Possum Galore
A life ‘Down Under’!
The Gathering Storm.
I couldn’t believe it when I asked what our jobs were today and Dulcie said “Make a batch a’Anzacs.’
We made biscuits yesterday! This was Will’s fault though. She’d asked him if there was anything he wanted and he had said “Anzacs to take to Frogknot.”
We made them in no time, like the crack team we are becoming. Dulcie mixed the wet ingredients I did the dry and then combined them. We both rolled them out and then she kept an eye on them in the oven.
I hung out her washing and swept out the pergola and then we sat in the rising humidity and contemplated rain.
After lunch we played ‘Knock Poker again and this time I won three games in a row. What a turn around! We agreed to have a decider with Dulcie winning the three games yesterday and me the three today. I beat her again!
I won’t tell you what she said but it involved a preposition (the opposite of down) and my fundament. I quite fancy my chances at strip poker now...but on second thoughts I might just not mention it.
After weeks of dry weather there is finally a chance of some decent rain! Down in the Blue Mountains where those terrible fires were recently they have already had a few much needed downpours but the’ trough’, that is what we meteorologists call it, responsible for all this rain is heading slowly our way. But this is Australia and it is not as simple as just droplets of water merrily falling from the fluffy clouds...oh no! It would seem to me that if you want that rain then you have to put up with thunder, lightning and wind!
There have been two storms while I have been here and both passed over within about 30 minutes. During the first one lightning struck a tree causing it to explode and damage houses and cars in the area. This was in an area about 5kms away. During the second one, again only a few kms away, a sudden gust of wind ripped the roof off a house and flung it into their garden.
We were sat watching telly just before tea and the phone rang beside Dulcie. She jumped, as she always does and cried ‘Good God!’
She picked it up, listened, said ‘Right Iris’ then put the phone down.
‘It was Iris,’ she said. ‘Something about put Channel 7 on now.’
She put Channel 7 on and we sat watching some bad quiz show, bemused.
‘Is one of Iris’s relatives one of the contestants perhaps?’ I asked helpfully.
The phone rang again, Dulcie jumped again and said ‘Good God!’ ...again.
She listened, said ‘ Yes, Iris,’ and out the phone down again.
‘It’s Channel 10.’ she said, ‘Something about a storm at Stanthorpe.’
The news was on Channel 10 and sure enough they reported that Stanthorpe had been hit by a huge storm and the roof of a motel had been ripped off. It showed pictures of water running down the street and seemingly pouring out of doorways.
‘Good God!’ said Dulcie.
Hardly ‘good’ I thought! I’m sure I remember him making a promise.
We are off up there tomorrow and hopefully if the roof has not been ripped off, trees haven’t been blown down and the repairs we made have worked, Frogknot might still be there.
After tea Will went off to a meeting for work...so much for flippin’part time! Vampires! They want blood and don’t want to pay for it!
Thinking of me on my own again Dulcie suggested Euchre. (Ha! She knows I would beat her at Poker!...she has created a monster! Muahahahahahahahaha!)
She whipped my fundament!...and went to bed.
As I was writing this a storm has passed over and there was one crack of thunder that made me squeal like a girl and clutch my invisible pearls.
It’s life Britain...but not as you know it!
God's Acre.
The main road from Will’s mum’s house into Brisbane passes a small cemetery by Archerfield Airport called God’s Acre. I just assumed that it was the cemetery for the airport and contained the graves of unfortunate people killed in air accidents or aged pilots...not so.The land on which the airport now stands was once occupied by the Jagara people and later purchased by a Thomas Grenier. Thomas and his wife, Mary emigrated from Sussex in1838 and after surviving a Maori uprising, moved to South Brisbane. He became a successful store owner and publican and it was on the 3rd May 1855 in an auction at Brisbane Court House that he bought 640 acres for £1920. Given that the starting price was only £1 an acre he must have had some stiff competition.Thomas and his sons cleared the land on which they grew crops and kept horses which they entered in the local Oxley Creek races. Thomas added farmer and later council alderman to his list of achievements. In October 1859 Thomas and Mary’s son, Volney, then 16, died in a fall from his horse while out fox hunting. He was buried on their land and his grave was the first in the cemetery that still remains today. Thomas died in October 1877 and in his will set aside the ¾ acre site as a burial ground for members of his family and the families of other pioneers in the area. He also left £50 for the upkeep of the surrounding fence.Thomas and Mary are buried beside Volney and other family members in the cemetery which is now one of Brisbane’s oldest and most historic of cemeteries.The land was divided into 3 farms for Thomas and Mary’s sons George, Tom and Franklin. It was Franklin’s farm that most of the present Archerfield covers. Franklin died in 1889 and his farm was bought by the Beatty family in the early 1890s. God ’s acre Cemetary now stands on Beatty Rd which runs along the edge of the airfield.In 1927 Captain Lester Brain, (I’m not making this up!) Chief Flying Instructor for Qantas Airways landed his de Havilland Giant Moth on Franklin’s Farm to see if it was suitable for an airfield. It obviously was and