What is a Trug?

 

                          What is a Trug?                     10/6/2021

This could even go under the category of things you learn while reading Children’s Books. Was over in Adelaide recently visiting the family there and was asked by Miss 3, to read her a story before bed; and she picked a Paddington Bear Book for me to read; and  it had him buying a trug from a garden supply store. Not being English I had not heard of the word or object before but from the picture in the book worked out it was some king of basket.

 Not totally satisfied with that, I decided to look it up on the Web using my old friend Wikipedia. From it I gleaned the following information: A Sussex trug is a wooden basket. It is made from a handle and rim of coppiced sweet chestnut wood which is hand-cleft then shaved using a drawknife. The body of the trug is made of five or seven thin boards of white willow, also hand-shaved with a drawknife. They may have originated in Sussex because of the abundance of chestnut coppice and willows found on the marshes. Nails or pins used are usually copper, to avoid rust.

Shapes and sizes became standardised, the most well-known shape being the "common or garden" trug ranging in volume from one pint to a bushel. However, there is a diverse range of traditional trugs from garden and oval trugs to the more specialised "large log" and "walking stick" trugs.^”

  Another site on the web, added this information: “The word Trug is a derivation of the word Trough and was originally used for measuring grain and seed volume, hence the variation of sizes. As mechanical scales eventually replaced the trug as a tool of measurement, the trugs were then utilised as a basket for carrying garden produce and hand tools. In a recent nationwide survey by a popular gardening magazine, the Sussex trug was voted the fifth most essential gardening accessory.”

 

 And just in case you think there may be some connection between a trug and the Melbourne outer suburb of Truganina, there isn’t.  Again according to friend Wikipedia, “The suburb is believed to be named after Truganini, who is generally accepted as the last full-blooded Aboriginal Tasmanian woman, as she had visited the area for a short time.”

  So there you are! Today, you get two for the price of one; Learning what a trug is, and also learning where Truganina derived its name. That is if unlike me, you didn’t already know!

 

 

Mallee Gates

My recent musing on Mallee roots also led to me thinking of another now forgotten but then common place object, the Mallee gate. Again although a long way from the Mallee we had a few Mallee gates especially in the early pre 1962 Bush Fire days, but not exclusively before that date. Most of these Mallee Gates were little more the a few strands of Wire attached to the fence post at one end and a pole at the other end that was put into a loop of wire at the bottom of the other post and Pulled up as tight as you could before looping another loop of Wire over it at the top, to make it tight and effective as a gate. I remember one particular gate Dad made for the cow yard which was basically a wooden framework like a metal gate and covered with wire netting. Very effective as a gate but also very heavy for us kids to open and close. Not that the wire loop ones were that much easier though.

In response to the above my brother replied, “We found an 8 foot mallee gate in the Gulf of Carpentaria in a dog fence. Anne tried to shut it by herself, but the barb wire got tangled and it took 3 of us shut it”.

Obviously another like me who is glad Mallee gates are not that common these days.  What about you? What fond or forgettable experience have you had with mallee gates? Either recently or in the long distant past?

Mallee Roots

 A little while back there was a big windstorm in our area which brought down a few trees in the area. In nearbye Cheong Park, one dead Gum came out roots and all near the Hall. A week or so later I noticed that it had been cut up into 2 foot lengths; and a few days later I noticed that all but the stump had been taken. I also noticed on the stump one root that had it have been nicked off would have made a great Mallee root for someone’s fire.

 The moment I thought that, I thought, “My Goodness. How long is it since I have heard that word?” Once upon a time, like back in my childhood, words like Mallee root and Mallee gate were very common, but as indicated above, rarely used these days.

Way back after World War 1 areas of rural Australia were set apart and allocated to ex-soldiers to farm, including parts of Gippsland and also the Mallee region. Now in the Mallee there is a specific Eucalyptus tree called surprisingly, the Mallee Gum. It only grows around 30 feet but can regrow and have a good root system.  As part of the Solder settlement scheme the recipients had to clear and farm the land. For the Mallee area this meant clearing the Mallee Gums. A side benefit of this clearing process was that the fire wood from the trees was also a good money earner back in the days of wood Fires. The Mallee roots were not so easy to sell but being cheaper turned out to be much desired for open fires for their long burning abilities, as well as at a cheaper cost. Thus while originally reserved for the roots of Mallee Gums, it soon became the generic term of all tree roots; whether from the Mallee, or from Watson’s Creek, of from anywhere for that matter.

 Thus although nowhere near the Mallee we had more than our share of Mallee roots , especially from a hill that Dad cleared that was originally called Sapling Hill because of the large number of small Gum tree saplings on it at the beginning of the process. Although Dad sold a fair bit of Firewood himself, I don’t think he ever sold any of the roots. Instead we used them ourselves in the lounge room open fire. All that is almost long forgotten now with open fires in most places, a thing of the past now.

