Day Four

Jasmine has a heart like a rainbow. We're staying in her house just outside of Newstead in Victoria, except that this is not a house, it's an artwork in progress. I think of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia (without the height, devotion or mosaics). We are surrounded by mudbrick, quilted walls, books, and we've been told there are phascogales at night. This is the kind of place I want to live in when I grow up. Through the top window I can see Terry collecting wood for the fires downstairs. Above the computer (my mobile is dead but the broadband struggles bravely on) there is a jumble of books. I picked one up and opened a page at an Emily Dickinson poem:

I died for Beauty - but was scarce
Adjusted in the Tomb
When One who died for Truth, was lain
In an adjoining Room -

He questioned softly "Why I failed?"
"For Beauty," I replied -
"And I - for Truth - Themself are One -
We Bretheren, are," He said -

And so, as Kinsmen, met a Night -
We talked between the Rooms -
Until the Moss had reached our lips -
And covered up - our names -

We've had so many adventures already - and it's only Day Four: being shown around the Mercy and Justice Centre in Bathurst I came across an old brown stairway I see in dreams ... in Jindera we have the WHOLE audience making bears' paws at us during "Waltzing With Bears" ... sitting around Jane and James' table sharing songs - they sing Cath Tait songs for us and I can't wait to hear them play more as a duo ... hearing the wonderful Sweet Monas fill the hall with their harmonies ...

Off to investigate what my pals are up to.