Writing with children

I have been contracted to work on a project called A Map of a Dream of the Future. I am being employed as a writer going to primary schools to run creative writing workshops for 10 - 12 year olds. In these workshops I am to help the students write up their ideas about climate change, resilience, and living in Tasmania, and vision what their lives will be like in another 40 years taking into account all of these elements. I am very interested to hear what the children have to say as I am sure it will really illuminate my understanding of the world.

I have been hunting some literature to read to help me come up with exciting, thought provoking workshops for the students. So far I have come across a little library of books about teaching using the Steiner method. Steiner specialises in helping children to free their imagination so I can way to get my teeth into reading these books. I sure it will be good soulfood for my imagination too.

Distractions from writing

Pickled Beetroot. Done.
Pickled Cucumber. Done.
Pickled Artichokes. Done.
Rhubarb Chutney. Done.
Distractions from writing. Done.

Forests at Copenhagen

Right now I am capturing footage for a video being made for the Copenhagen climate change conference starting on the 7th December. The video is an education tool to help people understand that forest management practices often have huge carbon emissions that are not being accounted for. In Tasmania each Autumn forestry initiates burn offs of the recently cut clear fells. These burn offs fill our gorgeous Autumn skies with massive mushroom clouds. The burn offs carbon emissions are not being accounted for. The ability of forest to absorb carbon is also not being accounted for. Tasmania's forests are an asset to a world trying to minimise its carbon consumption yet we still log and burn them. Hopefully this short sighted practice will be regulated against by the global community.

Melbourne shiny and new

Sometimes the big cities do my head in. Wandering around Melbourne CBD before my meeting yesterday I had a gentle panic attack about humanity, consumption, brainwashing. " Oh how humanity is a fucked up consumption machine fixated on superficial beauty and throw away goods", that sort of thing. I had to buy a few things - a trolley suitcase, a pair of stockings. But it was ridiculously hard to find a quality item that would not break in 5 minutes. Case in point - the first pair of stockings had runs in them as I brought them out the packet, the second pair I exchange them for had a ladder within an hour. Throwaway, disposable culture. It makes my heart break for the wasting of the planet.

Taking the apple challenge

We have two prolific apple trees which gave us almost ten crates full of apples last Autumn. Many apples still remain under the house in cool storage and I am trying to put them to use before the next season floods us with another harvest. This weekend I made a double batch of apple and ginger chutney which smells delicious. I am downsizing Christmas spending this year and intend to give those that will appreciate it some of my pickling bounty. So far I have pickled onions, made onion jams, Burmese pickled mustard greens, mustard green Kim Chee and apple and ginger relish to give as stocking fillers.

I haven't tasted the mustard green Kim Chee yet - it has to sit somewhere warm for week before use. My mustard green Kim Chee was an inspired invention after failing at my attempt to dehydrate mustard greens to make homemade wasabi. Once dehydrated the mustard greens lost their eye watering goodness. My batch of cabbage Kim Chee made a few months ago has been a surprising success so I hope the mustard green version lives up to high standard of the cabbage variety.

We finished harvesting our leeks but half way through got quite sick of eating them. So I have dehydrated the second half of our harvest too keep in jars for adding flavour to winter soups. Now I am waiting for the pea bush seeds I planted last weekend to sprout so I can plant them in the space left in the garden by harvesting the leek crop. There has been alternating days of warm weather and rain here in Hobart the last few weeks which is perfect growing conditions.

My roses look divine, massive plump skirts of crimson, pink and yellow. I inherited the roses form the previous owner and even my husband, who previously called the roses weeds and threatened to put them through the chipper, has embraced their spring glory.

Sci-fi Horror

Over the last two days I have taken part in a Genre Scriptwriting course with Stephen Cleary from Arista Development. He is a fantastic teacher with a quick, analytical brain that can pull apart a story and see what is working and what isn't in seconds. It is really inspiring to see someone so immersed in story and so assured of the importance of the role of the storyteller. Storytellers help us to reflect on ourselves, on our mistakes, on our regrets, on our desires, on our hopes. Stories excite us, scare us, challenge us.

I was particularly inspired by Stephen's analysis of the horror genre. I am not a fan of slasher horror or horror porn (gratuitous violence for the sake of it). But I do love the dark, the wild, the unknown. I have a horror film sloshing around in my head - it is a low budget sci fi horror to be shot in the small town of Maydena on the frontier of the Tasmanian wilderness.

It is hard to find time to do justice to all my projects, stay sane, have a social life, exercise, eat well etc. Some big things like writing another feature film script get pushed to the side as more immediate needs of clients, work and life eclipse my time. But Stephen's workshop has help to fertilise the seedling of my sci-fi horror story, and I can feel it now growing and twisting through the cracks of my mind down into my arm and onto paper.

Green home

I just had our house and studio assessed for its power and water use. Mostly it seems we can improve our power efficiency by adding under floor insulation and extra insulation in the roof. Another suggestion was to add styrofoam cladding to the outside of the house - ugly and and toxic.

