Nature

Rita Walker: Australia (Blog Five) by Dan Watt and Taylor Norris (reference links at bottom)

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Rita Walker: Australia (Blog Five) by Dan Watt and Taylor Norris (reference links at bottom)

“Our spirituality is a oneness and an interconnectedness with all that lives and breathes, even with all that does not live or breathe.”
– Mudrooroo

 

As she heads into the South Pacific Ocean from the Hawkesbury River, Rita changes from many trout into a single three meter long bottlenose dolphin.  Dilga’s milk will protect her from any pollutants caused by sewage being dumped into the ocean near the coast of Sydney.  Everywhere on Earth there is a pollution problem it seems.  Bottlenose dolphins that have died are often given an autopsy to see what contaminants they have accumulated.

Albi Rose taught her that life constantly flows but so can death.  Both are important for the balance of existence.  Moving with the seasons to areas that are bountiful in flora and fauna without changing the landscape are important to all the Australian Indigenous groups.  But the permanent living in one area throughout the year seems to have burdened the environment.  Fixed locations cause too much waste dumped into waterways and the movement of plastic and other waste to designated areas to accumulate until it overflows into the pristine areas.

Exhausted from thinking of all the Earth’s problems caused by humanity she longs to explore the kilometers of ocean water below her.  But that will have to wait.  She’s decides to invite her friend Zsofia to Sydney.  Perhaps she can get Zsofia a guest lecturer position as a Biomedical Science expert.

 

https://theconversation.com/australias-pristine-beaches-have-a-poo-problem-116175

https://www.britannica.com/place/Pacific-Ocean/The-trade-winds

https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/animals-and-plants/native-animals/native-animal-facts/bottlenose-dolphin

http://www.nrm.gov.au/national/local/whale-dolphin-protection

 

Blue Mountain Jenolan Caves background pic by Peter Samuel with Rita Walker body makeup by @amasonart Alannah Mason, model Taylor Norris, picture of model by Dan Watt

 

Caedar-writing-artwork.com

Mythruin.simplesite.com

Rita Walker (Blog Twenty-seven):  By Dan Watt and Taylor Norris

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Rita Walker (Blog Twenty-seven):  By Dan Watt and Taylor Norris

In Chinese herbalism there are not four but five elements: Fire, Earth, Water, Wind, and Metal.  Metal fears Fire for Fire can melt Metal.  But in our story Fire refuses so far to get involved with stopping Metal from destroying our planet’s surface.

https://horoscopes.lovetoknow.com/chinese-astrology/metal-element-chinese-astrology

https://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/chinese-zodiac/china-five-elements-philosophy.htm

https://www.gurastro.com/2013/06/moon-phases-and-four-elements-new-model.html

https://www.fusionhealth.com.au/news/chinese-medicine/wood-fire-earth-metal-or-water-which-element-are-you-and-how-can-it-help-your

https://www.intechopen.com/books/heavy-metals/environmental-contamination-by-heavy-metals

It’s Saturday evening and she’s parked outside the new Grand River Conservation Area headquarters on Jennings Road near the Oakhill Cemetery.   She’s about to get out of her car when she notices a young woman standing near the entrance to the Conservation Area headquarters.  Rita immediately sees a blue with wisps of white aura around the woman, exactly the same as what she sees when she visits Oya.

Aella

The young woman’s eyes turn sky blue.  This is the last piece of the puzzle.  Rita dashes out of her car towards the young woman but it’s too late.

Aella sky moon eyes

She feels a gust of wind press her back as a crow flaps its wings to the ledge of the building’s second storey.  With head turned the crow watches her with one beady eye.

Just as she did with Marlo, Rita needs to decide whether to trust this stranger or not.  She walks over to a nearby maple tree making sure the crow can still see her and decides to take a chance.  She sees the reflection of the crescent moon in the crow’s eye.  Closing her own eyes she feels the change as her extra weight flows off her shrinking body.  Shaking she watches as the crow steps on the ledge her wings flapping.

In an instant Rita finds herself in the crow’s claws ascending to the top of the Conservation Area HQ’s roof.  Once there she feels a constant whirlwind of air and realizes the young women’s extra weight has become dispersed air that swirls in a single location.  The crow disappears and Rita sees a honeybee.  She follows the honeybee to a vent and they both enter the building’s ductwork.

Rita hears voices with her chipmunk ears and stands still near a vent just above her head.  A woman is arguing with a male.

“You can’t fudge the amount of toxins in the river Norm,” a young sounding woman is saying.

“I’m just adjusting the inaccuracies,” a male voice grumbles in reply.

“Too much cadmium, lead, or mercury in the water will kill the wildlife.”

