The spring edition of The Southern Yarn is now available for download, and for those favouring the fine B&W on yellow paper version, it will be in the post en route to your mailbox soon.
As usual, you can catch up on back issues by visiting the Southern Yarn section of this website.
The Southern Yarn’s February – March 2019 issue is ready for your reading enjoyment again. Here’s the editorial to get you started:
Thanks to Jenny Gates for typing up the Getting to Know feature for this issue – about “Two-Up” (p.6). Now, I think there needs to be some explanation for readers who have never attended one of our events here in Winnipeg.
We play Two-Up at many of our gatherings – it is easy and fun for all ages, and results in a winner in just a few tosses. So, here’s the explanation: the way we “place our bets” is to stand up and place both hands on your head, or both hands on your butt, or one hand on your head and the other on your tail. Everyone who doesn’t match the result of the toss of the two pennies (yes, we use genuine pre-decimal Australian pennies) is out and they sit down. Those left standing place their bet again and there is another toss. It usually only takes three or four tosses to get a winner. So, we’re not really breaking any laws; and, in fact, we’re upholding a long-observed ANZAC Day tradition.
There is a charming 1937 book titled The Lore of the Lyrebird by Ambrose Pratt in which much of the credit for advancing the knowledge of lyrebirds is said to be due to an amazing friendship between a male lyrebird and a widowed lady named Mrs Edith Wilkinson, who, at that time, lived hermit fashion on one of the higher slopes of Mt Dandenong, Victoria, Australia. Since then these birds continue to fascinate and impress and have become superstars through YouTube and David Attenborough documentaries. They are also the subject in this issue’s Birds I view (P.8).
Thank you this month to Jude McCudden, Jenny Gates, Chris Brasher, Malcolm Whyte, Judy Powell, Peter Munn, Terry Delong, Murray Burt, our advertisers and you, our readers!
The end of the year is upon us, and the final Yarn of 2018 is upon us.
Here is the message from the Editor:
The month of November heralded several momentous events: the Melbourne Cup, the US mid-term elections and the DUCW’s Annual Meeting, to name a few. More seriously, of course, it was the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day. Here in Canada, “Remembrance Day” is commemorated more like ANZAC Day is downunder – the 11th of November is a public holiday, there are dawn services as well as larger gatherings at 11:00 around cenotaphs in most towns, Veterans, active service personnel and cadet units parade while pipers and bands play and march, speeches are delivered and prayers are offered, the Fallen are remembered in the moment of silence between the Last Post and Reveille. A very informative site to visit regarding the Armistice is: https://armistice-museum.com/understanding-the-history/the-armistice-of-1940/ Thank you again to all who have contributed to this issue of the Yarn – we may even be running to 8 pages! For insight into other historical events regarding the Armistice, read on!
The Autumn (October-November) 2018 version of The Southern Yarn greets us with the arrival of chilly weather and colourful leaves, and some early snowfalls. Read it all here!
All our back issues are available at the Yarns page, too, of course.
Editorial:
Lots of bits of news for your reading pleasure again this issue. While browsing, the persistent story that kept coming up was the drought that is affecting widespread parts of Australia, as well as New Zealand. Folk have even resorted to rain dances! While it is a good example of typical Aussie humour in the face of hardship, it could be taken as a bit too light-hearted for such a critical issue. I believe the “performers” are dead serious and desperate to get the attention of the public and the politicians any way they can. For many, it is past the point of rain now providing relief: they need financial and emotional assistance. And in the longer term, some new strategies to mitigate the hardships of future prolonged extreme dry seasons. Obviously great minds have been at work addressing this challenge for some years. A good summary of one such effort is the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) publication: “The science of providing water solutions for Australia” [available online here]. For our part, we catch what spring run-off we can and pump it into barrels for use on the garden. This year there was precious little (yes, Manitoba experienced a drought, too), so plan B was drip-irrigators, sprinklers and buckets. My thanks, on your behalf, to the other contributors to this Yarn: Jenny, Ed, Peter, Judy, Murray, Brian and our advertisers! Enjoy, Charlie.
Yarn2018_08-09-AugSepThe Yarn for August and September 2018 is ready for you to download.
Editorial:
G’day. Welcome back. I have to admit that it was a challenge for me getting this issue together. I found that the change in frequency from monthly has thrown me off my stride. However, I am sure I/we will adjust. And, if you value this newsletter, please take the time to send in ideas (eg, for “Getting to know”) and snippets for inclusion. I, and I am sure most readers, especially like to get info on personal encounters and anecdotes as well as news items that are less-out-there. Thank you again to those who are already contributing in this way. Thanks to Jenny Gates for collecting the “We Recommond” section on page one. Your suggestions are always welcome, as we all come across such things to share. As Peter Munn mentions in his President’s Message, one of our summer pleasures is being able to observe the activity at our bird-feeder and the nearby bird-bath. However, this year things did not start out very promising. No birds, apart from the occasional crow, or chipmunks or squirrels were showing up! We soon realized the cause was our new neighbour’s cat, which was being indulged with free range! This called for some careful diplomacy – balancing friendly neighbourliness with firm expectations and reminders of the City By-laws concerning restraining of pets. It seems that the message must have got through (it didn’t hurt that another bird-loving neighbour threw diplomacy to the wind and trapped the offending feline so that it had to be claimed back from the City compound!) as all the usual wildlife have returned and “Frankie” is learning her place in our eco-system. I hope that your summer/winter is also proving interesting and exciting. Enjoy, Charlie