Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Declaiming: No. 13 in an occasional series entitled 'Harmless Hobbies for Mad Old Bags'.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Bats
These beautiful animals leave their safe roosts up in tall trees to visit gardens (see previous post) and street trees, where they will feed and squabble. They search for their food of fruit, blossoms and nectar, using sharp eyes and good sense of smell.
I often see a stream of them trailing high over the suburbs against the dusk sky when I'm out walking with the hound.
You can find out more about the bats of Brisbane and the people who care for them here: at Bat Care Brisbane.
August is a cruel month
The plants I have put in have mostly stayed amenable, (with the exception of an olive tree which I allowed to grow to some 5 metres high, in a moment of inattention brought on by my expectations that it would stay looking like those charming specimens that adorn Greek hillsides - and this in sub-tropical Queensland!)
Fortunately, even at my advanced age, I am capable of learning from my mistakes. I have found that I can more readily hack the poor things about if I don't have to brutally squash all of the trimmings into the garden bag.
So my reward for hard-hearted horticulture? A lovely display of grevillea prunings!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Flashmobbing: No. 12 in an occasional series entitled 'Harmless Hobbies for Mad Old Bags'.
Bethell referred to the Flash Mob in his writings about the LAUNCESTON FEMALE FACTORY in The Story of Port Dalrymple.
Just remember the Shrew says 'if you can't keep it nice, keep it legal .' (These ARE Harmless Hobbies, after all.)
The wonderful illustration (above) gives you a bit of an idea. It's from the MyWord Tasmania site. Why not go there and purchase your own print and get your official yellow convict garb too!
Thursday, June 24, 2010
A Great day for the Girrls!
The Common Shrew says to all our daughters and grand-daughters ' I told you girls can do anything! '
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Saturday, June 19, 2010
'Poetry is the shadow cast by our streetlight imaginations' *
After all, she was reading *Ferlinghetti in the fifties when you weren't maybe even a twinkle in your bread-stashin' Daddy's eye ...
So get yourself to Riverbend for Poetry on the deck June 22!
You can make a booking here.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Bloomsday 2010

Here's a photo of young Molly Bloom, in the shade of an olive tree in the Alameida Gardens,
Gibraltar, rushing home late to a scolding after an assignation under the fig trees.
Here's to embracing life and here's to us all on such a day in the writer's year.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Poetry on the Deck, Riverbend Books Bulimba
night after night i have written poetry for you
on your typewriter
and this big brute of a rat who used to be a poet
comes out of his hole when it is done
and reads it and sniffs at it
he is jealous of my poetry
he used to make fun of me when we were both human
he was a punk poet himself
and after he reads it he sneers
and then he eats it
-archy the cockroach - Don Marquis,archy and mehitabel
Queensland Poetry Festival is proud to partner with Queensland Writers Centre and Riverbend Books to present the Riverbend Poetry Series, A State of Writing initiative.
Now in its fifth year, the Riverbend Poetry Series has inspired, entertained and delighted audiences again in 2010.
The date for your diary: Tuesday June 22
Queensland Poetry Festival, QLD Writers Centre & Riverbend Books are proud to present the final event in the Riverbend Poetry Series for 2010. Join us on the Riverbend deck as we launch the 2010 QLD Poetry Festival Program with readings from three of this year's programmed artists: award winning poet Ynes Sanz, rhyme-spitting word-dynamo Darkwing Dubs and the soulfully elegant Suzanne Jones.
And as this is the final event for 2010, we are going out with a bang, launching ‘A Million Bright Things' CD which captures some of the best readings and performances from QPF 2009. To launch the CD, members of the QPF Committee and some of the featured local talent will read a selection of poems from the CD. Indeed, this is going to be a gig not to be missed!
Bookings are essential and can be made by contacting Riverbend Books. Ticket price includes sushi and a glass of wine. All events begin at 6.30pm.
Date: Tuesday 22 June
Location: Riverbend Books, 193 Oxford St. Bulimba
Time: Doors open for the event at 6pm for a 6:30pm start
Tickets: $10 available through Riverbend Books and include sushi and complimentary wine. To purchase tickets, call Riverbend Books on (07) 3899 8555 (07) 3899 8555 or book online at www.riverbendbooks.com.au
These events are always hugely popular, so book early to avoid disappointment!
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Nigel's Nightie: No. 2 in an occasional series entitled 'Smokin' Jackets'

OK I know there's some prestidigitation involved in this peignoir but the chance of a guest appearance from celebrity like Nigel from Life with Dogs was just too tempting!
The Wiz had been hoping for a green velvet number with a cravat, but a dog can dream (as long as it doesn't involve too much howling and those annoying running movements with the legs !)
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Wiza warmer : No.1 in an occasional series entitled 'Smokin' Jackets'.