“It’s only until the next lunar eclipse.”

“What?” the girl shouts.

“Wendy, very rich and intelligent people explained this to me.  I only need to fudge reports until the coming eclipse blocks the sun so the ancient metal elemental can finally flow out of the Earth’s surface.  The sun is the only thing stopping him because the ancient elemental of fire is hiding.  Look I’ll give you a percentage of what I’m being paid.”

“You cannot fudge reports Norm!  You have a drug problem and its affecting your sense of reality.  So let’s get you some help.”

“Take the money,” the man named Norm says in a threatening tone.

“No,” the woman named Wendy replies.

Rita hears scuffling and gasps.  She gazes towards the vent above her and sees the honeybee fly through it.

Thanks To:

Model for Aella:  Victoria Givlin

https://artals.com/

Makeup and Hair:  Tiffany Meatherall

https://www.facebook.com/meatherallmakeup/

Photography:  Shannon Fitzgerald

https://www.shannon-fitz.com/

Rita Walker (Blog Twenty-four):  By Dan Watt and Taylor Norris

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Rita Walker (Blog Twenty-four):  By Dan Watt and Taylor Norris

If you know of a worldwide organization that does keep tabs on how much food is consumed and forest cut down.  Send us a message.

http://wildfoodsandmedicines.com/salal/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineered_wood

https://lingpapers.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2018/02/White_2006.pdf

http://www.haidalanguage.org/

Rita sips at the sweet tea made of Salal berries she ordered directly from Haida Gwaii.  The order took six months to arrive.  It reminded her of the goodness of the world.  Laws are now in effect that make the availability of food based on how much there is instead of trying to have it available everywhere all the time.  Crops and livestock are catalogued to make sure there is always abundance in nature.  If someone can’t buy salmon they’ll have to buy another fish.  Wood considered unusable from demolition sites or removed from homes is ground into sawdust and used to create engineered wood.  Stalks from hemp, corn, and bamboo are also used to replace wood so forest can thrive once again.

As she sips the tea and contemplates the safety of forests and other lifeforms she listens to stories and songs in Xaat Kíl, the original Haida Gwaii language.  It reminds her of her mother, father and brother, before darkness overcame her and she fell into the long sleep.

 

She was coated in sweat within her family’s cedar plank house.  The deerskin and woven cedar blanket her mother covered in her lay in a heap beside her.  Her body jolted.

At the bank of the Masset Inlet, sitting on a rotting log she saw Rae facing the water.  Without looking at her Rae lifted her right arm up with the palm of her hand facing up.  Upon her palm a flame appeared that flickered in the wind.  Within the flame was a tiny image of Ailbe Rose.

“Wanda Chéile,” Ailbe Rose called to her, “you must await the time when Kaneki is closest to the surface and the World is in greatest peril.  I will slow your heart rate and those that love you most will think you dead.  They will not burn you in your grandfather’s way but bury you.  Remember them when you awake.  Use not the name I call you by but the one Rae gave you.”  At that moment the flame shot out of Rae’s hand into Rita’s chest.  Rita has no recollection of the centuries that passed only the moment she awoke.  She did not dig through the dirt but merged with it so that she emerged on the surface in the clothes she was buried in.

Rita Walker (Blog Twenty-two):  By Dan Watt and Taylor Norris

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Rita Walker (Blog Twenty-two):  By Dan Watt and Taylor Norris

I made an open bin with plywood to throw in food scraps, dog poop and occasionally leaves.  Every so often I throw soil on top.  Over the years when I turned the mixture over with a shovel I found it full of earthworms and that the mixture had turned into soil.

https://www.intechopen.com/books/sustainability-of-agroecosystems/activity-and-variety-of-soil-microorganisms-depending-on-the-diversity-of-the-soil-tillage-systemhttp://www.fao.org/3/a0100e/a0100e05.htmhttps://www.gardenmyths.com/what-is-humus/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0140196313002176

https://askabiologist.asu.edu/explore/desert-microbes

http://mgeldorado.ucanr.edu/files/170168.pdf

The classroom has a new student, the girl who lit the candle without a match or lighter.  The one who was arguing in the woods with Kanayago.  She’s sitting to the right of Marlo who looks much better.  Meanwhile Kanayago is sitting at the desk on the other side of Marlo.  It’s interesting that all the elementals are sitting beside each other.  On Kanayago’s desk she notices a small cardboard box.  She looks for any reaction in Kanayago’s face that she knew it was her as the rat and then the chipmunk but the girl shows no curiosity.

“Can you tell us your name?” Rita says to the new girl.

“Ember,” the girl replies in a tired voice.

