A mob of sheep from Lake Hawea Station are herded by Jeep and dog past our gate and across the small ford where they pause for a drink. More than once we’ve been late because of these traffic jams, which are a welcome reminder to slow down, smell the flowers, and…the sheep.
Our mission at Mountain Spirit is about “facilitating connection to one’s self, each other and the natural world.” Yesterday, here in New Zealand, I 
snapped this shot of my son and couple of our guests cradling one of our chickens in the nearby hammock. The hammock happens to be next to the “chicken tractor” (movable chicken house) so at the moment so makes for fun relaxing hangout with chickens all underfoot. The guests loved the chickens and were were visiting with them every spare moment. Connecting with nature is vital for children, whether it’s going for a walk in the woods, on a mountain ridge, taking them sailing or just spending time helping them collect the chickens’ eggs. A good book about children and nature, mentioned quite a few times in this blog is Last Child in the Woods, by R. Louv, but there are also newer titles in print as well.
Wildlife Bridge Overpass – Giving animals a leg up on the auto traffic
Where’s the merge lane and who has right of way when the only traffic are animals such as tigers, wallabies, possums or kangaroos? I suppose whoever is highest on the food chain gets to go first across these overpasses with no roads, and only trees and grasses.
Someone posted the aerial image at right this evening. At first glance it looked like the same bridge under which I passed two years ago on the east coast highway heading north from Sydney, Australia. I dug in my files, and found the snapshot of the bridge and include it here.
I was so taken aback by the site of the strange overpass, which looked like a neglected highway department lapse in maintenance, that I stopped the car and took a picture. At the time, I didn’t know what it was, and after some discussion with my wife, decided it must a wildlife corridor.
Wildlife Overpass – East Coast Australia
It’s good to see there are others. The Facebook image didn’t have a caption indicating where it was, but looks like it could be another location in Australia. Anyway, “Good on ya” for building this you Aussies! Anybody got an idea how many of these wildlife overpasses there are, and who’s the traffic cop?
Don't Miss This Dose of Inspiration
The film This way of Life is as inspiring as it gets. Filmed in the Hawkes Bay region of New Zealand’s North Island, this documentary is about a Maori family: a good and strong man and his wife who bring up their kids in the out-of-doors, raising wild horses. Peter, the father, is someone this writer admires for his steadfast adherance to what is right action in the midst of some people around him who act very badly. We happened to pick up the movie at the library the other day, and were wowed by it.
A lot of what we strive for here at Mountain Spirit Institute is encapsulated in the documentary, and how this family lives their lives. No nature deficit disorder here. But the hardships, and even the new house where the kids get their own rooms, don’t sugarcoat the difficulties faced by the family. We are about to bring a child into this world, and this film has added fuel to our fire to continue to head for the mountains. A cure for affluenza, for sure.
Director: Thomas Burstyn
New Zealand, 2010, 84 min.
Against the stunning beauty of New Zealand’s rugged Ruahine Mountains, Peter Karena and his wife Colleen instill in their children the values of independence, courage, and happiness. The family is poor in possessions but rich with a physicality and freedom within nature that most of us can only dream of. The children ride bareback, hunt, and play in the wild. Shot over four years, this film is an intimate portrait of a Maori family and their relationship with nature, adversity, horses, and society at large. Special mention at Berlin International Film Festival, 2010 Hotdocs, New Zealand’s Oscar shortlist.
You can learn a bit more about the family and the film on their Facebook page.
See the Movie Trailer
TIGER-friendly labels on products which use palm oil grown without destroying Asian jungles could help save the endangered big cats, according to Australia’s major zoos.
Palm Oil Products: Not good for tigers
I was at Sydney’s Taranga Zoo a few weeks ago, getting quite an education. Not only was I learning about Australia’s amazing wildlife, but also, about how the harvesting of palm oil is adversely affecting tigers and other animals in Asia. Below is an article from Australia’s Daily Telegraph. I shot the image of the tiger through a good-sized plate of glass.
By Malcolm Holland, Environment Reporter: Daily Telegraph
World demand, and prices, for palm oil has skyrocketed, sparking land clearing in the jungle homes of tigers in Indonesia and Malaysia. Land clearing was so widespread it had put Sumatran tigers “on the next step to extinction”, Taronga’s CEO Cameron Kerr said yesterday.
