Evening

Today’s theme turned out to be NAIDOC week, the celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, culture and achievements usually held in July but postponed this year, for obvious reasons, until November. I passed the drawings and statements on Newtown Public School (extra) on the way to meet J.

We drove out to Western Sydney Parklands at Blacktown for a bushwalk, only to find a blighted floodplain bisected by 4-lane highways. But there was a low-key NAIDOC celebration in the park - country & western music, a sausage sizzle and stalls selling jewellery.

This morning I’d run into a former colleague whose old arthritic dog lay down on the road while we talked. On the way home this evening, this older man and his dog struck a chord.