Once In a Blue Moon

I have an aversion to prescribed fun. By this I am referring to those instances when by the nature of the date, event, person or place, you are required to have a profoundly wild time. This just is not the way I work. In fact, it usually backfires on me because of the mind set that I am “supposed” to be a certain way. I don’t like anything that feels forced and New Years Eve always has felt that way to me. Needless to say,this night has never been an overly hyped night in my world.

Yes, there have been some magical moments like the year I spend NYE in Paris on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, wildly dancing and kissing some really good-looking Frenchman or the time I spent the night in a dark, seedy club in Melbourne dressed to the 9’s, high-heels, red lipstick - the works. Other than that, quite frankly, none have been worth reporting; they’ve essentially been regular nights. In the most recent past, they have been spent at our camphouse in front of a roaring fire with my family. I am happy to report whether in Paris or in Cairo, MS, I am just as happy.

This year I will add a firepit in Ampilatawatja to my illustrious list of New Years Eve places. Much to my Mother’s dismay, I will be celebrating it alone, next to a campfire with my out-of-tune guitar (to play my mere 3 learned chords) and my journal. Apparently my brother spent a Christmas alone in Australia many years ago on a riverbank with a 6 pack of beer. She is haunted by this, afraid I too will appear just as abandoned at my one woman NYE party. Don’t worry Mom, I will be just fine. Actually, I am pretty excited.

I am also further excited by the blue moon that is to appear tonight. How cool will it be, I thought, to see a blue moon? Well….no, not actually. A blue moon is not blue, it’s just another full moon.

After a little bit of research, this is what I discovered:

The New Year's Eve blue moon will be visible in the United States, Canada, Europe, South America and Africa. For partygoers in Australia and Asia, the full moon does not show up until New Year's Day, making January a blue moon month for them.

However, the Eastern Hemisphere can celebrate with a partial lunar eclipse on New Year's Eve when part of the moon enters the Earth's shadow. The eclipse will not be visible in the Americas.

A full moon occurs every 29.5 days, and most years have 12. On average, an extra full moon in a month -- a blue moon -- occurs every 2.5 years. The last time there was a lunar double take was in May 2007. New Year's Eve blue moons are rarer, occurring every 19 years. The last time was in 1990; the next one won't come again until 2028.

Wherever you are, I hope the skies are clear tonight as that brilliant orb rises over the horizon. In an overly metaphorical sense, may you pause and allow it illuminate your past and give direction to your future. Sending much love from my fire pit to yours…Cheers for 2010!

Journey to the Stone Country

Journey to the Stone Country

By Alex Miller

Winner of the 2003 Miles Franklin Award

Like a net cast across the nexus of time, space, politics and history, not to mention inter-racial relationships, this book spoke to a huge range of issues in Australia.

The plot remained fairly simplistic: woman is betrayed by her husband in Melbourne, she flees to her homeland in remote Northern Queensland, there she rekindles a relationship with an indigenous man from her childhood and they fall in love while discovering how intertwined their families once were. Whilst romance and landscape each play a part here, Journey to the Stone Country is about much more.

Interwoven within this story is the history of an Aboriginal tribe, the Janggas, and thus a depiction of Australian Aboriginals in general. Also, political themes of white men and big mining and cattle stations juxtaposed with one of the oldest cultures on Earth were present. Moreover, the "stone country" traversed by the book's characters represented not just a part of remote Australia, but an inner landscape which we all must travel and explore. It is a story of our own journey - of coming to terms with our past - individual and collective.

Only because I’m a slave to my quest of reading a wide genre of book types, I picked up this novel because it was particularly relevant to my surroundings now. It was a good book, but fiction is not what I tend to gravitate to, so…….I guess it was Ok. Probably wouldn’t recommend it.