World demand, and prices, for palm oil has skyrocketed, sparking land clearing in the jungle homes of tigers in Indonesia and Malaysia.Land clearing was so widespread it had put Sumatran tigers “on the next step to extinction”, Taronga’s CEO Cameron Kerr said yesterday. Read more of this story
Learn more about the “Don’t Palm Us Off” campaign
Which has three main focuses:
Labelling legislation – The Truth in Labelling Bill has been reintroduced to government for consideration and you can help get it accross the line. Scroll to to top of this page to find out more.
130,000 petition signatures collected – This enormous public response will now be used as a catalyst to demonstrate the community’s desire to change food labelling laws in an attempt to weaken our region’s link to the palm oil crisis.
Truth in Labelling Website Live – Nick Xenophon’s Truth in Labelling website is now up and running. It contains information on the palm oil bill and ways you can express your voice on fair labelling issues. Visit: http://www.truthinlabelling.com.au/
Gold coloured ants?
How can you make this stuff up? There must be intelligent design involved with this little creature. Ants that look spray-painted gold can’t be real, but they are. I shot this one on a porch railing at a Eungai Creek home, about an hour south of Coff’s Harbour in New South Wales, Australia’s east coast. The ant, shining in the sun, looked like it just came out of a bodyshop with a fresh coat of high-gloss gold enamel. A quick Google search didn’t answer any questions as to how the gold colour helps this ant. Nor did I find anything on the ant. If you have any answers, leave a comment!
Greetings from Australia, Mate.
By R. Richards
Caution in Australia...
Sorry we’ve been a bit out of touch. We’ve been busy packing up our New Hampshire home, updating our programs’ webpages and heading to the Southern Hemisphere for a while. We’ve been on the eastern coast of Australia for the Holidays, and will be headed to New Zealand on January 10th.
We’ve got an exciting drumming program in Jamaica with master drumming instructor Bob Bloom, and a Personal Sustainability program called Creating a Sustainable Lifestyle in Vermont this spring in the northern hemisphere.
This is my first time in AU, and my first impressions are that the people are very generous, sincere and welcoming. the power of the continent is overwhelming. My first time sitting down to meditate, I clearly heard the words, “It’s about time you showed up.” I take this to mean, not only arriving in Australia but taking the time to sit down since my arrival and sit quietly with the place. More on this in an upcoming post.
Anyway, expect to see posts more regularly from here on out. We’ll be posting from New Zealand of course. Rumors have it that board member Bob Stremba might even come down for a visit and recon some program areas with me.
Sydney Stopover
We had a stopover in Sydney for a week seeing Amanda’s friends, (my newly found friends), before heading north to stay with family for the holidays. A very expensive city but such generous people with a welcoming attitude. It’s Amanda’s ol’ stomping ground, and she still has to show me around a bit, when we head back there on our way to New Zealand. We happened to arrive just as Oprah Winfrey was shooting a week-long segment of her show here. As it turned out, she was welcomed with opened arms, along with 300 of her audience members. I mention her because of some of the good work she’s doing, such as bringing Eckhart Tolle’s message to a broader audience, and encouraging more conscious living. The people and government of Australia were happy to have her here. The coverage will be invaluable for Australia’s tourism exposure.
The continent is proving itself to be powerful and beautiful. Although I’ve only seen a portion of it, I can feel its power taking hold.
Jeff Mannix describes a tour he was given of a meat packing plant in California. Also, getting local foods in local schools, and what is in your hamburger?
How Global Warming is effecting the Pika, a High Altitude Rock Dweller.
Photographer Wendy Shattil of Denver, Colorado gets great shots in the name of nature. Learn about her efforts to capture and document, on camera, endangered species for future generations. I talk with her about the pika, a rodent in the rabbit family, who can’t go any higher as the temperatures rise in our mountain environment.
Be sure and check out her amazing images on her website.
Meet a Passionate Food Supplier
"Made by Hand, From the Soul of Mexico"
After our drive through corn fields, cattle feed lots and processing plants of the of the great American prairies complete with narration on CD of “An Omnivore’s Dilemma” we arrived in Durango for our week of House sitting. When looking for a restaurant which served local food, we found Cocina Linda, run by an energetic and passionate woman to whom we both took a liking. Below is the first post in a series from our informative interview with her. Stay tuned for more the next few weeks. Watch this video to see why we love Linda and her good food.
Image: Cocina Linda’s Logo
Mountain Spirit's Blog 