The website now has an active comments section at the below right of each post heading and should be at the bottom of the each article page. The contact page is also now up and running. I had to remove the sales page in order to have a disclaimer menu heading for legalities.

The more knowledge you accumulate the more you see things differently. Most people walk through the bush and see nothing, notice nothing just green if that. They look but don’t see, hear but don’t listen.

Short story long. When your first told your terminal they make you write a list of what you’d like to accomplish when you become healthy. Pretty much all of my list turned into , whats the politically correct term. A cluster fuk.

I fell into bushcraft and it took root and from doing bushcraft courses has gotten me through a lot of sickness, rehab and pain. Helped to focus my mind. A mate said to me I have probably achieved a level of resilientness that most people can only dream about.

I read a book called Celestine Prophecy, The author is probably a nut job but the book says that when we go to the celestial plane we choose the life were to reincarnate into in order to learn life’s lessons. I came away with two things from that. One I stopped being angry with what was happening to me (the important one) and second looking back on it I was probably a dumbarse for putting myself through all this BS.

However I’m now on a path that I wouldn’t have been on otherwise. Ironically I would have been dead long ago if I hadn’t become sick.

I first learned about mindfulness through martial arts. Mindfulness is the practice of purposely bringing one’s attention to the present-moment experience without evaluation

Through mindful awareness we can realize an engaged life for ourselves. Engaged living is about being aware of our choice to connect to our own Truth, live in harmony and in gratitude for every moment of our lives.

Mindfulness and engaged living will inevitably overlap. One who practices mindfulness turns their everyday life into an art.

Awareness. We first have to be aware in order to decide how to live differently. Mindfulness practice is an ideal way of generating awareness in life. In mindfulness practice, every action we take is done with awareness

Engaged living relates to the actions behind the awareness, in both large and small things. Though it’s difficult to practice mindfulness all the time, by making choices to live an engaged life, the structure of one’s life changes. And as the structure changes, mindfulness flows.

The last maybe fifteen years I have studied everything from botany to history. When I walk a trail now I see differently I also don’t just focus with my eyes when I can also listen, smell, taste and feel.

I look around me and know the trees are Yellow Box gum trees and that they’re good for honey, which part of the country Im in, its good for firewood and building.

That the clouds are Cumulus and are less than 2000 meters in altitude. The different sizes of cumulus clouds have four differing types. If the cloud you’re looking at is wider than it is tall, then it’s a cumulus humilis. If it’s as wide as it is tall, then it’s a cumulus mediocris. But when a cumulus cloud is taller than it is wide, known as cumulus congestus, If cumulus congestus clouds continue their vertical growth, they’re capable of producing rain, and can eventually morph into a cumulonimbus cloud, or thunderstorm.

On the ground plantain is growing ,the seeds are called Psyllium and can be used as a porridge, the leaves can be eaten in salads, soups and stews or sautéd and contain vitamin C, E and K.

I can recognize a dandelion is one of the most nutritious leafy greens to eat. This plant contains vitamin A, C and K, calcium and iron. The young leaves and yellow flower petals of the dandelion plant can be used in a salad, sandwiches, go well with egg dishes, added to soups and stews, or cooked like spinach. The dandelion root can be used as a coffee substitute.

Im still learning about the medicinal virtues of plants. Bird language has recently interested me. Australian birds have 10 vocal expressions/categories, Alarm, ground predator alarm, aerial predator alarm, annoyance , territorial, courtship, mimicry, aggression , begging, contact calling, pain , joy. Bird species overseas have more likely five vocalizations, song, companion call, territorial aggression, begging and alarm.

I look at everything differently now.

Nature Awareness Techniques as an Application of Mindfulness

Found the next course Id be interested in doing.

Bird language with Andrew Turbill

Australian birds have 10 vocal expressions/categories

Alarm, ground predator alarm, aerial predator alarm, annoyance , territorial, courtship, mimicry, aggression , begging, contact calling, pain , joy.

Week 1: Bird language – gateway drug for Nature Connection

Learning bird language is first and foremost about reprogramming your brain so that your sensory system engages with the world around you in ways that, once learned cannot easily be unlearned.

Once you start down this road it will change you permanently, you will be cursed to notice things that remain silent and invisible to most. You will begin to notice “what is really there”, removing sensory filters which previously interrupted your direct and full experience of natural environments

Being aware of bird language is not so much about knowing everything that birds are saying to each other, but rather about active listening to the world, so that you become alive to the lives of non-human others

Week 2: Gondwanan Origins & Relating Anatomy to Ecology

Songbird ancestors that survived the Chicxulub meteorite detonation were ground nesting / dwelling birds and possibly were able to use torpor as a strategy to survive. We still find these qualities in birds alive today

Songbird ancestors survived in Australia after Antarctica froze over, acting as a safe haven for the further evolution of songbird lineages which then spread to the rest of the world as late as 20mya

Birds that look similar across the world are not generally closely related but rather the product of concurrent evolution where birds occupy similar habitat niches, leading to similar specializations

A bird’s job description determines the tools of its trade so observation of bird anatomy tells us much about their lifestyle and ecology

Week 3: Fundamentals of Understanding Bird Language for Nature Connection

Introduction to bird language

Soundscapes – learning to re-associate bird song as sound rather than noise

Unique voices, including alarm, bickering, territorial song, begging, hurting, contact calls, mating calls and more

Why learning bird language is like watching a foreign film without subtitles

Re-patterning your brain to an older way of being in the world

Learning how to isolate solitary voices in the crowd using Binocular ears

Week 4: Bird Alarm – Introduction & tracking “invisible” predators across the landscape

Types of alarm

Ground versus aerial predators

Learning how to “go dark” so the source of alarm isn’t always you

Nature News and Concentric Rings of Disturbance

Experience the “baseline” state of an environment for the first time

The basis for tracking predators through the landscape or around your gardens is through becoming an active listener to alarm

Ground alarm versus aerial alarm – recognizing each and knowing where to look for predators

Trickery and coercion – thornbills and lyrebirds

How predators make a living from killing, despite sophisticated alarm systems

Week 5: Wild Trust

Wild animals have no reason to trust us, so how can we develop relationships of trust and respect?

Learning to recognize an invitation for wild trust and how to accept

On becoming humble

Noticing the hidden boundaries of bird territory and anxiety

Why being a practitioner of wild trust can extend your life

Week 6: Keeping a field diary and making Seasonal Calendars

Some birds seem to appear from out of nowhere, stay a while and just as suddenly disappear. Keeping a field diary can help to make sense of these seemingly random bird movements

Many songbirds reserve certain calls for particular times of the year. To track these changing voices we can create a seasonal calendar and learn how characteristic calls correspond with changes in annual climate and ecosystem cycles

Keeping field records takes us well beyond just listening to birds. To truly make sense of bird language we need to become all-round naturalist observers

Bird Language & Nature Connection online