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I’m a volunteer at our local Botanic Gardens and have had great interest in collecting stories about ‘oldest things’. Australia is an incredibly ancient continent but I have definitely read about (and shared information on) your ancient tree previously. A fascinating story.

We currently have a ‘Discovering Ancient Egypt’ exhibition on in our National Museum. My sister and I have found it fascinating finding the oldest pieces of art we can find in our travels. We had found Chinese pieces from 6000 BC, but this Egyptian exhibition has a piece from 8000 BC. We are so in awe of man’s need to capture the world around him in art form.

And of course, Australia’s indigenous peoples can be tracked back 70,000 years. Whenever Aussies get precious about our tiny 250 years of white history, I am compelled to say that this must give them great empathy for the aborigines. If we feel so strongly about 250 years, just imagine having 70,000 years of occupation of this extraordinary country.

Thanks. A good read. I gather you have chosen other paths to follow now (understandable) but I might still Follow you, just in case you pop the odd piece online.

All the best. 🤗🤗😘

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Beth -- your life and outlook seem wonderful! Being a volunteer at a place where visitors are interested in the world sounds like the idea choice! I know when the weather sometimes gets me down the botanical gardens are always a boost!

I would imagine Australia would be a GREAT HISTORY to explore. I think "winners write the history" and we've tended to neglect where discovery might take us. I think even today if one explores China, you get the Han Chinese bias, Russia you get the White Russian bias, America you get the settlers and conquerer's bias. It is what us upright walking apes do :)

Yes, I intentionally stopped the weekly writing. My goal was to get repetitions and a habit. I am exploring writing something longer form. Not sure what will come of it but the process is fun so far! I think I have perhaps 200 articles I wrote and they are all organized by topic -- hopefully some fun ones and some clunkers. I might return to writing book reviews monthly as that is one of my passions.

Thank you again for reading and thoughtful comments. Life is best when we learn about each other.

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Thanks to you I now know about Dendrochronological equations :)

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Thanks to you I now know about Dendrochronological equations :]

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used to be easier when we all just called them tree rings :) I was on a job years ago and encountered a literalist and it was like the twilight zone. He explained how everything could work out scientifically as long as the flood was large enough. The only good answer is "that sounds interesting"

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