MORE WISE PEOPLE
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Thinking about OUTRAGE has brought to mind some more of the Wise People I have known. |
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My mother used to talk about DRUTHERS. |
For the slow to grasp – it means I WOULD RATHER … |
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My Auntie Jean Carter talks about some days being diamonds and some being stone.
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| Val from Nambucca – We are birds of the same tree but different branches. Find the birds that sit on the same branch.
When in doubt – DON’T. |
Phil Ready when I asked for permission to use his Ready or Not book online said two words – PERMISSION GRANTED. Good, clear succinct. |
KEEP THE BLUE FLAME OF OUTRAGE BURNING
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They have brought an edge to the female wisdoms I have also had access to. It was a man called Tennis Eddie who told me of the bright blue pilot light of Outrage which needs to be kept burning. The Flame which says – You Will NOT do this to me again. Last week saw the passing of a gentleman by the name of Bede – who taught me many things. AVAIL YOURSELF OF THE BEST – said Bede. And – In this situation, behave as if you were your own best friend. Bede also said to me once, words to this effect – “ you have become very adept at protecting yourself from your enemies. Now it is time to beware of your well-meaning friends. “ |
There seems to be a way of the Peaceful that achieves good outcomes. It seems to me I have just survived that era. The Reasoning, the Reasonable, the Rational. I have worked with people who were good at it. One Boss of mine in particular, was able to formulate desired Outcomes and to proceed calmly towards them. As for me, I am of the Protest generation. Seemingly born with a Sense of Outrage. Its one of the reasons I like Facebook with its vibrancy, immediacy, lack of political correctness or editing. I know there are dangers inherent in that. I know there are dangers in the Protesting. I am, however, more at ease with those dangers than I am with the Smooth Spider Web Weave of the Politically Correct Era. Somewhere a few years back, I came across a story of a young man who had experienced great sorrows and griefs and for whom the consolatory and gentle were not working. He was, as I recall the tale, riding on the top deck of a bus, through a city when he saw a Cross atop a church with a bleeding Jesus and realised that, for him, ONLY A SUFFERING GOD WOULD DO. It brings to mind another instance for me when a student took a matter serious to her to the School Counsellor, who continued to smile as the girl spoke of her concerns. “ I do not want someone who smiles at me when I am telling them about the worst things in my life. “ I would in many ways like to be Peacable. If not that, I would like to be a Fighter for Causes. I seem only to sit at home and Complain. And yet, as times change, I am glad to be somewhat back in my original time of Outrage. One voice is still a Voice. The hidden reduction of services at Bellingen Hospital is the matter which has flickered that blue pilot light of Outrage into a flame today. |
| PROTEST SONGS | UNION SONGS |
| SAVE BELLO HOSPITAL FB GROUP | http://www.save-bellingen-hospital.com/ Bellingen Health Action Group (BHAG)* |
FEBRUARY IN ULMARRA AND BELLINGEN
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I am living between two towns at the moment. Fortunate enough to be asked to share in the first weeks of the life of this Little Lady and with my own life that I share with Izzy. We are making plans and it could mean a move back to Bellingen. That seems to be my life. Restless after a little and called to the next person, place or thing. For now, it is TRANSITION TIME and this time I have excellent company in my Golden Triangle of Ulmarra, Bellingen and Armidale. We are also venturing way beyond that to the South for some visiting that is long overdue. |
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The backyard is formidable. This Summer of heat and rain has grasses growing knee high even with the new lawnmower. It also has flowers emerging unexpectedly from what had been underwater for10 days or more in May 2009 and amongst the flowers and grasses are tiny birds. The discipline of the Small Life brings me to bird watching – bird seeking. The observing of this quiet pastoral landscape from windows and porchettes drives me inwards reflectively and outwards to tiny details of clouds, swamps and wee birds. |
