October Books and a Visitor

A great many books meandered through this house during October thanks to two local Rotary fundraisers. The two $2 Mystery Boxes that I purchased for the Little Community Library, each containing no less than twenty books, are stacked in the garage awaiting rotation. Although mostly exLibrary books there are many that have held my attention, including my favourite read for October : Fractured.

Written by now Australian lass and Psychiatrist, Dawn Barker, this debut novel is about a happy family who have just had their first child which results in infanticide. It looks at the differing viewpoints of all family members and is a confronting read. Her second book is about surrogacy and her third addiction and family breakdowns, so Barker is putting all her medical training to good use.

The TBR pile is breeding, along with the tomatoes, with the humid weather.

I’ve just finished the next book club read – The Newcomer by another Aussie lass, Laura Woollett. Based loosely on the real life murder of a Sydney woman on Norfolk Island (infamous as it was the Island’s first ever murder) this was another confronting read because of its ugliness and brutality, which is in total contrast to the island’s spectacular beauty. I didn’t like the book, though it has made me think. That is often said to be the sign of a good story , isn’t it?

N I.

Starting to get organised for a visit from the Little People : the Labrador and Harry Kilom. Anything located two foot or closer to floor level is being relocated to safer territory and I’m having wonderful fun going through my daughters’ old children’s books. Especially Koala Lou by Mem Fox having had a visit from Bruce over the weekend.

Always welcome, Bruce.

A New Year – A New Decade

Haven’t managed to stay up till midnight for over forty years. It’s one of those quirks for being a bright eyed, bushy tailed morning person. 

Don’t set New Year Goals nor Resolutions though I am ruminating about some new projects. Despite being retired I like projects. I have a need to achieve or create. Little things. Little things are okay.

“Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.” – Anais Nin

So let’s share something chilled and wet to bring in the new decade together. Join me at my local waterhole, the Grand View Hotel in Cleveland, Queensland.

Built in 1851 the Grand View was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992. It is well regarded for its views overlooking Moreton Bay to beautiful North Stradbroke Island ( AKA Straddie – because we’re a lazy lot), and its alfresco dining in the beer garden, regularly voted one of the best in the state. The tucker passes muster too.

G.J. Walter Park is situated between the Grand View and Toondah Harbour ( where the ferry terminal carries passengers to Straddie) and is one of Queensland’s oldest parks being gazetted as a public reserve in 1889. 

This area is home to koalas and many bird species that depend on the mangroves and mudflats for survival. Of course this means that it has been targeted by Developers for the construction of 3600 units and a water park. Apparently this is called progress.

Said farewell to 2020 at lunch with my youngest daughter sitting amongst the frangipanis. She reminded me that I’ve always been one to question progress. Sounds like another project, doesn’t it?

365 new days. 365 new chances.

Cheers!

Bats And Bouquets ( & Alice Cooper)

Rural Aid was founded in 2015 to provide support programs to rural Australia. Their grassroots beginning touched a nerve with the Australian public with the Buy a Bale campaign which saw the distribution of fodder, fuel vouchers and hampers delivered to rural communities.

Rural Aid have recently advised that in January 2020 they delivered 463 domestic water orders across Australia. Water requests have since slowed down due to rain, though hay is still in short supply with the drought. They delivered 4234 bales of hay on 104 trucks to 262 farmers to 25 locations, with multiple deliveries within these areas in January. So far in February, they have delivered hay to 38 locations to 159 farmers, with some being multiple deliveries within these areas.

Thank you, Rural Aid, for your accountability and transparency.

Makes a change, though I refuse to make any further comment on the current dog fight happening over the hundreds of millions of dollars in bushfire donations – other than I told you so.

So a girlfriend with a crafty bent attended a Workshop over the weekend to learn how to crotchet pouches and sacks to assist injured wildlife. The money she paid for the three hour course was donated to a wildlife organisation and she is now busy crocheting birds nests. Apparently, the needs of koalas, wallabies and possums have changed – it’s all about releasing them back to an area with plentiful feed and shelter which is now proving the problem.

The emphasis is now on birdlife injured or homeless because of the fires: owls, curlews, magpies, kookaburras, and cockatoos etc.

To fellow blogger, Gee Jen, who recently knocked the complacency out of me – thank you. Though my skill set does not include knitting needles nor crochet hooks, I can most certainly make a decent pot of tea. An afternoon of bird nest creation coming this way soon……

Curlew with chicks

NOTE: I just gotta say that I sat through last weekends 10 hour Fire Fight concert on the tele to raise further funds, and OMG, hasn’t 72 year old Alice Cooper still got it!

The Day The World Came To Town by Jim Defede

When I announced to the daughters that I was heading off to Melbourne my youngest, the one who was a showgirl in a previous life, immediately told me that I must organise tickets for the musical Come From Away. Didn’t happen because I was too busy with Handel’s Messiah and other things.

