Sadness

• WASHINGTON, May 1, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Leon Fenster, a British-born artist and storyteller, is announcing the nationwide release of his latest artwork, "January 6th: How We Got Here."
• The work can be purchased as a print or jigsaw puzzle.
• Fenster's artwork meticulously weaves together visual elements that represent the key political events and dynamics that culminated on that day.
• I hope audiences will find their own emotions in it–shock, surprise, horror, sadness, even irreverence."

• Blues Away® is a single, 3-day shake regimen available without a prescription and will initially be sold on Amazon.
• “Blues Away® was created with carefully selected and studied ingredients to bolster nutrient levels and support women’s overall mood and emotional well-being during the postpartum phase.
• Previous research revealed that levels of the hormones estrogen and progesterone plummet abruptly postpartum and can lead to postpartum blues, which Blues Away® may help address.
• Postpartum blues, also known as “baby blues,” refers to a temporary and common emotional state that many mothers experience within the first few weeks after giving birth.

• Seventy-two percent of poll respondents say climate change is already impacting their lives, and 53% believe it will be a major problem over the course of their lives.
• Over three-quarters (77%) think climate change will require radical changes to how we all live.
• Instead, kids believe their generation will lead: 72% say their generation will find solutions to address climate change.
• "These results speak to how engaging young people on climate change, empowering them to feel part of solutions, can counter feelings of climate despair," said Tim Ritchie, president of the Museum of Science, Boston.

• Bruce Pascoe is best known for his natural history, Dark Emu, which argues that systems of pre-colonial food production and land management in Australia have been dramatically understated.
• At last count, the book had sold at least 360,000 copies of the original edition – and many more in the form of adaptations, translations, children’s and overseas editions.
• Since the publication of Dark Emu in 2014, Pascoe has had to endure extraordinary public scrutiny, as well as vehement attacks on his personal and professional reputation.

• In light of the last ten years, Black Duck: A Year at Yumburra is a healing and necessary book.
• The farm is a deliberate project designed to test, extend and materialise some of the ideas put forward in Dark Emu.
• The meaning of Yumburra, Pascoe tells us, is Black Duck, the “supreme spiritual being of Yuin country”.

Six seasons on the farm

• Through more than 60 subtitled journal entries, accompanied by numerous photographs and sketches, Pascoe charts the activities of his days.
• These include labouring chores on the farm, visits paid and received (both there and interstate), thoughts, visions and experiments with food and agriculture, and memories and reflections on relationships reaching far back into childhood.
• Pascoe describes life on the farm as solitary at times, but also active.
• Daily farm work includes clearing watercourses or fixing tools and machinery, and at these times his friendships with the nonhuman are forged in both subtle and overt ways.

• Despite their vigilance, the Spur-winged Plover loses a lot of chicks to eagles and foxes […] Their calls are ever-present on the farm.
• If the horses gallop, an eagle passes, a dingo wakes or a car arrives, you hear about it instantly.
• You can’t make friend with Birran Durran Durran because everything is a threat in its opinion.
• Despite their vigilance, the Spur-winged Plover loses a lot of chicks to eagles and foxes […] Their calls are ever-present on the farm.

• There is a sense of time moving on through the seasons.
• Yumburra, too, was affected by that event, leading one of the farm workers to rename a whole section of the farm “Apocalypse Valley” in the aftermath.
• “The unbridled pleasure I used to take in the forest, waters and shores is now tinged with sadness and dread.”

A true storyteller

• The author is respectfully light on detail on these matters, but the reader is left in no doubt about their deep importance to him.
• Pascoe’s authorial style sometimes comes across as a touch too lackadaisical and larrikin-esque, drifting as if unmoored.
• And yet, he’s a true storyteller – and no sooner have you hesitated, than he reels you in again, and has you marvelling with him at the grandchildren’s handstands and cartwheels on the paddle board on the river, or at the cunning of the dingo pair who’ve taken out a young Buru (kangaroo) by gripping him by the ears and drowning him.
• I assume it was the same animal because she made a great point of making sure I was watching her expertise.
• It might be a romantic thought or a wish for longevity of a friend but, whatever the case, I enjoy the personality.“

• Sometimes Pascoe quotes from her journal entries, discrete and beautifully rendered observations of wildlife on her own nearby property.
• But as I was reading, I found myself wondering how else Lyn contributed to the book, and on what terms.

Connection to culture and Country

• For anyone with lingering doubts about Pascoe’s commitment and connection to Country, this book will set them straight.
• It is a quiet, funny, warm and insistent call to return to and care for Country.

Julienne van Loon has been a recipient of funding from Creative Australia, Creative Victoria and ArtsWA.