This Clayton’s Lockdown that we’ve been experiencing since New Year,( the lockdown you’re having when you’re not having a lockdown), also known as the Shadow Lockdown, seems to be more difficult to endure this time round. Maybe it’s because the media keep insisting we are all going to cop a dose regardless, or alternatively there is little more to accomplish in the decluttering and home maintenance area.
Or maybe it is the fact that any travel adventures were dashed from Day 1 of 2022.
Last year I discovered there was an Annual Man From Snowy River Bush Festival in the wilds of Victoria. Lots of whip cracking, camp ovens, horses, markets, poetry and bush music. See here :https://bushfestival.com.au/whatson
Anyway, not going to happen.
Good news homegrown bloggers and a little distraction, especially if you are not a tennis or cricket fan:-
A feature of this Festival is the Elyne Mitchell Photo Story Award.
Who was Elyne Mitchell?
Mitchell was the author of a series of children’s books very popular with young girls, in the 50’s and 60’s : The Silver Brumby. There were 13 novels in this series in total and she also wrote non fiction books including her family history which I would love to read (her father was Henry Chauvel from the Australian Lighthorse Brigade in WW1 and she married a Changi POW who later became a politician) which included her own photographs, many of which were taken in the area where this Festival is taking place.
Hands up those who remember The Silver Brumby?
Confession: I was never into equine flesh nor did I enjoy Black Beauty or Flicka. Too sad. More a Rin Tin Tin kind of girl…..
All photo story entries (maximum of 200 words) must have “a specific reference to the theme “The Overflow” and an Australasian rural experience and must be the writer’s own work. Clear images must be provided. Written entries should demonstrate the significance of the image to the entry.”
There is an entry fee and th closing date is 14th of February 2022. More details here: https://bushfestival.com.au/whatson/elyne-mitchell-photo-story-award-competition.
I’m so over gardening, rearranging the house, and playing with new recipes this is going to be my shiny new plaything for the weekend. Looking at old holiday snaps might soothe the soul too 🙂
Brizzy Mays Books and Bruschetta 
I’m sorry your tired of lock down. I hate being tied down myself! Please stay safe. Mom got covid at the hospital. It s been real! As for the book series, my mom loved that series! She has mentioned it to me more than once. 😁
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Our lockdown is self imposed this time. The government has us all too scared to walk out our front door. I can keep myself quite busy – it is just such a depressing way to start to a new year.
Sorry to hear about your Mum 😦
Hang in the kiddo; things have to improve for us all soon.🤞
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Agreed, my friend.😊 Here s wishing you a much better New Year soon!
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I’m so sorry that you are once again in a lockdown. Seem s that has been the norm for the last 2 years! (I too had high hopes for 2022). The writing contest looks like it would be fun, too bad I have no idea what the overflow means….
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I don’t know what an overflow is either. Lol. I have photos of pumpkins spilling out of garden beds which i thought would fit the bill. I just have to find something with a rural setting now – maybe a gumtree with lots of birds on the same branch. An overflow of birds?
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Pity about the bush festival. Ah well maybe next year. How long now has that been our refrain…
I don’t remember “silver brumby” maybe just an Aussie thing, I was fanatical about Flicka and Black Beauty. A real horse mad kid back in UK
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My friends were all horse mad and would spend school holidays at horse camps. yuk – definitely not my thing.
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Every spare minute of my youth was either spent on, or with, or reading about horses. Of course I had to go to school in between horse time 🐎🐎🐎🐎🤪
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Great post, took me back to my youngsters who loved the Silver Brumby series. I think later there was an animated version too. I love animals but cannot read about them because they are usually heart-wrenching stories.
Thank you for the Elyne Mitchell Photo Story Awards info and, just an aside here, my father used to quote Clancy of the Overflow by Banjo Paterson (based on his true outback experiences) and Paterson once addressed a letter to “The Overflow”, a real sheep station 100 kilometres south-west of Nyngan NSW where Clancy lived. Make of that what you will! 🙂
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Some great personal history, Gretchen 🙂 My Dad, an accountant by trade, was in Bomber Command during ww2. He came home to Australia a tad rattled and went sheep shearing across NSW for 12 months. We didn’t watch much tv as children as my Dad’s preferred entertainment was quoting Banjo around a camp fire down the back of the garden drinking billy tea that he would swing around his head. Off to look up “The Overflow.” Cheers 🙂
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Amazing really, life certainly moves in mysterious ways. I bet my Dad would have loved to sit there with your Dad. My poor dear Uncle was a tail gunner in a WWII fighter plane and he too came home rattled and never really recovered. Gone but not forgotten. I’m now off to find my ancient copy of A.B ‘Banjo’ Paterson’s poems – he’s right up there with Henry Lawson ‘Romance of the Swag’.
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I have fond memories of watching Rin Tin Tin and growing up with the Silver Brumby books. Elyne Mitchell could so beautifully evoke the high country, the beauty of the landscape and the horses. Might even re-read one now that you have reminded me of them
The lockdown you have when you are not having a lockdown, is getting tedious, let’s hope this all starts to improve soon but I fear we may have another year of disruption, thanks to covid.
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Yes, these disruptions are becoming tedious. I am clinging to new challenges to keep my “head” afloat. Next challenge : making home made ginger beer 🙂
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I remember seeing the Brumby books around a lot back in the day, but never picked one up (it’s a gender thing, I suspect). However I do have fond memories of Rin Tin Tin.
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Horses never did anything for me – unless I was frocked up, glass of bubbles in hand and at the race track.
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I’ve never read any of the Silver Brumby books, although I think I was aware of them. Love your phrase – Clayton’s Lockdown. Sometimes it just feels like 2020 is on repeat. We’re in self imposed lockdown too – just too many vulnerable people in our circle. But it is getting very tedious. Lucky we’re the introverted type.
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