Three months on and seeds begin to take root...

Well, after three months of being a gypsy in Melbourne, I am setting down a few roots. My Nunnery room mate Sarah, began putting the seed into my head months ago, that if I like it here so much to return after only four months away, then maybe I should think about staying. Okay, fair enough I thought, good point and well raised. Apparently Mum back in Auckland had been thinking something similar. It honestly hadn't occurred to me but then sometimes it takes an external viewpoint to see the obvious. What can be clear as the nose on a face to someone else can sometimes be missed by the eyes just above the nose.

So I started to just, oh what the hell, apply for jobs here and there. I got more Dear Louise...letters than I did interviews but it only takes one to get a job. And what a job. I get to be a team leader in a community library. Something tells me that my library career so far has been preparing me for this step. It's a step that if you asked me some years back when I was a wee young library assistant, if I would want to take, I would have told you, no, not for me, I'm not a manager. Apparently though I am, because not only have I had a taste of it recently being in charge of libraries as a casual librarian, but my interview answers genuinely took me by surprised and woke me up to the fact that I have matured into the role. Oh no, now I will have to start looking and acting like a bit of a grown up, :-). Not to worry, I am up for the challenge.

So, I have a job, a tax file number, and have plans afoot to get myself a place to live. Gee, it looks as if I am settling down here in Melbourne. The gypsy hours are passing with the shortening of the days and the falling of the autumn leaves. I am preparing to nest for the winter.

Nesting however will not mean hibernating. Certainly not when the days are crisp and light with hazy sun, no rain. They may get cold but making the most of the good weather is what I plan to do in the next few months of exploring my new home.

On Saturday then, Roger took me up to Kinglake for a first excursion further afield. It is somewhere he has visited often but not since the fires so he was understandably affected by the change in the landscape. I didn't know what it looked like before February but seeing the damage like a freshly logged forestry road as we climbed up into the hills, I recognised devastation. Kinglake I believe, was where the summer fires started. It used to look like the Dandenongs covered in fern trees, smelling dank and earthy. Where once the winding, twisting roads presented drivers and riders with visibility challenges through dense canopy, now the view between burnt out stalks of trees, is clear. The yellow speed signs seem redundant given how far through the scorched valleys you can now see. Four months on and the smell of fire still clings to the blackened grass and stumps of trunks and lingers in the air as a haze. A house here, a business there, those belonging to the lucky, stand from before, little patches of sanctuary in the devastation. Just the other side of the road is a vacant piece of land that Roger tells me was the pizza shop. Brick chimneys stand like ghost town remains, the rest of the house having exploded in the heat of the fire. The occasional gate across a path that leads nowhere in particular these days. Elsewhere however, are signs of new growth, seeds spreading now that the temperature is dropping and moisture returns. Some of the trees have sprouted new leaves on blackened bark. Temporary dwellings, prefabricated sheds, and caravans dot the landscape. The land is cleared of the old, dead wood and being replaced with foundations for new houses. These people are starting new lives too, it seems that winter in Melbourne is a good season to be entering for more than one of us.