This is a personal post. Nothing historical here...

Happy new year! 2012 a year before our capital's centenary. I took a real shine to learning Canberra's real history on April 21st 2010 when I visited the Aboriginal grinding grooves of Theodore. Things went from there...

For those of you who don't know I have had a lifelong struggle with Bipolar Affective Disorder Type 1. I live a calm medicated life today but it wasn't always that way. I digress... I do however still endure the fluctuations of mania and depression. It is always a plus when a mania co-insides with a normalish (is there such a word) activity of interest. So learning about Canberra's rich history has helped me through many high and low times in the past year and a half and I think it has been a beneficial experience.

However, apart from what pops up, I think I have earned my degree in Canberra history and feel a bit over rehashing the same knowledge to a new audience over and over. I didn't expect my private mania to blow out to 450 individual posts and I am gob-smacked at those past posts pulling 10,000 page views a month today. I have no way of maintaining the collection nor the inclination or will to do so. So I'll just leave them there for the school kids, it's time to move on.

 I spend a lot of time in the ACT bush. Not the nature reserves, the thick stuff. Three quarters of the ACT is National Park and I find because of the nature of the average Canberran I can find solitude in our high country. I have taken to making sound recordings of the forest and am intrigued at the various species of bird and animal I am able to record.

Harmless stuff but I have been enjoying travelling to more and more remote places. It really is a beautiful place to be. So I'm spending more time pouring over google maps, learning food sources and planning outings than trawling Trove. I think if you continue reading you will see a different ACT focus emerge on my blog.
I run into enough natural wonders today in the ACT to make that my new years focus. Just having this little fox stalk my sausages on nightfall for 15 minutes reminded me of the importance of what's happening in the present and that perhaps I dwelt too much on the past. Not healthy for me.

So always armed with a camera I might be able to open some's eyes to the magnificence of Canberra's Mountains. I will still report on what 'pops up' historically but it is no longer my passion. I am actually more interested today in the unreported Aboriginal wars.

I thought I owed readers here an explanation... I'll probably keep blogging (its a hobby) but the ACT focus has changed for me personally. Life's an adventure and I'm dragging myself away from the history books into the real world and hopefully I'll come across some interesting stuff this year to share on this blog.

Happy 2012... Cheers Dave.

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