I’ve just come in from the garden where there are several native plants in flower and the vegie patch is offering up some tasty treats and the berries are ripe for picking. I also checked in on the Blackbird nesting in a patch of geramiums. Funny spot for a nest. They build them quite low which makes them an ideal meal for a cat. I have surrounded her with some wire to try to give her a fighting chance, but the odds are against her when it comes to protecting her young.
Blackbirds are introduced of course, but they are very much at home in the suburban garden and they have quite a few advantages. I have one pair who have been nesting in my garden for three years (that I have been watching) and they have claimed the section of the garden where my vegies are. They are brilliant at ferreting through the compost, tossing the pathways into a neat arch and chasing away other Blackbirds and Starlings. They don’t seem to worry about the honeyeaters like the Crescent Honeyeater below that have started ot visit the two native plants in this section.
My interst in the birds that visit my garden was fueled by a gift from my Dad in 1992, The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds. He even wrote on the inside of the front cover “Happy Xmas 1992, Dad”. It was a difficult year for us with the death of my brother, so this was a significant gesture and I make sure I use the guide every year as acknowledgement. This year I pondered the huge amount of work it would have been to paint each bird, document and may their appearance, habits and habitat so that anyone can pick up the book and locate the bird they are seeing. Author and artist Peter Slater collaborated with his with Pat and son Raoul to produce the guide, first published in 1986.
Despite my interest in watching the feathered visitors to my garden and sometimes trying to capture an image of one when I’m out and about, I would vigorously resist being drawn into the world of the twitcher and dedication to photographing birds on a serios scale. I’ve probably already spent too many laboured frustrated minutes, hours, trying to photograph the rapidly moving targets with equipment made for far less rigorous pursuits.
So back to Dad. I thought I would check in on the transcribing I have been doing from his WWII diaries – and haven’t been doing in recent months – and see what he was doing for Xmas in 1942. He is a POW in Italy, and as the time ticks by slowly the flurry of food sent form Britain for Christmas was quite an event to celebrate. There is also a stage performance to cap the day off at which my father was a tailor creating dresses out of towels and whatever else he could find. He had been trained as a window dresser prior to enlistment and his sewing skills were very useful as a POW. Cheers to you John Langdon.
Christmas Day FRIDAY 1942
Instead of the usual entry I am making this one more
detailed first of all the thing that made life pleasant
the parcel, it contains a pound tin of beef steak pudding
steak and macaroons Xmas pudding and Xmas cake
a half pound of chocolate biscuits butter and jam
a ¼ lb tin of sweets and ¼ lb of chocolate 3 1oz
bars of sugar and 3oz of cheese. I rose at ten in
good time for the stew but at 7.30 I went to Jim’s
for my Dixie of tea and came back to a decent
feed I shared the tea with another Jim here in the
hut and he milked it. I had half a loaf some
cheese chocolate biscuits and fruit at this meal
and lay back until I felt inclined to get up wash and
have a shave, before I got up the free canteen issue
arrived a bottle of beer four apples three tangerines
and oranges onions, by the time I had cleaned up. I
put the issue of pumpkin – also free- into my stew with
some onion and when the stew did arrive it was a
very special effort really thick and with the pump-
-kin was a really satisfying full Dixie, shortly after
this the bread and cheese came the tea came up
and I had half a tin of maconichies saved till now
and a portion of Xmas pudding with condensed
milk helped down with sweet tit bits or an apple.
at this stage I was really full uncomfortably so and
when the bread and cheese came I saved the ‘cob’
and tried to eat the cheese – I couldn’t. After
a short ‘rest’ I went to see Jim to get the loaf
he promised me for a pair of tweezers, on getting
the loaf he handed me a Dixie and being so full
myself I thought I’ll give this to the fellows in the hut thinking
that it was tea but my surprise and consternation was
unsurpassed when I found it to be full of solid “cooks”
stew, here was a situation, I was full as I not known
for some months and unable to eat good solid food
anyway I put it in my flat Dixie and wrapped it up
to keep it warm. After moving about a bit to the Rec hut
with Jim it went down very well and I am sure I
could not have eaten it all, from this until three thirty
I sat on my bed writing and ‘resting’ at 3.30 the tea
tea came up – far too early and I have nothing
until after four and at four thirty I set off with
Phil to the concert getting the characters dressed for
their parts. I spent a busy time on them until six when
the show commenced, I stayed all the time doing the
necessary running repairs and was kept on my feet
all the while. At the end of the show a Dixie of tea
was provided and I filled mine right up mixing in cocoa
and brought it back to the hut sharing it with Jim, all
the evening I had stood a tin for each of us on the fire
of steak and tomato pudding and brought them back
as well, it was a lovely meal after the evenings hard
work I turned the pudding out whole on my tin plate and
it was perfect floating in rich gravy, I had half a loaf
with it and afterwards rested getting into bed about
10.30 and talked until 1 am eating the rest of my sweets
and chocolate biscuits at the same time!!! At the end
of the show Phil and I were presented as tailors etc I was
rather pleased with that for it somewhat rewarded our
efforts of the past few weeks although the work itself
is very good a reward being a “very good show.”
