Leisurely Scribbles (part 5) (Part 1)

Hobbies & Pastimes Hobbies & Pastimes: Chat / Discussions
16522

Spinifex ??? - perhaps I’m older than yuz two and watched more black and white cowboy movies - or maybe ya memories are playing tricks with yourselves bein as ya in lock down?? I thought of the clue meself cos thez all go together - but I do admire your sense of honesty Jem about not doin a google - but where’s that clever dicki - the one in the scheimitz - God that’s hard to say on a full stomach!!

should we wait for him? Just close ya eyes and imagine ya watchin and old black and white cowboy movie and the good guy is riding into this deserted ghost like town - all is silent he glances nervously from one side to the other - he looks straight down the one street in town - the wild wind of the desert is howling; unlocked gates are banging - spinifex?

Boab - Jem me man ia on the right track there with nut or fruit just keep usin ya hard nut on that one laddie and you’ll be jumpin like a jumbuck!

Mr Fruitcake you gettin hot too there - nearly there me mon - with the King Sound - it was named after an expanse of water close too - so if you not able to make the connection just from that and ya one step away I think I will concede the use of google and maybe give ya mans Spitz and Jem one more chance on that one?

the halfway in in in indeed - isn’t that’s what the vicar daughter said to the sailor?? bum bum??

The first house I lived in was actually born in in da pool was right next to a pub - walls adjoining - those drunken b… s used to stagger out or so I am told and walk up our step and pee on the doorstep cos the lav in the pub was full - me ma use to go berserk and I think that was one of the reliefs she had when we moved into the next suburb to live with me Das mum and da. there was a lot of livin together in those days wasn’t there - inconvenient at times and lack of privacy but lookin back now a comfort in large numbers - ya never felt lonely heh? My bros and I had to share a bed ; the sis slept with the grandma and ma and da - had some peace alone! the grandda was deed as they say somewhere?

ps: was RF Kennedy that tall - never realized or did they just have too much metal left over?

16523

yep, folks go anywhere, when there is no-convenience or lack of a privvy.

16524

There are things I know, things I think I know, things I can work out, and things I don’t know.
For the latter, I would research and find the answer if I needed to find out quick, but oft times I would rather exercise my brain cells to stop them atrophying.

I don’t use google unless there are no other options. I tend to DuckDuckGo things instead as it claims not to track one’s usage.

Spiniflex. Is that tumbleweed?

Boab. I’ve heard of a boabab tree, although I know nowt about them. Is a boab tree one of it’s less glamorous relatives?

King Sound. Named perhaps for the King wot was in charge when it was first seen by an explorer, or possible named after the explorer her/himself.

After my parents were wed, they moved in with my dad’s parents, sharing a nice three bed mid terraced house, so had a decent amount of privacy. It even had both an indoor and an outdoor lavvy, both of the flushing variety.
There’s posh.

Not long after my big bruvver was born they moved to an end terraced house in another town. It still had an inside and outside loo, but the house was slightly bigger than the rest of the row, and sat on a slightly wider plot than the rest as well.

R Mar’s parents were from Gloucestershire farming stock. When grandad arrived in Oz with his brother, they loaded up an 'orse and cart and set off into the wilderness to start a 1590 acre farm.
They built a shack with whatever they could carry, using timber they cut, sheets of corrugated iron, and cut up paraffin tins.

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As well as clearing the land of brush and trees, by hand, they built a wooden bungalow which is where my granny first lived when she went over three years later.

They then built a large bungalow from mud/cement blocks to accomodate three families, with three separate living compartments. Each family moved in as their section was completed.

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Boy did they have it tough.

16525

you mean boab did they have it tough? Mr fruitcake ya got King Sound correct a few steps back and then changed ya mind? The expanse of sea water outside of Derby town is called King Sound not so much because of any king but because it is a big expanse and has what we call "king tides’ of up to 11.8 metres with enough power to generate electricity for the whole area - did it happen I hear you ask - NO - the small minds of govt won against the large minds of scientists - the oft told story.

spinifex is the same as tumbleweed perhaps in the oz vernacular - and we do get a lot out here in the outback - so the spinifex pub and boab go back a long way. Jem was very close too with boab a tree that is not a tree but a grass - the nuts it is guessed may very well have sailed across the oceans to get here some eons back - and they look like upside down trees with the roots in the air instead of the ground.

