Category Archives: cyclone Yasi – our story

Next Guest Blog Up – Go Read Heart Strands…

mamusign2Photo Credit: Perkins Family – Mamu Walkway Photograph from 2007. Hmm I wonder how it fared in Cyclone Yasi?

So my next guest blog for ABC open is up if you want to visit and leave a comment. Maybe you are from the Cassowary Coast and recovering from Cyclone Yasi still or maybe you know some of the situations I am blogging about and have something you want to say.  You might be from other places  in Australia or the World and have something helpful you want to share.  Go to that Aftermath project and let people know.

Here is the link http://open.abc.net.au/projects/aftermath-disaster-resilience-recovery-08vh8ac/posts/heart-strands-hidden-in-the-cassowary-coast-76dq1oi

I have also been doing some brief photo posts at my tumblr, inspired mostly by almost daily photography trips and some of the amazing art and photography circulating at tumblr.

http://gumbootspearlz.tumblr.com/post/6925862555/trees-tyto-on-flickr-shadows-dancing-with-their

June

Guinea Pig Magic

gpposter
Photo Credit: June Perkins

Guinea Pigs rock.  Ours have to be the most spoiled I know.  They have an indoor cage,  on the balcony cage,  outdoor cage, a playpen, and a daybed with sunshade.   They are in a tribe of four but we separate them at night as they were having a few guinea pig wars in the balcony cage there for a while.

I have learnt, since these guinea pigs came into our lives, that guinea pigs love soft toys.   They snuggle up to them at night and can chose a favourite that no other guinea pig can touch.  They act like toddlers who haven’t yet learnt to share and will swipe any other guinea pig trying to take their favourite toy.

Our guinea pigs when they get their food, pick out their favourite parts and leave all the stuff they don’t like.  They can be so picky!   They sometimes pig out crazily on their favourite food until their tummies almost burst!  Ours love carrots.

They love human contact as well as their buddy guineapigs.  Ours are bought in daily for cuddles, particularly on cold winter nights (well cold for QLD) and they snuggle under the kids doonahs which they wrap around themselves and said guinea pigs.

Ours don’t multiply because we only have boys.  This is good because they eat a lot of food.  We harvest the rocket for the garden for them sometimes.

Guinea pigs have been of great comfort to our kids since Yasi.  This is because they are cuddly, something to care for, and they managed to stay calm and survive.    We are very protective of them and have had a cat lurking.  We chase it off and doublecheck their homes all the time.  Guinea pigs who survive cyclones deserve to live for a long time!

(c) June Perkins, all rights reserved

guineapigmagicPhoto Credit: June Perkins

Swing Waiting For Child

I think this swing waits for a child

or a person with a child’s heart

or a parent with a daughter or son to entertain.

This swing waits and is still

for there is no wind.

Today my friends, family and I facebooked about swings

when they saw this picture they told me about swings near them.

Tyres and swings for lil’ bubbas

and I recalled our vine swing at our old house – which the kids used to swing on all the time before Yasi.

They miss that swing.

Maybe we should put a new one in for them at our new home.

We live in a house waiting for

A swing to adorn it.

(c) June Perkins, all rights reserved words and image.

ABC Open project comes to Tully

carolynandmickMick interviewing Carolyn For ABC Open Project

So for anyone who was wondering why I was videoing the Golden Gumboot and an ABC van was visiting Tully yesterday here’s the low down.

Yesterday I was out and about collecting footage for a digital story of my Yasi cyclone experience.  I had to match pictures to the story I had just told on camera.   Whilst the cyclone is over I could find pictures to match my story like landmarks of Tully! I learnt about preparing for interviews versus spontaneous interviews with open questions.  Mick shared a bit about vox popping (same question to ten people) versus a few questions to one person.

Mick Bromage,  one of the ABC open producers for NQ,  spent time teaching me how to frame an image and how long to film a still scene for a video editor to be happy with you (10 seconds! is the key).  We talked about the thirds in a camera image, and triangles and circles.  Then I was able to observe and hopefully model some of techniques of filming that Mick had just taught me.

I got a sneak preview of a very moving digital story from an ‘insider’ in the South Queensland Floods.  Very soon Carolyn Bofinger, myself, and some people from Cardwell and other places will have our Yasi stories featured on a special website for ABC open. I’ll let you know when it goes to air.

As for me, I have had the  honour to be asked to be North Queensland’s guest blogger for Aftermath an ABC open project.  ABC open are giving me some training to bring stories of recovery and resilience to you via text,  photos, podcast and video.  I might even interview you, ask you for a photograph or come and cover the reopening of your business as exciting news for the area.   I am not working for the ABC, but I am a guest in their website space and helping them bring regional stories as an insider of the Cassowary Coast and North Queensland to our wider Australian community.   I hope I do Cassowary Coast proud.

It was a bit nervewracking being on camera but now I can go to my favourite spot –  behind the camera  – and tell stories  in the media I enjoy, writing/blogging/photography and now video!!  I promise to be a very kind interviewer!   I really enjoyed observing and practicing the patience of being a camera woman.  I did some fun things like safely taking pictures of the railway tracks and standing in the Tully St and filming our main street.

So far it has been a truly inspiring experience and who knows what will happen at the end of the gig (which goes for around 6 months).  All I know is digital storytelling totally rocks!  You can do it with some very basic equipment with a few simple tips from the pros.  My next gig, filming dear Carolyn’s farewell, which she likes to call a ‘see you soon.’


My Railway Tracks picture

(c)  June Perkins, all rights reserved.