Creekside Sun and Shadows.

Last Thursday's Grevillea blip has cost me. I am clearly very allergic to something and, although I barely touched one flower, I am once again suffering from intolerably itching eyes. The cortisone ointment I have for it will tame it soon, but because it is near my eyes, it is not the extra strong stuff I put on my hands. In the meantime I am itchy, without makeup, half blind and a little bit grumpy....

We spent some time this morning retrieving garden furniture which had blown all over the place and walking down to the creek across the street see if there had been any wind damage there. Although the paper was reporting power outages due to downed lines and damage to houses and vehicles due to fallen trees, all seemed to be in order here. 

Unlike so many of you in Britain and Europe who were walloped by Ciara with rain and even snow, we had not a drop of rain or a cloud in the blue sky, but the wind was cold and hit in gusts up to 90mph in some of the higher hills. Because we are in a fold in the hills, I think we are somewhat protected from the higher gusts.

We watched just the end of the academy awards last night and caughtJoaquin Phoenix, who won the Oscar for best actor in 'Joker', speaking about a host of issues, including sexism and racism, ecological disaster and vegetarianism. But he also said that when people guide each other toward redemption, 'That is the best of humanity'. Too bad that noble thought got a bit lost in all the other stuff. I guess he only had 45 seconds.

Although no women were nominated (again) for best director, Bong Joon Ho was a definite outlier , winning for best film and best director with his 'Parasite'. No deathless prose for him ( although in his defense he doesn't seem to speak much English) , he said, after recognizing his fellow nominees, 'Now I'm ready to drink until tomorrow....'