“Today’s lecture is on microorganisms,” Rita begins.  She clicks on the projector where the screen is partitioned into five sections.  Each section has a picture and a heading for the images of bacteria, fungi, viruses, protozoa, and algae.  “Bacteria and fungi are the main microorganisms that ingest the dead material.

“All these microorganisms,” Rita continues, “break down dead organisms into CO2 and minerals.  I’m condensing this so you’ll need to read about how complex this is.  What remains is called humus.   Humus is carbon based and can hold up to ninety percent of its weight in water.  Because it’s negatively charged it attracts ammonium and minerals such as calcium, magnesium, phosphorous and others.

“In deserts the main microorganism are cyanobacteria.   Cyanobacteria can desiccate so that it only contains 1-2% water.  It will remain inactive until there is more rain.  It is extremely important to get soil testing done before fertilizing.  Phosphate, Potassium, and Nitrogen have to be added carefully so that an excess of salt isn’t created which will damage microorganisms.  Next week’s lecture is on carbon engineering.”

Rita holds her breath as Kanayago walks up to her holding the box.

“I know we’re done talking about waste matter but I had a weird experience this weekend,” Kanayago tells her as she sets the box down on Rita’s lectern.   “I captured a strange looking rat.  I went to get something to keep it in.  When I came back the rat was gone and I thought I saw a chipmunk running away.  I guess the rat was so scared it defecated enough to escape.  I was just wondering if you could analyze the droppings.  Maybe I thought I saw a rat but it was actually a chipmunk.  Both looked–.”  Rita holds her breath as Kanayago searches for the right words.  “Familiar.”

Rita can’t stop herself from gulping.  “I’ll get it analyzed for you and let you know.”  She picks up the box very carefully.  The contents are a part of her.

Rita Walker (Blog Twenty-one):  By Dan Watt and Taylor Norris

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Rita Walker (Blog Twenty-one):  By Dan Watt and Taylor Norris

Each country if not city, town, village has sacred places.  I’ve been reading Bob McDonald’s An Earthling’s Guide To Outer Space.  McDonald hosts CBC’s Quirks & Quarks.  In the book he explains that astronauts and cosmonauts really miss feeling the wind and nature’s surroundings.  Next time you walk through the woods reflect on how important that presence is.

https://www.shape.com/healthy-eating/healthy-drinks/oat-milk-nutrition-dairy-free-milk

https://www.quakeroats.com/cooking-and-recipes/how-to-prepare-oats#

https://www.livescience.com/22427-stonehenge-facts.html

https://sacredland.org/sacred-groves-of-ghana-ghana/

https://www.google.com/search?q=silfra&oq=Silfra&aqs=chrome.0.0l8.1490j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Leaving a part of herself inside the factory to become a chipmunk has drained Rita.  She barely made it home because she was shaking so bad.  Not just from the loss of body mass but from the terror of almost being caged indefinitely.  In her apartment she engorges oatmeal mixed with oat milk and prunes.  Lumbering towards her bed she is drawn towards the weeping willow.  She touches one of the long leaves before plunking onto her bed.

She feels tremendous pressure, as if the Earth is pressing down on her shoulders, and so hot!  Sweat pours down her body as she stares at a titan sized man bound inside a cavern the colour of iron.  His metallic gray eyes stare upwards and his mouth is open.  With each breath he exhales heavy metals spew out reminding her of videos of volcanic eruptions.  His muscular arms are stretched out… his hands are jagged junks of metal.  She sees lower that his feet are also made of misshaped metal.  He’s straddling the cavern.  His right hand punches higher up the cavern wall sending iron ore flying below where a molten fire burns.  She realizes Kaneki is trying to reach the surface!

Now she’s on the surface.  What she sees shouldn’t make sense but it does.  Ailbe Rose is standing in the centre of Stonehenge with her arms and hands pointed towards the ground.  A hole forms just in front of her toes.  Oya is standing within a groove of Nyame Dua trees near the Asuo Akosua stream with arms raised above her head.   Rán is kneeling at the shore of the Sifra Rift with her hands in the cool water.  But Rae is not to be found and without her Kaneki cannot be stopped.

Rita wakes shivering.  Her clothes, sheets and pillow are soaked. 

