Once when I was hitch hiking around Europe in my late teens...not a good idea but well you always think you are immortal and immune to the bad things in life at that age...I was picked up by a middle aged Dutch guy somewhere in Denmark. I guess he probably thought I was local cos that's where my ancestors come from originally.Strangely he had just come back from visiting his friends in Broome, they had relocated from Amsterdam to the 'Top End' of Australia several years before. This nameless and faceless (now) Dutchman, when I asked him what he thought of Australia told me something I have never forgotten, which I believe is still one of the most incredibly intelligent things that I have ever heard... He said 'Its a funny thing about Australia, I could see it in my friends...In Europe its like the people dominate the landscape and in America the people shaped the landscape. But in Australia the landscape has shaped the people..'After four months of sitting with the landscape here I certainly believe that is true. Its like the land comes and grabs you by the ankles and wraps you around with its earthy arms, it imparts a certain calmness and stillness which is vital for growth. Sometimes I imagine I am just like a snowgum sapling that must bend with the wind until there is a point where its own inner strength can resist the buffeting and stand by itself. Though did you know there is no such thing as a single gumtree? Gumtrees grow in groups and die off if the rest of the group is removed...they can not exist in isolation...And so too with myself. When I headed out on this adventure to live in the mountains it was borne of financial desperation and necessity. I have grown and learnt many things about the nature of what is important because I have had a front row seat watching mother earth and all of her beings interact. If you are going to be broke I can't think of a better place to live in poverty...What I have learnt is that indeed the landscape has shaped me but more importantly that its the relationships that we have with the people that we love that are the things that sustain and nurture us. These relationships and of ours to the earth are the most important things that we have...and if we have music, art, love and some yummy food then we have all we need...Life is really meant to be simple. It doesn't need to be complicated anymore by the machinations of politicians or corporate entities. Or a desire for stuff that is singularly unimportant. The landscape here is unbelievably beautiful, magnificent and like Three Spots, my little wallaby family patriarch pictured above, standing at my window, will be very hard to leave. But this landscape is a part of me and me a part of it and so I can never leave it really. Now its time for me to share the message of what I have learnt here, that there are other landscapes that need to be tended to so our children and grandchildren will be able to learn the same sorts of lessons I have...In that way I understand the grand continuum of time and essence far more now than ever before... we can never own anything... we can only ever be a part of the whole for what ever time there is..