Somebody said that if God were truly scientific, he would have written the Book of Genesis as a scientific formula. Maybe, but it would create a dilemma. Unless we all held doctorates in science we could not understand anything about it. It would be a closed book to...
A scribe was not easy to categorize. He loved learning, adored being taught and esteemed law. He admired the systems of law that underpinned the universe and society and his nation. He may have been a secretary or a teacher but if he was a teacher he was not expected...
The new garden niche was on a steep slope. You started at the bottom and climbed colourful stepping stones to reach its topmost point. The stepping stones were part of the charm of the tiny area and when you got there, you rested on a seat beside a large urn full of...
There were numbered, random dots all over the page. They had no form and no substance and they made no sense. They were just scattered dots on a blank page and they had to be connected to reveal the picture hidden in them. I can remember bending all my energy and...
We drove along a dirt road for about fifteen minutes. Right along the fence line of the farm paddocks on one side of the road were remnants of tall, wooden telephone poles. I remembered when the telephone system reached the area and what a blessing it was to the...
She was a compulsive gardener. She grew impossible things from seeds and from cuttings. Every space in her yard was crowded. “I need more space!” she cried, phoning her friend, Grace. Grace owned a spare block of ground alongside. She had the block cleaned and set out...
A few years ago, many country people in Australia relied on a water bag for daily drinking water. It was a canvas bag measuring about twelve by fifteen inches and it had a porcelain mouthpiece with a cork, or later a screw-cap. Somehow a wire hangar was fixed through...
I have a tiny treasure with history. It is a small cup about the size of an egg-cup but with delicately fluted sides and a pretty flower pattern inside and out. It is of no use for anything practical but I keep it and love it because it reminds me of my mother. She...
We laughed aloud. We have a visiting wild magpie who comes to our door asking for handouts. We love to see him and he knows that if he stands on a certain rock just on the edge of the verandah, we will toss scraps of food to him. So when we answer his presence at the...
Being in the garden on a foggy morning is the nearest thing a singer who cannot sing can come to singing; or a composer who cannot compose can come to composing. Fog is as lavish with softness, with intensity and with intimacy as a song is lavish with sound, or music...