Floria Maschek

Hey! Putting counting days away!

Wednesday 16th Dec I had literally considered climbing (or walking on) a mountain today. BUT...life happened to me, in and around me, of me... Ah life!... and it really knocked me about these couple of days! Perhaps it was my colonialist self that wanted to look over the land I've been walking on...but of course it's only ever a limited viewing platform anyway and limited in how you may view me. A virus has put me to bed! I'm showing you my snotty raspy, foggy 'self' (with a smile...ha) with dependant and competing micro lives, and the 'self' that is also part of macro lives. I've taken snazzy unused selfies kicking back on sunny rock faces...but I'm giving you this because this is happening now on Dja Dja Wurrung Country. In ways I'm not seperate from any other thing. This is where I walk, survive, play, learn, love, rest, affect, experience...live. The bush is beautiful but there is no wilderness. There is order in chaos and chaos in order and there can be multiple meanings to anything depending always on context and culture. I'm one of a particular organism and of a particular culture on a rampage. Some organisms similtaneously rampage. With time also being macro/micro, we try sometimes to see and bring in balance. While being a bit of a dominant species, we can easily overlook the interdependent, interconnected, delicate and changing 'nature' of things. We can forget that we are part one big incredible organism. Treat her kindly! See connections...Respect! Ps. Targets achieved! Thank you!! Two special quiet walks, to go under the radar coming up soon I reckon...and likely so many more. Thanks for following! Share

Day ??

Monday 14th Dec Bitumen wanderings. Hmm....seems I didn't keep super great track of how many days it's been. My titles are all wrong. I have two days to go it turns out. I am tired, a little sore and ready for a break... also feeling there is so much more to share but almost done with my indulgent blog posts! So...it may seem odd that after all this I share a pic of bitumen. This is where I was this evening though, looking for lost glasses...which a kind stranger finally handed to me once I had returned to my original search spot. Balmy evening bitumen wanderings...thought about all the feet that wonder here, have wondered, will wonder. Thought about all that lays hidden beneath... drains, gas, electric, telephone, broadband, secret forgotten and sealed underground tunnels, rocks, roots, bones, blood, old crockery and lost things stuck in old mud. Sealed and resealed, cracked and cracking, Thank you kind human who found me searching and put two and two together. 2 lenses, two eyes....and more. I don't usually count in home/town busy walking but did a little extra concious pavement walking today and I'm glad I went the long way to my sight. Share

Day 25

Sunday 13th Dec I found one of my favourite critters. This one! When we first came to live on Dja Dja Wurrung Country this one said to me that he was going to be more and more the 'naturalist'. What is 'nature' though? The word has always been problematic to me. I believe that Dino agrees in his way. It has been fabulous to embrace life together and within this the critters we are, forever dependent on all other life and active in determining life together in the many ways that we do. Together we have learned a lot about this place. It has become more of us...in the cells that make us, the water and air and in our social and emotional being. To me everything is nature, even if our species can be way out of whack with other life. In appreciating other life forms, we can begin to make better life choices. To pretend we are separate from nature is to deny our dependance and responsibility to life. We will never stop learning. Part of the fun in being with this one. Share

Day 23

Friday 11th Dec Still at it...but a bit tired at the moment so this post is for all I've missed. Just sun flickers through leaves today. I love the little green, gold, red flickers of the Red Box woodlands here. The light through these leaves feel a bit like me after some late nights and now another. Time to flicker out. I've not been stating km on my blogs lately but they are recorded on my page. I'm well over my target...just seemed increasingly disconnected somehow to km but they are there. Tomorrow the sun will rise again and so will I. I will walk in crooked ways and with an ever wobbly, changing sense of space and time. What a beautiful place to wake up to. Share

Day 22

Wednesday 9th Dec That tiny little spot is this continent's tiniest little bird...the Weebill. Another of my 'failed' attempts to snap pics of a critter...but imagination is a beautiful thing. I regularly pass a couple of favourite trees that are bursting with Weebill life. After a while of standing there they will show themselves ever more confidently. When I was a kid and first saw one of these, which stopped fleetingly over the top of a dunny door, I had a moment of such disbelief at it's tinyness and gorgeousness that I forgot to breath. They are so tiny and yet they are SO much...particularly when they have their party together in these three trees. Today high above and at a distance on warm currents soared Werpul (the Wedge Tail Eagle) and to First Nations people also sometimes Bunjil, the creator spirit. I can't say which one is Bunjil and which is Werpul...that all depends on circumstances. What I do know is that life is incredible at it's multiple scales and it's many connections...all life connected. Share