She stood listening. There was a sound with her in the room. She had been hearing it on and off for some time. …. It was in the air around her. Close by. She realized then that she was hearing the termites. She put her ear to the books and closed her eyes, listening. A faint rustling from within the volumes. A nervous suspirations, like a vast army of pilgrims shuffling across a landscape of infinite extent, persistent and continuous, embarked upon a journey with an end in obedience to a restless urge to be on the move. Millions of white ants at their blind work, recycling the world and returning it some kind of cosmic dust, heartless, unconscious and inert…She was holding her breath. P. 181

“I don’t know what I mean!” Bo said, raising his voice angrily. “You don’t have to know what you mean to mean something.” P. 233

The mystery of sleep and the unconscious that we take for granted, that vast region where our longings and fears appear to us in the form of visions, the voices of the oracles, ambiguous and obscure, arising from our own depths. In our dreams the whispering voices of our gods. P. 301

My Christmas Card 2009

For those of you whose email address I didn't have.
Merry Xmas. sj

Christmas Reflections

It’s Christmas time! Is it?

I’ve just come home from judging the Christmas light contest, so I guess maybe it is. Is tomorrow really Christmas Eve? The calendar says so. I otherwise never would have known. The land of hype and honey feels very far away.

It’s interesting how much 'place' dictates your thoughts and emotions. A complete paradigm shift happens after a change in location. It’s strange like that. A mere flight can flip your reality, and thus your thoughts, upside down. Typically this is my most favorite time of the year and I am usually everything akin to a jolly little elf during this season. But, right now, Christmas feels a long way away. I have none of the usual emotions. It’s weird and pretty sad for me. I tell myself it should come as no surprise. Nothing here is familiar, nothing is decorated (hardly) and it’s hot. If anything, I learned that I prefer N. Hemisphere Xmas over Southern. This summer time and Santa just don't seem to go together.

I’ve done this before – that is being away from home on the holidays – and every day except today and tomorrow make it feel like it’s always a good decision. But, these days are sad; there is no denying that. For at least 48 hours straight, I wish I were at home. But, the good thing is that I have a happy spirit about it and will certainly make the most of being away and use this time to chalk up yet another experience in my record books. I’m sure this Christmas will end up being full of memories that I’ll never have again. In fact, it already is:

Instead of celebrating a baby Jesus, this community is celebrating the baby donkey that was just born!

I somehow was chosen by the shop owners to be the judge of the Christmas light contest. Little did I know how unforgiving this contest really is. People were driving up to 4 hours to purchase Xmas lights! I thought it was going to be a friendly little game of ‘who can put up the most’ but I learned quickly that some were out to win at all costs. This week I have been ‘invited’ over at night to come and have a look at their houses, having to walk around it, admire all of their hard-work. People would come to the clinic just to make sure that I was coming to see their house. It was all humorous to me, until I realized the 1^st place prize was a couch! 2^nd: two tables. What?! Yeah... pretty hard core. I took the easy way out and got a 7 yr. old to be my ‘official’ judge.

My best present so far has been a pint of $6.50 strawberries from the shop and a can of whipped cream that the doctor I work with gave me. (I ate it all in one night.)

A kid here has never heard of popcorn strands for the Xmas tree (most don’t really do much for Xmas), so we’re making some at my place tonight.


Prue & Heath made me my own Xmas tree potted in red dirt before they left and were even so kind as to leave me stolen toffee and a gift underneath wrapped in absorbent towels from the clinic. I was flattered.
mail plane came and went...no presents for me :(


I hope everyone is surrounded by as much family and love as possible this year. Missing many of you in so many ways.

Merry Christmas to you all. SJ

Some of my latest faves. : Seed Pods

Movie Maker?

For many of you blog followers out there, it might come as no surprise that I am motivated to do my own video work. After spending the summer with my friend Casey (whose videos I posted on here of our travels—see July postings below on the left), I am now inspired to use movie editing software to document my own travels. Please, though, do not compare mine to his; I’m still learning!

Hope you like my first attempts.

My Abode from Stephanie Holcombe on Vimeo.

Join Me on the Air Strip from Stephanie Holcombe on Vimeo.

Mangy Dog Madness.

I'm motivated to do a collage of pics called 'Mangy Dogs'. I can't believe they are alive--and each day I see one worse than the day before! Blows my mind.