16526

That’s a terrific photo of you and JFK Fruity, nice to hear you enjoyed your tour, I love Wexford, it gets the best of the weather we get here, probably why they call that part of the country the sunny south east.:slight_smile:
What a great compliment from your lovely cousin when she popped the question, you lucky devil.:wink:
One of my wife’s favourite remarks when she’s annoyed is “Well I didn’t ask you to marry me”
“True my dear, but I didn’t make you say yes” then we’re back on even ground again.:slight_smile:

Bret, I’m not well up on Australian history but I believe we used to send all our hard nuts to Van Diemen’s Land, too far for them to float of course, but I’m sure the idea was considered by the authorities at the time, anything to save a few bob, like floating them over, you know the way the loggers used to float the big logs down the Hudson River with ropes holding them all together.:lol:

I remember my maternal grandmother talking about her grandfather’s brother being one of those transported, he stole a blind man’s fiddle and hocked it for drink, the shame of it, may God forgive him the thieving bass tarred.
He was transported in chains and there was weeping and gnashing of teeth down at the docks the day the ship sailed off to the underside of the world.:cry:

These days, anytime I see a blind man fiddling in town I always drop him a tenner as guilty restitution for the despicable act of my long deceased relative.
Thank God there are not many blind men busking in Dublin today or I’d be way down on me uppers.:smiley:

Getting back to today, it’s two weeks since we got the second jab and we had our youngest grandson over to see us, great that we didn’t have to wear masks and we all enjoyed the lovely dinner Phyllis prepared for us, let’s hope this lasts and can only get better.;-):slight_smile:

Now here’s a good fiddle player, John Sheehan of the Dubliners with his own composition called “The Marino Waltz”
Marino is an area on Dublin’s northside, I think Sheehan hails from there, it’s a lingering little tune. :slight_smile:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=/4rC-xt3bnUk

16527

Have ya got any marino sheep over there by any chance - because ya can be damned sure they would have been transported to OZ way back - their wool me poor dears is considered the finest in the world not that they would be knowing it at all at all! Here is a little blurb about it:

https://www.woolmark.com/fibre/what-is-merino-wool/

I am always amused at how they decided to write up these pages:

" Merino wool is a natural fibre grown year-round by Merino sheep, consuming a simple blend of natural ingredients including sunshine, water, fresh air and grass." sure it’s all sorta true but how for God do they know exactly how much of these ingredients make up the wool. anyway its supposed to be the same as human hair which suggests to me that we need to get out in the sunshine as much as we can drink plenty of water not the hooch or water with the hooch ; get plenty of fresh air not factory produced air and eat plenty of grass or smoke it if ya prefer!

Do they be having marino [merino] sheep in Ireland ? - it would be a damn shame if they didn’t heh?

it’s a very interesting article if yuz got the time and reminds us why wearing these natural products is always healthier than man made synthetics.

I suppose that’s were the name Wool worths comes from heh?

16528

On our wedding day, I was taken to one side by a member of The Brethren, and taught the hundred and one different ways of saying, Yes Dear.
In turn, my Lovely Cousin was taken to one side by a member of The Sisterhood, and taught how to perform The Pursing of the Lips, The Tapping of the Feet, The Folding of the Arms, and most frightening of all, The Look!

Transportation to Australian came about after we Brits lost the Americas following the war of independence that snowballed from domestic terrorism to a world war when many of our other enemies joined the traitorous colonials.

It was a terrible punishment that in many cases far exceeded the severity of the crime. For example, there was a young girl transported to Oz for stealing a lady’s silk hanky. By the time she landed she was pregnant thanks to one of the sailors on the transport ship. She was only fourteen.
Many of our ancestors and countrymen have a lot to answer for.

I’m quite partial to a Dubliner’s ditty. They are a very talented bunch of chaps. Watching the duo play fiddle and guitar together is impressive. One chaps strums the guitar and does the finger-work on the fiddle, and t’other chap saws the fiddle and does the finger-work on the guitar.

I don’t know much about types of sheeps. My lot were mostly arable and dairy/cattle farmers with the odd pig farmer thrown in. The farm in Oz was prominently used to grow wheat.
Merino sheep sound like they originated in Italy or Spain, but we no doubt have them over here.

The land round here is quite salty, being close to the Atlantic Ocean, so is used mainly for grazing sheep and cattle or growing housing estates. The latter seems to grow at an alarming rate. A little further inland there are plenty of apple orchards and cider farms both big and small, along with free-range egg and chicken farms plus a large mushroom farm. No, I don’t mean a Government Office.

Next county over is famed for it’s pig farms.

We also have a farm nearby with a small squadron of Llamas. Alpacas are becoming quite common in the UK plus the odd Ostrich farm. Alpacas are used for their fleece and often mixed with sheep as they are fiercely protective of their flock, and will see off a foxes, badgers, and dogs if they feel threatened.

16529

The land round here is quite salty, being close to the Atlantic Ocean, so is used mainly for grazing sheep and cattle or growing housing estates

Ah ah - I remember sometime ago watching a british tv series on the re-emergence of local villages shops and in particular the butchers. a segment would be devoted to the butcher and his/her shop. This one I recall in particular farmed their own sheep on their own lands and it was salt marshes - the declared quite honestly that in their opinion it produced the tastiest lamb they had even tasted - God honest truth!!

some farmers out here who have over-fertilized their farms are going back to an ancient form of farming were cows horns are buried in the ground full of ; can’t remember now ’ but left for a season and the contents dug up and made into a slurry which is sprayed on the land - with remarkable results of recovery!! God’s honest truth 2

We have a number of TV channels over here as you do too. One is simple called World Movies - the range is quite formidable - I am watching The Duchess atm - the 18 century aristocract Georginia Duchess of Devonshire and ancestor of Princess Dianna and living extremes of lifestyle - v’good acting and scenery majetic!

