The Kitchen Garden in August

I've tried to show all the elements:

• raised beds
• aerials
• mulch
• polycultural mix
• hard to show: I have just planted several chaya, aibika and bitter leaf bushes which hopefully will add significantly to my green leaf powder supply.They will become the backbone of foraging.
• Growing are: Timor lettuce, celery, parsley, coriander, cabbages, kale, tomato, beans, chia, chaya, bitter leaf, aibika, longevity spinach, okinawan spinach, spring onions, shallots, radishes, basil, egg plant, chillis, peppers, chives, choko, Tatume squash, Seminole pumpkin, asparagus, Jeruslaem artichokes, mitsuba, water spinach, artichoke pepper leaf...

 

My current hijinx 'form' with stick in hand.Biangan

Stick freestyle: Video

"speak softly, and carry a big stick"

You know the realpolitik --"speak softly, and carry a big stick" -- Well, I've got a shortened one.
This weighty piece of Painted Gum has a solid feel and balance in my hands. Just the thing to beat someone to death with.

Body work and movement awareness.

Mainly, because I am so challenged by pain and stiffness, I've long been interested in body work.

Not only did I train as a massage therapist but as I became more restrained by my illness I've always tried to find therapies that could relieve my distress.

Back in the '90s I read a book -- whose title now escapes me -- that explored 'exercise' in a very objective way such that it included activities that I'd not considered before -- under the novel heading of 'movement awareness'.

Silat tongkat

Six degrees. This is what 6C looks like here. Bracing.

Out and about I was, seeking a landscape location for my hi jinx.

Hardly significant you'd think. But in what followed I was able to integrate some Silat tongkat moves I just discovered.

'Silat' is the traditional martial art form of Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam.

It uses weapons but the basics is learnt wielding a stick. There are sticks, and then there are sticks -- but the Brunei branch of the Silat family employs my kinda stick length -- the biangan (approx armpit/hiking stick height).

The 'flow' approach to its use is two handed grace within a fascinating system of defence.

Rather than being an ideologue, I know what I like --and

The Dan moi jewsharp as tonal therapy before sleep.

 

Last night -- as was my frequent want -- I played my dan moi before bed.
A dan moi is a Vietnamese jewsharp played by the Hmong peoples. While a very simple instrument, you can harness a huge range of syncopated sounds by playing it between your lips using your mouth, tongue, teeth and breathing to resonate.
Among the Turkmen peeps --who play the more familiar jewsharp -- it's celebrated as a shamanistic tool.
While I'd like to get into melody runs per the usual r&b song rhythm, my playing has settled into improvised sessions in a sort of freestyle approach as I explore what fancies me.
Herein rests the addiction.

Raised Beds

 

Ultimately, you have to ask of the stick: what's the best way to hit someone with it?

 

I thought I'd celebrate 'the way of the stick' -- Jōdō (杖道) in Japanese.

Here's the BianGun form I am currently studying.

Here's the BianGun form I am currently studying.

Inasmuch as I know, I'm the only exponent in Australia of this routine. With BianGun (aka whip rod, whip staff, biangan...) there are many styles adjusted according to different influences and traditions.

After much searching, I decided that this is the approach to stick work that spoke loudest to me.

I'm about one third the way through my mastering. To get it right will take years.

• WATCH VIDEO