the airport was officially opened on the 1st April 1931 and that is when the Brisbane Council closed the cemetery and restricted future burials only to those who could demonstrate they possessed interment rights. The burial of Olive Vera Grenier was the last at the cemetery in July 1980.As well as members of the Grenier family, there are also a number of Allens buried there and a W.G Rodgers. Other notable burials include Frank Hubert Hall, accidently shot, aged 11 in 1903, and the grave of Francis Ladner.Francis Ladner and his wife emigrated to Australia on 13th November 1864 with their daughter Frances and infant son, Francis and arrived in Brisbane on 21st March 1865 after a terrible voyage plagued with bad weather. Young Frances did not survive the voyage and sadly just over one year later Francis (Snr) was murdered.I found this account, written at the time, on ‘The Friends of God’s Acre’ website:A HORRIBLE murder was committed on Saturday afternoon, and the man who did it afterwards poisoned himself. The following are the particulars so far as we have been able to collect them:—A farmer named Joseph Doel, living at the Eight-mile Plains, near Oxley Creek, rode up to the house of a neighbour (Thomas Freney) and spoke about someone having robbed him. He said that sometime ago he was in difficulties, and he made over a portion of his property to a neighbour. Afterwards he asked the man to give it back to him, and he refused. At that moment a man named Francis Ladner was seen along the road, and Doel immediately started towards him. Freney then heard a shot fired, and saw Ladner fall off his horse, and noticed Doel making towards Brisbane at a gallop. Freney went up to Ladner and found he had been shot in the side. The man, who was dying, was taken to his [i.e. Freney’s] house, and he only lived a short time afterwards. Freney followed the direction taken by Doel, and when he arrived at South Brisbane told Sergeant White what had happened. Doel was then found in a hotel there, and arrested. He was allowed to drink a bottle of lemonade, and was then taken to the watchhouse. On being told the charge, he said—“They have robbed me, and deserve what they got.” He also said, “I have committed a mortal sin; God have mercy on my soul. I have only five minutes to live.” After being placed in a cell, a cry was heard, and Doel was found lying on the floor as if in a fit. A doctor was sent for, but two minutes before one arrived, the man died in great agony. On his person was found a piece of paper containing about a grain of strychnine; it appeared to have been torn open. It was subsequently ascertained that Doel, a short time before his arrest, bought 12 grains of strychnine at Mr. Steele’s, chemist, Edward-street, where he had been in the habit of buying it to poison native dogs. Doel was about fifty years of age, and, we are informed, was unmarried. Ladner was a married man, and lived near to Doel’s farm. An inquest is to be held this forenoon. A more horrible case than this has not happened for a long time.I could not find Francis’s grave.The cemetery also contains a memorial to Robert Copas and Lace Maxwell who died in a flying accident in the Hunter Valley in May 1994. They had flown from Archerfield to Luskintyre Airport to perform joy rides and stunts and on the day in question had taken off with Robert flying and Lace ready to perform a wing-walking stunt but the engine stalled and the plane crashed and burst into flames killing them both.It was the 150th anniversary of God’s Acre in 2009.
Poker School!
There was another thunder storm last night about 9.00pm. Will and I went out on to the front verandah to watch the planes flying in to Brisbane Airport and watch the forked lightning flashing all around them! I tried to take pictures but did not have much success. We came in when the mosquitoes started to feast on us.I survived the first night in the man-cave though I did not get to sleep for a very long time. I felt safe in the protected force field of the mosquito net.Will was up at 6.00 am and left for work at 7.15am. I tried to go back to sleep but couldn’t. What is wrong with me?After breakfast, Dulcie needed to make a ‘batch a biscuits’! It’s amazing how quickly they disappear round here! She made her jam drops and sultana biscuits, I only got to sprinkle on the desiccated coconut but I felt I had contributed.I did some washing and changed the bedding on the bed we have been using up here in the house and when all our jobs were done we sat down to play cards.Knock Poker, I have never heard of it. Dulcie taught me all the possible combinations of hands from lowest to highest: high card, a pair, 2 pair, 3 of a kind, straight, flush, full house, straight flush and royal flush.I won the first hand and thought I was going to be blessed by beginners luck. No such thing! We had five coins each and slowly my coins disappeared until I was on a ‘pension’. (A ‘pension’ is when you have no more coins left, ie one last chance to win) I was on a ‘pension’ before 90 year old Dulcie! Can you believe that?!She won the first game.We broke for a lunch of corned meat sandwiches and then it was back to Poker School. Some people might go easy upon beginners but not my teacher, she slapped down four aces with glee!‘I’ve never had four aces before!’ she said.She slapped down the Ace, King, Queen, Jack and ten of Spades!‘I’ve never had a 'straight' like that before!’ she said.It was just my luck. She won the second game and then the third.I just hope she never suggests Strip Poker!
Breaking News!
The telly has left Singapore and is now headed towards Yantian in China...So is Typhoon Haiyan! Oh, oh Chango!