Captive Wives

Well know Perth actor, director and writer, Jenny Davis was in town recently to start work on a project that Agelink Theatre Inc(that Jenny founded in 1993 and writes and directs for) has been invited to work on in association with Esperance Community Arts and The Esperance Theatre Guild.

Jenny was in town with fellow thespian Jenny McNae, to interview farming women in the Esperance distict about the challenges of clearing new land country, running a farm, raising a family and the tyranny of distance. Whilst the title of the project is yet to be confirmed, the interest was sparked from the story of a group of women in the Grass Patch area in the 1970's who met monthly and called themselves the Captive Wives. Stories have been gathered from a few of the original Captive Wives as well as a few others farming in the Esperance district from the late 1950's to the present day. There was plenty of material to be found in the local publication "Faith, Hope and Reality" which 'The Jenny's' found fascinating.

Whilst in its earliest stages, the project aims to collate as many stories as possible into a theatrical production of some sort that will end up on the stage of The Bijou Theatre. 'The Jennys' spent a week interviewing and delving into historical archives to get a feel for the piece they are going to create. The Esperance Theatre Guild has asked local director Lyndel Taylor and myself to direct this project, and Tracey Schlink is the producer. Flora Yetman is doing the costumes and auditions will be called for later as the project takes form.

I'll keep you updated as it progresses.

Australia Day Poets in the Park, Perth

The WA Bush Poets held their 15th annual Poets in the Park showcase at Wireless Hill Park, Ardross this Australia Day. Fifteen poets from all over the State performed a mixture of their own and traditional pieces from Australian poets such as Lawson and Paterson.

Here I am with poets Irene Connor and Corin Lynch from Jurien. Regular ABC listeners will know Corin from his contributions to The Dawn Patrol on Perth's ABC 720.

It was a warm day but an enthusiastic crowd and once again I met some lovely people and a lot of poets I had heard of but never seen, including Peg Vickers from Albany. I have asked Peg and Corin to contemplate joining us in Esperance in October for the Bush Poets' Breakfast at the Esperance Districts Agricultural Show. They do some great stuff that is very entertaining.

One of the best parts of the day was meeting Meg, and old friend I haven't seen for years who had heard me on Eoin Cameron's breakfast show that morning (reciting Banjo Paterson's The Geebung Polo Club) and had come up to Wireless Hill Park to see me. The power of radio!

ABC 720 Breakfast with Eoin Cameron

I had a great morning with ABC 720 Breakfast Host Eoin Cameron and his producer Brad McCahon at the North Cott Surf Club when they had an outside broadcast from the foreshore a few weeks ago.

Here we are, Brad, Eoin, me and Mr Toad, (Tiff's Staffy Kelpie cross). It was the morning of the Liberal Party leadership spill so the phone lines were jammed with regular ABC listeners saying "Get this political stuff off the radio and get back to the normal program. The results of the spill can wait til the news!"

Sky Larks launch at Hopetoun

The launch of the Southern Scibes latest book 'Sky Larks' took place at Hopetoun last night and was a wonderful evening of recitations, celebrations and entertainment.

I was delighted to be invited as Master of Ceremonies for the event, which included performances by local soprano Evelyn Arnold, the Qualup Choir, recitations from 'Sky Larks' by some of the contributing poets, a heartfelt official launch by poet and author Graham Kershaw from Denmark and wonderful music from a fabulous Denmark duo, Tony and Jude (two of the three socks in Jazz trio 'Odd Socks' from Denmark.......and a fabulous pair of socks they are too.)

Tony had written the music and adapted the lyrics of three of the poems in 'Sky Larks' which were very well received by the crowd. It would be good to see and hear a lot more from these musicians who effortlessly entertained throughout the evening with a guitar, a violin and two lovely voices. What really was the icing on the cake for me was watching local violinist Ron (who is no spring chicken, but plays like one) join the duo and jam away with nothing to use as music other than his ear! Quite brilliant.

It was a top night in the Hopetoun rural community which is still recovering from the shock of the Ravensthorpe mine closure late last year. I was given a quick tour of the town before the book launch by Southern Scribe Eve and her husband Frank, and was impressed at the infrastructure and money poured into the town, which looks fabulous. Not so impressed are some of the locals.

"BHP......Buggered Hopetoun Permanently. That's what I call it."said barman Cocky.

