Deluge 2 .

[Nungali]

It rained for more than a week . Some places got  near a meter  of rain .  My little local survived well , when the flood went down a bit and I could get across our bridge and to to the main road -   but that road is blocked to town by two main series of landslides , that might take over 2 months to clear .  There are 7 major ones going up the mountain - the other way out .   The local shop is like a party center  , no traffic , dancing on the road ... and they have a full stock of alcohol  in their bottle shop   (  and  its harvest time as well    )  All phones and internet out ... they turn us off every time there is a disaster . .  Today, got to town by going along another route, cutting through the forest road ( which was re done just before this - thank goodness .

 

Just about the whole east coast got flooded  - most towns and centers along the coast are at rivers / river mouths  - many are trashed  - I saw whole houses floating down rivers .

 

So I will not be around as much as I used to ..

 

Suddenly my location has become more 'remote'  , which is a good thing  ,   only the occasional rescue helicopter passes by .

 

I am wondering what happened out Yueya's  way  - he is on a river  ... but his buildings are high up the hill , he should be okay   although might be isolated due to roads washing out .

 

Bushfires .... flood .... covid ....   major flood ..... ho-hum  .... stay tune .... next month -  meteors !

[Geof Nanto]

1 hour ago, Nungali said:

I am wondering what happened out Yueya's  way  - he is on a river  ... but his buildings are high up the hill , he should be okay   although might be isolated due to roads washing out .

 

I’m OK. We missed the worst of it here. I was flooded in for several days but can get into town now if I want to.  However, I have plenty of food and have no need to go anywhere. I like it when the road is blocked. Instead of the three or four cars passing my place on a normal day, there is no traffic at all. And I'm used to being flooded in.

 

I sent you an email over a week ago with photos attached saying: “A number of these mushrooms of a variety I haven't had here before have sprouted on my place during this wet spell. I wondered if they are goldtops? I've never used mushrooms and I'm not about to start now, but I am curious to know.  I hope you're coping OK with this extended wet period; judging from the weather radar, even wetter for you than for me here.”

 

Having received no answer to my email, and your absence from posting here made me wonder if you were OK. I’m relieved that you are.   

 

 

 

 

[silent thunder]

I have respect and love for you both in your respective remote lives and am mighty gladdened to hear you're both well.

 

Riders of the Storm!  Thanks for checking in.

 

p.s.  Those mushrooms are gorgeous... they look like Pine to me, but I'm terrible at that game.

 

 

[Taomeow]

Glad you're both OK.

 

@Yueya A picture of just the top of the cap is not enough to ID a 'shroom.  Can you take a spore print? -- basically you can just set the cap, down side down, on a piece of white paper, another one on a piece of black paper, drop just one or two drops of water on top of the cap, cover with a glass, and wait for a few hours (usually overnight is enough).  Here's a short tutorial:

 

 

[dhammabum]

Yueya

they are definitely NOT goldtops

[Geof Nanto]

Thanks for all the feedback. Those mushrooms have gone now, dissolved back into the earth. The heavy rain finished them off. But they’ll be back. And I accept Dhammabum's confident assertion that they are definitely not goldtops. @Taomeow I'll watch that video later.  There's often mushrooms springing up here after rain and I've wondered if any of them are OK to eat as normal food but as yet I have tried none of them due to my ignorance of ID methods.  

 

Nungali seems to have disappeared again too. I suspect from his OP that he’s engaging in some serious partying.  That’s not for me. I’ve used various drugs when I was younger including acid. That period culminated in a massive heroin habit and with my life in shambles; homeless, near death. That was a long time ago now and I haven’t used any type of drug or alcohol since 1985. 

 

However, I have no regrets about that period of my life. In retrospect, I can see how I needed these extreme drug psychic experiences, including intense suffering, to break through my conditioning and give me deeper insight into the nature of reality. Even during the early stages of my addiction, I had belief in myself as a competent person in charge of my destiny. I was a total non-believer then, an atheist, a rational materialist.  I also suspect from how the chain of events that led me to heroin fell into place so smoothly, that Spirit guided me onto that path as the most effective way for Spirit to break through my shields of conditioning and self-belief. It came about of itself following from my initial conscious motive to follow whatever gave me pleasure and to keep doing it until I no longer gained pleasure from it. In other words, to actively follow my heart, to follow what I desired until I no longer desired it. However, I found out with painful certainty that addiction is a powerful beast, far more powerful than my will.

 

Now, after decades of new learning and inner work,  I’m very content with my life here where nature is still strong. I spend most of my days on landcare and maintenance work around my place. It's 75 acres, mostly forested but with several acres of sparsely treed grassland that I maintain around my house and studio. There’s always plenty to do and I find the contact with nature very grounding. I use it as a counterpoint to my interaction on Dao Bums – one as important as the other. A typical day for me sees me outside doing stuff and regularly coming inside and checking out activity on this forum. I read much more than I post, often without logging in. This forum has helped me enormously with my inner cultivation over the years of my membership. Although community is strong in the area where I live and I have neighbours I know I can call on for help if I need to, it’s only here that people discuss what’s most important in my life. 