Day 21

Wednesday 9th Dec A day late. Spot the Choughs. I have a soft spot for these birds. Like Magpies (Gurruk), Choughs stick together in family groups ...but they are shyer preferring to shuffle around together on the ground of bushland habitats. They potter in more than one way. Choughs are not very strong flyers. I love their long eerie musical calls and the way they will suddenly lift together and drift short distances through the forest. They are stealthier than Gurruk or Waa (raven) and always seem to fly away together rather than come in for a closer inspection and a warble. They remind me in their habits of the Gurrie (Kangaroos)...but more mysterious. I loved finding out today that they are clay nest builders. If you see a large deep ceramic pot just sitting on a branch...it belongs to this one. Here are five or six who have come in close for the evening. The Gurruk I love were chit chatting as usual near by, but I thought I'd give this post to the mystery potters quietly casting their shadows in the branches. Share

Day 21

Monday 7th Dec This is the Pink Hyacinth Orchid. This area is full of the most delicate gorgeous orchids in spring, an abundance of diversity. At this point of the year they have all retreated, dormant in the hardened earth. In among the yellow grasses then comes this. The biggest, loudest of them all...unappologetically fabulous and pink, one tough nut orchid rocking the summer. Share

Day 20

Monday 7th Dec A day late. It was as strange day...I was a bit all over the place...a bit tired and fragile. I ended up in this beautiful place visiting a friend on a flood plain in Walmer. There's a bit of a reveg project going on here. It was the last day for having a fire and it was good to be here in the smoke where some slashed weeds were burning...just a rustic set up...a basic bush kitchen, a cup of tea and a good feed, the joy of many diverse birds flitting and gliding about, flutterings of Common Brown butterflies and other good company. It was a bit cool and windy but the setting sun cast a warm glow on the River Gums. Drenched in smoke so to speak, vigour came back to me...like rising blood or sap...heart given a jump start somehow. Share

Day 19

Saturday 5th Dec There's a lot I could say about today...but this deserves it's own bit. The air was damn good and it was good to walk in the rain. We went on a mission to the mysterious Grandmother tree which we had never seen before, over 'upside down country' much Gorse, Black Berries, between pines...A world between two worlds ...a world now. We found ourselves back on the road that we'd been on...on our way there. I didn't take a pic of the tree when we got there because it didn't feel right...but next to it I took a picture of this. I couldn't see clearly because my glasses were misted and raindroppy. The journey and thoughts were too much to tell but among it all...and the air, clouds and rain were really real good. Share

Day 18

Saturday 5th Dec Coomera - Dja Dja Wurrung (Wattle). All other Coomera have long flowered and I see now that this one, the prickly Spreading Wattle, all around this land is having a second flush. Crispy pods drop their seeds while fresh buds and flowers form. It's easy to get a few scratches from this plant so my mind and heart did a little flip flop when Aunt Julie told me that the Spreading Wattle is a traditional healing plant. Things are not always what they appear to be. Sometimes they are more complicated...and wonderful. Time and deep listening ...and just listening bring wisdom. The Tall Bluebells that I had said were nearing the end of their bloom...close and open. I spoke too soon! Today we are in the Kulin Nations season of Meakitch...and while we have had our 'wattle season' this one is doing it's thing in all ways. Will always be learning. Share

Day 18

Saturday 5th Dec I thought I would share the sun's golden rays in this way in addition to my previous post. Reflections...light, heat, radiation, the greenhouse effect, the awesome warmth on my face and shoulders...awesome, powerful, weathering, fierce, nurturing, life giving sun. 3km Share

Day 17

Friday 4th Dec A late post...only 2 days, but I had some thoughts and this image in mind on day 17... This place is also commonly called the 'Goldfields' refering to the mining that occused to make it 'topsy turvey' and 'upside down' country. As I walked in the golden glow of the evening, I thought about the sun...all life here being dependent. It's energy in the soil, coursing through the plants and in turn, the critters, moving water, cycling, making this planet dynamic. So then I looked to the plants and thought of my friend Trace rebranding the name 'Goldfields'. The Goldfields are absolutely full of golden flowering plants as she observed...and in this way the name is apt. Here is a little (Sticky Everlasting) sun with stars (Wiry Button suns) behind it. They really look like a little cosmos on their their thin wiry stems. A little macro cosm- micro cosm reflection. 2 more km on these Goldfields. I was going to share the beautiful golden rays of the sun set on this land but it is echoed here. Share