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I would like to be thinking deeply on matters of consequence and coming to grand conclusions about which I could write – but I am not. The best I am able to do is watch the little black hen from two doors down when she comes a-visiting. I like it when I have been settled into a home long enough to have attended to all the initial doings. It usually takes me a full year so that I know where the bed sits best, which window is most suited to my sitting and writing, where the winds come and the birds and all the other little matters of home life. Transition wearies me. One more step, I figure, and then home for a while. I have had enough of feeling as silly as a wet hen. |
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Today, I am SCANNING. Scanning old photographs. Many of them are in poor condition. Common , I think to most family collections. I have a plastic tub filled with odds and ends of images. The tub seemed to insist that I do something about it today and so I am. Not very good photos on the whole but they cover the 60 years of my life with odd ventures into earlier times. Some have become odd enough to be historical. They do what images do. PRESERVE and Conserve and NIGGLE. Its the kind of activity I reach when I am through the Transition. Izzy is back at work on his Colonial Matters and we are considering a visit to Parramatta when we travel South at the end of the month. My own family was there very early 1800s. I have had a good deal to do with Parramatta while my father worked for Neeta Homes in the 70s, 80s and 90s before they went bankrupt without paying him the monies owed. We held my 21st birthday party there in 1970 in a very old stone cottage owned by NEETA . It is only in the last year or two that I have realised how early my People were there. I am hoping to take another walk through St John’s and the Parramatta Park and Precinct – this time with names and research to link me to Place. |
Life in the Cottage in Tumbulgum. 2003 |
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I scanned in a good few images of houses in which I have lived. In 2000, I watched the Olympics (and waited for the Y2 bug to strike) in the Pilot House, Urunga. Urunga is known as the town where the Rivers Meet the Sea and the Pilot House was, of course, built on the hill near the Mouth of the Rivers. Its now owned by the Pegums and I rented a small flat there. Years ago I knew it as New England Holiday Flats. Then, in the late 1990s, I stayed there briefly when Erica had a B & B running. Then Michael and Sheila came along and dignified it. I am very glad of that because it could easily have disintegrated along with the other places and been replaced with someone’s “vision” of glory. As it is, the concrete statues remain and all is well. |
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2009 saw 6 floods in Bellingen and thereabouts. Floods which did more damage than I had ever seen up there. I have, however, experienced many floods which separate North Bellingen from Bellingen township. Straight over Lavender’s Bridge goes the water. |
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JAMES BELL FROM MARK ROGERS
My mother was Joyce Bell. Her father was WILLIAM ALLEN BELL known as Mick. His father was JOHN BELL, the invalid Mr Bell husband to GRANNY BELL – “legend in her own lifetime” and HIS father was JAMES BELL . Convicted of trying to rob an oyster bar in GallowGate, Glasgow.
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1838 Certificate of Freedom for James Bell
Issued on 9 Aug 1838 and has some great personal details (some we had from earlier records):
5 feet 6 & 1/2 inches
dark ruddy freckled & pock pitted complexion
dark brown hair
dark grey eyes
eyebrows practically meeting
scar knuckle of middle finger of right hand
scar back of each thumb
another on forefinger of left hand nail of same split
Just a reminder of the details of JAMES BELL.
His prisoner’s number was 81/191.
The cert is 38/728.
James was transported on the “York” in 1831.
His Native Place was Glascow.
His trade or calling is labourer.
His offence was ‘housebreak’.
The Place of Trial was Glascow Court of Justice.
Date of Trial – 9 April 1830.
Sentence – 7 years.
Year of Birth –1808.
James held a Ticket of Leave 35/372 which was surrendered when he obtained his Cert of freedom.