 

Rita Walker (Blog Twenty):  By Dan Watt and Taylor Norris

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Rita Walker (Blog Twenty):  By Dan Watt and Taylor Norris

The idea of neutering or spaying is to stop overpopulation.  The ethical matter is the lack of choice.  The worldwide concern is the possibility of wiping out an entire breed.  Reversible birth control would be a better idea but I cannot find any information on this.

https://www.ctriver.org/they-can-swim-really/

https://www.grandriver.ca/en/our-watershed/Water-quality-data.aspx

Rita scurries towards a drain hole in the floor.  She presses her feet into the floor to slow down when she feels the brush of the broom push her against the base of a metal cage that protects a motor.  She smells metal burning and turns to look up.  Two strands of the cage’s metal welded wire bend around her.  She watches in terror as Kanayago squats down and stares at her.

“You’re a strange looking rodent,” Kanayago says to her.   “And familiar somehow.”  Kanayago stands up.  “There aren’t more of you are there?  I’ll need to find something to keep you for now,” she hears Kanayago say as she walks away.

Rita’s heart is pounding so hard she can feel it push her ribs out.  It’s not good to change without any dirt around but she doesn’t have a choice.  Her body is riddled with spasms now.  She shrinks as her excess body turns to wet earth.  Her tiny ears listen intently for Kanayago or any other movement as she hops towards the grate where Marlo is waiting.  As her long fluffy tail stands straight up she runs at full speed towards the grate.

“How did a chipmunk get in here?” she hears Kanayago say from far behind.

She falls into water.  Scrambling she reaches the surface and dog paddles at the concrete ledge where Marlo is waiting.  With blurry eyes she sees him staring down at her in confusion.  He scoops her up and holds her up to his face.  Shivering she sakes water from her fur and nods her head numerous times.

“I hope this is you Rita,” he says with a cough.  In an instant she riding atop viscous water that flows against the river’s current.

Back on the shore Marlo changes into his human form and starts coughing.  “That factory is contaminating the river,” he says through gasps.  “I’ll wait until your human again then I need to rest,” he tells her as he sets her onto the bank.

 

In her car she rests her head back.  That short time having the welded wire that looked more like thick bars to her changed form has her thinking of all the animals locked in cages.  She tries to keep her composure but knowing now how terrifying it is she can’t keep the sobs in.  Humans caging themselves, and caging other life.  She clenches her fist as she brushes the tears away with her forearm.  And they neuter other humans and animals.  Who is keeping track off all this she wonders?  Neutering should be reversible.  An entire species of dogs or cats could be wiped out.

“Be positive, Rita,” she tells herself.   She’ll have to investigate the ethics of neutering and if modern operations are reversible.  Right now she’s worried about Marlo.  He didn’t look good as he headed for his car.  How polluted is the river water she wonders.

Rita Walker (Blog Eighteen):  By Dan Watt and Taylor Norris

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Rita Walker (Blog Eighteen):  By Dan Watt and Taylor Norris

Neil Degrasse Tyson had an interview with Joe Rogan in which he explained the dangers of transferring enough energy through the air to run devices.

https://www.livescience.com/46745-how-tesla-coil-works.html

https://thejoeroganexperience.net/joe-rogan-neil-degrasse-tyson-explains-microwaves/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/wireless-power-transfer

https://www.askamathematician.com/2011/07/q-can-light-be-used-to-transfer-energy-instead-of-power-lines/

She bites her lower lip and taps her right foot as the phone rings.

“Hello,” a melodic deep voice answers.

“Hi,” she replies as she tries to hide the shakiness in her voice.  “Tonight is still good?”

“Yes,” Marlo replies.

“We’ll meet at the Oakhill Cemetery at 9 p.m.”

“Sounds good.”

“Okay, see you then,  bye.”

“Bye,” he replies.

She turns off her cell and clips a miniature camera onto the crown of her hair.

It’s still daylight as she drives through Brant Conservation Area to get to the cemetery.  She slows down when she sees Kanayago facing off against a much taller girl.  Mesmerized by the sight she pulls over.  That’s when she notices a light layer of snow covering the ground and a chill in the air.  The taller girl is holding a candle in the palm of her hand and with a point of her finger lighting the wick than with a snap of her fingers extinguishing it.  Meanwhile, Kanayago is holding a fork.  With a point of her finger the fork bends than straightens.  Kanayago is laughing.

Kaitlyn Lindemann as Kanayago (3)
Kaitlyn Lindemann as Kanayago picture by Katy Waring
Kaitlyn Lindemann as Kanayago (5)
Kaitlyn Lindemann as Kanayago picture by Kating Waring
Katy Waring fire final 4 Dan
Kating Waring as Ember picture by Kaitlyn Lindemann

Rita desperately glances around.  She breathes easier when she doesn’t see anyone.  Some things aren’t meant for the common public to see.  Angrily she honks her car’s horn.  The girls glance her way then scatter into the trees.

