CARPE DIEM

'Gather ye rosebuds while ye may' - John William Waterhouse, 1909

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying.

Robert Herrick 1648

FOSSICKING

An old buckle and clay pipes

DMJ is an obsessed fly-fisherman but in the eighties he was also fanatical about gold-detecting/fossicking. We bought 72 acres up at Maldon in central Victoria, complete with shed, which I set up as our weekender and learnt very quickly about bush rats, how not to store cereal and biscuits in plastic containers!

Maldon was once a bustling 1850s gold-mining town teeming with prospectors and nearly 80 hotels in the area to accommodate them. Today, several of the old buildings remain and the town is full of antique stores. The National Trust declared Maldon Australia's first 'notable town' in 1966 because of its range of well-preserved 19th century buildings.

Main Street of Maldon

Fortnightly we'd travel the three hours up on a Saturday after I finished work at midday and returned Sunday night. What a drag that was, I detest sitting in the passenger seat for so long!

On the Sunday we'd take off into the bush and DMJ would run the metal detector over the old gold mullock heaps. Usually I'd sit in the car reading or set up a picnic table and chairs if the weather was nice. Sometimes I'd go off exploring myself, not far from the car, take a little pick and dig around.

Once I came across a 'dump' at Chewton and found a couple of clay pipes and some blue and white china shards. They were about four feet down in the dump and I just couldn't believe that they hadn't been found in a century and a half! At that site were the remains of small mudbrick huts, only about 4ft high, with a little opening. Apparently the miners crawled in to sleep and they cooked and ate outside. DMJ collected quite a bit of gold, which was quite exciting.

We loved the place so much, DMJ for the fishing and fossicking and myself the history, the peace and antiques, that we planned to retire there. We sold the 72 acres, bought two and a half down the road and built a little miner's cottage, which would one day be a B&B, with our residence next door.

"Tarrenbrae" - Our Weekender

We sold the house in 1993 after DMJ decided that the fishing had gone off the boil, sought greener pastures and found the piece of land we're now living on. This was another weekend getaway for five years until we sold our suburban house and moved up permanently ten years ago. Our little patch of heaven on earth! We're here to stay for a while longer.

THE OPTIMIST CREED

Christian D. Larsen 1874 - ?

I suppose most of you would know of Christian Daa Larsen. I didn't know of him until yesterday when I came across The Optimist Creed, included in his book, Your Forces and How to Use Them, which can be read HERE. Larsen founded the New Thought Temple in 1901 and wrote several philosophical books.

The Optimist Creed - Christian D. Larsen, 1912

Promise Yourself
To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.
To make all your friends feel that there is something worthwhile in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
To think only of the best, to work only for the best and to expect only the best. To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own. To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful expression at all times and give a smile to every living creature you meet.
To give so much time to improving yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.
To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in a loud word but in great deeds.
To live in the faith that the whole world is on your side, so long as you are true to the best that is in you.

Empowering words; a little like Desiderata, which I've taken with me with every move since the 60s and is on the wall behind me. Along with my brothers I went to Sunday School to the age of 15 but ever since I have followed my Father's philosophy and lived by the Golden Rule.