Waiting for me on my return home was a copy of Jim Defede’s The Day The World Came To Town, the book on which the musical is based.

It recounts the real-life events that took place in Gander, Newfoundland, in the hours and days immediately following the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Hundreds of passenger planes were en route to the United States when the first of the Twin Towers went down that day. When the US Government closed the country’s airspace, those planes were diverted. Many were sent back to Europe, others to Canada. Gander, a town of around 8,000 people, took in 38 flights carrying 6,000 passengers and crew in the 24 hours immediately after the attack.

Gander’s population almost doubled overnight following one of the worst tragedies the world had ever seen.

Defede, a journalist, profiled passengers and pilots from several planes diverted to Gander. In doing so, we learn about the town mayor who declared a state of emergency, of the air traffic controllers and customs officials who safely brought in the most traffic the airport had seen in 40 years, and of all the citizens of Gander who donated clothes, toys and bedding to make the passengers feel safe and welcome. Residents found 4000 toothbrushes, clean towells, hot meals, and made the showers in their homes available to the influx of visitors who were unable to access their luggage.

In amongst the cargo were nine dogs, ten cats, and a pair of rare monkeys earmarked for a zoo also requiring constant attention. The local vet and a band of volunteers can most certainly hold their heads up high for their achievements over this period.

What a heart warming little book and a timely reminder of all that is good.

With the east coast of Australia deemed  to be in “catastrophic fire danger” today my thoughts are with the many, both in flight and in the fight. If its not drought, it’s flames, and in some of our country towns there is not enough water to even fight the fires. The air in Sydney and Brisbane is poorer in quality than in Beijing thanks to the smoke.

This morning I walked along the edge of the koala corridor just as the sun was arising. It was just wonderful to see how many of my neighbours have taken to putting bowls of water and bird feeders out for the wildlife. 

I’de love to comment on the bum fight currently happening between our pollies, scientists and the greenies, but the lesson to take from Gander is to take care of the people (and animals) first.

Hope the show comes to Brisi……

Wattle and Koalas

Wattle Day has been celebrated on the first day of September each year since 1992, the official start of the Australian spring. Prior to this each State acknowledged the day at separate times depending on when the Acacias were in full bloom in that territory. My memories as a young lass are of wearing a sprig of Cootamundra Wattle, which flourished in Sydney, to school on the 1st day of August each year.

The Golden Wattle was incorporated as an accessory in the design of the Australian Coat of Arms in 1912.

I’m a big fan of Wattle (but then I don’t suffer from Hay Fever) and have recently planted a Wattle sapling, along with other native trees, on the fringe of the Koala corridor which my property borders. Pretty sure the neighbours will be unimpressed. Stuff ‘em.

Both the Koalas and Wattles are at their best at the moment. The former may well be cute but the bucks are noisy when they’re feeling antsy. Noisy and determined. And they’re most certainly feeling antsy at the moment.

Tree planting endeavours on my part are an attempt to encourage the bees, butterflies and bird life. All creatures welcome really – except snakes.

Wattle flowers were sold to raise money during World War 1 and it became tradition to send pressed wattles in letters to wounded soldiers in Europe. Fallen diggers were often buried with a sprig of wattle. The green and gold of Wattle inspired our national colours which we see at the great sporting events.

Wattle……just love it.

Cootamundra Wattle by John Williamson

Don’t go lookin’ through that old camphor box woman,
You know those old things only make you cry.
When you dream upon that little bunny rug
It makes you think that life has passed you by
There are days when you wish the world would stop woman,
But then you know some wounds would never heal
But when I browse the early pages of the children
It’s then I know exactly how you feel.
Hey it’s July and the winter sun is shining
And the Cootamundra wattle is my friend
For all at once my childhood never left me
‘Cause wattle blossoms bring it back again
It’s Sunday and you should stop the worry woman,
Come out here and sit down in the sun
Can’t you hear the magpies in the distance?
Don’t you feel the new day has begun?
Can’t you hear the bees making honey woman,
In the spotted gums where the bellbirds ring?
You might grow old and bitter cause you missed it,
You know some people never hear such things
Hey it’s July and the winter sun is shining
And the Cootamundra wattle is my friend
For all at once my childhood never left me
‘Cause wattle blossoms bring it back again
Don’t buy the daily papers any more woman,
Read all about what’s going on in hell.
They don’t care to tell the world of kindness,
Good news never made a paper sell.
There’s all the colours of the rainbow in the garden woman,
And symphonies of music in the sky.
Heaven’s all around us if you’re looking,
But how can you see it if you cry.
Hey it’s July and the winter sun is shining
And the Cootamundra wattle is my friend
For all at once my childhood never left me
‘Cause wattle blossoms bring it back again.