Life pretty normal here. The 20 inches of rain in Jan & Feb, more than last year total, is promoting massive grass growth. Costing a fortune to put petrol in the mower, at about 5 liters a mowing session for the house paddock & tracks to the dam & river needed every 4 or 5 days.

We have moved to on line shopping. It is not my favorite way, & our order from Sunday will be delivered tonight between 6 & 10 PM, but it keeps us off the street.

I had my 20Th birthday party a month back, & we were joking I only had to last another 4 years to have a big 21St party. Looks less likely now.

Both daughters are able to work from home, one with increased hours, the other with a loss of one day a week, so good news there for them & their families.

I must admit I am wondering if we have gone over board a bit with closures & handouts, but with so many totally different opinions from "experts" it is impossible for us to have much of an idea ourselves. Like many things, we will probably only know what we should have done long after the event, if ever.

So do keep safe folks, what ever you or your governments chose for you.

Hi Issy, glad you are all well. A lady passed away in Orange Base Hospital, the very institution I was born in. What does hare taste like? I'm assuming rabbit, but I don't know. Just on those wild rabbits, not much on em', what about hairs are they on the thin side? Me thinks rabbit best in a stew. Wild ducks, give me a nice fat Muscovy drake any day over the scrawny wild fellas, but if your hungry all tastes good.

Hi runner, for the Maori 'Kaupapa', best for us to call it genealogy, but its much more than that, its more or less their reason and purpose for existence. As genealogy is so important, in all Maori, so its natural for their gods to have a kaupapa and in tern a "family", starting with the Sky Father/Ranginui and Earth Mother/Papatuanuku, from which all life originates. There is a collection of many gods and deities which stem from Ranginui and Papatuanuku, each with its own sphere of responsibility. For example if one is taking a long journey, asking Tangaroa, the god of the sea, for safe travel is seen by some as a must, the wife included. Want to meet a god in earthly form, a trip into the Waipoua Forest and one meets Tane-mahuta the god of forests. His earthly incarnation is that of a giant kauri tree, possibly up to 2500 years old. I believe Maori belief is as legitimate as any other religious belief.

p/s The wife was visited by a beetle at her prayer table today, a small red coloured beast, rather harmless, she believes that beetles and birds carry messages from another realm. When walking yesterday, she came across a shield beetle in her path, she did say then maybe a message, now this bug today, well who am I to argue.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_tree_of_the_M%C4%81ori_gods

Hi Paul,

I have a lovely niece in Auckland named Papatuanuku, or just Papa. Ngapuhi. And, as it happens, also ancestors, all descended from convicts, from Orange, Mudgee, Gulgong. Small world !

Yes, I think that Aboriginal people here too focus very much - but not necessarily all that consciously, as in the nature of 'deep culture' - on genealogies, families - at least to the level of cousins and maybe second cousins. Much of it is taken for granted, is somebody 'in' or 'out'. Some families tend to - or used to tend to - intermarry, so some families, clans if you like hapu, are much closer to each other than to other families.

I came upon Tane Mahuta many years ago with my wife; we went into the forest looking for him, but came up against what I thought was a great concrete wall; then realised slowly that of course, that was the trunk of Tane-Mahuta, an amazing work of nature and worship, maybe ten metres across. Amazing; awe-inspiring is a feeble word for it.

The world is an ever-amazing place.

Cheers,

Joe

Dear SteeleRedux,

«It did however give me pause to contemplate that if they knew where their pandemic came from, as in us human, they might well be thinking 'see how it feels ya bastards'.»

Yes, their man-made pandemic is finally over. For the last months we kept our bunny strictly indoors and stockpiled pre-pandemic hay, but now he is allowed out in the backyard (under supervision of course, the last thing he needs is an encounter with the neighbour's cat) while we humans are kept mostly indoors.

We just prepared a small vegetable-garden there and sown carrots, lettuces and cauliflowers for him - should things get worse and we stop going out shopping, or if markets close, he should still have his favourites, especially carrot leaves that are not normally sold along with commercial packs of carrots.

Now that the gardening efforts are over, I should have more time for study, reflection and meditation. I actually wished for a break, so now that my orchestras have closed down, so has the gym and so have all the public religious functions, I feel more in control of my own time. There are also more online religious studies and instead of the gym I started walking up the hill in nature. Really, my personal life is good and I have no complaints.

We ate a lot of rabbit in my younger days too Pasul. A couple of us pre teens used to dig them out of the warrens, around Bathurst, before the mix was introduced. We had them both stewed & baked. I didn't realise it at the time, but my mother was a very good cook.

The skins bought me a new bike & football boots.

We did try hares, but they are much more gamey & tough. They eat lots of woody stuff rather than grass, so taste very different. I'd have to be very hungry to eat hare.

Not something I like either, but if push comes to shove, & you have to eat game, it would be kangaroo because it is easy to get, & venison in preference if in the right district.

WARNING; From my neighbour; A tele-marketing call, wants to sell you "snake oil" one capsule a day, that's all that is required. The operator tells of their product of secret "herbs and spices", not sure what's in it, which "increases your immune system" against all things nasty, including coronavirus, what rubbish! Give your CC details and you will receive your first months supply of "snake oil" pills, within seven days, most likely nothing more than multi vitamins. Took our neighbour some time to get the price, seems $99.95 per months or two lots for $180 , they have the family protection plan as well, all plus p&h. Then monthly "protection" delivered thereafter, probably forever.

THIS IS DANGEROUS, giving people a false sense of protection, when there is no such thing, and not to mention the price rip off as well. Obviously the scientific proof would be from "research" done in Bongostan!