Day 16

Tuesday 1st Dec They call this upside down or topsy turvy Country. This place saw the 'democratic' gold rush...The early days of it (That goldrush) when each man could take a pick axe to 'his own' 2 x2 m pit for alluvial gold. It meant that this place was 'honeycombed', with deeper veins, reefs, shafts and races cut out over time. The trees once grew differently...not like mallees but with single trunks. This place became a moonscape in very little time. The trees here are coppiced survivors and their babies with uncut originals rarely dotted around close in on the town. The soil and ecosystems here are badly disrupted. That such delicate orchids etc should grow so resiliently in upside down country is humbling. I'm fascinated by the regrowth, what 'gold' hides in the earth... but am also aware of ongoing destruction. This pic is a few days old but I thought I would share it as tonight I ventured onto new paths and am always wary of new dips and crannies. It took me back. I see honey combed pits and I imagine a different time...and the vast time before that...and all time connected and wonder how this country will go. She (the organism which is earth, is scratched up badly but always breathing and perhaps at times stronger than we can imagine. We need to see her for the life she holds. Share

Day 15

Monday 30th Nov It's often a challenge to pick one image and one theme to pop into a blog. The moon was spectacular tonight but I couldn't do it justice. The sky morfed in beautiful ways. Little critters moved in and cast shadows, possums scrambling, tiny bats chasing insects, the final adjustments of birds in their branches. I thought a lot about the sky, clouds, light. Again...sometimes less is more. I give you silhouettes and imaginings and this fabulous blue. 2km Share

Day 14

Sunday 29th Nov Old grandma Gurri. I know I've said that my camera loses a moment when I take or try to take pictures of critters...but tonight was so much about the gurri mob and in particular this beautiful old grandma. As soon as I came to the first stand of trees where the grass is long, there were their faces...like a row of silent ninjas. Often as I am heading into the bush, this mob is heading out to nibble grass on the field I pass. I was late tonight and it was already quite a crowd there. Got some great pics but wanted to show you her. I spotted her by the pond just inside the bush...a huge old kangaroo, moving slow and heavy...not skinny but kinda clinky boned. She seemed unfazed by me. Thought she was alone but she had a young one hiding near her...keeping watch. On my way out from the bush, there she was again...right on the path to my crew...and hers. I followed her ever so slowly. She bowed down to eat the grass next the young ones. I could hear her chewing as I moved past her to my little family only a few meters away. Good night dear old grandma Gurri and mob. Share

Day 13

Saturday 28th Nov I stand under my favourite Cherry Bullart (Ballee). This tree is semi - parasitic. It needs a host plant to tap it's roots into. Settlers often feel quite uncomfortable with the word parasite. I do! ...probably because we ourselves are on large parasitic individualists. To Kulin Nations people though, this tree represents community. Country is made up of connections...relationships. This tree is life giving. It is the perfect loved shelter of Kangaroos (Gurri) as told by the gently moulded dust bowls under it's canopy. It offers sweet little red packs of energy to the critters here. It is home to birds and insects etc. They in turn give life in their way. Everything and everyone is reliant on others and connected. It is a community. What do I return? Directly I take and give my breath...and there are many more than I simply breathing here. Seems very limited. Anyhow...Feeling surrounded by community here. It never was a 'wilderness'. There is much order in what often gets termed that. The disruption occurs with arrogance, when community is forgotten. How can we start seeing and newly valuing those intimate and endless connections? How can we find our place in the life giving as we draw life? When we feel ourselves humbled, leaving beautiful systems intact, taking no more than we need and giving a little something back, we will better have our feet on the earth and better place generations to come. Share