VISITING BELLINGEN
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We went South again this week. That’s app 80 kms to Coffs Harbour and then another 20 or so down the Highway to the Raleigh turnoff and up Trunk Road 76 ( now touristically named WATERFALL WAY ) into Bellingen to do some visiting with the Little Lady. We left the flat country of Ulmarra and the Wider skies and headed down the Pacific . I am adjusting somewhat to this drive. RQ spoke of following the song lines and the Highway has become something of a Rainbow Serpent to me. Its a drive which has always made me fearful and anxious. Highway No. 1 is not ‘ flash’. I am, however, growing a little more accustomed to it. |
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I left behind the newly purchased aspidistra and the bog plant. Gardening is not my forte and I was very happy to discover that the Aspidistra ( a plant I have wanted to see for a long time due to my passion for the English Detective novel) is also called CAST IRON PLANT. I bought one for the Living Room and then I came across the Bog Plants and I bought one of those as well to go under the bathroom where we have disconnected the pipes and water pours onto the ground. The theory is that the Bog Plant will consume the water. |
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The main purpose of the trip to Bello was, for me, to visit the Little Lady and Her Folks. Izzy has the added desire to find a worm farm. They used to be common, did worm farms, some years back. That desire led us to Valla Beach landscaping Supplies. The Worm Farm had gone. Years back, years back – when we spent Christmas Holidays (from Belmore in Sydney where we lived ) in Urunga, one of the treats of the 3 week holiday at Christmas was going to the beach at Valla. In those times there was a sign outside one house, a fisherman’s cottage saying WORMS FOR SALE. Iz was after garden worms but for me – WORMS FOR SALE – evokes the magical memories of beach worms and knotted fishermen wiggling their toes in sand and coming up with a sand worm far longer than I had expected. We did find worms on the last day. Out on Promised Land Road at Gleniffer, not 15 minutes from Kati B’s house and less than 5 minutes from Buffer Creek where we lived in 1996. $25 for 1000 worms. We also came away with local ideas for breeding our own worms. Kati B – dig into your compost with a long spade. There will be worms in there. Bev G – Find a wet spot in yr yard and cover with a hessian bag. Worms there will be in only a couple of days. And people wonder why I am not a gardening afficionado. I would rather wiggle my toes in sand.
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We visited the GURUBELLY Restaurant. We went twice. Once on the Wednesday Night when a young lady was singing. Then on Friday, we took Little Lady and Kati B there for lunch. The GURUBELLY takes me back to the early 1970s when I first set up home and business in the Bellinger Valley. Good Food and Ethical Values. Its an interesting town is Bello. |
ONE SIMPLE AUSTRALIA DAY
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I wanted to go to the inaugral SALTWATER FRESHWATER FESTIVAL in Coffs Harbour Today. On due reflection and in a Mature Australian Manner, taking into consideration the week ahead which includes grandparenting and other spiritual obligations, I determined to take an at home Australia Day and observe it from the Front Window. |
IZZY FOREAL IN BELLINGEN MEETING PLACE PARK. |
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Steadfastly sitting at the front window on Coldstream Street and observing the passing parade of Australian Life, I am beginning to fuse a little in the heat as the sun comes across from the East, but I proceed with my microcosmic life. The picture on the left is of my Dad in WWII with other mates in a creek. I think its at the Cowra Camp but could be mistaken. I have put that image there simply to keep me cool with no creek within easy reach of this window from where I am continuing my observance of this Day. |
2/3 PIONEERS IN AN AUSSIE CREEK 1940s |
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I have already seen some interesting activity but the photos I shall leave to the end of the day when I upload them all at once. We breakfast here on the front verandah which is enclosed in the form of a sleepout. Bagels and white tea we have. Whilst sitting there this morning, i was pondering the SALTWATERFRESHWATER FESTIVAL decision and watching the Coldstream Street Traffic when down at the crossroads – 50 metres to the East – just inside the 50kms per hour Zone. A cattle truck stopped at the Corner with a pretty smart 4WD behind him. CLOSE behind him. My Dad taught me to always leave a vehicle length between myself and the car in front. Good advice. I blew it once not long ago on the Tweed Coast and ran the Charade straight into the back of a mighty 4WD adversary. Haven’t had air con since in the Charade. In this morning’s Aussie Day Event, the truck decided to reverse and with the 4WD concealed less than a vehicle length behind, it reversed into the 4WD. Round about then I realised I could indeed stay home at the front window with laptop and creature comforts and observe one day in the life of Australia. ROY BOWLING, the TOWN CRIER, who lives at Tucabia drove past just then . |
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For Lunch, I am having Fruit. White fleshed nectarines, pluots( a cross between a plum and an apricot), yoghurt which I made myself ( 40 years late on the Hippy Trail ) life energy water and cell food. I have cheese and peaches and am set up just fine. |
LUNCH. |
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The traffic has been fairly heavy. I thought it might be on this last public holiday of the Summer and last day before school goes back but, because its my first year here, I wasn’t sure. The possibility of Aussie Day Mad Driving was another deterrent to our going to Coffs Harbour today. Seems to me I was correct. People here go ‘ to the Beach’ for extended summertime periods and today they are heading west in large numbers. Towing caravans and trailers, heavily laden with the trappings of Summer Vacation. Another section of the population is heading East to celebrate and Beach it for the day. I am not sure what the others are doing. This is Ute Country. Dogs on the back of Utes and of working farms. The Police just passed going East. I was taking Photos but they moved too quickly for me. There have been a lot of flash 4WDs. There was also one bright green car which overtook at speed down near the crossroads. P Plate on. Its a VERY NARROW Street is Coldstream. Down the back way To Coffs at Glenreagh, the Village has erected signs which say that their children are precious. Very nice message down there at Glenreagh, One motor bike – first for the day and nicely down to 50kms he went . Well done, 2Wheeler.
