Sensational Rain

There was talk of rain. It started with thunderstorms Thursday afternoon, a few splashes but really nothing to speak of at first. Then during the night a calm descended and light rain came with it and persisted. By Friday morning it was continuous. I looked out the bedroom window at my cuttings of daphnes, viburnums, lemon myrtles, stephanadra, rosemary and lavender in boxes and pots with great joy in my love of mother nature. How great thou art.

I just went outside in the gummies with a torch and checked the rain guage. 64 ml. Sensational.

On Wednesday i picked 40 bunches of variegated pittosporum and came across a little birds nest. An old one now disused. Jod picked up my bunches on the quad bike and I showed him the nest asking him what bird made it. Silvereye he said quick as a flash. It was made of horsehair.

Gord holding the nest

Jod with the bike

Lunch with Cousin Bruce

I had lunch with cousin Bruce Wilson today at the Wheeler's hill pub. Just the two of us. It was originally suggested by Bruce that Meredith and Roger and Lib and I and Bruce's wife Jill should get together for lunch soon, as we did last year. As it turned out I said I would be in Melbourne today to pick up Gordon in the afternoon after his week in the Gold Coast so lunch would be convenient. The others couldn't make it but Bruce took me up on it.

I'm glad that it was only Bruce and myself. We could focus on our own conversation and we talked of many things. Besides having common grandparents on mum's side we had a number of connections obviously- we have known each other most of our lives despite minimal contact and we have shared the same part of history, being born in 1948 and me in 1952. Bruce was called up for National Service and served in Vietnam, and I was called up for NS also but this after Australia's decision to withdraw and I did not complete my service due to the change in politics well known by most.

Bruce is proud of his service in the Australian Army which I can well understand. We exchanged stories of our experience at recruit training at Puckapunyal and of the general intrusion into our lives of being conscripted, right down to our fears and trauma in the lead up and induction into the strange world of the military. I can understand why Bruce is proud and retains many friendships with those he served with and is active with his unit's reunions. I have none of that, not being in long enough, although I do have good memories of the people in my hut. I'm glad it happened.

Bruce is a great traveler. He and Jill have been just about everywhere. He was most interested in our recent trip to Europe and I very much enjoyed talking about it. In fact I talked and talked about so many things and it was so good to have someone interested in all that I said. And I loved his stories too. Army recollections, how he met Jill, thoughts about his parents, our grandparents, and most of all probably talk about plants and gardening.

A very nice day it was for me. Life is good.




 

Trust

Trust. A strong word.

Who do I trust? My wife yes, or we would not have been married for 35 years. My friends yes, or they would not be my friends. My family yes, with knowledge and understanding of their frailty.

It stops about there. I have lost trust in my nation, government ( federal state and local), and bureaucracy, including the police.

Where did this start, this loss of trust? Probably with my call up for National Service in 1972, although I didn't know it then. I was 20 years old, proud and passionate to serve my country as a soldier, in the aftermath of huge public disenchantment with Australia's involvement in Vietnam. In my blind ignorance I followed the path laid out for me in folklore by the ANZAC myth with pride and exuberance.

I have lived my life within the norms of society. I did all the things ingrained into me in my childhood and education. I finished school and found employment, married, took a mortgage and bought property, raised a family. All this I did without really thinking, in the trust and good faith that all I was doing was righteous and worthy in a civilized society.

So why is that now I'm lacking in trust? Well it took me a decade or so to realize that I had been totally duped about Vietnam and that crap. What a joke on me? The naysayers  were right. I was wrong. Vietnam was a total farce and my nation should be ashamed by its involvement. But we have not learned. We have been involved in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq which really have nothing to do with us and I am shamed and angered.

I pay a small fortune in private health insurance. It is set up so that it comes out of my bank account in a monthly payment direct debit, thousands of dollars in a year. Somehow or other another company got onto me and offered me more benefit at a lower price. Of course I took the bait. Within days the original company was in contact, offering a better deal so I switched back. This is not a new thing, it has happened with electricity supply and telephone service and it makes me the consumer aware that if you are not on the ball you are getting ripped off. The cost of these things goes up above the CPI every year and if you don't shop a around and threaten to leave your existing company you are gouged. And my council rates go up well above the CPI every year for the last decade and there's no shopping around with this, you just have to cop it sweet.

I am constantly harassed by the media about terrorism, the ice epidemic, pedophilia in the church, wife bashing and murder, yet all I see is police with speed cameras and radar guns trying to catch me a few k's over the limit. I see bush fires yet nobody does anything about reducing the risk, I mean by that the removal of fire hazardous vegetation or the prevention of building 'in the bush'.

I could go on and on. I'm pissed right off. I have no trust in government. It is a self serving con job acting in self interest, with no regard for the good of community and people, beyond a facade of bullshit.

Yes, sadly, I have lost trust.