 

It’s early morning now, a beautiful, mild, sunny autumn day, and I’m about to go outside and chainsaw up some large branches that have fallen down near my studio. It's located about 200 metres from my house. I’ll then gather them into a pile for burning. 
 

[dhammabum]

my confident assertion is based on picking many goldtops over the years that i lived in the Northern Rivers, they would come up often through the early summer and into autumn a day or two after the rain

Edited March 28, 2021 by dhammabum

[Taomeow]

1 hour ago, dhammabum said:

my confident asserion is based on picking many goldtops over the years that i lived in the Northern Rivers, they would come up often through the early summer and into autumn a day or two after the rain

 

I never dealt with goldtops but am quite experienced with edible gastronomic mushrooms -- having learned in the forests via oral transmissions (I wonder if this term, often used in discussions of schools and systems of esoteric knowledge, might not have another, even more direct meaning.  ) So I know where you're coming from -- I joined an online CA mushrooms identification group (I'm much less familiar with mushrooms of the South) and at least once a week I have to post, in response to the next picture of someone's exciting find, "no, it's definitely not a chanterelle."       

[Geof Nanto]

7 hours ago, dhammabum said:

my confident assertion is based on picking many goldtops over the years that i lived in the Northern Rivers, they would come up often through the early summer and into autumn a day or two after the rain

 

Yeah, I got the impression you were speaking from local hands-on experience. I live on the southern fringe of the Northern Rivers region. My land fronts the Nymboida River about 5km from the tiny village of Nymboida.

 

I also got the impression from the wording on your post that you no longer live there, and, going on the times of your posts,  maybe not even in in Australia? 
 

[Nungali]

Hi Y .  I cant access email either , or internet or phone . I am at the local shop at the moment , using their wi-fi  ( with a fuel tanker next to my head pumping fuel  ... ugh !  )

 

Goldies look like this ;

 

 

 

with just a flush of gold on the top , when you crush the stem, it  bruises blue

 

The there is the 'blue meanie'

 

 

I dont take them ... not for  many years  now .   But the last time  ..... WOW  .....    ( ahh fuel tanker is driving off  ... peee-yoo )  ... I knew it was going to be my last  trip on them so I  said that and asked for a good one ... was it ever !

 

Nowadays I prefer these guys that come out around my place in a lot of rain ;

 

 

They used to grow on an old log that bordered my path in to the front  - illuminated pathway , and some on an old wooden bench by the door that illuminated the handle .  There is also a rarer  blue light variety  that  glows underneath between the gills and makes a blue patter on the ground, shaped  like a spore print .

12 hours ago, dhammabum said:

my confident assertion is based on picking many goldtops over the years that i lived in the Northern Rivers, they would come up often through the early summer and into autumn a day or two after the rain

 

Hi ... where in northern rivers did you live ?   What area you live in now ?

 

I dont know when services will be back on

 

Here is the road into town ;

 

        

 

 

thats just 2 spots out of many  - the only other way out is up the mountain ... nope 

 

               

 

 

[Geof Nanto]

Thanks for all the mushroom info. I found goldtop photos on the web like the ones you’ve shown, but also ones like mine. That’s why I thought I’d check. 

 

2 hours ago, Nungali said:

I cant access email either , or internet or phone . I am at the local shop at the moment , using their wi-fi  ( with a fuel tanker next to my head pumping fuel  ... ugh !  )

 

That road looks well and truly blocked. At least it seems there's access some way around for the tanker to get in. I thought you might have to get food supplies delivered by helicopter for a while. Being cut off like that from your normal town trips must be starting to feel a bit tedious now the novelty of the situation has worn off, especially while not having web or phone reception. What’s happened with that? I can’t imagine the phone tower was flood affected. And they normally fix them pronto.   

[dhammabum]

Nungali and Yueya

 

i lived just outside Uki at Byrill Creek and currently reside in England when i'm not in India

[Geof Nanto]

11 hours ago, dhammabum said:

Nungali and Yueya

 

i lived just outside Uki at Byrill Creek and currently reside in England when i'm not in India

 

I’d like to hear more of your story if you care to share it. 

[dhammabum]

22 hours ago, Yueya said:

 

I’d like to hear more of your story if you care to share it. 

 

i was born when i was about 7 years old died again by the time i was 9 stayed dead for a number of years and was reborn many times over the next 30 years, i'm sure there are some details to it somewhere inside me but mostly i have forgotten what they might be and those that i do/can recall i'm allowing them to be memories that are slowly dissolving taking the story of me with them

 

sorry if that sounds cryptic, i'm only a story if i choose to be and mostly what is behind the story is what draws any interest as i practice "let go".

 

I have read some of your posts in the "emotions are the path" thread so i'm sure you understand to that which i speak