Posted in Fifty words
26 September 2020
Can I mention that in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy the answer to the meaning of the universe is 42, and that it’s 42 years since the radio program first aired. And that Ford Prefect and Arthur encounter survivors from Golgafrincham, a planet wiped out by a virulent disease.
Posted in Fifty words
25 September 2020
People have put their rubbish on the street, as if this wind won’t take it and distribute the pieces, the box upended behind a car, the plastic wrap flapping out across the road, the polystyrene booming down the road to flop in front of a too-fast truck and be shredded.
Posted in Fifty words
24 September 2020
We first see the train as we turn at the end of the street. ‘We’re following it!’ my granddaughter laughs, and so we are. We see it again across the paddocks, reduced in size, a matchbox train. ‘It’s smaller because it’s further away!’ my granddaughter exclaims. Both rational and magic.
Posted in Fifty words
23 September 2020
Down in the street two young teenagers are walking, shoelaces undone, school backpacks drooping. His arm is draped over her shoulder. They both smile dreamy smiles of contentment. They kick across the road in the benevolent afternoon. Mild sun warms their backs, and a breeze is animation in the trees.
Posted in Fifty words
22 September 2020
The woman at the playground tells me that her baby is seven weeks old, then that her daughter is two. I tell her that my granddaughter is also two, and we compare birth dates. ‘Never come across anyone so stubborn.’ She gestures towards her daughter. ‘Except me,’ she adds grimly.
Posted in Fifty words
21 September 2020
The sky is enormous with shredded white clouds. Signs warn us of endangered seabirds but an illiterate raptor sweeps past, eyes on the nesting sites. Magpies, swooping in rotation, tiny in the sky, chase it down the beach. The pied oyster catcher digs in wet sand as the waves retreat.
Posted in Fifty words, Tapitallee tales
20 September 2020
Looking for the river we drive to Bangalee Reserve, then follow a sign beckoning, ‘Start of walk’. Past an ancient forked bunya pine, with razor-tipped leaves. Slabs of cliff hold rock orchids in flamboyant bloom. Palm trees and stinging trees in sheltered pockets. Views of the river ebb and flow.
Posted in Fifty words, Tapitallee tales
19 September 2020
Fairy lights and swathes of material have transformed the old green shed, now fit for a celebration. Plates of food make way for guitars and singing. Jenny will only dance to Dancing Queen so here it is. John jumps up for Jumping Jack Flash. Not bad for an old guy.
Posted in Fifty words
18 September 2020
It’s a good day for curling up in bed – damp, soft grey sky – and the sea-eagle chicks have nestled down. Just when you think the white one has finally dozed off it scratches itself, or cleans under its wing, jostling the darker one, making it wriggle irritably in its sleep.
Posted in Fifty words
17 September 2020
Bundanoon is beautiful with opulent magnolia and pink-tinged snowy-white blossom. Waving yellow wattle and delicate droops of sweet pea. I push the pram into the butcher’s shop as a passing woman wearing an ankle length wrap of finely-woven wool articulates to her companion, ‘How did you discover this little place?’.