It is very sad to see so many new homes and buildings totally empty and deserted in the little seaside town and to hear of the huge financial losses and pain of those who were left holding the baby after BHP threw out the bath water.

However the true country spirit always shines through and there were plenty of laughs and good humour at the launch. Of particular note was a Southern Scribe husband's basterdised rendition of Paterson's 'Geebung Polo Club'. Highly entertaining!

Thanks you for inviting me to be a part of it all last night and I look forward to returning to entertain the Hopetoun community next year.

The Wee or Not the Wee.....

What is this? Is it a plastic water bottle filled with urine? I did wonder when I extricated it from the bowels of the back of Will's cupboard. No....I am not fossicking around in there looking for 'stuff'. I am ripping out all the carpet in the bedrooms as we having new carpet after twenty two years. Yay!

We do not have a 'little man' to do the ripping up and furniture removing in preparation for the carpet layers. I am it. All the muscled, useful types are out in the fields swathing the canola. But I digress......

"What is this?" I said to Dad, shaking the vile looking liquid in the bottle. The only good thing to be said about it was that it wasn't tepid....

"Sniff it" he said, looking slightly nervous, and obviously not keen to do the 'nose test' himself.

"Sniff it yourself" I replied.

But being the brave bush woman that I am I did the deed and announced, "It smells like alcohol."

Suddenly, quite keen to sniff the liquid, my 'hunka spunk' agreed. "Smells like scotch."

We rang 'the son and heir' at boarding school in Perth and questioned him as to the contents of his water bottle.

"Scotch and vodka" he said, outrightly and unashamedly (has learnt that lying is a worse crime than the crime itself)

"Gleaned from the drinks cupboards of the parents of your day boy friends?" I asked

"Yes" he replied, obviously amazed at my visionary powers (Hello? I was young once too....)

"Would I be right in presuming you have yet to work over ours?"

"Yup" he said.......

Tip: Turn every bottle of grog in your drinks cabinet upside down before you mark a line on what's in the bottle. Brilliant! The youth of today can't work it out as the line doesn't match up with the level of booze in the bottle when they are trying to filch it.

Reminder to self: Stop slugging intermittently from the bottle or the above ploy doesn't work.

Esperance Bush Poets' Breakfast

We have just had the inaugural Bush Poets' Breakfast at Esperance this month and it was a huge success with over 150 people turning up to hear the poets perform.

Here is WA Bush Poets and Yarn Spinners President, Brian Langley, performing to the very enthusiastic crowd. Other poets entertaining the masses were Bill Gordon from Boyup Brook, Victor Dale from Kalgoorlie and myself. Unfortunatley Peter Blyth from Albany (formerly of BuggerUp Downs, Salmon Gums) couldn't make it as he had 'buggered up' his back.

Brian's wife Dot started off the 'walk ups' for us, encouraging any would be poets to get up on stage and have a go at reading or reciting either their work or someone else's. After Dot had performed her piece, local writer Lesley Higson took to the stage and read two of her poems which were very well received. This bodes well for future bush poets' performances in the district. Hopefully we might run a Poets in the Park event next spring.

The morning was so much fun and so well attended that the Esperance Ag Society committee have decided to run it again next year.....so would be poets, get your pens onto paper or start learning your favourite piece for next year.

Swathing canola and crows

I climbed up on the roof of the house to take this shot across the home paddock a couple of weeks ago, with a view of the canola in flower and Mt Ney in the background. That beautiful yellow mass is no longer there, as the canola has nearly finished flowering, and swathing it will be the next job here on the farm.

In the meantime I am off to Pingrup this weekend for a Bush Poets' Dinner and fundraiser for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. This was a great gig last year, and I am looking forward to meeting up with fellow bush poets and hearing their contributions to the evening.

I am in the throes of writing some new poems as well as trying to kill a crow that keeps invading my chook house and stealing eggs. We've had three attempts at shooting it, none of them successful. Crows have ears and eyes in the backs of their heads. Everytime Tom tries to sneak round the side of the house to take a pot shot at it first thing in the morning (e.g. 5.30am) it spies him and takes off.

It is probably not helped by the fact he has done nothing to camouflage himself and blend into the scenery. Naked, apart from ugg boots and a gun is enough to scare anyone away.....