Nature's Place

Ahhh! That’s the sound of the body as it exhales in relief at being in nature. The pleasure it is, no problem. It’s the sound of the world of mind leaving the body of earth. That it can be, what a wonder that is.

I found a new flower today in the coastal wetland forest Billinudgel NR is. A lovely soft yellow standing out in the greens and browns of the trailside brush. There were no visitors to them but many passersby, many different kinds of little cricket – if that’s what they are called, one big black wasp about two inches long – too quick to photograph, a lone hoverfly, restless robber flies, hunting dragons and a few fluttering yellow butterflies amongst others.

There was the rise and fall of the sound of cicada, a song of expectancy, in metamorphosis. One to the other and all around. An enveloping presence. A song of bounty. Death of the old and new life. It resounds in me still.

*

I came to a creek where I know dragons dance, I have seen them, really. And they were dancing there today. But today they were not dancing for me, I’d had my special performance. Today they were just Dragons dancing. He, or her, displaying his aerial skills and dipping in the muddy waters shallow edge. She, red rising swiftly in chase as he dodged in short circuitous ways. Gossamer wings glittering in the sunshine between the shadows of the trees and reeds.

After watching a while I passed on, to another spot I know. Where I go is often a matter of the earth opening up as the tracks and trails that other creatures make, or are made by fallen tree or shade or clumped and dried out growth. I rarely go where people go.

There’s an old burnt out bridge across a wet creek where two red Dragons lay. One took away as I approached, the other waited a while then away it went. But soon enough the second was back to a different spot and I waited. To see what next. She came and sat beside me in the grass, no snakes about, who knows.

I got closer and closer till I was in comfortable shooting range, about ten inches from the camera. She sat there preening and alert for any passing food but not at all bothered by me. She flitted here and there but never far away and always back to the place comfortable for me. Then she took to the air and disappeared and reappeared on my flash diffuser. The one place I couldn’t get a photo of her. But I got a good look with my glasses on and it is a wonder to see them up close and live, I mean alive, they are not that dangerous.

A remarkable thing, not one mozzie bite today in spite of being in the shade most of the time. After a few hours I went home the way I had come and enjoyed the simple pleasure of the wind and sun and green things with the occasional bird dropping into my existence to say hello, in sense, of course.
 
© Mark Berkery ……. Click any picture and click again to enlarge
 

After a few days rain I thought the dragons would be out today with the sun and it was so. I suspect they are hungry after sitting out the wet and windy weather. It showed in their unceasing movement, to and fro, chasing down the prey that is theirs to eat.

Shelter, then food. That’s the order of things. The body needs protection first or all the food in the forest will do no good.
*
There were a few dragons on the trail but none were inclined to sit still for more than a few seconds at a time. So I observed and enjoyed the display of aerial mastery that is the dragon’s sig-nature. I don’t know their names, just their colours, and many there are. Green, blue, yellow, brown, red, grey and striped. All magnificent creations. Beautiful little forms of life.

This forest, Billinudgel NR, is a sponge to the rain that comes down from the hills to the west and in places it is nearly always wet. It is at these places where I find the most dragons, though my best pictures are from alongside the trail where the open space is better defined.

In spite of the wet and warm weather there are few mozzies so I can stand around in the shade at the wet places and wait for whatever happens along. Today it was a red dragon. She? Perched on my stick for just a few seconds, long enough for me to get the camera out but not for a shot. But she didn’t disappear.
*
From perch to perch she went, from twig to grass to stone and eventually to rest on the forest floor a few feet away. It is a real pleasure when they rest close by and I can see their detail. And since I can’t chase and stalk them as I did in the beginning close proximity is a necessity for a good shot.

I got a few and just after the last one she took to the air and was mating in the blink of an eye with a yellow dragon. It was amazing to see, an extraordinary occurrence. They flew in perfect harmony and hovered over the pool of water at my feet, moving slowly over the surface. They parted for a time and the yellow one, still airborne, dipped his rear end in the pool and used his tail to flick water up. Curious behaviour. While he was doing this she was hovering over him, following him around the pool. Proud beings they were, unselfconscious.

I felt privileged to be there and witness this dance of life in these little beauties.
 
© Mark Berkery…… Click any Picture and click again to enlarge
 

There is an old rotting tree deep in the forest where a lady lizard lives. It is home to many creatures, such as ants and termites and other intelligent crawling things. I have met her on many occasions, usually as she was sunning herself. That would be a certain time of day since the sun can only reach the spot for a couple of hours at a time.

