three ships a sailing: November 2023

Thursday 23 November 2023

about time

Here we go. Going sort of chronological.

Maria disappeared for some time after the referendum result

As I was walking home one day, it occurred to me that I hadn't shown you this part of the garden.

It is the largest bit of garden that passersby see

but the part I find least attractive to work on. South facing, it spends the day mostly in shade.

Currently the oven at The Village is out of commission, so Malcolm comes around on Tuesday mornings to bake the bread for the lunch. After a period of sourdough, he's now experimenting with baguettes. DELICIOUS.

Here's Kate, our resident poet, delivering her Remembrance Day poem. She is a gentle and conniving wordsmith.

And to prove that age does weary us, note the difference in the stance of these chaps as they lay their wreath at the cenotaph. The surrounding iceberg roses have been interplanted with rosemary this year. Kate, before delivering her poem, suggested that perhaps next year there could be red poppies too.

Saturday just gone delivered a Thai cooking class at The Village. I went along to learn how to make a good fish curry, and I think I have the basics now. Apparently you can make the green curry paste and freeze it in small portions. One day I'll get around to it.

We also made Crystal Rolls, which I have made before. I can easily gather the ingredients, but then I have to make the dipping sauces too...

As you can see, it was a convivial event.

Sunday was the Village Market, then off to St David's Cathedral in Hobart to listen to His and Her Majesty singing Joseph Haydn's Seven Last Words. Beautiful singing, though the topic was rather off season.

Back to the garden:

the view from my bed on a lazy Thursday morning

will there be enough to make a gooseberry pie?

a poppy finally blooms in the studio garden

And, of course, books.

This is a unique book in my experience, tackling breast cancer, tattooing and environmental issues in one read. And set on the Tasman Peninsula. How do these writers get to be so clever?

This one strikes home for me too - Griffith / Murrumbidgee home in this instance. When we left Tasmania to live in Griffith, I was excited at the prospect of learning a Waradjuri language. This was in 1997 and no such opportunity was available. This book melds historical and current issues for Aboriginal people with the production of a Waradjuri dictionary. I think the story is a bit uneven but it enabled me to relive some of our Riverina experience, and its wonderful to know that the language is being regained.

This is a local one. Maggie Mackellar lives on a farm up the road and, until recently, wrote for Country Style magazine. I have never met her. Her book is beautifully presented. Her writing is simultaneously blunt and liquid. Like The Octopus and I, the book presents a wildlife / environmental picture, but it is also a manual on sheep farming and its perils. The title Graft is cleverer than it first appears.

Finally, a page from my school French text, kindly sent to me by my niece. Tamasin chided me for my irreverence (look carefully) but I detect the hand of that great Francophile classmate, C.K. Butler.

Sunday 5 November 2023

The Catchup

It's hard to know where to start! So let's return to setting off for Adelaide in late August.

Enroute to Devonport to catch the ferry, I often stop to buy petrol at Sassafras. The sign on the bowser always amuses me. On the drive from Melbourne to Adelaide I pass through a town called Keith that proudly promotes its Land Rover on a Pole . The 'gloves on poles' message appeared during the Covid days, and persists.

As you know, Mum died while I was in Adelaide. Here is part of my inheritance - a tea service belonging to my great-grandmother. It is not a design that particularly appeals to me but family heirlooms are precious.

Here, however, is the teacup I use at Pearl Resort. On this occasion it is accompanied by a toasted fruit bun made by H Bells.

And moving from buns to boobs, an interesting shop in the Adelaide Arcade.

Returning to Pearl Resort, a cup of tea, a fig and a cuppla Yo Yo biscuits - South Australia's own.

Back in Bunna we have sad news with the butcher shop closing but great excitement at The Barracks.

The owners of the barracks have saved another Triabunna building - a lovely old weatherboard situated on some hectares of land irresistible to developers. The town waited with bated breath for Moving Day.

Then, one day a large crane was visible from our front garden.

Roving Reporters Steve B and Henry 🐶 captured the parade through town (and over the bridge)

and the setting into position.

This was my view the next day when I walked the path at the back of the Springy pub.

And here it is glimpsed from the street. The owners are away at the moment but once they're back, this will be a hive of restoration activity.

In other news,

The Community Hall opened for a very well attended greenie event

and we finally got the Orford Odeon up and running again, reincarnated as the Triabunna Tivoli. Great jubilation in the community.

The Orford Bird Sanctuary, closely aligned with the Friends of Triabunna Reserves, launched a wonderful little book which is both informative and fun.

Referendum Day was also the day of the Suicide Prevention Network Nutbush Challenge. It was a horrible (in more ways than one) cold and windy day and we thought of pulling the plug, but the goddess smiled on us and, to our astonishment over 300 people came through the gates of the footy oval, with over 100 of us doing The Nutbush. We had the Buckland Boot Scooters showing us the way in the club rooms, with us troops doing our damnedest on the windswept oval.

We raised well over $1000 for SBSPN and RAW but fundraising was not the main aim. It was the brilliant Wily Fox's idea to provide a fun event for the community and celebrate the life of Tina Turner.

Jordy's Mum, Sue, won the Best Dressed award. Jordy, being a dog, could not come inside to celebrate with her but happily wagged his tail outside surrounded by many, many friends. It turned out to be a very dog-friendly friendly dog event.

The next day was the Village Market. Despite people coming up to us in tears over the Referendum result, Georgia and I pressed on with our bird nesting box workshop.

Market goers were invited to help FoTR paint birdboxes. Malcolm has made 3 styles of nesting boxes to suit different native birds. We also had a hand out for people should they want to get into bird box making themselves. It is a big responsibility. We had giant rubbish bags available for painters to wear for a bit of impromptu painting.

It proved very successful and led to much info sharing, and people requesting future opportunities. How lucky that Georgia has come to live in Tribes.

Last Thursday Malcolm, Bruce and I set off to install 3 boxes: 2 x parrot, 1 x pardalote.

Malcolm Birdbox and Birdman Bruce

tree selection is important

2 black cockatoos checked us out. but this is a home for parrots

and here's the pardalote box - hopefully you can hardly see it

Sadly Friends of Triabunna Reserves is losing 2 stalwarts on Thursday. Glenda and Andrew are moving to South Australia. These are 2 of the best people in the whole world. Conveniently for me, they will be living on the Fleurieu Peninsula.

Of course, there are domestic pleasures too.