Why a Blog Eric?

"Our existence becomes our essence" I so love that existential line and sums up many reasons for having a crack at a Blog.  When you write, you become a writer.


Articulating and developing ideas onto paper or online is creative and fulfils me.  I realised my mind works differently to others.  I need to accept that, learn to live with it (OK it's been 50 years - call me a slow learner) and make the most of it.

When I closed Cafe Derailleur in 2019 I kept writing.  The ideas kept coming and patterns in my writing emerged.  I created connections where there were none.  Ideas were twisted.   And yes sometimes the ideas came out bitter.  In all my blogs at Derailleur I tried to remain positive though.  There’s enough anger and negative vibes in our world so I’ll try to not create any more.

Yes my ideas are alternative.  They don't fit within the norm and there is no way to express my ideas within the conservative local traditional publishing systems. I could just write and not publish but where’s the fun in that.  

I also know that many of you enjoyed what I wrote while at Derailleur.  So I have republished my Derailleur Blog as a start.  I have been publishing them a day at a time so that they are sequential so when you click on the Cafe Derailleur label you can read them in order of publishing. It’s my history so it is important that I record it. 

So here’s to having some fun with ideas and let’s see where the journey takes us.  Your comments and interactions are important to me as part of this journey so join in the ideas feast!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Foodtopia Dreaming Episode 9 Plugging the holes

Image
Getting up before sunrise, sneaking out of the house is what most 50-year-olds do.  I jump on my bike and ride to meet up with a couple of friends, Fin and Tad, who are farming Silver Peach and Tilapia, with some Barramundi in the summer.  I don’t understand why such an early start, but go along with the plan. We scooted off the bike paths onto a cross country MTB trail that takes us behind a grove of trees where we stash our bikes.  Bending down to duck under bushes, then on all fours  to a cyclone fence.  A short commando crawl gets us through a cut in the fence. Cleverly disguised as a join.  I look up and release we are at the back of the old Olympic pool, abandoned a few years ago because it leaked like a sieve.  The grass had grown and trees had sprouted on the disused land.  The path became obvious when we stood up.  The grass made way for familiar sights. Borage and chicory, wild rocket, and perpetual spring onions.  The trees he...
Read more

Creating the future we want.

Image
Covid-19 is about change. It’s environmental and social change.  The byproduct is financial change.   Attacking the financial will lead us nowhere.  So where will we be in 12-18 months?   Where do I hope we’ll be and how do I think we will get there and have we learnt from the past?   The past?  9/11, hole in the ozone? Wars, GFC and Climate Change?  All have a commonality.   People and environment in crisis. And taking the wrong path at the wrong time.  An isolated world lacking strong empathy for others and the environment or a will to help.   We should have had communities working together to solve their problems. Building local sustainable lives for generations to come. Not just for our immediate future or for our retirement. But alas this didn’t happen. “The sins of the fathers are felt unto the seventh generation”.  This pretty much sums up where we are at now.   (And I relise that this comes from Exodus 20:5 ...
Read more

Attributes of a community garden (or organisation)

Image
Describing the attributes you want in a community garden is tough.  It’s like the chicken/egg scenario.  Yes it's a bit of a challenge describing what you want versus what your community want.  And I acknowledge that community gardens are the embodiment of and reflection of the community (and state/country) in which they are based. A vibrant connected and fully supported community is likely to have a community garden which reflects them. And community gardens are as diverse as the communities they are in. Plus, community gardens have a huge weight and expectation on their shoulders.  They are portrayed variously in the media as saving the world, mitigating climate change, solving resource depletion, recycling or repurposing or fixing stuff, do good things like running a community worm farm, improving everyone's mental health, reducing obesity and non-communicable diseases, improving the overall nutrition of the community, supplying free food, getting the community ph...
Read more