She got used to me very quickly, not so she would let me pet her but I was allowed to photograph her close up. The first time was when she was moulting, early in the spring. You can see where the old scales are off or are coming off. Everything grows anew in springtime. The later photo’s, which are the first two, are of her new beauty, her new coat. And she is beautiful, if you can see it.

There is a softness about this little lady lizard that touches a softness in me, and I am softened. A little more.

Lovely little lady lizard.
 
© Mark Berkery…… Click any Picture and click again to enlarge
 

Clouds come and go, shade – light. Inside and out. The track is an uneven surface so I need to keep an eye out for rock and hole and fallen branch. Spider webs too, and mozzies. Against the light ahead through the overhanging foliage I see a fluttering shadow, a dragon in the distance? Butterfly dancing?

Eyes up, down and up again as the shadow quickly resolves into a small dark brown and orange moth. It’s only two feet away now and heading straight for my face. I ducked and past it went, heedless of the near collision. It turned out to be a different colour under the flash, beautiful thing.

Some encounters are to be sidestepped, some are opportunities. And some opportunities are missed when the inner vision is blurred with stuff of the mind, the past.
 
© Mark Berkery…… Click any Picture and click again to enlarge
 

Or, keep your feet on the ground of sense kid!

I was out looking at the sky and things, stars, insects around the light, frogs at the water tank. One of the frogs favourite places is a little water bowl by the old tank. I was looking into it to see if there is any mosquito larva in the water when I heard a buzzing of wings rapidly approaching from behind. Then plop, into the water bowl a huge green cicada flies.

As the sun was going down I saw a big butterfly land in a nearby tree. I stopped to have a good look and eventually disturbed it so it flew away, but not far. It was getting dark and butterflies don’t fly at night. It landed in another tree so I noted its position to check on it later. Much later, around 2am it is still holding on to the tree in a blustering wind.

Have you ever wondered what butterflies do at night, where they go? I’ll tell you. They seek a sheltered place, like you and me. Sheltered from the many predators there are at night in the forest, bats, snakes, all sorts of creatures would find a butterfly good eating. Shelter to a butterfly is out on the end of a branch where few other insects wander. It folds up its wings and hangs on in the wind. There it stays till sunrise. At least this one did.

*

And the sky, I mustn’t forget the sky under which all this nature happens. What magnificence, majestic, mystic clear endless space with all those stars bright. An unusual brightness tonight.

I have to give the night sky more time, just to look at it. Here in Wooyung it is dark and clear enough at times to really see it, simple and wonderful.

*

Smells of sweetness from the forest, aroma of mint – the tractor had been this way this morning. Today it is vanilla cocoa carried on the breeze. An unbelievable lightness of sense. And fresh mown grass.

Emotions overboard. Help! Help! Whatever will I do without my unhappiness!

I know, I’ll make some up. :)
 
© Mark Berkery ……….Click on pictures, and click again to enlarge.
 

Visitors from inner space, beauty, light, colour, form and function. Magnificent intelligence.
*
The frogs have been having a ball. No, that’s a banquet. The last time I saw the frogs dancing was with the plague of locusts last summer’s end. They were having a barbecue and dance down by the old water tank. That was a sensational ball. Really!

Spider stayed home that night.

*

What’s real? What’s in my experience and how I perceive it, its significance. Or, what I sense.

Everything else is distraction or entertainment.
 
© Mark Berkery ……….Click on pictures, and click again to enlarge.
 

The recent wave of Dragonflies peaked about a week ago. They came with the first wave of heat as the summer got under way, appearing in one’s and two’s until they were uncountable in places at times. And then they just disappeared with only the occasional one showing up in the usual places. Then the rain came and it even got cold again on one or two nights.

Just as the wave of water rises before it breaks on the shore, so the wave of Dragonflies rose and broke on the shore of the fact of living, every body dies. Existence is a wave of form carried on the light of intelligence. Everything happens in waves. I am a wave, you are a wave. All waves break, what matters is the intelligence that keeps them coming. That intelligence is now, in sense.

*

It has been sunny and hot for a couple of days now. I stopped on the way home to go for a walk on the beach in Wooyung late this afternoon. It’s a particular place where there is a walk through the bush before coming to the ocean. I went for a walk, leaving the ‘Photographer’ in the boot as has become my habit, and the first thing I noticed was all the young Dragonflies. One, the light yellow and white, the other a deep dark red.

*

There is a new wave of Dragons, young Dragons, a fraction the size of the ones I came upon first this year. And other little creatures.

On the way to the beach I stopped to inspect a clump of low growing eucalypt. It has been populated in the past by various creatures and today was no exception. There were hundreds of the bright yellow and red ladybugs with the black markings, and a few different kinds of grasshopper. A new wave of life.

