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

Stickhood: My new sticks

 

While out in the bush I had the plan to renew my stickhood. 

I was after a stem  of Spotted Gum as I knew the species and was much taken with its attributes. 

It sure whittled up better than I expected. And now, my sticks-to-hand have spirit and identity. 

After whittling back the bark, sanding and selectively burning, I coated the wood with 'Bat Butter' which is used on cricket bats.

Green Leaf Powder

I grow a range of different greens. These leaves have awesome nutritional attributes.

But the problem is either finding an excuse to add them to the menu or their taste or texture sabotages my desire to eat them.

Indian Club Hankerings.

Despite whatever impinges on my progress, I am slowly mastering the genre routines I aspire to.

You know I do the stick work -- Biangun/Whip Rod -- and teach it-- but I also have Indian Club hankerings.

Biangan in the Park with Dave

 

Since we last spoke, I have collected half a dozen students for my hanbo form.

I teach it every week  in a local park.

Great venue -- under a roof shelter on a large cement slab.

The dojo.

In the class I teach health-wand first -- then tackle the form.

Seems to work as they keep coming back.

Indian Clubs Taditional YMCA Drill

I listen to a lot of jews harp / jaw harp music. Who da thought there'd be so much of it on Spotify.

Eastern European and Turkic cultures are the keenest twangers with the Scandinavians not far behind.

As a player focused on the Vietnamese dan moi I'm an aficionado of a side branch of the whole shebang.

Sunday Arvo Đàn môi.

After doing the practice thing --usually every time  before I lay thee down to sleep -- I'm beginning to make mouth moving gains with the Đàn môi Jawharp.

Since I've reprised my interest in frame drumming, I cut two tracts and did a rough combo. I guess I've found my voice -- articulating in a suck and blow sense. 

There are so many pleasures to be had from playing these wee things.

Biangan Anyo by the Sea -- New Years Eve, 2021

Out walking the dogs and used my biangan whip rod to perform a couple of anyos -- routines, katas....

E-biking about for stick biz

 

Eschima Anyo

I'm no longer proceeding with my study of Arnis/Eschima/Kali -- Filipino Martial Arts (FMA)-- because I'm addicted to bigger sticks.

So here's a video of the sort of single stick interplay.

I still love this sort of interaction, and advancing with a kali stick like this is a lot of fun and always creative when doing it freestyle.

If you are considering taking up a martial art(something I recommend unconditionally), I reckon FMA is the bees knees.