These people belong to The MYTH too

Today's post is supplied again by Yarrow!

Hello everyone!!! How's things going? (I just woke up). This is a picture of Oce, Anjes and Kat (Oce's friend) in Sydney. Anjes is my half sister (but to me she is a full sister) and Oce and Kat are family too. Anjes comes here once a year and stays here for about 3-5 weeks. Oce and Kat come whenever they can come and I love it when they all do!!!!

Students today

I am responsible for a subject taught at undergraduate level at Southern Cross University, which has about 1200 students enrolled in it. What amazes me is the incredible diversity in the slices of life that these students show me. At any one time there may be huge things happening in their lives: a baby born here, a new job there; the sad death of a family member here, a near-accident there. And what truly strikes me is how different their lives are compared to a traditional perception of a ‘student’. Most of my students work; some of them full time, and yet they manage to pack in assignments in between commitments. Many of them we never see face-to-face as they travel for work and study by distance education, accessing their learning materials and tutors online (using a variety of sources. Also, I podcast most of my lectures, with varying degrees of success).

One such student is Mike. Apart from studying for a Bachelor of Business, he works as a professional surfer for the company Billabong, and as such, he is sent where the waves are to promote the company’s products and perform other sponsoring commitments. He has just returned from Los Angeles, and he is about to go to Tahiti to surf in the Billabong Pro. Under time pressure, he’s worried and stressed that he is late with submitting his essay and that he won’t be able to access internet, and might not be able to access the library databases for a suitable article to include in his essay. These are honest and real concerns and pressures in his life, and though he may never set foot in a classroom, he’s a real student in a real world.

He’s got some unreal photos though! That’s him on his board.

Here is a very thought-provoking YouTube video on students today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o

Constables Tess and Yarrow

Today's post is supplied by Yarrow, aged 10:

This is me and my sister Tess pretending to be police officers. We were about 9 and 7 years old. That's me on the right there. We fined my mum for 'walking with a spanner' and we were about to arrest my dad for 'reading the newspaper'. It was very funny. This picture was taken by my dad before we arrested him. He also put it on a site on the internet for the world to see.

Love to everyone from Yarrow xxx

Rainy days

Rain falls in subtropical torrents on our verdant valley this morning, rivulets trickling down the hillside, filling the frog-happy billabong, swelling the river. Not only do we all here feel it's been a wet month - it has been! This month to date we've had 200% compared to our average amount of rain for March - April.

The sound of the rain thundering on the corrugated iron roof ... mixed with the curling song of the currawongs wheeling above the house, and a sudden skirl of lorikeets chittering past. These are the sounds this morning. Sky sounds.

New student at SCU

Here is a photo of one of the new season's university students assiduously reading the noticeboard. Obviously this is one of those bright, tenacious, flexible, Gen-Y type of students.

You can read more about Physignathus lesueurii, or Eastern Water Dragon, on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_water_dragon

Many thanks to my colleague Dale who took this lovely photo.

Wollumbin: the cloud catcher

With deep respect for the Bundjalung people of Northern NSW on whose land we walked, made music, built a hearth, and cooked our meal today!

We went for a wonderful picnic at Blackbutt Lookout, overlooking Wollumbin (some call it Mt Warning), in the Border Ranges National Park. The rain came but did not deter the culinary art of marshmallow toasting on an open fire. The billy was put to good use for a wonderful cup of tea: hot, sweet, and strong enough to trot a mouse over ....

More on Bundjalung nation and Wollumbin at http://www.bigvolcano.com.au/stories/minjung/aborigin.htm

By the way: a blackbutt is a tree, not what you get by sitting too close to the fire ...

Welcome to Moreton's Myth

What's in a name? The name for our farm was inspired by the huge and beautiful Moreton Bay Fig that graces the highest part of our hill here in the Northern Rivers of NSW.

The "myth" part of the name is a neat acronym of our names, suggested by an old friend, Pa Vader (Lisa's grandad), when Yarrow was born. He wrote on a little note 'And so now, the MYTH becomes a reality'. Clever!

In truth, we don't own the tree. The tree owns us.

Welcome to the blogspot for Moreton's Myth, where Mieke, Hans, Tess and Yarrow live.