The ladybugs were all over me in a short while and I had to pick a few off. If you ever pick one up you may notice they immediately seek the high ground, the tip of my finger in this case, from where they usually open their wing casings, spread their wings and take off. It’s a wonder to watch up close. Delightful, colourful slow motion creatures.

*

When I got to the beach the Dragons were everywhere, and lively, as the sun was about to set. All the tiny flying creatures, gnats, midges and a myriad others I will never know that use the cool of the setting suns shade to exercise their flying nature. These young Dragons didn’t stand still at all, flitting from perch to perch with no obvious pattern to it, feeding on the bounty rising from the ground cover as the day turns to night. Another wave.

I got to see the Dragons close enough to appreciate the beautifully designed architecture and lovely colouring. I was closely inspecting a yellow one that had settled on a twig about waist height and as I got to within a foot or so a young red one came and tumbled with the yellow one in a flash of colour and wings. The yellow one wasn’t taking it too seriously, it wasn’t an attack. It was more like playing or teasing and the red one went on its way very soon after. It is a wonder to see Dragons play, a privilege really.

Wave!
 
© Mark Berkery ……….Click on pictures, and click again to enlarge.
 

No, not insects through the mail. Putting up A4 notices where people will have them and see them. I’ve been doing it for the talks I am giving in Brunswick Heads and I get a good reception almost everywhere I go. I meet some people who say they need what I have but them showing up at a talk is another matter.

I enjoy talking to the different people though, about the quality of the honey or the birds in the aviary at the lovely old nook of a fruit and veg shop on the Murwillumbah side of the Burringbar Ranges. The birds were excited to see me and I was really delighted to make acquaintances. One danced for my attention and when I went to take his picture he kept ducking out of the frame. Then he whistled at me, delightful cheeky spirit, reminded me of one of the young girls on the school bus. Still bright in me.

Or the lady at the ladies clothes shop in Murwillumbah where every item is a one off, the racks are delightfully colourful and feminine. And my flyer was placed uncluttered on a crowded board.

The lady at the Environment shop put one up for me and the fellow took a couple to put up elsewhere.

Or the coffee shop near the bridge where the young daughter is going to have a bath of lime and raspberry tea while drinking a cup of it with a little honey. Lovely aroma.

And the organic shop where the young woman showed an unusual appreciation for what I am doing.

The lady sweet, and the man in the crystal shop wished me good luck with what I’m doing, and meant it.

The bookshop where a young woman of presence welcomed me on my first day flyering. The simple presence symbolic to me.

Many other places too. Fruit and veg shops in Pottsville, the mechanics in Burringbar, the doctors in Mullumbimby, the gallery in Stokers Siding and many other notice boards.

All little encouragements, little helping angels, to me.

It has been a pleasure. And though it looks like I might be heading for a city sometime soon I’m not finished here yet.

*

What a sweet smell there is in the air today, and tonight. A reminder of a place of beauty, inside. Something wonderful is happening in the bush.
 
© Mark Berkery ……….Click on any picture, and click again to enlarge.
 

Lots of it. Water falling from the sky. Walking in the nature. So refreshing, just the sense of it. Dripping, splashing, lovely cool wet, wet water.

The frogs are back late this year since the insect season has only just started in earnest with the recent warming of the weather. They are to be heard everywhere, day and night. It is lovely to see them hunting around the house and often sitting on the glass of the doors to the living room. Quiet little green tree frogs.

There is one frog down by the old water tank and I think it is a Pobblebonk, funny name that. I saw a few here last year but I have no recent frog photo’s. It has a call that sounds like a plonk – short deep, hollow wooden sound. It has been calling from dusk till dawn for a week or so now. Until tonight that is, maybe a mate has found him? Or a snake.

Out in the forest the frogs are calling to each other wherever there is water pooled, which is almost everywhere right now. The calls are so varied, there is the common croaking nideep – nideep, a chirruping, plonking and many other calls indescribable. It is a real chorus in places, a symphony of the many voices of frog.

Rain thundering on my roof now, frogs calling, sweet sound to me. The storm began in earnest a little while ago and passed right over the house. It poured down and cracked and flashed mightily with great thunder and lightning.

Out went the lights and the computer. In came the cat with her tail tucked down, hugging close to the ground with not a word from her who is usually so talkative.

Here comes another wave of storm, flashing and crashing and splashing as it gets closer. So refreshing to me tucked up in the warm dry house. So intensely sense.
 
Copyright Reserved / Mark Berkery ………Click on picture, and click again to enlarge.