Small Lives Living Large Before the Flood

Small snail on a dragon’s wing © Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2022

As we gardeners in the other half of the world, the southern hemisphere, bid a fond farewell to summer, I thought about some of the natural highlights around me.

The coffee bean tree is laden down with green berries. The agapanthus flowered abundantly for the first time in four years. The lawns are lush, the weeds are going feral. Every garden is flourishing, flowers and green foliage abound. Shrubs, hedges and trees are taller and their leaves are broader. Insects are so noisy the sound gets inside your head.

It has been a smorgasbord of a summer for the plant, animal, bird, reptile and insect domains in my suburb. Oh, and I just found out that snails are from the phylum Mollusca family. I am loathe to mention the toads but they relish the dampness at night courtesy of La Niña.

The Orchard Butterfly is our biggest and today I spied a huge one drying its wings during a brief respite between showers before fluttering free from the mandarin tree.

Scrub turkeys are getting bolder, scratching garden beds and terrorising cats. Birds generally are spoilt for choice when it comes to food and where to build a nest. But like homemakers everywhere, they have to make a good decision. The eagle-eyed hunters are watching, waiting, taking their time. Even the possums are walking more leisurely across our roof.

Actually the agapanthus have already been and gone. There was a sea of them in the back paddock but due to a computer malfunction those early photographs are not available – c’est la vie.

GOODBYE SUMMER

Birds sing at 5am,
grasshoppers hop,
lawnmowers til noon,
cold drinks and ice-cream for arvo tea,
pray for a cool breeze,
clothes stick to skin,
a quick swim,
a light dinner,
air-con fades away,
windows open to humidity,
can’t sleep,
hoping no holes in the flyscreen,
late summer storm rattles the house,
memories rattle through my mind.

GBW 2022

Summertime sundown © Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2022

As the Australian pop rock band GANGgajang so lyrically sang:

“Out on the patio we’d sit, And the humidity we’d breathe, We’d watch the lightning crack over canefields. Laugh and think, this is Australia.”

Full lyrics https://www.lyrics.com/artist/GANGgajang/212403

Our cat JoJo is a respectful blue-tongue lizard watcher and a keen rodent catcher. However, I am worried about a white ant termite nest beside the house. Never seen one before but I know they are voracious eaters, chomping through wood at a great rate. The pest control people are swamped with work at this time of year. Fortunately cats and termites are not the least bit interested in each other.

Australian summertime will soon hand over the weather to autumnal March. Cooler maybe, my advice is still wear a hat and sunscreen. Speaking from experience, I personally would not participate in a fun run unless it ends at the local swimming pool. Afterwards I would never ever eat greasy takeaway food. Ah, but those hot chips with salt and vinegar…

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

** NEWSFLASH ** As I proof-read this post the city was already soaking from heavy rain and now the wet weather has continued in earnest. Day and night torrential rain has fallen, flooding large parts of Brisbane and South East Queensland causing major havoc to housing, business, roads, rivers and creeks. Sadly lives have been lost. About an hour ago we had a power failure. It is drenching, pounding rain, the air is humid, the sky dull grey. From overflowing guttering to washing away bridges, fast flowing flood waters are powerful and dangerous, carrying a multitude of unseen debris. Stay dry, stay safe. As the saying goes “If it’s flooded, forget it”. GBW 2022

Wise and Weird 22/2/2022

Yeah Yeah Yeah

♦ What if my dog only brings back the ball because he thinks I like throwing it?

♦ Your future self is watching you right now through memories.

♦ If poison expires, is it more poisonous or is it no longer poisonous?

♦ Which letter is silent in the word “Scent,” the S or the C?

♦ Do twins ever realise that one of them is unplanned?

♦ Why is the letter W, in English, called double U? Shouldn’t it be called double V?

♦ Maybe oxygen is slowly killing you and it just takes 75-100 years to fully work.

♦ Every time you clean something, you just make something else dirty.

♦ The word “swims” upside-down is still “swims”.

♦ One hundred years ago everyone owned a horse and only the rich had cars. Today everyone has cars and only the rich own horses.

