Where’s Doll?
This week, with several shows coming up, it’s mostly been practice, practice, practice.
Oh, and work.
Giving us the $ to pay for shelter and streaming services, and the chance to hold our pennies for a few minutes before handing the lot over to the Robber Barons operating the supermarkets and fuel companies nowadays.
I tell ya, it’d be much easier if the bastards wore Ned Kelly helmets at the checkout…
Where was I?
Oh yes.
In between having conniptions at the pump and grocery aisle, we also got to PLAY a lot of music!
Some new music! Which is always refreshing.
Plus, we popped down to the bustling metropolis of Agnes Water on Saturday to catch up with our mates, The Sandflies, Frank and Alice, smell their coffee, rip out a few songs and learn some tunes.
They have an eclectic set list and loads of enthusiasm (particularly their part-time backing singers Doll and Jo):
And this little chap popped by to see what all the noise was about:
Fun times!
This is living folks…
Next week, Ubobo!
April Fool!
Was a bit quite this year… it’s seems the age of the Great Annual Jape might be toast?
Although, one mate popped up with the following Facebook post on April 1:
I tip my hat to him for keeping the tradition alive; even if it is on life support.
I could be wrong (I often am), but perhaps, in this age of Fake News, Loose Truth and AI Generated Garbage, the daily barrage of crap pouring out of the sewer pipes of social and traditional media is making every day April Fools Day?
It’s become almost impossible to filter out what’s real and what’s not.
Of course, I’m not helping…
April Showers
It’s been a tad damp this week… actually, this year. The dreaded El Nino failed to materialise as predicted this summer, which I’m always pleased to report.
Prolonged periods without rain do not bring me joy.
Anyway, as we were dodging puddles on the footpath and potholes in the roads I was reminded of a little poem from my childhood:
I thought I’d look it up in my trusty ol’, heavily thumbed through, Childcraft Encyclopaedia:
Which, after a fruitless search, I realised I must have loaned to someone and, if history is any guide, will never see again.
Excuse me while I make the noise I reserve for these occasions…
Happily, we have the internet, which is extremely hard for me to lend to people, so I found out that it’s from the northern hemisphere and is old… really old.
In 1557, Thomas Tusser, an English poet and farmer, published his book Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, which included:
“Swéete April showers
Doo bring Maie flowers”
But he had stolen… sorry, sampled, it from an even older Brit scribbler, Geoffrey Chaucer who, in 1332, quilled this in his prologue in the Canterbury Tales :
“Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;”
Translated to:
“When in April with his showers sweet,
The drought of March has pierced to the root,
And bathed every vein in such liquor,
Of which virtue engendered is the flower.”
(Apparently April was a ‘he’ and not gender neutral? Keep it under your hat!)
Fast forward to 1922 and another Pommy author, T.S. Elliot gave April a bit of a kicking when he scrawled this opening to his poem, ‘The Waste Land’:
“April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.”
Speaking of ‘The Waste Land’, it got me thinking about what April Showers bring to we Denizens Down Unda… mostly shattered highways, missing bridges and potholes you can go caving in.
Hardly the stuff of delightful poetry, i.e.: Sunburnt Country, ‘… of drought and flooding rains.’
But, on the bright side (even if it is very overcast and dull), everything is so green and lush around here at the moment, I’m sure all is forgiven.
Happy Snaps!
High Tide:
Low Tide:
Rising damp:
Lowering Damp:
Rising Prices!
Rising Anxiety!
Made me forget what I came in here for…
Interesting stuff we found at the back of the Miriam Vale pub:
Aaaand, that’s a wrap!
But, before I go, a huge Hello! to all you new readers, and Hearty ‘Hey Ho!’ and Clap on the Back for all you wonderful regulars.
Let’s do it all again next week…
Cheers,
Greg