Despite the elaborate amount of techy gear I use for editing I was pleasantly surprised to find out our power use for our home and studio is relatively low, partly because we don't run alot of appliances and also because our wood heater is so efficient. We now qualify for the $10,000 no interest Green Loan so we can more readily afford to add insulation and get heat saving window fittings. With solar panels on the way we are slowly making our way towards a green retrofit home and studio.

Sunkissed in full colour

This morning we started filming the Eat Well Grow Well School Gardens DVD. It is a brilliant clear spring day and the sun has kissed my skin a little too keenly. Spring = hats in Tasmania.

Filming with Hannah Molonney as the presenter of the film was an absolute delight - she is so positive and a great guide for the school children. The students - oh my gosh - they were SO enthusiastic about the gardening and practically wrestling for shovels. Too cute.

Stuff

Talking with Andy Vagg, the Tip Shop's education officer, has given me a renewed appreciation for people using second hand goods. Recycling is good for the planet but as Andy pointed out recycling takes more energy and uses more carbon. Going to the Tip Shop and buying a table or chair or whatever for a few bucks that some other person has dropped off that morning does not take create any extra carbon, other than the small amount of fuel you have used to get to the Tip Shop. So when I look around my house today at all the second hand Tip Shop furniture I have collected I see not just a mismatch of shabby chic style but a simple, easy way to save some more carbon emmisions by reducing our consumerism.

The compelling photographs of Chris Jordan

Last night I attended a lecture by photographer Chris Jordan. His work examines mass consumerism and waste. This topic is of particular interest to me as I am developing a documentary series about creative people using waste to change other people's lives for the better. I have lined up an interview with Chris at the Tip Shop tomorrow. Interestingly he has never heard of "Tip Shops" and said that in the USA (where he is from) there are none.

Chris' photographs reveal the amount of disposable products like soft drinks cans, plastic bags, and mobile phones that are discarded daily in the US. I found these photographs compelling and depressing. It does make me wonder if there is any hope for this planet as we mindlessly consume and pollute on a massive scale. But if you really want to be moved to tears and utter despair look at his images of Albatross on the Midway Atoll.

"These photographs of albatross chicks were made in September 2009 on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking."

You can watch the short movie of these photographs here:
http://www.chrisjordan.com/

or here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbqJ6FLfaJc&hd=1

A Veil of Mist

A low, damp mist is hanging over the Cascade valley this morning. 29 degrees Celsius here last night was quite surreal, but as always in Tasmania the warmth preceeds a cooler weather change. The fine mist is gently carressing my new seedlings. I planted heirloom tomatoes on Show Day, put a small crop of potatoes in yesterday, and over the weekend Paul finally mowed the lawns and mulched the fruit trees. We are feeling more organised for spring now.

I almost through harvesting our crop of winter leeks and last night attempted another new recipe with them. This time it was Stephanie Alexander's Buckwheat Crepes with Buttery Leeks and Gruyere cheese. Yummy but the crepes weren't very succussful - I think we are in need of a proper pancake pan. I didnt know that proper pancake pans existed until reading this recipe last night, but a good pancake makes me a happy woman so it is now on my wishlist.

I got halfway through making the recipe when I discovered the crepe mix needed to chill for 2 hours. I really should read the whole recipe in advance! But it gave me a chance to sterilise jars so I reheated the onion jam I made over the weekend and bottled 8 little jars of savoury goodness for the year ahead. My next challenge is to work out what to do with the mustard green crop that is going to seed. I have already made mustard green pickles so I need to find a new outlet. I am currently testing out drying the greens in a food dehydrater and seeing if I can make a wasabi-like powder. Home made wasabi would be awesome but we shall see whether this experiment sinks or swims...

Island of Contrasts

After the many months of cold the sun has really broken through here in Southern Tasmania. The sun returns with ferocity and where a week ago it was not warm enough to sit outside for long in short sleeves now I want to lie and bask my whole body under its rays. Except like many things in Tasmania even the sun is extreme and the summer light scorches the skin. You can literally feel it burn because of our thin ozone layer.

But what a better place to be to enjoy the long daylight hours amidst the green and blue hazed hills, with clean rivers and ocean to swim in and a bounty of organic local food to eat? For those of us who have endured the sometimes painfully long cold winter finding yourself at the beginning of another heavenly Tasmanian summer makes it all worthwhile.

Wilderness Society Widows

My husband is a workaholic. I picked him up last night after he has been away working interstate for three days and he had his mobile phone glued to his ear. The sight of Paul with his mobile phone glued to his ear now immediately raises my blood temperature. Saturday morning brunchs, Sunday evening dinners, any time any where our peace is interrupted by another "important work calls". I can hardly say it is romantic.

And another thing. The washing piles up, the garden is overgrown, and I continually feel it is just me here in this marriage to run the house, do the chores, and keep domesticity ticking over. Hardly a role I have chosen for myself, rather it has been thrust upon me. Some call us "The Wilderness Society Widows" as we greenie wives have lost our husbands to the the endless black hole of energy that is the environment movement.

