Another Country Diary by Fred Harden - Bungendore NSW, Australia

Another Country Diary After about a week of these diary entries, they go to the archive.
Tuesday 26 October '04
There's been suggestions that there's something in the Bungendore water that is the reason why there's so many boys in town. It certainly throws the gender balance in our street that I've mentioned before. It brings its own problems however. I can remember playing on the shed roof and if kids are still playing games with swords (sorry - light sabers) it seems a long way from smashing phone booths and graffiti. (see below. Thank god there is still make-believe.
Of course those games give way to other things when the boys grow up. While we were working in the garden on Saturday morning, we were serenaded at high volume by a couple of budding guitar heroes from an adjoining back yard. It's still at the stage of a few power chords repeated monotonously but they practiced until lunchtime when a parent came home and said 'turn that bloody noise down'. Then it wasn't fun anymore so they stopped. They've got the look right, now they just need the music.
Sunday 24 October '04
Yep, those are puddles under the ute and puddles usually mean rain. That's just what it has been doing. Watching the rain gauge over the last week or so, there has been around 30mm of rain in total. With warm sunny days between there's green grass everywhere and while not relaxing yet, there's smiles, and a collective sigh of relief building.
The car park near the sports ground was decidedly muddy. We walked the dogs and of course they went straight through the deepest puddles. We don't need anymore drought but maybe we need taller dogs.
I did the usual run around the garden with the camera when the rain stopped on Sunday, and if you don't share my delight in the water drops, just look at the pictures.
The clematis on the fence outside the kitchen pantry is now well established and it's great catching a glimpse of it through the narrow French doors as we head to the pantry. You can't see it out the bigger kitchen window (the Banksia Rose is dominating that) and not seeing it all the time keeps it visually fresh. I'm reminded of a story I've read of Japanese (?) Zen architecture where if there is a spectacular view around a monastery they'll build a wall to block it, and set a small gap or window in a position such as near a water source so that, bending down to wash their hands or collecting a bucket of water, they'll glimpse the view. Bending in a position of humility and seeing such beauty, it becomes a religious moment. I get that Zen moment, every time I'm heading to the fridge.
Friday 20 October '04
You've probably noticed that someone has smashed the windows of the phone box outside the Caltex service station on the Highway. Gee, that must have been so much fun! If you're a stranger driving through Bungendore, don't get the wrong impression. It's a nice town.
I'm presuming that the phone box vandalism is by locals but the graffiti on the toilets near the sports ground that offers paeans to the joys of living in Tuggeranong, you presume are by visitors. Tuggaz 4 Life - how sad.
Sunday 10 October '04
I've been helping out the Collector Pumpkin Festival Committee to do their new website ... (www.pumpkinfestival.com.au - it will be live and public soon). I wrote about this year's event in the Diary and in a later entry (and had some email saying "ok, that's enough pumpkins"). What I liked about the Festival was how well run it was, what good stall holders and quality food suppliers it attracted (there's a Regional Food report on that aspect here), and what a nice feeling of community there was about the day. At the Collector Hall on the Sunday after the elections, there was a breakfast launch to announce the 2005 Festival details, and of course I took some photographs. The locals attending were a mix of the (mostly older) long time residents and the relatively newer ones who all seemed to have babies and small children. It gave a nice family feel to the morning (is that how newby 'empty nesters' like me are supposed to respond?) and had a sense of an alive and growing rural community. Even if many of the people go into Canberra to work this is where they live and they bring up their kids. I heard that they're going to start a pre-school playgroup, and the small Collector primary school is assured of pupils for some time to come. I'm sorry Jackie, but there'll be more pumpkins in the Diary, I've planted some Atlantic Giants (last years big pumpkin winner) and some Australian Sunset ones (a brilliant orange coloured flat-ish variety).

Fred Harden
		Home \| Archive Menu