Dramatis persona*

helenhead Helen Chick

I've always wanted a bumper sticker that said "I'm a female, LDS/Mormon, Scout leading, geocaching, piano-playing, bicycling, mathematics educator with a PhD in maths ... and I VOTE"!

I think this makes me a minority group of cardinality 1!

* Since there's only one of me and "personae" is plural (I think), I've gone with dramatis persona.
March 2024
S M T W T F S
« Jan    
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31  

Visitor counter

Visits since May 2016

Recent visitors

Touchstone

swellingtontouchstone

View from my office window earlier today

I don’t know how it is for other people, whether they have landmarks or places that serve as touchstones or anchoring points, almost tied up with their very identity, but Mt Wellington is such a place for me. Whenever I fly into Hobart I always look out for it, and last weekend, as I drove down instead, it was still a point of reference to let me know I was back. Some days it broods over the city, neither malevolent nor protective, just watchful, and an upward glance to it will let you know what the weather is going to be like for the next couple of hours or so. It’s clearly iconic to most locals, because it is sufficient to say “the mountain” and everyone knows what you mean. 

I’m really pleased that I can see it from my current office window. It’s not the absolute best view, but I can see more than enough to know it’s there, predict the weather, and daydream a little. Looking up at it now, for example, I can tell the showers aren’t going to let up for a while. There are a few birds circling despite the rain, and every so often through the clouds I glimpse the remnants of recent snow at the summit.

slambertrivulet11In Melbourne I always find it hard to deal with the fact that I can drive for 20 minutes and still be in a suburb looking pretty much the same as the one I just left, and with a view largely unchanged as well. If I was to drive for 20 minutes in Hobart I could just about be at the top of Mt Wellington (although right at this moment there’d be no view at all because it’s disappeared under cloud) or at a beach (although right at this moment I’d be getting very wet because those showers have now turned into pouring rain). Alternatively, I could just walk 700m from my office, and there’s a lovely little walking track through some bush with a small creek, which is all but devoid of people (probably because it’s currently pouring with rain, cold and very muddy underfoot, which is why I’m glad I was there yesterday and not today!). In fact, there’s another such spot even closer, but I already knew about that one; this further one was a new discovery (and just confirms that I didn’t get out much when I was here as an undergraduate and PhD student!!).

Well, the mountain is still hidden; I guess it’s going to keep raining for a while.

2 comments to Touchstone

  • May

    Black Mountain tower in Canberra is the touchstone for me.
    Whenever we’d drive out of town – particularly long drives/holidays, we’d always play the game of who can spot the tower first. Then we knew we were home.

    Here, if I’m returning from the north, it’s Lady Mountain (which is only referred to as such by myself (and one girlfriend who roadtripped with me) owing to the fact that first time I saw her, she looked like a lady lounging on her side. It does actually has another name, but I’ve always chosen to forget it).

  • […] of the Mountain #1 As I have mentioned elsewhere in this blog, Mount Wellington is something of a touchstone for my psyche, and when I was […]

Leave a Reply

 

 

 

You can use these HTML tags

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>