Of Its Former Self

THEN

OF ITS FORMER SELF

This time last year my garden (a tiny little plot)

Was overgrown and rampant, the fence about to rot.

The jasmine was all woody, the bird-bath past its best;

All was cool and shady, but nothing much impressed.

So the whole thing was 'bull-dozered', well, in a sort of way,

And everything is neat and spare in my courtyard today.

Oh yes, it's all much easier; the pebbles ban the weeds;

No soil remains for little birds to drop their naughty seeds.

The fence that Malcolm's fashioned is quite a work of art;

He's even sort of 'sculptured' it, so he has played his part.

It's an ideal garden for the elderly, with nothing much to do,

So we can just relax out there, enjoying our new view.

But I'll always sentimentalise over my by-gone bower,

With its general air of discrete decay and every wayward flower.

'A shadow of it former self'? No, I'm really very glad

That we no longer have the mess that, previously, we had.

But I'll always sigh a secret sigh for the garden that has gone,

While knowing that change must always come, and we must travel on.

*

NOW 

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LEMON TREE PASSAGE.

The pelicans and seagulls

Know how to co-operate.

The fishing boats will soon arrive

And they're prepared to wait.

Port Stephens is a wonderland

As the whales and dolphins know.

And pleasure-boats go out to them

When they put on a show.

Lemon Tree Passage! What a name!

Not a lemon tree in sight!

Just pelicans and seagulls!

And water dancing bright.

*

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  PS

Australia, having come through the World Financial Crisis with flying colours, is reeling at the moment. An enormous area is flooded...... larger than Texas, as large as France and Germany combined...... in what is being called a Slow Tsunami. The water will not reach some places for weeks, maybe months, but it is inexorable. Added to that, because it is still drenching down rain, some places have had flash floods as well. The town of Twoowoomba had a great wall of water roll through it, and, at the time of writing, 66 people are missing. The mining industry has had to close down, all the crops are ruined, the road and rail links are crushed almost beyond repair. Billions of dollars will be lost. There will be shortages of food, and elevated prices down the track.

The last Great Flood was in 1974 and thereby hangs a personal tale. We travelled from S Africa to Australia that year, and we were on a ship carrying immigrants from Italy. A film of Twoowoomba was shown on board and I fell in love with the place. It is in the hills in the hinterland of the Gold Coast and it looked lovely. However, when we landed we discovered we couldn't get there because of terrible floods, so we stayed in Newcastle until things improved. We found we liked Newcastle after a while and decided to stay. It is where we now live. And we are safe from this new flood here. It is strange how things turn out sometimes.

Just a little smile.

*