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CATTLE TRUCK PASSING.
THE CRASH ON THE CORNER AT THE CROSSROADS.
COLDSTREAM STREET IN THE HEAT OF AUSTRALIA DAY. |
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2.25pm. NOW THE WEATHER BEGINS TO BURST. A NORCO truck is out about. Back from the days of the CO-OPS. Cooperatives. I I shall look further into that. Maybe we need some new cooperatives as we get sold out from under ourselves. I did do some reading on the British Coops and of ROCHDALE IN AUSTRALIA. The history page online for NORCO doesn’t mention Raleigh down near Urunga. Seems odd when the factory is still there. Well it is mentioned. Hmm. |
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And tomorrow, we go to Bellingen to see more of the Baby Girl and her Parents. Staying at DIGGERS’ TAVERN as we did last week in air-conditioned comfort. Perhaps swimming in the River and in love with the little Tawny Girl. Then up into the Mountains to the other two Little Girls. Little children everywhere. |
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2010 – MORE AND LESS
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Today was an encounter with Telstra. We had been getting along fine, Telstra and I, until I took on the new mobile arrangement which I do not like the look of at this moment. I would prefer to have much less institutional clash in 2010. Not “Much Less”. 2009 was pretty good. I happily intend to have the same minimal contact this year. Lets hope Fate agrees with me.
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The Bugs are biting this Summer. I have Mosquito coils and Janni’s lavender repellent – but they are still biting and I am going for less of them this year. I already have fewer snakes than I had in Bilambil – glory be to that ! I made yoghurt today. In the yoghurt maker Kati B gave Izzy for Christmas. That doesn’t sound very impressive I guess – but if you knew me better you would be impressed. I am not a yoghurt making person by nature. When I followed the hippy trail north in the 70s , I was neither eating nor making yoghurt. |
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In this flat country, I don’t get the views I did up North but I do have the SKY and CLOUDS. Its not quite the Big Sky Country they have up the top of the Mountains in New England, but it has its own beauty and variety. |
2010 – THINGS I WANT MORE OF AND THINGS I WANT LESS OF.
One thing which I found today is the KNOL |
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The year has begun nobly with the birth of a baby girl in our family. That occupied the week that I customarily spend in envisioning the year before me. Now that the Little One is born and blessed and home with her Parents, I, as Nana, shall take some time to contemplate and cast some visioning back and forth. For this Summer, I am living in the 100 year old wooden house in the paddocks on Coldstream Street. The heat is on and I have the windows open to catch breezes from the various directions. After four years in Bilambil Cottage which was immaculate, on a hilltop looking out to a distant Coral Sea, flush to the ground and solidly built of rough hewn bricks painted white, cyclone proofed indeed, it has been a major transitional time. This house RAMBLES. Rambles and smells of old North Coast Memories. I grew up, as I have said before, in Sydney. In Belmore when it was a newly made suburb. My father, newly returned from WWII was a builder and he built us a solid double brick house. I spent 20 years in that house and that suburb. Our holidays, however, were on the NORTH COAST of NSW about which I am writing so much of late because of the rather shocking (to me ) awareness that I have been on this Coast for almost 40 years, married here, borne and raised children here and seem likely to remain. |
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I want more Internet adventures. That’s one thing I do know. I also want a little more barefooted living and sunned skin. I would also like to live in a little more saltwater situation – estuarine perhaps. I came to a realisation several years back that I were likely to ROAM. I would like to come in for a landing like Arlo Guthrie coming in over Los Angeles – but I haven’t landed yet. I would like some more exquisite beauty from my own front door and a view from bed. |
The driveway out of Bilambil Cottage. |
