SATURDAY IN THE CORNER OF A 100 YEAR OLD ROOM.
WITH HUNGRY HEAD ON MY MIND.
http://newenglandaustralia.blogspot.com/2009/08/round-new-england-blogging-traps-10.html
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The Clarence is lying low amongst smoke this week. BURNING OFF. The photo of the night fire is a little fuzzy because I was taken unawares when I heard the crackling and it took a while to determine that it was a supervised fire out across the back paddock. I am told that the 1st September is the end of the burning off season. In the meantime, the air is smoke filled and heavy. Its not worrying me but there are chokers and coughers about. With no rain since the floods, the grass is dry, the soil set like rock. Out at SQUATTER’S REST MUSOS NIGHT in TUCABIA, they told Izzy the ground had baked hard and then cracked. Its like fired ceramics.
http://clarenceandulmarra.wordpress.com/
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I am planning my 60th birthday A LAZY WEEKEND IN ULMARRA for 16-19 October 09. Now I notice that it will be 2 weeks before the JACARANDA FESTIVAL. Good timing by me. That means there will be accommodation available because the festival hasn’t fully kicked in but the JACARANDAS and FLAME TREES should be in full colour. Well done , Mum. Great time of the year to have a birthday. Spring on the Northern Rivers is delightful.
Due to my personal shortage of real world friends, my 60th will include a Public Party at SOUTH GRAFTON EMPORIUM on FRIDAY NIGHT 16 OCTOBER 2009 6.30pm.
Call 02 6643 3524 to book a table if you would like to join us. Izzy and friends will provide the music , Peter Freeman the food and Annie Dodd, the Lady of the Emporium, has created a community atmosphere that is hard to resist. In fact – Don’t Resist it.
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I am spending this evening at home. The walls are vertical boards and i find that soothing. Being of the depressive variety, I consciously seek the Soothing lest I ‘ go deeper and taste the latent horror that dwells within.” That’s a quote I found in an American magazine from the 1950s or 60s called the GRAPEVINE. It took my fancy. I make it a practice at the times when the abysses begin to yawn at me, to NOT go deep within and to look at the vertical wooden boards of the 100 year old room. I also play Scrabble online and despite losing frequently, I find it soothing as well. I do believe its raining outside as well.
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Izzy is gone to play at a 40th birthday party at Jabour park in South Grafton with the dynamic ANDREW HEGEDUS and ROY FROM BYRON BAY. Here we are at 60 years of age and the dependence placed in the ‘straight’ jobs and academic training is not what is sustaining us – its the Music. The legacy of a seemingly misspent youth. This Mild Mannered Historian has a shady side.
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Hey Iz, the last time I saw you guys was way back in the recording stages of Rude Awake’s, I was in the crowd at “Chesso” RSL Chester Hill, I lost my original album in a series of house moves, when finally have now settled in Beaudesert QLD and wandered off to my local music store and managed (after long searching) over the internet, found a vinyl edition of Rude awakenings, but can’t play the **** ‘cause I don’t have a turntable, so after 75 bucks and a lot of ****in’ around, I still can’t play my “ten inch!!” cheers Mr. Knox. P.S. I was at the Richmond Sporting Club back when “The boys back in town” tour, you didn’t play “****in’ Beauty” either.
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AUGUSTIAN MEMORIES
8 years gone. I was wondering why I couldn’t settle today. Then via FACEBOOK chat with my sister, I realised it was August 28 and 8 years since we saw our mother pass away. A little solemn and weepy, so I am.
I shall therefore indulge in some Idling memories. I live, now, just a few kilometres from where My Parents used to take weekend breaks at the Jacaranda Motel and look out over the paddocks and cows. That was as they became older and not as able to travel all about the state of NSW as they loved to do.
I shall, then, let my thoughts wander into MEMORIES.
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1978 was my wedding day. That’s my Dad with me. As they said at his funeral in 2005, A TRUE ECCENTRIC. It is always said in the family, that they met, were engaged in 3 weeks, married in 3 months and remained sweethearts till the end.
23 October 1948. |
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Dad built the house in Belmore, Sydney – 27 Paxton Avenue, where we spent our childhoods and adolescences. The pic is my Dad, Bruce – a carpenter, my sister, Susan, known as Shoes and Sandals, and me. DING – Dingle Pringle. |
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From the early 1970s onwards, we lived mostly in URUNGA, a North Coast NSW small town. THE LITTLE TOWN TIME FORGOT. |
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I thought I could so some coherent writing, but find that I don’t feel inclined to at all. |
JOYCE BELL SANDERS
28 November 1926 – 28 August 2001
I miss my mother. I know a lot more about her family now.
http://lynnesheritage.wordpress.com/
Like many people, I wish she were here to see the Granddaughters and Grandsons as adults. To see the little Great Grandchildren and to tell her about the next one coming.
Today, I am sad. And my sister almost fell asleep in the dentist’s chair.