As she pulls into the cemeteries parking lot she takes in deep gulps of air.  Next class she’ll have to explain to Kanayago the dangers of using her powers when others can see, and find out who the girl that belongs to Rae is.  The energy frequency emitted through the air to manipulate particles to cause a flame to occur or metal to bend could seriously damage anything in-between.   There’s a reason wires are still used to power devices from hairdryers to stoves.  That much energy sent through the air could melt an object or severely hurt or kill a living creature.

Rita walks to the edge of the cemetery where a giant oak tree grows.  This is where she’ll meet Marlo.

Rita Walker (Blog Sixteen):  By Dan Watt and Taylor Norris

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Rita Walker (Blog Sixteen):  By Dan Watt and Taylor Norris

Both nature and technology follow the circle of life.  A river that flows is alive and healthy but block off the flow and it stagnates.  Forget to fill a car up with gas or keep up the oil and other liquids and the gears rust and it eventually refuses to work anymore.  Everything is breaking down and building up constantly.  What happens to our bodily fluids is no different.

https://japanesemythology.wordpress.com/tag/kanayago-kami/

http://yokai.com/kirin/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_legendary_creatures_from_Japan

http://wessuc.com/agricultural-use-of-biosolids/

https://www.simcoe.com/community-story/7323434-from-toilet-to-field-barrie-poop-becomes-agricultural-fertilizer/

https://www.sare.org/Learning-Center/Books/Building-Soils-for-Better-Crops-3rd-Edition/Text-Version/The-Living-Soil/Soil-Microorganisms

She stares up at the classroom.  Her heart pounding as she sees Marlo calmly staring back at her.  Later she’ll need to talk to him about visiting Kanetic Reusable Batteries with his help.  To Rita’s surprise a girl much shorter than Marlo with long brunette hair and wearing glasses with a metal frame is sitting beside him.  The girl’s innocent face is confusing considering her aura is metallic grey.  “Hi,” she says to the new girl.  “Welcome to the class and could you tell everyone your name?”

“Kanayago,” the girl replies with a sweet voice.

Rita is dumbfounded.  “Do you know the meaning behind that name?”

“Yes.  My parents told me they found me in a crib at the doorstep when they first moved to Canada from the Chūgoku Mountains in Japan.”

“They named you Kanayago?”

“No.  The name was written in Hiragana syllabary on a gold anklet they found around my left ankle.  Since I do not look Japanese my parents told me they were confused at first but accepted that it was the mythical Kirin that delivered me to their doorstep.”

Rita shakes her head.  Her bias suggested the child of Kaneki would be obtuse and the least likely to join her class.

“Today’s lecture,” she begins with a shaky voice, “is about biosolids.  It’s important in this class to remember we want to know where a product starts and where it finishes.  So we’re going to talk about how poop and urine is turned into biosolids.  We eat and drink, go to the bathroom and our waste–and let’s put waste between quotation marks–goes to sewage plants.  Then what?”  Rita stops talking and gazes across the room at all the students.  They all look confused, even Marlo.

“The excrement and urine or waste goes through many processes to change it into biosolids.  The biosolids are used on farms to help grow food.”  She sees that all the students have disgusted looks on their faces.  “Everything needs to be reused or recyclable with as little greenhouse gas emission as possible.  The biosolids are anaerobically or aerobically digested before they are used for growing food.  Think of a leaf.  It grows on the tree in the spring; helps gather sunlight and rainwater in summer, and falls off in the autumn.  Over the winter the fallen leaves give protection to plant beds and insects.  In the spring when thaw arrives the leaves break down and become soil.”

Marlo’s hand shoots up.

“Yes,” Rita asks trying not to stare intensely at him.

“Like cleaning out a gutter.  If the leaves remain from autumn to spring you’ll be cleaning out dirt instead of leaves.”

“Correct.  Thank you Marlo.”  She knows her eyes say I’ll meet you later but she hopes he’s the only one who notices.  “I want you to study up on biosolids and how each and everyone one of us can make this an easier process.”

 

Later in the day Rita goes to Moonshadows Metaphysical Shop near Mt Hope Cemetery to pick up a Haida made whale talisman.  But she knows the owner and opens the door to the house instead of the shop.  Rita halts in the front of the hall.  Inside sitting half way up on a carpeted stairway is the girl Kanayago where she’s reading a book.  Rita immediately notices the metal framed glasses and the silver ankh charm that sits against her chest held their by a silver necklace.  Kanayago seems absorbed in the book about nanotechnology.

Kaitlyn Lindemann as Kanayago
Kaitlyn Lindemann as Kanayago

Remembering this is a child of Kaneki and that she must tread carefully with this one Rita diligently steps back outside and gently closes the front door.