♦ The doctors who told Stephen Hawking he had two years to live in 1953 are probably dead.

♦ If you replace “W” with “T” in “What, Where and When” you get the answer to each of them.

♦ Many animals probably need glasses, but nobody knows it.

♦ If you rip a hole in a net, there are actually fewer holes in it than there were before.

♦ Please note I am only the purveyor of these words of weirdly wiseness.

♦ When 22/2/2022 (Australian format) falls on Tuesday, we can call it “2’s Day”.

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

Postscript:
This is one of my earliest blog posts circa 2017.
I never thought I’d be reblogging it.
A lot has happened over the intervening years!

Calendar Date 22.2.2022 — Where will you be on Twosday? I will be at an Art Discussion group – *GBW*

Ethel Turner Wrote More Than Seven Little Australians

King Anne by Ethel Turner was published in 1921 and my great aunt gifted this novel to her sister, my paternal grandmother, at Christmastime in 1922 after she had first read it. Many years passed by and when Grandma thought the time was right she passed King Anne on to me.

Unfortunately at that time I was not the least bit interested.

British-born Australian author Ethel Turner (1870-1958) was a novelist and children’s literature writer. She wrote over 30 books and collections of short stories and verse, mostly centred around girls and for girls. King Anne was Turner’s thirty-sixth published work.

Perhaps because I didn’t quite get into her first novel, the epic family saga Seven Little Australians (1894) of which NSW State Library holds the original hand-written manuscript, I therefore gave pseudo-royal King Anne’s weighty tome (as it seemed to me at the time) a wide detour.

Cazneaux’s portrait of Ethel Turner in the window of her study at her Mosman home Avenel NSW 1928

The bookcover faded and King Anne languished for many, many years on the family bookshelves, sandwiched between ancient copies of Kidnapped, Pilgrims Progress and Wind in the Willows, and enduring several moves until by some quirk of fate I reached for it today February 2022 when my great aunt and grandmother would have read it one hundred years ago. (Shivers)

I have no memory of the storyline. Now I WILL have to read it!

First I shall create a pictorial and some background information—

Here you can see the author’s married name

The book has foxing and is not in good condition but you can see the etiquette of the time. Written in brackets underneath ETHEL TURNER is the abbreviation Mrs coupled with her husband’s name thus Mrs H. R. Curlewis. Herbert Raine Curlewis was a judge.

The frontispiece and three illustration plates are beautifully rendered, showing family life at the time. They are miniature works of art in their own right, sometimes removed and framed by the book owner. The far right image was adapted and embossed on the front cover of King Anne.

The artist has not been acknowledged and from online booksellers information you can take your pick. Possibly Harold Copping, and it seems A.J. Johnson‘s small-format illustrations were later replaced by full page works from J. Macfarlane. Each had illustrated books for Ethel Turner.

Inside the back leaves of King Anne (you leaf through a book because the pages are called leaves) under the heading Charming Stories by Isabel M Peacocke – another author of similar genre – there is a rather ambiguous book review of My Friend Phil (1915) from a Queensland Times reviewer which reads “… without doubt the best since Ethel Turner took the reading world by storm with her ‘Seven Little Australians’…” poor Isabel M Peacocke.

The difference between the size and weight of these two books was misleading until held in my hands. Natasha Pulley’s The Kingdoms is a slimmer volume with a lighter bookcover and thinner pages compared to Ethel Turner’s bulky King Anne with its fabric-over-cardboard bookcover, cotton stitching and stiff parchment-like pages. The modern publication is 200g heavier.