Day 12

Saturday 28th Nov Humans! Today was a different kinda walk. I decided to get connected with humans again. The evening looked and smelled different with exotic feels, sights, smells sounds, some familiar, some not. It was uplifting to peer into the many gardens, many with native and indigenous plantings, stumble past the many guerrilla plantings dipping into and between unused railways, quirky little gardens everywhere edged and mulched creatively. Took in the loud evening chatter of birds, the loved solemn cooing of the occasional Bronze Wing resting bottom heavy high on a branch like a Totoro. Angry uneasy swearing from a traumatized paranoid swooshing by, casual laughter of unseen diners, my elderly neighbours classical music up way high ...like normal...the awesome punk he is. I walked along Campbells Creek. What was it once called? Past loving regen, kids hideouts and a wonky trail of art. Many feels. 2 km. Share

Day 11

Thursday 26th Nov Looking over Jaara Country. Volcanic country. Home of the Emu...I hear. Lalgambook (known to many as Mt Franklin) sits in the middle there. It is an extinct volcano. I hear it is the Emu's nest. Have learned a little (very little) about the great Dark Emu and a bit more today in my reading, I am feeling some potential personal lessons. Some things are not my knowledge to share and while I feel much of the unceded land I walk on, it is not my Country...not any of the land nor Country in a broader sense ...with it being so much more than a physical location. I have a lot to learn from this ancient land and the Dja Dja Wurrung custodians. ...Saying I walked 2km suddenly sounds very linear and of my culture... Thinking about time space vastness, micro - macro...the ( journey ? (or a focus on being) rather than a destination. These photos do no justice to the beauty of this land, it's vast history, songlines, complexity and all that which makes it Country to the Dja Dja Wurrung custodians. Share

Day 10

Wednesday 25th Nov Here are some reflections. Stood here for a long time watching water rings made by mystery insects. A beautiful evening walk. 2km Share

Day 9

Wednesday 25th Nov Well it's a day late again... this post...but I had a good stint in the bush non-the-less. Took my time today, walking and stopping a lot on my new favourite track. When you are quieter, when you slow right down, the world actually opens up a bit. It is easier to see..hear, feel the busyness of other critters going about their day or evening. Usually they are just too fast for me to capture for sharing but in the 'quiet' of the bush these are moments, with ears perked up and eyes open, and a camera will actually just lose that moment. Here a joey kangaroo (gurri) almost bounded straight into me...along this little track which I was quite plainly standing at the end of. It stared at me stunned for a long time with it's eyes very wide, before bounding back the other way. Yet to learn the tuned in stealth of it's elders. Sometimes I chit chat with 'nobody' around as to not stun a little someone ...but I think usually they are right onto me. I'm tuning in. 3km today. Share

Day 8

Monday 23rd Nov After a night and morning of wild rain, it was beautiful to walk the drenched earth...Warmed by the sun and soft again. I feel it breath somehow. This land gets very dry. I often feel like breath is being held. Part of my journey is learning how to follow the patterns of the season and breath with that but climate change is usually in my consciousness. Walking on this dry land so often makes me uneasy. Most of the trees where I tend to walk are Box (Mostly Red Box) Eucalypts. Scattered between are Red Stringy Barks...and others. These more shallow rooted trees, the Stringy Barks, have been dying off, especially along ridgelines. This year La Nina has brought such beautiful flushes of rain. Here are some with their soft new bright green growth. A bit more to give yet! It is wonderful to again stand in their dappled shade. 2 km today Share

Day 7

Sunday 22nd Nov Walked very slowly today wondering what I would (and could) share. I've found writing the blogs really centering ...but today my feeling was that no one thing stood out ...just enjoying the multitude of things that makes the whole and all that which can not be shared. But.. here's a little Forester Moth sitting an Sweet Bursaria which is flowering in abundance at the moment. This plant actually has a beautiful 3 way symbiotic relationship with two insects, the Eltham Copper Butterfly and a Notoncus ant. If I have ever seen the Eltham Copper Butterfly then it has been very fleeting. They are elusive little things and there aren't many left. They feed only on this Bursaria which happens to grow in abundance in this little nook of the world. I've seen plenty of these little beauties. Never get tired of spotting this brilliant blue green gem of a little moth. It is wonderful to think of all the relationships that happen while one isn't looking and the many little bits I will never know of or understand. 2km today Share

