bushfires

Well, I shan’t bother with tedious explanations and empty apologies. After all, I am not the only one with a piled-high plate. And at least my “plate” is not burning…

Things tick along pretty much as usual.Which means I spend a fair slice of time watering (sparingly!) the parts of the gardens that are screaming for moisture. Sometimes, I’m rewarded with flowers and fruit. Most times, not!

Carissa fruit. I can’t make jam from one so I’ll leave it for the birds!

And we had a visitor from foreign lands* so we were out and about, taking in a beach or three and seeing the sights. I had a camera.

There are water towers and grain silos in various spots around the country which have been painted by local artists. Googling “painted silos”will take you to many more.

We had a brief thunder storm last week.Not much rain, but WOW! The vegetation went va-va-voom! Tomato seedlings apparently swallowed some steroids, shot up , flowered and have now set fruit. And some of the things I’d thought unlikely to survive the heat have also turned the corner, away from the die-and-be-composted list. Small steps…

We organised a chap to collect the heavier garden waste and take it to the Council’s mulching place. This was the heap at the top of our driveway. (There was even more stuff by the time the chap arrived to collect it!) Money well spent.

Overnight, one of the Royal Palms hurled a spent frond from about 30′ high and it missed some orchids by millimetres.(See, I can do bi-lingual measurements!) It’ll need both of us to get the brute out of the jungle.I guess we have to start another heap…sigh

I try to avoid political references. Not easy, when we are run by idiots!

But whatever muddle the world is in I look to natural beauty and humour for solace.

So I’ll get on with my list of “things-to-do” and leave you with something uplifting

*The “foreign lands” mentioned above included Israel and a visit to Palestine. Accompanied by unsmiling soldiers with Uzis at the ready.

I still haven’t found that thing I was looking for, but I did unearth some “stuff” I hadn’t seen for years!

“Taking The Piss” is one of my more recent acquisitions. The page inside the cover where there is usually a warning in impossibly small font against plagiarism, unauthorised copying, et cetera is missing. That’s my excuse!

The author(Genevieve LaRue) of this slim volume claims to be a de-frocked nun…who am I to take issue?

A book of “Booze” that I see, from the inscription, was a Christmas present in 1969.

I love the illustrations (by John Astrop and Eric Hill, according to a very badly stained flyleaf. )

Here’s one of its recipes…

And a tattered and worn anthology that’s been twice around the world with me and has scars to prove it.

Puns and parodies and irreverence. Bit like moi.

In my eclectic hoard, back in the 60s, I counted several interesting books. So, apparently, did some tea leaf whose conscience clearly wasn’t a burden. If someone ever offers to sell you a first edition of John Lennon…it just may be mine.

I collected 3 kinds of books in those days: serious literature (early edition “Doctor Zhivago” before Omar Sharif’s face graced covers, Tolstoy short stories, Guy de Maupassant and more, art books, particularly early engravings and Japanese prints) and what I call the “funnies.”

These were light-hearted verse, graphics. Things like “Sam, the Ceiling Needs Painting.” These cartoons are still around, but probably censored on Amazon.

And I had a copy of this ! So I was delighted to find it on Youtube.

Which is lucky, ‘cos the weather is anything but a delight. Even ‘way up here, the dust is thick ; I need to keep my inhaler handy and firefighters’ water bombers have been grounded. A bit scary when there are bushfires raging.

Of course, on the bright side, I’m saving electricity as Hoovering is just pointless 😉

Here’s a web picture from Nine News of one of the bridges across the Brisbane River, in Brisbane.

Qld dust storm grounds firies' choppers