Australian author Ethel Turner booklist:

Seven Little Australians (1894)
The Family at Misrule (1895)
Story of a Baby (1895)
Little Larrikin (1896)
Miss Bobbie (1897)
Camp at Wandining (1898)
Gum Leaves (1900)
Three Little Maids (1900)
Wonder Child (1901)
Little Mother Meg (1902)
Raft in the Bush (1902)
Betty & Co (1903)
Mothers Little Girl (1904)
White Roofed Tree (1905)
In the Mist of the Mountains (1906)
Walking to School (1907)
Stolen Voyage (1907)
Happy Hearts (1908)
That Girl (1908)
Birthday Book (1909)
Fugitives from Fortune (1909)
Fair Ines (1910)

An Orge up to Date (1911)
Apple of Happiness (1911)
Fifteen & Fair (1911)
Ports & Happy Havens (1911)
Tiny House (1911)
Secret of the Sea (1913)
Flower O’ the Pine (1914)
The Cub (1915)
John of Daunt (1916)
Captain Cub (1917)
St Tom & The Dragon (1918)
Brigid & the Cub (1919)
Laughing Water (1920)
**King Anne (1921)
Jennifer, J. (1922)
Sunshine Family (1923)
(with Jean Curlewis her daughter)
Nicola Silva (1924)
Ungardeners (1925)
Funny (1926)
Judy & Punch (1928)

**King Anne is Number 36 on this list and according to the list in my book (photo above) this was her 21st novel.

Ethel Turner’s literary works have been largely forgotten but she, and a handful of other women writers, paved the way for Australian books for Australian children. My grandparents were educated with, and read, British books, so I admire Ethel Turner’s achievements. The following websites make interesting reading – GBW.

Tea With Ethel Turner by author blogger Rowena (link below) is exceptionally well written and researched. On my own research, so far I have found scant reference to King Anne.

https://teawithethelturner.com/category/seven-little-australians/

https://biblio.com.au/king-anne-by-turner-ethel/work/1139377

https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/turner-ethel-mary-8885

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/t/ethel-turner/

https://australianwomenwriters.com/

Important Addendum: Australian Women Writers Challenge The Early Years is concentrating on past Australian women writers of all genres who were published then faded away. AWW have restructured their blog to highlight the writing of earlier Australian women; works published 50+ years ago. If you happen to find and read a forgotten gem, AWW would be interested in your book review.

I will be posting my King Anne review in due course. In the meantime, perhaps YOU might find another first edition little-known Ethel Turner on your bookshelf?

Classics deserve to be read again!

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

Ethel Turner’s first home ‘Woodlands’ NSW as it was in 1892. Ethel is pictured on the right side of the verandah, her older sister and fellow author Lillian is on the left. The gentleman on the horse is unnamed, possibly Herbert Curlewis. The residence has been added to and greatly altered over many years. *Picture: Mrs Phillipa Poole*

‘Woodlands’ (circa 1884) information and photographs compiled by Alison Cheung, writer and real estate reporter.

‘Avenel’ (circa 1906) compiled and posted by David Carment Lost Mosman from various sources with his photographs and others courtesy of Mosman Library.

Romeo, Romeo, Wherefore Art Thou Gumboots?

Balcony scene © Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2022

What can you see? What can you surmise from this scene? Is it in suburbia or the mountains or maybe near the sea?

Can you name the trees? Or guess the potted plants? What time of day, or time of year, do you think the photograph was taken?

And who might live there? Who owns those gumboots?

You could write a short story about someone who walks out onto this balcony. Perhaps it’s the home of the Capulet family? There is a good reason why Juliet walks out onto a balcony.

Valentine’s Day is nearly here! Imagine an alternate ending. A happy, sad, good, bad or exciting scene… Writers, write about it in your own hand! Put it in an envelope and present it to your loved one.

❤️ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

Postscript: I will write my own version on traditionally the most romantic day of the year 14th February 2022.

A Red, Red Rose
by ROBERT BURNS

O my Luve is like a red, red rose

That’s newly sprung in June;

O my Luve is like the melody

That’s sweetly played in tune.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43812/a-red-red-rose

Our La Niña Summer Rain

Rain dripping through the trees © Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2022

Summer January 2022 and Queensland has been blessed by La Niña (or buffeted by her) experiencing high winds, thunder, lightning, pelting tropical rain, flooding rivers, and vigorous plant and wildlife growth.