Day 6

Saturday 21st Nov As the days become warmer and dryer the signs of Poorneet (Previous Kulin Nations season) fade. Here above are the fading creamy candles and a few of the last tall Blue Bells where I walk along a pond. I've been admiring these for a bit. They seem to smell particularly nice in the evening. These are on their way 'out' now. Poorneet (Tadpoles) recedes. It is Buath Gurra now. The frogs are not as loud but I know they are there and plumper. Many treasures hide beneath the soil. The beautiful rain of the last season has meant so much came to reveal itself. There are years too dry for treasures to grow, let alone seed. The puddles, pools, stems and seed heads are drying up now....But I know how everywhere life hides in waiting or is slowing down, distributing and receiving energy carefully so that we will see the joy of that season again. 2 km today Share

Day 5

Saturday 21st Nov Another late post and another about an evening walk... but a stroll tonight...not power walk. This above is of the place of the Gurruk (Magpie) with their gentle familiar warblings which you can't hear from the image. I love how this Dja Dja Wurrung name sounds just like the bird. The Gurruk is such a family oriented bird. It is beautiful to hear them connect. Tonight I listened less to these birds because I was busy chatting to my little bro Dom on the phone. The Gurruk probably thought I was completely nuts chatting on my own like that...not another of my kind in sight or earshot. Nature...full of mysteries! I miss my little bro, wishing family to be here casually dotted around to warble together in the dusk as casually as these birds do at the end of their day. Back home to my usual little nook of beloved warblers. 2km today. Share

Day 4

Thursday 19th Nov Evening wanderings...fragments... Walked in the cool after a hot day. Not much light was left once dinner scraps had been cleared and the crew left to their usual organised chaos. No glasses! I'm half blind but hopeful I'll find my way. Dusky bush adventure! Got the feel for where spiders were spinning their evening webs. Senses heightened with failing vision. Crickets and cicadas chirp and magpies share their evening ramblings. Frogs croak lazily at the lake. kangaroos and wallabies shift the shadows then thump off. On exiting the bush, I walked the long way home under street lights and with the warm glow from windows, hearing evening chatter. The image above is of the hill on which I live. Returning to the little glistening lights there. 3.5 km again! Feeling proud of the day's achievements. Share

Day 3

Thursday 19th Nov Posted a day late...An interesting day! Walked on Wadawurrung Country as I took my mum into Ballarat for some tests. So first km was racked up going around a large block a couple times trying to find the current more Covid safe entrance of where she had to be...so car parks etc. In an effort to make it in time for her appointment, it did indeed become a light jog...and with an over packed bag. Anyway....all on time and good! The rest was a pretty lame effort by beautiful Lake Wendouree where I spent most of my time with an iced coffee and chatting to swans before being called back early. Mum did well in her early tests and so was of little continuing interest. So...butts on seets again for the long drive home ...feeling good. Hopefully a better walking effort today Busting to hit the bush again but I'll wait till it cools down this time. Share

Day 2

Wednesday 18th Nov Reminder to self...it's getting warmer. Don't wear black jeans! As the landscape looks crisper and I brush my feet along the ground to ward off snakes, I'm taking in the unique experience and joys of the new Kulin Nations season of Buath Gurra. I was particularly appreciative of butterflies today and the seeding grasses. The image above is of Red Anther Wallaby Grass. It was quite still in the middle of the day. I wondered where all those other little critters are hiding and how this critter needs to adapt! 2 km today. Doing ok. Share

Day 1

Monday 16th Nov I actually got out of the house after a day with watching my sore tummied kiddo home from school. 3.4 km in the last golden rays and a beautiful new track discovered. Not bad! Share

Day one

Monday 16th Nov I thought I might not make it today...my first day! My 7yr old was home from school with a tummy ache so I was stranded, finding my window getting inched out. However I  managed the most gorgeous stroll in the last daylight hours as the bush was highlighted in gold and found a beautiful new trail. 3.4 km... Not bad for my first unco day with predictable unpredictability really! A bucket is rested next to my son's bed tonight. Hoping it's not a bug. Feeling otherwise good!  Share

Walking on Dja Dja Wurrung Country

Thursday 22nd Oct Hi. Little bit nervous having just made this commitment. I'm not sure how well my knee will hold out but this may also be good for my fitness and mental health. I'm grateful that I can walk here. It's a place full of wonders and I encourage everyone here to walk and actually sometimes stop or walk slowly to absorb those wonders...many little micro ones too and all part of the greater organism which is us and this earth. Please consider supporting me, Bush Heritage Australia and First Peoples led organisations that are part of the continuation of the First peoples custonianship of Country. I pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging. Please walk together.  Share