16530

Well you lads seem to know a lot about farming, I’m sorry to say I haven’t an agricultural bone in me body.:frowning:

I’m a born and bred Dublin townie and growing up I never was within a few miles of any type of sheep or cow never mind a Merino sheep.
Have we any in Ireland? I had to google them and low and behold up pops this Merino sheep standing proud as punch, looks more like a small hairy horse to me, it could probably run faster than some of the horses I’ve backed over the years.:wink:

Merino sheep Ireland.

“Galway sheep are the only native sheep from Ireland. … The merino breed is in the Galway sheep, with selective breeding this helps to improve the wool. A percentage of the wool I have comes from Galway sheep breeders on the main land.” Source—Aran Island sheep farmer.

https://i.postimg.cc/h4Ctbwzc/merino-sheep.jpg

Bret, you say their wool has a human-like hair texture, maybe that wool would make good wigs and open up a whole new industry for the folks in Galway, on second thoughts maybe not, bad enough having no hair but if the word got out you had a woolly head piece and folks began to call you “Sheep head” it would be hard to shrug off. :shock:

I could imagine the wife yelling into the bathroom when I’m having a shave “Hey Jem!, don’t forget to shear your wig while your at it”:slight_smile:

What was that old shepherds joke, ah yes, a lonely shepherd is sitting on a stool harvesting a sheep’s wool when a rambler happens by.

Rambler: “Good morning my good man, I see you’re busy, are you shearing that sheep?”
Shepherd: No!, I’m keeping it to myself”:wink:

Methinks it’s time to get the flock outta here.:smiley:

16531

I’ve been tryin to get the flock out of me ear for ages!!

ah! just had an epithany moment! - we should work with what we’ve got cos it’s always better than workin alone ?? do I feel a rhyme coming on? it’s tryin ; it’s tryin - very trying!

16532

Know nowt about Farming, but, had a Arable Horribilis once, with Farmer Giles.:lol:

16533

There are parts of the UK where ponies run free, and piggies too. The pigs were introduced to eat the plethora of acorns produced each year because acorns are poisonous to horses.
I’ve never tried the resultant pig meat, but I am told it has a very pleasant and distinctive flavour.

Ground up deaded aminals have been used for fertilizer by here for as long as I can remember. My dad used to use dried blood, bone, and fish fertilizer when I were a lad.

There is a cave system not far from here where thousands upon thousands of animal bones were found. There was some sort of depression in the land above and a hole down to the cave forming a natural funnel. Over thousands of years, possibly during the ice age, hundreds of animals either died and fell in, or fell in and died.
When the bone cave was discovered during the last century, thousands of these bones were taken out and ground up to make fertilizer. The problem was that the bones had been fossilised over the millennia, and no longer contained any nutrients, so the exercise was a complete waste of time, and history.

We have a couple of small power stations by here that run on methane produced from animal manure. It’s called Mooclear Power.

We have many TV channels devoted to nothing but films, and my Lovely Cousin and I often settle down to watch a romance or period drama. Some of them involve amateur detectiving so we have great fun trying to predict whodunnit.

Ah yes, there’s many a joke made around the different dialects pronuncification of words. What fun!

16534

Well what I do remember about this farmer story is that here is the one farmer with a lovely green growing farm surrounded by dying farms who contd using fertilizers - it was quite dramatic!

anyway back to films - one of my all time favourites is a Japanese in sub-titles called Our Little Sister - a very unassuming title that may turn you away at first glance - no big dramas just real life story about fractured family but then a healing family - set in a seaside town [yes you read that right] walks on the beach etc - anyway here is the bio

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/our-little-sister-2016

it comes of course with my strongest recommendation you will not be disappointed

16535

Don’t do Films no more, except to keep the Sarnies fresh.

16536

that’s whizze ya come here laddie to live and learn!

16537

just a quick survey from a handful of people - one handle actually! - are you a townie and always will be and why or a bumpkin and always will be and why or as we say these days transitioning [ love using these dirty words!]

16538

I am a Bumpkin, who seems to have manifested in an urban environment but semi transitioned.

16539

snap and I’ll be spitfired - started of townie then transitioned and came bumpkin then big townie in skyscraperville here and there and then back to the bush. But I am sure there must be those who always stay a urbanite and those who stay a semi-nomad heh?

lot of descriptors there to mess around with percentage wise that is?

16540

I was Bumpkinised before the manifest was written, how can that be?

16541

I’ve mostly been a townie or a villager, but generally lived close enough to bumkinville so I could get there within minutes.

I can certainly pass for one, Ooh arr!