Still here

For a while, anyway

It’s not a bad view. © Bronwen Scott.

I’ve been quiet for a few weeks…but for good reason. I needed to leave the old place, but the rental situation in this area was so dire that I thought I might have to abandon the Atherton Tablelands altogether. But then I found a place. So here I am. Still on the Tablelands. For the next six months at least.

There are houses only a few metres away on either side, but the garden backs on to paddocks occupied a entirely different set of neighbours. My new rental home is on a housing development poking into farmland. This seems to be the pattern now. Instead of an encroaching front that pushes forward onto arable land (itself once rainforest), development makes literal inroads. The paddocks between will soon be filled with concrete and asphalt.

But for the moment, there are goats and sheep and a big steer that might not be a permanent fixture. All of them are on the lookout for food; all they get from me is scritches.

Some new friends. © Bronwen Scott.

As I write this, the rain on the corrugated iron roof sounds like marbles tipped out of a bucket. Black-faced Cuckoo-shrikes are chattering in the trees, Bush Stone-curlews are wailing — in condemnation of the weather or in favour of it, I’m not sure — and somewhere in the distance a Varied Triller is creating a buzz.

My new pals. All of them are called Shaun. © Bronwen Scott.

So I have a new home. And some new friends. But I will move on. You can bet on it.