KNOCKOUT

When Paul found the boxing tent he couldn’t have been more surprised. 

A large sign announced that the celebrity middleweight Fritz Holland, from America, would be the star performer and that a purse of ten pounds was offered to anyone who could last a full three rounds with the great man. 

Paul had seen his boxing hero, Les Darcy, fight and beat this man at the West Melbourne Stadium five years earlier, after losing to him in Sydney the year before. It was a match Paul would never forget. What luck it would be for him to get into the ring with Fritz Holland. 

Paul headed to the butcher’s stockyards on the edge of town where he and Jack and two other young workers from the Ocean Road gang were camped for the weekend. The hot sun was tempered by a south-westerly sea breeze and the silence of the bush was broken only by flocks of noisy lorikeets.

ANIMAL INSTINCT

Kevin mentioned the newcomer to Jake one day. It was a quiet moment around mid-morning and the big concrete and corrugated iron Co-op building was empty but for the two of them.

Sos Semple had been working in the little coastal town for six weeks before anyone knew he was there. This was unusual. Kevin at the Co-op knew about the new man working on the dredge, but not until Sos had been there for a few weeks. 

Kevin mentioned the newcomer to Jake one day. It was a quiet moment around mid-morning and the big concrete and corrugated iron Co-op building was empty but for the two of them.

“Have you met the new fella on the dredge, Jake?” Kevin asked casually as he wrote out the docket. He bent low over the counter the better to see what he was writing.

“No, I didn’t know the job had been filled,” replied Jake.

Both men were quiet for a moment, then Jake said, “I reckon I’d go mad pumping sand over that sea wall and watching it wash back in again on the next big tide.”

“Someone has to do it,” said Kevin, straightening up and looking at Jake. 

SPIN

“Look Jamie, look! Baby lambs everywhere!”

Jamie glanced up from his device long enough to look out of the car window. The landscape was bright green even though the country was in a severe drought. Then he saw the tell-tale black mini water-wheels, signalling that they were passing through an irrigation area. Still pumping scarce water to fatten lambs. Jesus! Will we never get it right? he asked himself.

“Very nice, lovely little lambs, Gran.” 

“And if they’re very lucky, they will become missionaries when they grow up.”

It was a few moments before what Gran had said registered with Jamie. He was quite busy typing a reply to a question on a forum which wanted information about alternative coding for a new smart-phone application. 

“Missionaries? What do you mean, Gran?”

LOVE LOST

Kate noticed Jack and his mate Paul when she went down the street shopping for her mother some weeks before he and she first met.

Jack had driven to the town with the horse and dray from the road-building camp and was loading bags of potatoes in the lane beside Mrs Johansson’s general store. 

When Mrs Fleming’s kelpie bitch–which she had told to stay with her neat little pony and trap parked below the pines on the foreshore–started lunging at the feet and tail of the heavy horse between the shafts of the dray, the big animal only put its ears back and stamped its front foot.

Then the dog aimed higher at the inner loose skin of the front right leg and attached its teeth to an exposed area of the softer hide, then discovered it could not let go. 

At that point, the gelding threw up its back legs, kicking the dray and sending three bags of potatoes to the ground where they split open spreading potatoes over a large area of the lane.

Onlookers were aghast. But the tall young men with the horse and cart acted without panic or fear.

PEPE THE ALPACA

 ON THE ROAD WITH PEPE THE ALPACA SQUARE WALL CLOCK

On the road with Pepe the Alpaca depicts an alpaca from a farm close to where we live. We have it on a number of products. This clock sold to a customer in Germany.

The Vicugña pacos is a domesticated species of South American camelid. The camels that most people are familiar with are the ones with humps; the dromedary of Northern Africa, the Middle East, and Southern Asia, and the Bactrian camel of China and Tibet. Four other camelids (without humps) are indigenous to South America: llamas and alpacas, have been domesticated for thousands of years. The other two varieties, guanacos and vicunas, continue to roam in wild herds today.

It comes in two breed-types: huacaya (pronounced wuh‑KAI‑ya) and suri (SUR‑ee). Huacayas, the more common type, account for about 90% of all alpacas. Huacaya fiber is a bright, crimpy, soft fiber, that is well suited to knitted, crocheted, and woven applications. Suri fiber, on the other hand, is naturally silky, smooth, cool to the touch, with high luster. Suri has a natural drape which makes it perfect for flowing scarves, shawls, and gowns.

HOW ARE THESE DIFFERENT FROM LLAMAS?

People often confuse alpacas with llamas. While closely related, they are distinctly different animals. First, llamas are much larger, about twice the size of an alpaca, with an average weight of about 250 to 450 pounds, compared to an alpaca whose weight averages 120 to 200 pounds. Llamas are primarily used for packing or for guarding herds of sheep.

ARE THEY AN “EXOTIC SPECIES,” OR SIMPLY “LIVESTOCK?”

Alpacas have been raised as domestic livestock for thousands of years. Since the end-product is their fleece, like sheep, they are classified as livestock by both the United States and Canadian federal governments.

DO THEY SPIT?

All members of the camel family use spitting as a means of negative communication. They do get possessive around food, and thus may express annoyance by spitting at other alpacas that they perceive are encroaching on “their” food. Also, they often spit at one another during squabbles within the herd (usually involving two or more males). Alpacas do sometimes spit at people on purpose, but it is more common that humans get caught in the cross-fire between alpacas. It’s best to study their behavior and learn to avoid the most vulnerable situations.

DO THEY MAKE A NOISE?

Alpacas are very quiet, docile animals that generally make a minimal amount of sound. They generally make only a pleasant humming sound as a means of communication or to express concern or stress. Occasionally you will hear a shrill sound, called an “alarm call,” which usually means they are frightened or angry with another alpaca. Male alpacas also “serenade” females during breeding with a guttural, throaty sound called “orgling.”

Find Pepe at our Zazzle.com store:

GOLDEN WHISTLER

How wonderful it is to see some of our less common native birds in the town and in our gardens. Planting flowering Australian shrubs, and if possible, trees like our indigenous Grey Box or Yellow Gum or a flowering Ironbark, provides the food and the incentive for their visits. The exotic Eastern Spinebills who visit our small garden regularly in autumn and winter, only come to feed on the tubular flowers of the Correas in the pots beside the glass doors of the dining area, and in spring, the bottle-brush over near the shed.

We do not have many significant songbirds in our region. Most common would be the Grey Shrike-thrush with its musical song. This bird might visit you as it moves between bush-land and the larger gardens with native trees and with leaf-litter where it forages before flying onto the lower tree branches to sing.

But there is a bird, which once seen and heard, will never be forgotten. It most often visits in autumn and winter. We were lucky enough to have one visit our garden a couple of years ago and which stayed around for almost a week. The Golden Whistler Pachycephala pectoralis is beautiful to look at and to listen to. You will seldom see the bird up close, as it tends to feed high up in the canopy of taller trees. The song is loud and clear and very beautiful, but, as happened to me, I could hear the Whistler clearly as though it was very close, but it took quite a long time to locate it much higher up in the tree than I first thought.

Our birds are always interesting. They are constantly on the move in search of food, be it nectar for the honey-eaters, or insects for the smaller birds, Wrens, Robins, Pardalotes, Thornbills and others. Sometimes you won’t know they are there until you walk out into the garden.

Try keeping a pair of binoculars close to the back door or the kitchen window. On a cold winter’s day in Maldon, it’s well worth it.