A Week on Crete (7)

I need to finish this for my own peace of mind, although it is well and truly old news by now.Our last full day on Crete was Saturday. We planned not to travel far so as to rest up so we decided to go shopping in the tourist strip at Amoudra beach near Ghazi in the morning, as Lib wanted to buy a few clothes and souvenirs to take home, and lunch again at Liguria Beach where we had enjoyed ourselves so much previously.

It was an overcast day, warm with the odd brief light rain shower. It was quite a tourist area where we parked the car with resort buildings and apartment blocks and all manner of shops restaurants and bars. Lib shopped while I walked up and down the street with one eye on the car to ensure we didn't get booked. There were 'No Parking' signs along the side where I parked but these seemed to be ignored by one and all. A shopkeeper told me we would be OK there, the parking rules were not enforced, but if we had been in Heraklion proper they would have been all over us quickly.

It was a pleasant couple of hours we spent there. You do get the feel of a place by shopping and talking to the shop owners. Those we talked to spoke reasonable English and more than one had relatives in Australia and knew that smoking in public places was not permitted there, which they said would be very hard for them. So many Greek people smoked cigarettes it was alarming. One said she knew the standard of living was higher in Australia and people were wealthier. I guess that has been the attraction for so many Greek people to have migrated.

We walked down to Amoudra beach which was almost deserted. The vacant block we walked through was strewn with litter. When looking out to sea and back to the shore and hills I pictured in my mind the scene in 1941 at the Battle Crete with the sky thick with German paratroopers and gliders, and the dug in Brits shooting them from defensive posts. This was a mental image I carried for the whole week in Crete - German fighter bombers strafing with their air superiority and the allies defending grimly and bravely, taking huge toll on the paratroop divisions but facing inevitable defeat without support from aircraft.

We spent a couple of hours at a restaurant at Liguria beach for a good lunch. It was my intention to listen to the footy Nth Melbourne West Coast Prelim final on my smart phone but I couldn't get it to work. We had picked up to 3AW before through an app Rob put on my phone, but it wouldn't work for the match, I think I would have had to buy something from the AFL so that it was available. While we were there there was a big gathering of Greek people at nearby tables I think preparing for a function that night at the restaurant. The men were large with big bellies and chain smoked and drank beer after beer. The women also smoked. They were a garrulous and happy group.

We returned to our villa about 20 minutes away and went for a walk down many steps to the 'river' which was a small creek really. We met a young pommie bloke who asked us for directions to Estate Kares. We learned later at dinner that he was a dentist on holiday. He had walked from Gazi. This trip to Crete was supposed to be with his girlfriend but they had had a blue and she refused to go. Having paid for it he came by himself. He was well traveled having been to Peru  and the US and worked in New Zealand for a year which is why he didn't have a hire car, he had bingled one there and the financial result was terrible so he no longer hired cars and caught buses trains and walked wherever he went. He was only 26.

We rang Gord to learn West Coast had beaten North and he also told us Hawthorn had beaten Fremantle the night before.

Georgie our new friend who worked at the villa cooked up a mousaka from her mothers recipe for dinner. We didn't cook for ourselves that last night as we were leaving at 6am to get to the airport early as we had a flight to Athens at 7.30am. We washed down the mousaka and icecream with a bottle of the good wine we had bought at Gazi and some house red to boot. We settled our account with Emmanuel (two dinners two breakfasts and some cold beer here and there) and packed up before going to bed. All we had to do in the morning was get dressed and load the car.

It was a relief to get the car back to the airport with no damage and make our way into the terminal. The good thing about an early get away on a Sunday was very light traffic with little chance of being held up, only by a puncture or something, which did happen to us once returning a hire car to Perth airport. It was hugely crowded even at that hour but we made our flight no problem despite being slugged 45 Euros each as our ticket did not include check in luggage. I didn't get upset about it as I think our travel agent Mary had warned me this might happen. A New Zealand couple we met at Dubai airport were upset about it saying they had copped 75 Euros each leaving Santorini.

So our week in Crete came to and end as we watched the Island from the plane. There were big concrete bunkers visible as we left the coast and I thought these were probably relics from the German occupation 1941-1945, and my Battle of Crete images flashed back. The sky was clear as a bell when we landed at Athens 30 minutes later. We had a seven hour wait at Athens for our connecting flight to Dubai but this was not difficult, it gave us some relaxation time and there's a museum there and lots of historical information about Greece which we found most interesting.

We got to Dubai at about 10.30pm. We were picked up by our transfer the Arabian Court Hotel in Old Dubai opposite the Old Museum, where we were to stay three nights in total. We did a fascinating Dubai city tour first day and walked around old Dubai, and a trip to the Dubai Outlet Mall the second morning followed by a desert sands safari dinner in the afternoon and evening. Dubai is mind blowing, incredible and almost unreal. Not my cup of tea, but worth seeing.

The next day saw us at the airport again for the gruelling trip home- 7 hours to Singapore, an hour there, back on the plane and another 7 hours to Melbourne. Lib took sleeping pills which didn't make her sleep just made her almost incoherent and uncomfortable and fidgety and she almost drove me crazy. I didn't know about the sleeping tablets till she was talking to sister Margaret at Christmas, I just thought she was over fatigued, but she was zombied out.

Was it ever good to see Rob when he picked us up at Tullamarine? Lib crashed asleep in the car on the way home and then went straight to bed when we got home.

And so ended our amazing trip to Europe. It was Thursday morning before the Grand Final. I wish I had missed that crap too.

Pat's 70th

My apologies to friends on Facebook who also read this blog, as I'm about to copy and paste from F to here, because I have friends who read this blog but who don't participate in Facebook. So this is doubling up for some but updating others which I do because i'm short of time. I'm taking dog Pip to  a vet appointment at 9.30 am and I have some picking to do before it gets too hot as the forecast is for 41C.

Lib and I drove to Warrnambool yesterday (Sunday) to attend Pat McKenzie's 70th birthday. It was great to share the occasion with Pat and Carmel and their children and grandchildren. Others there from our Greta football days were Brent and Lynne Everall, Biil and Jackie O'Brien and Kay Pink. After a gathering at the Warrnambool Golf Club in the afternoon we went round to Pat + Carmel's and kicked on with a barbie and much good cheer and reminiscing. When Pat and Carmel came to Wangaratta in 1978 I had lived there two years but did not feel in any way at home there. Pat joined the Dep't of Ag as a dairy inspector and we had offices next door to each other. Pat talked me into playing footy at Greta when he took up the assistant coach job there. He was a superb full back with a great country footy history. I was single in those days and had dinner at Pat and Carmel's house one night a week most weeks. Their friendship greatly changed my life and the next few years were highly social thanks to playing footy again and mixing with many good friends of my age group. They had three young kids and baby Peter no 4 arrived while they were in Wang. Pat later quit the Dep't of Ag and joined the ambulance service where he worked till his recent retirement. Many thanks to Pat and Carmel for what you did for me all those years ago and for the great day we had yesterday. It was wonderful to see the kids grown up with families, and all such decent good people.

On the way home we visited the Terang cemetery where my great great grandparents are buried. Charles Henry Brown died in 1906. He had changed his name- he was really Karl Bruhn, a German sailor from Hamburg who went to sea when he was 14 and on his seventh voyage round the oceans of the world, often to Melbourne, jumped ship and disappeared into the Victorian countryside. He married Emma Parker who came out from England with her family as a young girl in the 1850's. Meredith has copy of a newspaper cutting in which three men including Karl Bruhn were "wanted" for absconding. He must have got this sorted out with official permit as the marriage certificate in 1860 names Charles Brown. He developed a successful maize threshing business and moved around the Western District and was respected in business. Emma Parker's family farmed somewhere out from Geelong and she died in 1929 aged 87. They had six kids that reached adulthood and two that did not. Their daughter Anne Elizabeth Francis, known as Francis, married Robert Williams my grandfather's father. He was a baker in Terang, (as was his father I think and his son my grandfather). They had 8 boys. There's a sad story there that Meredith told me, perhaps I'll write about that next time.

Meredith and her husband Roger had Charles and Emma's grave restored in the last few years.

A Bit Dry

31mm of rain for December is a miserable figure, less than half  that of the lowest of other years since 2008. My friend Glen keeps these records and he sent me them with his New Year best wishes on Jan 1.

Total rainfall for 2015 was 783 mm, also the lowest since 2008 which is as far as my figures from Glen go back, and well down on our annual average for the last 100 years which is I think about 1150mm.

All that rain in December must have come the night after Christmas Day, as there was about 34mm in our gauge in the morning and some of our guests were up early packing up their tents as water was just starting to come through as dawn broke. Glen recorded just the 31.33mm for December - my gauge which is not good for precise reading showed 32-34mm.

Since then, for January, while Sydney and much of NSW was being dumped on, and indeed many parts of Victoria, we had the princely sum of 5mm of drizzle one day, just enough to wet my shirt through while I was picking beech for a customer one day and make me cranky.

I helped my friend Leanne with her bees last week. We chose Thursday as it was the best day for both of us. It was mild and intermittently overcast with a crisp breeze tending south. They were as savage as hell. There was some messmate flowering and with the changeable weather, and wildly varying temperatures from one day to the next, it was the perfect recipe for savage. I had a veil with holes in it at the top and the bees got in and belted my face as well as the hands and up my sleeves.

But we got the honey off not that there was much, way too dry for any honey to speak of from blackberries or clover and cold miserable weather in late October scotched any chance of a flow on the silvertop which did flower well but did not yield. In the burst of hot weather in October I put some foundation frames in the hives to stop them swarming and they drew them out and and put brood in them. Leanne was happy to get some honey anyway and it is a task behind me now. I doubt there'll be honey later so dry it is and the weather so erratic.

I guess the next thing could well be a deluge and flooding, which is what happened after the last El Ninio cycle, but that has occurred elsewhere already.