Thursday evening did not augur well for the weekend. It began raining late in the afternoon and continued for many hours. It wasn't particularly heavy at least for the first hour or two during which with the aid of a quantity of diesel and petrol I was able to get a campfire started and well ablaze before Peter turned up for a bbq which we had been planning to share with a couple of other horticultural chaps whose names shall remain like themselves not present. We wandered about the place showing Pete what had survived and what I planned to do with the dam paddock - an English park with deciduous trees and swathes of exotic and native colour. The house paddock, a mostly native garden with rock pools and stream inspired by Gordon Ford and the chap at this year's garden show who made billabongs look deceptively simple and whose name will not spring to mind. And finally the top paddock which is to be a nursery of trees both native and exotic. a lifetime's work - just as well I've got another one.
Despite the blustery showers, behatted, jacketed and in excellent humour we made disparaging comments about our colleagues inability to help empty a bottle of Pepperjack while we stood warming and smoking ourselves - what is it with bloody smoke! - in front of an excellent bed of glowing coals and and flaming logs of Chilean Poplar.
Our hardy, hairy bushmen interlude over, we retired before saturation to the caravan where Peter prepared an excellent salad while I nuked a couple of potatoes before dropping them on to the back of the barbequeue grill and danced between raindrops a fantasy I've maintained since childhood as I cooked our meat to pink perfection, opened another bottle. Dan's WE3 Cab merlot - not Pepperjack but not bad either.
The dinner and conversation were most enjoyable but eventually the rain and our world changing ideas came to an end and Peter drove off into the night and a couple of weeks of well earned break from lecturing at NMIT.
Celebrating St Andrews
The posters had been around for weeks but I hadn't really taken a great deal of notice and wasn't particularly engaged until asked if I could help set-up. I have a deal of respect for people who are prepared to add to the normal chaos of their daily lives by volunteering to work towards rebuilding communities which have been significantly fire effected. It's a generally thankless task and I had chosen to not get involved beyond the odd helping hand.
It was a bit of a surprise to discover that the event was to be held only about a kilometre away and had a whole range of activities and events for the whole community. I spent a fair bit of the day on Friday helping various of the organising comittee's members get stuff done. The weather is fantastic. They are a great bunch of people, most of whom I have not previously met, although we all live within about 10k from each other and have lived in the area for many years. Their enthusiasm and fears about success and failure are plainly visible as we work to get set-up. They've put so much effort in, I really wanted it to be a success. By the end of the day we are all pretty stuffed and I leave hoping that the night will be quiet for those staying on site.
The night is very windy but not as bad as it has been over the last few weeks and the morning is cool and cloudy. I skip breakfast having had an enormous dinner including two completely unnecessary serves of icecream the previous evening, and head off down Nink's road to the event site. The wind has done quite a bit of damage but spirits unlike some the tents are not damaged.
A bunch more work - I was only going to spend an hour but it turned into two or three and I went home desperate for some sleep. Ros & I had a quick lunch, checked the program and decided to get there about 4:30 ish. Sleep came in minutes not a snore to be heard by either of us!
Showered, dressed and prepared for whatever the weather could throw at us we drove down Ninks road where I caused a bit of drama by stopping to take a couple photographs. The road is only just wide enough for two vehicles and I'd reduced it to a single lane for about 4 minutes and of course there were cars wanting to travel in both directions. Nothing will stop a determined photographer!
We arrived and began the meet and greet which lasted until we left, very close to midnight. It was a wonderful evening. Old and new friends, met and mingled, ate and drank, listened to short speeches and danced and listened to a variety of live music which went almost continuously all night. There were hundreds of conversations, a few tears, much laughing and jokes none of which have been remembered or will be recorded here. As I spent much of the evening enjoying myself by taking photographs I've decided to let the pictures tell the rest of the story.
The link to the pictures which are available for viewing or downloading on Picasa is http://picasaweb.google.com/Nossida/SACBRACelebration?feat=email#
I hope you enjoy them as much as I did taking them.
With the Celebration of St Andrews, the SACBRA committee have done a fabulous job in beginning the creation of a new feeling of community.
Loved all your photos of the celebration.I see that you too are into the rainbows which grace our skies. Now about acronyms- It's the BRA bit thats a worry with me. Sacbra or stacbra??Take your pick.
ReplyDeleteHave to say that from the perspective of a mere male it was a very unfortunate choice of acronym and I was a little curious about who had contrived it but not enough to ask. One could imagine all sorts of allusions and illusions, conscious and unconscious. Frankly Abracadabra works best for me. I think there should be a little magic in everything.
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