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Bilambil is on the border of NSW and QUEENSLAND – near enough. Just over that hill there in the picture. This year, I want to live on flat ground with not so many steps, a jetty, swimming and I would like the house to be a little better maintained than this one. I would like to live closer to my family. In saying that, being down here in Ulmarra is much, much better. My preference would be to live in the same community as them. I am of a Village turn of Spirit – and that Village can be within a City or a town or the bush. Wonder what it actually means. Village. |
JANUARY 2009 BILAMBIL. |
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I rather like Chooks. And I do like fresh eggs but I am not inclined to take care of any critters or gardens. When Kati B and IMM lived in Kalang, they had chooks and a pen and goannas which came down to eat the Chooks or the eggs. The Mob from Armidale helped gather eggs from under the house last December. Here, in Ulmarra, a house on the Highway has a sign saying EGGS FOR SALE. I haven’t bought any as yet but when I do decide to buy, it will be from the House on the Highway. |
THE HOUSE IN KALANG DEC 08 |
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I would like to be somewhat more at home in my own skin again this year. A dash more confidence and a wider smile. I would like to no longer have swollen ankles and I would like to actually have my platelets functioning instead of the count plummeting. I could also do without the nose bleeds and other unpleasant physical distresses. The fatigue isn’t so bad now that I don’t have the demands of a working life or raising a family compelling me to keep going when my body don’t want to come along for the ride – but some swimming energy and freedom from the depressive effects of pain – well that would be very nice indeed for the next decade.
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FOREAL ESTATE KITCHEN BILAMBIL DEC 08 |
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I am from a family of water people. I thought I would be able to swim in the Clarence River but it remains rather brown and thick. I don’t know whether or not that’s a result of the floods or the usual for here. Ulmarra does have a swimming pool. A very CUTE pool. Open 3-6 schooldays and all day Saturdays and closed on Sundays. It has its own lifeguard and teacher who is an Ulmarra Local and does a fine job with the Kids. As for me. I thought I would – do a lot of things I am not doing. Like walking the 0.6 kms along Coldstream Street and going for a swim. Or learning to kayak in Edwina’s Hobie Craft at the Hotel. I am not doing those things. Just add Grandchildren and I do them. |
BILAMBIL COTTAGE POOL |
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I am pleased to live with kindness and generosity and a total absence of fear. I can do with more of that. Living in partnership hasn’t come easily to me after many years of a chosen Eremitic Celibacy. I shall enter 2010 in a relationship which is most likely developing some powerful qualities in me. After several years together, we begin to develop patterns of living and loving which suit us well. Vegetarianism is one element and sobriety is another.
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IZZY JAN 2009 |
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More camping out and family gatherings would suit me very well. We had a holiday in Bilambil, this time last year and only this week, out came the folding chairs from the Starwagon again and we had a late Christmas with the MOB from Armidale in the grounds of Coffs Harbour Hospital in the 3 hour wait between visiting hours to the new Baby. Up on the Hill, we watched the Flying Foxes come over as darkness fell and the out came the LongNose from the Grasses for his dinner. I would welcome more experiences of that nature. This week, the Rose and the Poppy hopped into the Starwagon and along with Charlie the 3 legged dog, came back to Ulmarra with us. I mention that because it was in my visions for life as I would like it to be at this time last year. Not the precise details but the Essence. |
DINNER ON THE HILL IN BILAMBIL JAN 09 |
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I am not quite sure as to why 2009 remained a little coloured in grey for me. Not precisely. I know that major transitions such as this move impact more powerfully and for longer than I expect them to. Each time. A saying of which I am fond comes from Bill W – THE GOOD IS SOMETIMES THE ENEMY OF THE BEST. I think that’s the core trouble for me now. To develop some of this Good into the Better. To allow some of the Good to go and make way for the Better. There is a BEST waiting for nearby. A Best which will turn my hair pink and stand it on its ends. In 2010 – I shall be aiming to be LOVING LIFE. Not at Pottsville, mind you. I am VERY glad to have moved South and one day very soon – I shall again be LOVING LIFE.
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8-1-2010 BABY GRANDDAUGHTER BORN
Sharing birthday with DAVID BOWIE, ELVIS PRESLEY AND STEPHEN HAWKING. Plus terry brooks. Greetings to this world. Little One.
LAST WEEK OF 2009
I was hoping the Google Docs would work for me but I can’t get it to update posts. You can follow me to this
HIDING PLACE.
I am venturing into the world of Goog…
I am venturing into the world of Google Docs.
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND BEST WISHES FOR 2010
♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ Christmas♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪
To all my readers and to the people who contribute and to Family and Friends. my thanks for your participation this year. All the very best for the Holiday Season to you and to yours. I look forward with pleasure to more adventures and mysteries shared with you in 2010.
♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ Christmas♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪
CHRISTMAS WEEK
I am not successfully ‘ doing’ Christmas this year. I successfully DID my 60th birthday and that’ has been a fine satisfaction – but Christmas has me ‘stonkered’. The MOB from Armidale have gone South to the family of the daughter-in-law – way up back of Eden. Kati B and IMM are in Bellingen and within one month of the baby’s coming. 17th January its due. And We are in Ulmarra.
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Living within some health frameworks determines a fair percentage of my lifestyle and sometimes I forget about it and when my body doesn’t come on the ride my mind and dreams want to take it on, my Spirit sits down in a corner, discouraged. Internet life is SO good. When I find going out a bit tough then, the electronic door opens and I have the world right here with me. I haven’t done Christmas Cards. I would be lucky this season to ‘ think my way out of a paperbag’. The mail today, however brought two cards – one from my very old and legally blind Auntie Jean, whom I have loved since I was a baby and still do, and the other from ‘Your Old Postie’. Took me all the way back to childhood in Belmore. A card from the Postie. That’s why I LOVE villages. |
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When I woke this morning and entered the FaceBook world, My niece, Cassandra Pomroy, was online on chat and while I was here in Australia with friesian cows and galahs, she was in Brixton, London with SNOW all about her. CP is off adventuring in Europe – in love with London. She was working in a cinema but the work visa is run out and now she is at a vego co-op. She sent me the backyard snow photo on the left. |
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The Leader of the MOB once set a thought off in my mind. Well, actually , he sent thoughts off in my mind most of his life and still does and this was one of the ones which has helped me in many situations ever since. I don’t recall the words but what it said to me was that all the ingredients of Christmas were a part of the process and all of them were needed for the memories. That being so, then it doesn’t so matter what I FEEL about today or Xmas Week – I just put it in the Mix and it will one day settle into whatever it is meant to do. The white egrets across the road with the black cows and our trip to Iluka. Izzy and I went to Iluka – and liked it. There were pelicans at Iluka I like pelicans. I guess I won’t know what this Christmas is about till all the parts have been added up and the Whole becomes greater than the Sum of its Parts. Pelicans with a new Camera in an hitherto unvisited North Coast Village. We also have the background theme of WAITING for the Kati B’s new baby. Her first Baby. |
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And 50 Scrabble Games on Facebook going at all times with people from all over the World – excluding Canada and the USA. I took myself down south to Bellingen for her Baby Shower. I had never been to one before. I was from the Hippy and liberated Feminist era and we didn’t DO baby Showers. Kati B is much the same but the Good Friends she has made since she came home to Bello wanted to hold one and they did. Kati B and IMM lived for years in the middle of Sydney and liked it . Now they are back in a Country Town and have some Good Friends. We did baby Shower in the afternoon. |
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Next day, Hannah had organised Barefoot Bowls at the Bello Bowling Club. Babies and Children and beautiful young parents and pregnant girls. Much as it was when we first came north in the 70s in the Hippy Train – but now integrated and solidly part of the community. The towns are coming back to Life. It was Hot and just as Summer in Bello should be. Little ones with names like Echo and Jet. |
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Its 1 1/2 hours from Bello to Ulmarra and its 80kms back to Coffs Harbour which is what we did the next day or so. Izzy is a Mac Man and the Mac Shop is on the Pacific Highway in Coffs. He has had his little Mac G4 for 5 years and it had begun to resist the latest internet advances so we hopped into the Starwagon and now he has the latest Mac. Already, it seems to have re-ignited his academic interest in his Melinda and research is back on. Suits me – I find myself very peaceful back in the 19th Century. |
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We turned into Red Rock and Corindi – 2 more villages i hadn’t visited before. I have lived on the North Coast since the early 1970s with a brief break to return to Sydney from 1987-1994. These villages are the ones I have seen signs to for many years but not turned off the Highway to explore. Now that I seem to be North Coast ‘ doomed’ for the moment, I am Exploring. I think I spent one night in red Rock in 1973 with Tony Bahles. A sleep in our Commer Van when returning from Brisbane but that memory is just a flash. Then, gentle English Tom at Brigalow once asked me to come for a ride on his motor bike for a pie at red Rock- that’s about 10 years back but I was too timid and didn’t go. Now my interest has been re-awakened by the Red Rock Stories that the Hegedus Family tells me when I am down at the Wide River Cafe.
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Izzy was booked for 4 gigs in a row and I decided to go to just one – my favourite – the Wide River on Sunday. Good idea – however , Sunday Rained and it was a washout. That’s the sort of Xmas I am having so far. “Almost but not Quite” sort of a season. |
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However, in this adding up of the parts to discover the greater whole , I am driven to treat my naturally depressive, eremitic nature very consciously. Humour is one of the elements. The POST CHRISTMAS SALE at RETRAVISION in the week BEFORE Christmas was pretty funny. |
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For Beauty and Sheer Pleasure, there is Summer Fruit. Izzy won a tray at the SQUATTER’S REST JAM NIGHT. We have also discovered the NORTH STREET FRUIT MARKETS under a house in North Street near Carr’s Creek. Good fruit and vegies and excellent prices. The fruit looks good on Andrew’s wooden table that he has lent us. This could well be a retrospective Season of Joy for me. |
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We found the VILLAGE GREEN HOTEL RESTAURANT yesterday. Someplace in the back streets. I found their site on Facebook and it looked like a good crew and so it proved to be. Kati B likes beer gardens and counter lunches and the Clarence excels in them. I have more to try. I did like the Crown Hotel on the river in Grafton but last time we tried to eat there we encountered very poor service and the ‘cannot feed a vegetarian’ treatment. We actually left and went round the corner to ROCHES’ FAMILY HOTEL which fed us very well and was busy. Then there is our own ULMARRA HOTEL which has a beer garden right on the River, top cooking and great service. Brekkie and lunch 7 days a week and dinner on Fridays and Saturdays.
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I have 4 round balls from JACK A DANDY. That’s Ulmarra’s gift shop with Paul in charge. They are Xmas balls even though we don’t have a tree this year. There is one white bear for the baby coming in January. Danged depression. I hang in one day and then another and the emotions will make sense again soon for me and the white bear.
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DAWNS AND NEW DAWNS
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Summer days are here and very much the classic Summertime days of song, myth and memory. Yesterday was over 40 degrees C in Grafton and in my coolest room it was over 35 degrees. Because I am living in and old wooden home, the memories are even more ticklish for me. Mosquito coils and windows which have to be hooked over old metal catches. And Storms. 
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STAYING UP late as I am in the heat, I stumbled over the DAWN while looking for info for my father’s Blog on the 2/3 Pioneer Battalion. Every time I think I know something about something, I find out that I don’t know something else – AT ALL ! In the Dawn, I think there are more things I don’t know than I can even imagine and certainly can’t put words on.
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http://www1.aiatsis.gov.au/dawn/docs/v01/s10/4.pdf
THE ABORGINAL WELFARE BOARD’S MAGAZINE FROM 1942-1975.
MRS. Florrie Munro, who now lives at Caroona, and until recently had lived at Bass Hill, near Sydney, gives us another story on the life
of Queen Mary Ann, Queen of the New England aborigines. This time one
of the first chapters, and the final chapter, in the old Queen’s life.
DAWN AND NEW DAWN.
I shall leave the interpretation to the readers – merely pointing out access points.