Plus an unexpected visit of tsunami waves from Tonga’s cataclysmic volcanic eruption. I actually heard the deep eerie rumbles. The sound crossed the Pacific Ocean to arrive thousands of kilometres away in Brisbane. Next morning the sunrise had a golden orange hue, created by volcanic ash fallout. My thoughts and prayers go out to the Kingdom of Tonga and Pacific island nations, and to aid, search and rescue teams during the difficult and heart-breaking times ahead.

For now, I sit on the verandah in the humidity watching the raindrops fall on damp leaves and recall James Whilt’s imaginative poem ❤️ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

The Rainstorm

James W. Whilt

Here in the deep tangled forest
All is quiet and still,
While far to the west the thunder,
Re-echoes from hill to hill.

And the lightning’s flash, ever vivid,
In great gashes knives the air;
The rain comes down in torrents,
A deluge everywhere!

Bathing the heat-sick flowers
That they may bloom once more;
Painting the grass a greener hue,
That grows by our cabin door;

Making the pastures fresher,
For the cows and shepherd’s herds,
Making the pools by the road-side —
Bath tubs for the birds.

Then the thunder peals louder and louder,
Firing its shrapnel of rain.
The clouds charge after each other,
And the drouth is defeated again.

Then through a rent in the clouds
The sun’s searchlight casts its ray,
And the Rain-God looks over the valley
And sees the result of the fray.

And as He sees his conquest,
His victory’s flag is unfurled,
In a beautiful coloured rainbow —
He is telling all of the world.

What a victory was his, what a triumph!
It’s flashed down the Milky Way,
Then the sentinel stars dot the heavens,
And the dew-drops sound taps for the day.

Visit https://discoverpoetry.com/poems/poems-about-rain/

Poems number 24 and 25

Summertime rainstorm © Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2022

The Cat Says…

Cat quote modelled by JoJo @ Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2022

Read the card…

There are 24 quotes in The Cat’s Whiskers box (little affirmations to encourage a pawsitive life) and the next card purrs “The primary business of a cat is comfort” which surely comes under the same banner as relaxing, catnapping and sleeping.

All of which cats probably invented and certainly claim superior mastery.

Charles Dickens is reputed to have said “What greater gift than the love of a cat?” because cat-lovers around the world know that feline love is sometimes hard-won but worth it.

How easy it is for us to be smitten by a kitten.

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

🐱 🐱 🐱 🐱 🐱

acknowledgement to
Affirmations Publishing House
Bellingen NSW Australia

IN MEMORY OF BELOVED BINAH

Walk in Fear or Safety

Early morning walk © Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2022

The suburban street is quiet.

A safe city skyline in the distance.

No choking clouds of black smoke.

No artillery fire, no jet fighters roaring overhead.

Around the bend I will not be stopped by a military checkpoint.

I will not see people waiting in line for food, faces with helpless hopeless eyes.

No muttering, no crying, only the sound of bird calls and the breeze ruffling leaves.

No chants for freedom, no skirmish over the ownership of an abandoned vehicle, weapon, passport, shoes.

A woman cradling a sick child – no, she is carrying her small dog.

A cyclist whizzes by, a delivery truck rolls around the bend.

I keep walking, steadily, evenly, calmly. There is nothing to ruffle my early morning walk.

And I am grateful.

Very grateful.

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.
Eric Hoffer

Happy New Year 2022

Dust off the old year and brighten up the new year 2022 @ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

Wishing you all a clearer, brighter, fresher New Year 2022.

Thank you for reading my blog.

I have enjoyed reading yours!

And books.

Here’s to another year of literary endeavour.

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

* * * * * * *

A New Wall Calendar Every Year

Machu Picchu Citadel, Aguas Calientes, Peru + Photographed for Bartel Calendars The Last Diary Company, Mascot NSW Australia – www.bartelpublications.com.au

It’s usually five or six new wall calendars every year. Or more if they are a seasonal gift. They hang in various rooms in our home, sometimes two at a time and used constantly. Some are intensely written on, e.g. appointments, special events, new recipe, etc, while others are purely decoration.