OTHER AUGUST DAYS
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August is not the easiest month for me. Its the month my Mum passed away. Its the Month in which I was married and then 9 years later left the marriage. Its just one of those times of the year for me when the winter seems overlong and things come hard. A winter which is not restricted to the the temperature or the climate. |
AUGUST – a rocky time for me. |
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August 23 saves the month for me, as does August 12. August 12 is my own private celebration and the 23rd is the birthday of Cassandra Pomroy who created the lovely pieces on the left and is my daughter’s twin cousin. Love you , Cassi Pom. |
HOT AUGUST DAYS Pt 2
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In one of my whingeing moods, so bear with me whilst I get it down onscreen and can return to BEING EASILY PLEASED – which is ,perhaps, a wiser default position for me to take. I went for an Ulmarra walk one morning this week, before the heat came, and took a look around Small Park which is just next door and past the tennis courts. There are large signs directing people to use the public loos there while some kind of work is going on in the wee park down on the river. I could see the former glory days of SMALL PARK. Rodeos and Shows and other community gatherings. The wee sheds are there and the grandstands but – BUT – noone has emptied the 44 gallon drums of rubbish since the Floods in May. Funny that – since the Council is directing tourists to the loos and the Bushfire Brigade does its exercises there on many a Sunday. |
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Last night was a blisteringly hot night with assorted bugs and restless sleep. It was also somewhat of a shock after using a heater and wearing my MacGregor overcoat only last week. With windows opening and breezes cooling the air a little, we heard a call from the West and it was clearly ‘LET’ . “Let” – what a lovely sound. The Tennis Courts were back in action . Hadn’t been a game since the May Floods when the courts went under. I had been watching people at work on fences and surface all week and it was a very good thing to hear the Let Call and see the night lights shining. |
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Crazy Day was on last week in Grafton. I lost my car and house key at some stage of that day and held little hope of locating them. Not to be found in Ulmarra. Not be found in the car nor on the ground nearby. Sunday we took a trip into the splendid new SHOPPINGWORLD, noticed the office open for a moment. Iz took the chance to ask the young security man and there they were listed in the Lost and Found Book. I was very impressed. Still am, as I was by the sight of Robbie from Coffs dressed as a clown and singing his way around SHOPPINGWORLD with his amp on wheels and by the boot scooters in the main street. Izzy is a rock muso who has been playing jazz with a blues band. I am pretty sure that country music is his next step. He is resisting but I don’t know that country music can be resisted indefinitely. SQUATTER’S REST on Friday Night. |
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Here, in the Attic, at the edge of sunset, the days of the Inland Sea look appealing. So does the Ulmarra Pool down beside the Commerical Hotel on the River Bank. It is , however, closed till the “official” summertime and then only open for a couple of hours in the afternoons. I was recalling the Sydney pools of my childhood in the Harbour and Rivers. Net pools Hollywood out on the George’s River and Carr’s Park. Nielsen park at Vaucluse and of course Manly. I Love swimming.
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HOT AUGUST DAYS
TEMPERATURES OVER 30 DEGREES AGAIN. It hasn’t rained since the May floods and the ground is dry with the grass already crackling underfoot and winter not yet over.
I heard Eric Idle , a couple of years back, that fire brigades are like a comic bucket brigade and that was in California. Now Greece and Spain and here – with the same amateurishness as the SES showed here in the May Floods. And none of us allowed to criticise the well meaning volunteers.
I don’t know how to fight a fire. I don’t even really know what to do in a fire, just as I didn’t really know what to do in a Grafton Flood – but I do recall a time when i assumed and presumed that SOMEONE did know. And generally – someone did.
HOT DAY IN AUGUST.
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In 2001, I went North to the Tweed. The Motel on the left is the one I stayed at and it was a monstrous experience. I thought I could hear the howling from the Island in the River over near Letitia Spit but most likely it was just my inner Escher/Munch scream for appalling places I have been and Dastardly situations into which I have managed to get myself. River Road it was Called. |
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Mingjungbal Drive, Tweed Heads, is a very different proposition from the road to Minnie Water down here on the Clarence Coast. Both challenging in their own ways and both unpleasant in their own ways as well. |
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I am sitting at the front window of the attic today and its hot. One thing about this area is that when depression begins to tickle the soles of my soul and Acedia comes sliding into the Archway of my Spirit, the very nature of the Place intervenes and startles me into alertness. Today it is the smoke from burning off and the Heat. Thursday Night will be Music Cafe again with women as beautiful as this lovely lady from Kungala or somesuch locality. |
A WALK ALONG COLDSTREAM STREET ULMARRA AND BACK.
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| THE ULMARRA SHOWGROUND IN SMALL PARK. | THE TIMBER MILL. |
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| THE OLD PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. | |
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| BUSHFIRE BRIGADE HEADQUARTERS. | BUSHFIRE, ART COTTAGE AND WIDE RIVER CAFE. |
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| ULMARRA POOL. | ROUND THE CORNER IN RIVER STREET |
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| BACK ON COLDSTREAM AND HEADING EAST. | |
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BIRTHDAYS, BABIES AND CIRCUSES
This weekend, Charlie came down from Armidale for a visit.
For me, its working well, being near the Family. Izzy is battling a little with the music which is still mainly situated further north. This weekend was circus and celebrations. That’s a fine thing, that is.
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I had concentrated on our black and white cows all week , wondering what on earth the four black and white cows at the CIRCUS ROYALE were going to do as TRICKS. My cows didn’t appear with anything specially impressive but the cows at the circus surely did. They stood on hind legs with forelegs on small podia while a miniature white horse danced and ducked under and between their legs. Marvellous! |
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The day before the Mob came, a mist settled on the area and stayed there till almost lunchtime. The BookMan said that on his way down from Maclean, as he turned onto the Pacific Highway, he couldn’t see whether or not there was traffic coming at him. Must be the river flats, methinks, that let it sit so low for so long. |
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We located the CIRCUS in the park in SOUTH GRAFTON. We had phone booked for four adults and two children and picked the tickets up from the Circus Office. Circuses haven’t featured greatly in my life so each step was a ‘learning experience’. |
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They say its a million dollar big top tent and are advertising for clowns. There were no photos allowed at all inside the Big Top and there were enough heavies to make it look a wise idea to be obedient to that one. The two things I liked best were the Cows and the men in black running back and forth with ropes pulling up the rigging. Hadn’t seen anything like it since being on the UTIEKAH III in 1973. |
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We were also inspired to create a SLEEPOUT. One of the things which had attracted us to Grafton months ago was the advertising in the real estate sites of homes with SLEEPOUTS. Under this inspiration and despite the plentiful supply of spare rooms, we took ourselves to RIVERSIDE Centre in South Grafton, acquired a single bed, brought it home and bolted it together ready for the Sleepout for Granddaughter No 1. One problem – the bed was longer than the sleepout area was wide. THAT DID NOT STOP US. |
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AUGUST REFLECTIONS
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I am sitting here today in the Attic with smoke from the timber mill and the cattle up close to the back fence. The transitional effect of the moved from Tweed to Clarence is beginning to ease like the May floods receding after the inundation. Last week, I was out at Minnie Water where the debris is still piled and a little mouldering as it is on many of the North Coast beaches. For me, a quietness is returning and I continue with reflective imaging. |
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I have lived close by beaches for much of my life. North Coast beaches at that. Its a 40km drive out to Wooli from here. That seems to me a long drive, along a narrow road which is rather hectic. I lived much of my adult life in Urunga which is also known at the town WHERE THE RIVERS MEET THE SEA and I am accustomed to the beach being closer than this. The MOB lived for a few years at Kingscliff. Also right on the beach. That’s the Armidale mob in the foto, touching sand in mid winter near the Queensland border at Kingscliff.
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I put this shot in because it sums up some of the things which troubled me up North. This is the ‘planned resort’ up the back of Carool. It didn’t come to anything, so far as I know. Scattered through the Tweed and the Gold Coast are abandoned ‘resorts’ and derelict ‘dreams’. I heard a Professor speaking on the radio one evening and he spoke of the Great Dreaming , the Greed of the last however many years. And he referred to some of the things we would find when we ‘woke up’. What I know, is that I greatly prefer being amongst buildings which STAND. Made of stone or bricks or wood rather than the fabric of temporary dreams. |
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The lady on the left is my Great Grandmother, Julia Ready nee Jackson. |
FOLLOWING UP ON PAST IMAGES
These are simply images and thoughts arising from the imagery.
THE FIRST WEEKEND IN AUGUST
http://newenglandaustralia.blogspot.com/2009/07/different-textures-of-new-england.html
FOR A BROADER, DEEPER AND WISER VIEWPOINT OF NEW ENGLAND, TRY THE BLOGSPOT WITH JIM BELSHAW.
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I am familiar with the last blast of cold in a North Coast Winter. It ‘should’ arrive in a week or two and, as usual, we will all be surprised by it because of the present warm golden weather. Nevertheless, this IS a weekend of the warm golden weather and I am enjoying it. Sunlight in the kitchen and mown grass in the yard. |
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Took a drive today along OLD POST OFFICE LANE. That led on a labyrinthine adventure through cane fields and paddocks and alongside oxbowlakes and creeks and the COLDSTREAM RIVER itself. There is still a lot of rubble from the floods , piled and stacked beside the roads and the water, even in the river, is thick and dark. Brown at best and in places an evil sludgey black. |
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30 days of Labyrinth Love and Wisdom
Dedicated to spiritual pilgrims everywhere By Rev. Dr. Sandra Bochonok |
THE SACRED LABYRINTH ~ an ancient meditation tool |
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The labyrinth is not a maze. The roads here all seem to lead back out and back home. Narrow byways and twisting tracks. Today we reached Tucabia by Lower Coldstream Road and then over the white one lane bridge. |
W.W. JACOBS
http://www.online-literature.com/ww-jacobs/
Today we did garage sales. Grafton garage sales are A1. Amongst such finds as a $20 lawnmower, we came across a box of books and in that box were nine books by W.W. JACOBS. All date app 1902-1912 and cost us $1 per book. This is a little ripper, so it is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._W._Jacobs
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