Ok that is enough whinging. It is off my chest now - time for me to sneak in another load of washing and perhaps a twenty minute break from work to do more whippersnippering of our urban jungle. Oh the joys of working from home.

A Swag of Stories

I have been feeling unusually unmotivated since I got back from holidays a few weeks ago but after a meeting with producer Steve Thomas yesterday my brain has started popping and crackling again. I have to say I am relieved... when your brain doesn't come back from holidays - I think it was floating in a waterhole somewhere in northern NSW - it is a bit of a worry.

Steve has asked me to attend the World Congress of Science and Factual Producers (WCSFP) in Melbourne December 1 – 4. We will be taking a swag of projects (actually they call it a slate in the film industry, but swag is so much more visually pleasing) to pitch to international executive producers from National Geographic, Discovery Channel and such like. I have a few projects ready to go: one about the struggle of Tasmanian Aboriginal Land and Sea Council chairperson - the fiesty 30 year old Fiona Newson - trying to overturn the Relics Act in Tasmania so that her people can gain recoginition for cultural connection to country; a 5 part series about the creative community surrounding the Tip Shop; and a few others. I am going to reframe the Tip shop story in the carbon debate and whip up a teaser for it (a short film that just introduces the characters and flavour of the story). Over the last two weeks I have been shooting some great footage for a teaser of the tip shop workers deconstructing an 1800's cordial warehouse in inner city Hobart. All the materials from the warehouse will be reused in a new sustainability centre being built in Mt Nelson. Yesterday I interviewed site manager Sally Thompson. Her face was covered in black dust but her clear blue eyes sparkled in delight.

They are such a happy, optimistic crew, that Tip shop crew, and I am hoping the documentary series will help spread the delight they find in salvaging materials, and equally the delight this brings to their many quirky, creative customers. It has been fascinating researching this documentary series. I am a die-hard opshopper and tip shopper from way back and my husband regularly has to drag me away from the Hobart Tip shop on a Sunday. But researching my film idea has really enlightened me about what a remarkable role the tip shop plays in so many people's lives. There is the mosaic artist teaching African refugees, the metalwork teacher inspiring disadvantaged students to built "hot-rod" bicycles, the fabric artist who collect blankets from the Tip shop and takes them all the way to Central Australia to work with Aboriginal women to rediscover their natural dyes, the eccentric owner builder with his "hundred dollar home sandwich" - a low cost housing technique based on materials sourced from the Tip Shop, and finally the high end architect specialising in sustainability who is working with the Tip shop to start a new and vigorous industry of deconstructing (rather than demoliting) buildings so that bulding materials can be fully reused to build "sustainable" green star rated buildings. I love these stories because they are all positive, inspiring, quirky, and totally Tasmanian. Let's just hope the broadcasters like them too!

Making jam

"I got the blues thinking of the future, so I left off and made some marmelade. It's amazing how it cheers one up to shred oranges and scrub the floor." - D.H Lawrence

I came across this quote this morning which neatly sums up many of my morning shower musings. As an environmentalist and filmmaker I spent some years being angry at the world, then just frustrated, sometimes was defeatist and disillusioned with humanity, but most often I have stayed buoyant enough to believe I can help make positive change in the world. But how do you stay buoyant and self-motivated in the face of impossible difficulties and not burn out? Every activist has to ask this of themselves or else their activist days are short lived.

Starting this blog now has been partly inspired by reading "Julie and Julia" this weekend by Julie Powell. I had been thinking about blogging but often had the self defeatist thought "what is the point of adding my thoughts and words into the already overfull cup of the babble of humanity?" But Powell's book, based on her blog, gave me great relief with its humour and honesty. Women's voices are often lost in the din and it had been a while since I had read anything as authentic that had cut straight through to my heart. Powell reminded me that all voices are worth being heard, despite any self doubt or community discouragement.

Back to marmelade. Partly what I loved about what Powell was expressing about cooking was through it refinding the ability to feel like we can take control of our world and add beauty, love and creativity to it. At the time of the Julie and Julia project Powell was working opposite the gaping site of the Two Towers disaster. I am sure that every day she felt that the world was out of her control, in the same way anybody who cares about this planet and the way we humans have been treating it feel. But in cooking she could restore some little quarter of the type of world she wanted to live in.

Less is more

It is spring in Tasmania and my garden keeps calling out to me to plant seeds, to weed and mow. My kitchen keeps calling out to me to make onion jam, brew up some apple wine and dry the mustard greens to make home made wasabi.

My inner domestic goddess keeps demanding more attention, and I keep having to tell her I have other work to do... like earning a living. But my home studio looks out over the garden and the newly budding red roses keep nodding at me.

For years my work has been my number one priority but more and more I am relishing time to think and create, to walk and listen to my inner thoughts. I am not sure what the profit margin in this activity is but some deep part of me keeps telling me to forget about paying the bills and just tune in to my soul's longing.

Luckily the film projects I have on all have enough heart to make me still sit down here at the computer and find fulfillment with my work. Less is more and more is less, don't they say?