As the new month is flipped over, there is always much comment on artistic merit. Some are better than others. Purchased early in December is better; the mundane scenery ones (even beach scenes can wear thin) are the last on the newsagent’s display rack.

“Hey, what is the meaning of the Andes Mountains Machu Picchu Citadel photograph?” you ask.

Well, as the year draws to a close, I looked at this final entry and thought “Wow, that camera is very good!” I looked closely and saw what every single tourist is doing, frozen in time! I could even see two people on top of a nearby mountain, perhaps the ones who photographed this shot using an aerial drone?

Young backpackers, trip-of-a-lifetimers, honeymoon couples, students and many nationalities. Guides and guards seem to be at various points. Did they know where their image would end up?

I hope you can see what each tourist is doing. My reproduction resolution may not be clear enough so let me explain a few:

Posing for photos, taking photos, taking off jackets, chatting, fixing hair, climbing with apparent degrees of speed up the ancient stone steps, the rocky terraces, the top platform. A young woman presses into a wall niche. At the pinnacle there is a man with his arms and legs spread as though shouting “Here I am, I made it.”

This mysterious, ancient citadel seems to be well treated and well preserved and hopefully will still be standing into another millennium or two.

Just to bore you, listed below are calendars hanging around here waiting to be removed from their wall-hooks to make way for the 2022 intake. No movies, no sport, no cars, but I am willing to bet you have had at least one of these in your home at some time or another:

Birds
Lighthouses
Anime
Cat calendar
Dog calendar
World cities
Tropical islands
Indigenous art
Birthday calendar

Remember Snoopy, Garfield and Gary Larson’s “The Far Side”? And what about Australia’s own Red Tractor Designs. I love their country calendars!

I like the ritual of changing a calendar over every month. It’s not a chore, it’s not a device, it’s not generated automatically, it doesn’t need recharging, it doesn’t make a noise. Except the lovely sound of rustling paper.

Real calendars give me back some masterly (mistressly?) control over my daily routine. No programming or click-tap-swiping, just me and a pen. In fact, that pen often doodles. Seeing as Christmas is coming, I have sketched a couple of jolly holly sprigs on my calendar entries. No doubt I will do a spray of fireworks for New Year’s Eve.

Wishing you safe, interesting and happy times ahead.

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

Book Review ‘Sweet Jimmy’ by Bryan Brown

Background orchids image © Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2021 and photographed at The Tropic Gardener of Brisbane https://thetropicgardener.com.au/

I was absorbed and entertained all the way through this book. Pared down storytelling, laced with moral ambiguity, shouting Australian crime noir. Does author Bryan Brown know these blokes, hear good stories down the pub, or possess a very robust imagination?

Love his unabashed style ‘Clinton buys himself a pepper pie and a chocolate milk’.

Australians need no introduction to Bryan Brown, an actor of many characters in many movies around the world yet he remains true to his homeland (see ABC1 TV series ‘Old School’) and this new book of short stories highlight his considerable talent as an author.

It is refreshing to read a book of short stories which speaks to my generation of Australians: relationships, morals, turn-of-phrase, scenery, all genuine and if you can’t keep up that’s your problem – work on it.

Even if short stories are not your thing, be surprised at how well these work in such a compact way.
‘Sweet Jimmy’

Professor Leong asks why Frank missed his last counselling appointment. ‘It gets in the way of my revenge,’ says straight-forward Frank. My favourite!

These men love their families yet, like Frank, they show questionable behaviour to avenge them.

The bookcover image, a Phalaenopsis orchid, ties-in with a story where both sides of the law are involved.

Alert – Sexist comment ahead…

From a woman’s perspective I thought Typical Males but I think from a male’s point of view the characters could be genuine mates in a bad place. Not their fault, they scheme, they seek revenge. They plot their way through sad, unjust or criminal situations which end with a tenebrous finale.

Also, there is one story I consider to be a Stephen King homage.

This compilation encapsulates the essence of crime fiction. Reminiscent of Peter Corris’ Cliff Hardy series, Bryan Brown plays it low-key but maybe one of his laconic blokes will soon score their own book.

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward