Apparently you can go very wrong.

Think Stephen King meets Shakespeare.

The Mini MEme

A Piece of Art that you Love
I am particularly drawn to photography. This photographer astounds and amazes me- Bill Henson. I remember studying him in highschool and just not getting it. I was grossed out.

Post highschool and studying art theory at uni I came to first tentatively like his work than passionately LOVE his work.

Seeing his exhibition at AGNSW left me speechless. It was the most beautiful exhibition I had seen in my life.

Just realized that I've cheated and not spoken about an actual single work. Oh dear.

A Line in a Song or Line of Poetry that Reaches Your Core

I don't really like this band but I love their lyrics. Anyway here are some lines from Augie March's Hole in The Roof that I love-

What do the dead say
To the ones who still think they're alive?

Well that was going to be my 'line' but here's the rest of that verse so you have a bit of context.

"With your heads all on backwards
You can't see in front for what near behind you lies""
Well show us some help then,
Above your head let it flicker the light,
These ones that I'm with
Have not learned to forgive your necessary alibis -When they made you love money,
And the poor prophet's stock,
When they poisoned the watersheds
And fashioned our arrowheads
From the deep forbidden rock


An Experience in Nature that was Really Special and/or Spiritual

I didn't believe that it was possible to have a 'spiritual' experience in nature and laughed at those who said they did until I went to the desert. In the desert there is nothing and everything and suddenly you can hear and see clearly for the first time. There is quiet. I'm not sure what people mean when they say 'spiritual' in relation to nature. Sometimes I think they mean 'special' or 'ephemeral'. But this truly was a spiritual experience in that I felt His presence so clearly and I couldn't not look to Him and say 'wow you did this and you're right it is good'.


The Movie that Changed the Way you saw the World.
I came up with this question and I don't have an answer... Perhaps
The Take by Naomi Klein and her husband Avi Lewis. A doco about the economic crash of Argentina and the 'workers' initiative to restart the closed down factories. It made me see what it looks like for people to be as proactive as humanly possible in changing a current system.


A Piece of Music That Makes You Cry
Currently I'm moved to tears when listening to Arvo Part's Tabula Rasa. bliss.

It may be a while...

till my next post as our magic inverter that inverts our modem from 24volt to 12 volt has esploded!

The Mini MEme

This is the mini MEme that I came up with. I will complete it myself next post but thought I'd get it out there now.

A Piece of Art that you Love

A Line in a Song or Line of Poetry that Reaches Your Core

An Experience in Nature that was Really Special and/or Spiritual

The Movie that Changed the Way you saw the World.

A Piece of Music That Makes YOu Cry

OK so I'm gonna tag EmandJon, Byron,Merideth, Andrew, Nicole, Anne, annnd yeah YOU whoever you may be you lovely lurker. Anyway get MiniMEmeing!

Feel free to change the wording or only answer the questions you like.

Plans plans plans...

WE will be once again heading to the Newcastle TINA festival for the October long weekend.


I can strongly recommend this festival!

We are hoping to get along to the Peat's Ridge Festival with Alex lining up a gig or two.

Our friend Jens is currently touring with Holly Throsby - lucky bugger.

Dreams of the Freedom Bus

I am dreaming horrific and sad dreams about refugees at the moment. This is mainly because I am currently writing a University paper about the Refugee Freedom Bus journey that I took in 2002.

I feel a weight of responsibility regarding the stories of many people that I was handed on that journey and subsequent journeys.

I am once again feeling the shame of being a citizen of country that imposes such cruel policies.




We had a lecture last week by the amazing and inspiring Eileen Pittaway about her role in transforming UN policy to recognise rape or gender related violence as a war crime and hence grounds to be recognised as a refugee. I asked in this lecture how she was able to sustain her passion and motivation while hearing the harrowing stories of many women and families to take to the UN. How did she not breakdown? I'm not sure that she really answered my question as she related experiences of coming back from refugee camps and her family telling her that she was crying out in her sleep and her growing love for Gin and Tonic.

I don't think that I 'burnt out' as much as realised that I needed sleep.






I was speaking to many refugees till three and four in the morning as they couldn't sleep or they had been put in isolation as 'punishment', I was doing this many nights and trying to finish a degree and save money for another trip to the outback detention centres. Many of these conversations I probably benefited from as well as or more than the refugees. Sometimes I could only agree that yes, things did seem hopeless. I cried with one friend who told me once that despite his tough exterior, he really missed his mum. I cried with a mother who's son had been raped in detention and was sleeping about 2 hours every night and I laughed with a friend who only wanted to talk about food as food made him happy.

All my friends are now out of detention centres on Temporary Protection Visas and are facing the recovery of both their trauma in their country of origin and trauma that they experienced in Australian detention centres.

Did you know that if an asylum seeker is granted Permanent Protection Visa that they are required to pay back a debt for costs incurred in their time in detention. One friend of mine is facing a 'new life' in Australia with a $90,000 debt for the three years he (unnecessarily) spent in detention.

Here is a link to a doco that was made about the Refugee Freedom Bus trip - Waking Up the Nation

I heart Banksy

The one on the West Bank wall, would have to be my favourite.

Honesty and law-breaking

Being truthful can be hard especially when the outcome of being honest is something pretty annoying. Right now Alex and I have decided to be honest about something we really don't want to be and the option to not be honest is pretty tantalising and from a convenience standpoint is a lot more appealing.

I think that we are both going to have periods of regretting our honesty and getting frustrated at God that he even asks this of us in the first place.

I think we often think that being honest will give us a warm fuzzy feeling of doing the Right Thing - but often to be truthful is hard and the outcomes plain rotten. In a strange way despite the consequences we both sighed a sigh of release when we realised what we should do- and that we would do it.

It's funny because I told my mum about the whole thing and she was really shocked that we decided we would tell the truth and take the consequences. She assumed that because I've been an activist I'm, in her words, "into breaking the law..." . Mmmm well I have done a few things in my time which I'm not sure qualify as breaking the law or not. (who are you kidding Rachel?) Which does make me wonder again about whether it is justified to break a worldly law in order to bring about Godly justice

I think it is. If the government banned church going or praying I'm sure many would (and should) break this law. The things that I am perhaps guilty of breaking the law mostly revolve around making known injustices and abuses of human rights that have been made federally lawful. These are areas that the Bible speaks clearly on "defend the cause of the weak, fatherless and widow" "love mercy and justice" etc.

I understand that I am to respect the law and authorities placed over me - but I wonder if I can respectfully dissent and respectfully break the law ? I have personally shouted at John Howard (not at the television- at the actual man) and looking back that was disrespectful (of another human being as well as a Prime Minister) and also achieved nothing in terms of bringing about justice. But being a dissenting voice in a rally/protest/march is respectfully saying that a policy is wrong, visiting refugees in detention centres is a voice saying (with respect) these people are human with human needs and should not be treated like (worse than) animals. I suppose as I am getting older I am seeing that there is a line (be it sometimes blurry) between respectful and disrespectful dissent. To be wise is to be thoughtful and not get carried away with the emotion or anger that one may feel (which I have regretfully done on many an occasion) and consequently break the law. But perhaps if one thoughtfully and respectfully breaks the law then it is OK.

I have an image of Jesus in my mind pushing over all the tables in the synagogue, angry, indignant. (respectfully) law breaking?

I have an image of Jesus healing on the day of rest - respectfully dissenting?

I have an image of a man on a cross deemed the biggest lawbreaker of his time -(respectfully) dying.