.. and you can sort of judge our society by the way some of its people treat some of their animals.
In this occasional series, you're invited to admire some of the best of them, in all their sartorial splendour ... or was that silliness? Leave a comment if you want to submit a photo of your best-dressed greyhound in an excellent bed-jacket, and the Shrew will put the best on the blog.
NB. No 'fancy dress' (and try to keep the fluff bunnies out of those bedrooms shots, she may be 'Common' but an old girl has her standards!)
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
May Day 2010: The words of an unknown worker and unionist
WE HAVE FED YOU ALL FOR A THOUSAND YEARS
We have fed you all for a thousand years
And you hail us still unfed
Though there’s never a dollar of all your wealth
But marks the workers dead
We have yielded our best to give you rest
And you lie on crimson wool
But if blood be the price of all your wealth
Good God we have paid in full
There is never a mine blown skyward now
But we’re buried alive for you
There’s never a wreck drifts shoreward now
But we are its ghastly crew
Go reckon our dead by the forges red
And the factories where we spin
If blood be the price of your cursed wealth
Good God we have paid it in
We have fed you all for a thousand years
For that was our doom, you know
From the days when you chained us in your fields
To the strike a week ago
You have taken our lives, and our babies and wives
And we’re told it’s your legal share
But if blood be the price of your lawful wealth
Good God we bought it fair.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Juggling: No. 10 in an occasional series entitled 'Harmless Hobbies for Mad Old Bags'.

Juggling is Good For You.
Don't just take my word for it, though - have a look here.
Now that brain training by on-line problem solving has been trashed, it's apparently back to the asbestos mitts for those of us who want to keep the synapses supple ... but I think those bad grey socks should definitely go.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
STOP PRESS: BRISBANE POET SHORTLISTED FOR ABR POETRY PRIZE
shortlisted poets' names and entries can be found on the ABR website.
The winner will be announced in the May edition.
ABR Shortlisted Brisbane Poet Ynes Sanz.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Poppies in the Gardens

Friday, March 26, 2010
A bit of a Song and Dance
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Thespianism: No. 9 in an occasional series entitled 'Harmless Hobbies for Mad Old Bags'.

Some of us were in Alice in Wonderland before Johnny Depp was born.....
Seen here, the Chislehurst Road Infants' School, Orpington, Kent, England
performance, c. 1954.
CAST LIST:
Gail Foster - Alice
Marian Wiseman - The March Hare
Leslie Adams - The Dormouse
and David Something-or-other that I have forgotten (the teachers only shouted his first name) as The Mad Hatter
No green screen for us, it was one night only and if you froze you were finished.
Don't make 'em like that any more.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Sainthood, Statues and the 'Patience' of a Saint

Mary MacKillop has been announced as Australia's first saint by the Vatican.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation Broadcast: 19/02/2010
Reporter: Ticky Fullerton
Transcript
TICKY FULLERTON, PRESENTER: The Vatican announced a short while ago that Mary McKillop will become Australia's first saint. Pope Benedict revealed tonight that she will be canonised at a ceremony in October in Rome.Mary McKillop founded the Sisters of Saint Joseph in 1866. She is revered by Catholics for setting up schools in remote country areas and working with children, female prisoners and prostitutes.
PAUL COLLINS, HISTORIAN & CATHOLIC COMMENTATOR: I have described her as a great Australian sheila. Now, that's perhaps a rather crude phrase, but nevertheless, I think it sums up the type of person that she is: a practical person, a person who saw a real social need, who saw the children in the bush particularly needed education and culture and she organised a group of sisters to be able to meet that need.
TICKY FULLERTON: She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1995. Last year the Vatican accepted that blessed Mary had performed a miracle involving the healing of a person suffering from cancer. Mary McKillop had a controversial life and at one stage was excommunicated from the Church for allegedly disobeying authorities. However, she continued to spend her life caring for the poor.
The Common Shrew says that's as may be. You can read what a poet of her acquaintance had to say on the subject on the occasion of her canonisation at the post for 11 August 2010.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
The Poetry of the Winter Olympics
Poetry - on the world stage !!
and you can hear that poem - right here
and here, from his website, at http://www.houseofparlance.com/koyczan/index.html is another small example of the reason why
6:59 AM
I’ve been told
that people in the army
do more by 7:00 am
than I do
in an entire day
but if I wake
at 6:59 am
and turn to you
to trace the outline of your lips
with mine
I will have done enough
and killed no one
in the process.
- Shane Koyczan, Visiting Hours
and there was kd lang, too singing Leonard Cohen, and suddenly I thought, yeah, all right, I DO belong in this world!
... and so I say to the vast majority who perplex and perturb my life day after day, in the immortal words of Shane L. Koyczan:
"stop it
write me a poem to make me happy"












