Recovery tunes

A spring in the step helped along by sunshine and tunes and orchid season.
A list of some stuff I've been listening to these past couple of months: You'll probably pick the 'recovery mode/getting stronger' thematics among some of the lyrics, and probably a hint of the coming to grips with mortality stuff ... I left out The Rocky Theme.

Astair Matt Costa
Red Sails Custom Kings
The Captain And The Hourglass Laura Marling
Rose Pickles Custom Kings
Middle of the Hill Josh Pyke
Spin My Thread Custom Kings
Forward Joe Neptune
Lullaby Jack Johnson
Behind The Moon Matt Costa
I Shall See My Love No More Joe Neptune
Wondering Where The Lions Are Donavon Frankenreiter
Forever Jesse Younan
Swimming in the Darkness Custom Kings
Yellow Taxi Matt Costa
Sew My Name Josh Pyke
Sweet Rose Matt Costa


You Don’t Scare Me Josh Pyke
Scattered Black And Whites Elbow
Light Inside Of You Andrew Kidman
Where Two Oceans Meet Josh Pyke
Johannah Mishka
Summer’s Not The Same Without You James Yorkston
It Isn’t Me Mat McHugh
Tap At My Window Laura Marling
Tortoise Regrets Hare James Yorkston
Beautiful Day Donavon Frankenreiter
Reasons Are All I Have Left Art Of Fighting
Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright Donavon Frankenreiter
My Other Dream of You Joe Neptune
You’ll Change Machine Translations
Just Go Indigo Joe Neptune
Old Fashioned Morphine Jolie Holland

hunting spiders, donkeys and birds

Thanks to Gaye, Pat and Geraldine for letting me crash their orchid hunting party on Tuesday ... more wonder with Emma's camera in the small spaces.

Fire clearing and good spring rain at Wilsons Promontory have combined to bring the best show of native orchids in many years - millions of them. Tiny and stunning.

They were all there: spider orchids, donkey orchids, greenhoods, sun orchids, hyacinth orchids and red bird orchids. On top of this display - the xanthoreas were in flower after last year's fires - a close up on their constellation-like flower stems is here.

A glow comes from a couple of hours behind a lens in these places: they're the very images that you need to hold to staring at the roof of a high dependency unit - a million reasons to stick around that bit longer.

back on the roads

It's not trekking the Argentinian altiplano - yet - but a four day bike ride across central Victoria with a great bunch of crew helped very much to feed the feeling of getting stronger, and getting back on the roads.
Tour de Heartland was good fun, but meant a lot more in terms of signposting recovery (though Digger and I agreed we both like the word 'reinvention' rather than oft abused 'recovery' or 'comeback'): I gave myself maybe one hour of riding each day, then the rest with feet up on the dashboard of the support vehicle. Instead I managed the whole first day from Mansfield to Benalla, the whole next day Benalla to Shepparton, rested up the third day Shepparton to Bendigo with complaining soleas, Achilles and hamstrings, then rolled all the last day with fresh legs through the old gold mining country - Bendigo to Castlemaine.
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Spring has sprung well and truly now - irises, tulips, ranunculus - and cartwheeling among them perhaps more than any other year for having lived through that fucker of a winter's saga: of which the next instalment is another neurologist appointment in a couple of weeks to discuss EEG and his inflammation theory.

I'd have loved to have an EEG or MRI done during my cello lesson last Saturday - feels like every little back room, nodule, lobe, crest, corner, saddle and peninsula of this recently violated scone glows and sings with long bowing of the C Major scale.

Found a fantastic teacher and loving it - I doubt there's any better way to encourage new brain connections/elasticity than wearing Learner plates with a fretless instrument.