(Dawn closed in 1975 so these articles are all earlier than 1975 and later than 1952)
http://www1.aiatsis.gov.au/dawn/docs/v09/s12/25.pdf
During the progressive dances one had the unbelievable
experience of seeing respected citizens of Grafton of
both sexes dancing unrestrainedly with the dark people,
If ever prejudice took a holiday it was on this occasion._____________________________________
And it was for Costume and Towels – we could do with more importance paid to swimming here in 2009.
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http://www1.aiatsis.gov.au/dawn/docs/v11/s08/18.pdf
In this topsy-turvy world,
Sincere and lasting friendship is a rare gem;
How good and kind you were
throughout the years to me.
A cheerful word and kindly deed,
A helping hand to all in need;
Always sincere in heart and mind,
And whom God called upon heaven,
Your last thoughts unknown,
My saddened heart was riven
For you did not say good-bye.
You left suddenly,
Freddie Skinner,
Through Street, South Grafton.
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http://www1.aiatsis.gov.au/dawn/docs/v23/s01/13.pdf
1974
LEGAL SERVICE OPENS AT GRAFTON
The Aboriginal Legal Service has recently
opened an office at Grafton. The office is located
at 34 Prince Street, and the telephone number is
42 1800. The lawyer is Mr Jim Curtis and the
secretary, Denise Kapeen, who studied a full-time
secretarial course last year. The Grafton field
officer is Mr Tony Barrett, who is also a member of
the N.S.W. Aboriginal Lands Trust and of the
Advisory Council. The Grafton office brings to
six the number of Legal Service offices throughout
the State. Other offices are located at Cowra,
Nowra, Sydney, Brewarrina, and Moree.
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http://www1.aiatsis.gov.au/dawn/docs/v06/s08/5.pdf
In the past, some famous sportsmen have come from
the North coast districts of New South Wales and
the present crop of athletes from that area are no
exception.
They include Ray Laurie, an outstanding footballer
from Yamba, Kevin Randall, a police tracker who is
also a fine footballer and boxer, and two railway workers,
Edward Kapeen and Edward Walker, who are also
prominent footballers.
(Dawn closed in 1975 so these articles are all earlier than 1975 and later than 1952)
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http://www1.aiatsis.gov.au/dawn/docs/v10/s06/18.pdf
WHAT IS WOOLOWEYAH
CAN ANYONE HELP?
Writing to the Editor of Dawn, Mr. W. B. Fleming,
Box 14, Maclean, New South Wales, says:-
“ I would appreciate any assistance you could give
me in ascertaining the aboriginal significance of a local
place name.
Near a place called Angowie, some three miles south
of Yamba, Clarence River, within the Parish of Yamba
and county of Clarence, there is a large sheet of water,
joined to the Clarence by two anabranches. Locally
it is generally referred to as “ The Lake ”, and is well
known under that name as a fertile fishing ground. On
the Parish map it is named, and it is also widely known
as, Woolooweyah Estuary.
Further south along the coast there are two large
freshwater lake-like sheets of water, in an area known
as Wooli Wooli. I would not doubt that double name
has the usual significance, referable to the two such
waters in close proximity; and I assume that the ‘ wooli ’ means water, or some attribute of fresh water
perhaps. I imagine that the name Woolooweyah is
a bad rendering of the original descriptive name given
the estuary I refer to; and that the ‘wooloo . . . ’
is a corruption of the same sound as is applied in the
name Wooli Wooli.
I have bought, for my daughter, quite an area fronting
the estuary, and we would be very glad if we could
learn what the name Woolooweyah is likely to have been
in its original sound, and, particularly, as to what is
likely to have been the significance of ‘ . . . weyah ’.
Mr. Allan Cameron, of Ashby and Ulugandahi, tells
me that there is no member of the aboriginal race in
this area now upon whom reliance could be placed in
a rendering of the name and its meaning. The suggestions
offered as genuine and correct meanings of the
name by the older white residents are remarkable only
for their variety and unlikeliness. As owners of a
station property known as Ulah, on the Barwon, we
are aware of just how little is correct in the local
renderings of the origins, correct basic sounds, and
meanings of what pass for aboriginal place names.”
Can anyone help Mr. Fleming?
http://www1.aiatsis.gov.au/dawn/docs/v10/s06/18.pdf
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(Dawn closed in 1975 so these articles are all earlier than 1975 and later than 1952)
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