Pop The Corks, Raise The Glasses, Strike Up The Band!. I'm Back.

To those of you who have been kind enough to search out my blog. and have found no new posts for months, I do apologize.
I have been ill.
Although I am not altogether better, I am much improved and getting on with my life.
New blogs should begin to appear as from today.
During my recovery Teddy and I have been working on a series of cartoons.
As regular readers know, we are keen organic gardeners and we have been collaborating in the creation of a cartoon series.
A new cartoon will be added most weeks from now on and we hope you will get a smile or even a laugh from the little creatures who live "Under The Worm Farm Lid'.

 

 

Letter From The Other Side; from Cynthia.

 It is unwise to begin sinking quietly into your favourite chair thinking thankful thoughts about Christmas and New Year celebrations being behind you because as soon as you do Australia Day celebrations begin. I’m sure other countries have this type of day. It is the day when national pride is supposed to shine like a beacon out into the world, or into a black hole which is my idea of where it mostly goes.

Politicians heap accolades on us bolstering our national psyche by telling us what a special people we are and many other wonderful things we promptly forget as soon as we enter a sporting arena or someone cuts us off on the freeway. That’s just before they go back to parliament to abuse the living daylights out of each other under the freedom of parliament and call each other names, heaping insults upon one another they wouldn’t dare utter in the public arena for fear of litigation.

At last the children are packed off back to school following a long and dreadful summer and parents are left contemplating the bills which fill the letter boxes after the purchasing of new uniforms, school books and computers, Oh yes, and buying all the now discarded Christmas gifts. Resolutely they return to work so they can pay for it all again next year.

Some parents and many others in our communities have no letter boxes. They have been washed away by floods and others have been burnt along with their homes, animals and livelihoods. It’s been a horrible summer.

A month after it began, the fire in the mountains near us is still burning. Professional and many volunteer firemen are still working long hours on their trucks or on foot in rugged terrain while water-bombing helicopters drone back and forth all day. At times the smoke has turned the sky red, stinging our eyes and throats making people with heart and lung disease ill. If you have ever seen a photograph of the eerie red atmosphere on mars, then think of us, that is what our landscape looks like at present.

We had a little rain and the fire has gone quiet as it creeps around the ravines and down into the gullies. It would only take another day of 40 degree heat and it could wake like a roaring giant and threaten to eat the towns and everything before it once more.

Most days we go for a walk with our dogs and joke with others we meet about taking our ‘breath of fresh smoke for the day.’ If the dogs are aware of the tension all around us they give no indication. Perhaps their trust in us is too complete.

This threat will pass, it always does. People have lost everything they own, some have lost their lives but we go on, we have to, we are told how tough we are how strong and brave we should be and beside all that according to the television and the supermarkets Valentines Day is coming!

That too will pass and before the last chocolate heart has left the shelves the chocolate eggs and bunnies will be filling the spaces.

The entire world, accept those who have suffered will forget the headlines and the pictures of destruction. It must, because it can’t become bogged down in despondency and depression. However, should you meet anyone who has been touched by these and other tragedies tread lightly on their feelings as you offer that person who has nothing left, a chocolate.