Decadent, Prepostorous Spring

I adore spring, its so decadent, sensory even sensuous, a feast for eyes, ears, nose and body. I'm surprised someone hasn’t try to ban it.
Working at our farm garden today I hilled soil full of life onto potatoes, and daydreamed of the fluffy white spuds or waxy kipflers I will be enjoying in a matter of weeks. I admired the strong shoots of the new corn bursting through and the bright green carrot tops now long enough to sway gently in the breeze.
The orchard is a work of art also, with small summer fruits taking shape, an utter abundance of foliage on the grapes and kiwi fruits, the delicious smell of the last of the citrus blossoms.
I watched tiny chicks follow their mother hen, and red headed wrens preen their newly coloured feathers in the light spray from a leaky hose. I gathered up my collection of food under the shade of the mandarin tree. Colours so bright they are almost preposterous or at least from an abstract artwork on the walls of famous gallery.
 The abundance is an illusion though, like a dessert mirage, for just below the surface lurks the grim fingers of drought ready to snatch away the fruit of our toil.
So from my heady sensory heights I fall and think once more about population pressure and the ever-diminishing farm land that has the smallest of chances to escape the fingers of drought and supply food for our always gaping jaws. Has our government condemned us to a life of imported food from China, through its newly aggressive immigration position? Leaving us vulnerable and unable to care for ourselves. Have they considered that blind consumption is the mantra that has been created by governments' hell bent on growth at any cost. Life giving water resources, barely enough to satiate the thirst of the nation now. Are we destined to rape the fresh rainfalls of Tasmania from the once suggested pipeline!

So interconnected is our web that each decision that impacts on our direct environment impacts directly on us- yet so many seem unable to accept that simple reality- we are just an animal, overpopulating and destroying the ability to sustain ourselves. I drift into the rose garden, drawn by the sweet late afternoon perfume drawing in not only me, but the end of day bees looking for that last feast to share with the colony and wonder will we do the same!

(Photo of one my favourite local nativeorchids known here as the "Flying Duck Orchid.)