Coincidently upon reading the above, our son in Adelaide replied, “Interestingly enough we bought some mallee root for the fire last year from the garden place down the road.” 

So obviously Mallee Roots are not completely in the past after all? What about you? When was the last time you used mallee roots to burn?

Ferreting out memories.

 I read somewhere a little while back that ferrets were making a comeback as Pets. Which got me to reminiscing of when my parents had ferrets.  My family, and many of our relatives, had Ferrets many, many, many years ago. Not as pets but as working animals. Back in the 19050s and early 60’s before Myxomatosis come on the scene and greatly reduced the rabbit population very quickly, the main way rabbits were contained in our area was by hunting with dogs and Ferrets. Many a Sunday afternoon of my early childhood was spent out with the dogs and ferrets with both family and friends after rabbits. One dog we had, Bluey was very good at telling us if there was a rabbit down a burrow. When we came across a burrow we would get Bluey to sniff it out. If he sniffed and walked away, we would do the same. But if he started to bark and furiously dig away at the burrow we would pull him away and put the ferret to work. Sometimes the dogs would put up a rabbit away from its burrow and if they missed it on the run and it went down a burrow, we would then put nets around all the holes we could find in the immediate area and send the Ferret or ferrets down.  Usually only one Ferret but occasionally you would send a second one down either to help the first or occasionally to enough the first one to come out again.

As hinted above Ferrets were very popular then and many had them or wanted them so my family would not only have ferrets for their own use but would also breed and sell   them too. As at least 3 Uncles also had ferrets, there was a bit of swapping of Breeding Bucks and Does among the families to ensure strong blood lines.

 Every year we would always have a half a dozen or so young ferrets for sale. In the early days Dad had the flat top of a five gallon oil drum with the wording “Ferrets for sale” on it and when he had ferrets for sale would nail it to a phone pole at the end of the drive up on the  main Eltham -Yarra glen road to attract interested prospective buyers. In later years he hardly needed to put the sign up as he had regular people either coming back themselves or recommending him to their friends.

 It was before my memory but when my older brothers were around 3 or 4, dad had quite a few young ferrets and my brothers, babies that they were, used to help my mother to feed them and thus handled them a lot.  Well the story goes that one day someone stopped by to check out the ferrets and when the box was opened, all the baby ferrets swarmed out all over my brothers who were grabbing them by the armfuls without being bitten or scratched, much to the amazement of this Customer. He was amazed at their gentleness and ease of handling, as many ferrets can be nasty even to their handlers.  He was so amazed that not only did he buy a couple there and then but through his word of mouth, all that year’s babies were sold to him and his friends.

 As said above when myxo came in it greatly reduced the need of Ferrets. And in fact even before then, when my brothers went into shotguns and spotlighting, and so the Ferrets went out of favour almost everywhere in the mid to late 60’s including at our place.

 Well that is enough reminiscing from me for now. Do you have any reminisces of Ferrets in your youth to share?

Eating Dog Biscuits?

I usually buy the wider family and casual friends’, boxes or tins of cheap Shortbread biscuits for Christmas. While doing that last year I saw some more expensive genuine Scottish Short bread biscuits in the shape of Scottish Terriers and knowing that a nephew of ours and his partner had a Scottish Terrier, I splashed out and bought them a box of these dog shaped biscuits. Which they though was cool.

Well someone gave me exactly the same dog-shaped biscuits, and so last week when our Grandchildren wanted something to eat but were being precious about what they wanted to eat, I opened the packet of Biscuits and let them try one each. Which they did and liked very much. So much so that when their mother arrived they proudly told her that they had been eating dog biscuits and that they were yummy. Well, our poor daughter! The look on her face was priceless. The horrified look only relaxing when we told her that they were in fact dog-shaped Shortbread biscuits which were indeed very yummy. Just shows what happens when what you think you heard, is not what the person was saying or meaning,  and the importance, for us older folk at least, to be clear ourselves when speaking to everyone; both young and old, and always saying what we mean and meaning what we say. And also the importance and value of asking clarifying questions if we have any doubts at all over what we heard or thought we heard.

It's Dangerous

Our Daughter and her 3 children were holidaying with the other Grandparents last week down at their Holiday/Retirement home near the Beach. The House has two stories and lots of steps and Mr. 22 & ½ months loved to run up and down the stairs - much to his mother’s great concern; and she obviously told him many times, “its’s Dangerous.  I say obviously, because on Monday morning while at our place he came out with the phrase, “It’s dangerous”.  Which did surprise me a little bit but not half as much as I was surprised when I realized that he was using it in context with another situation which was also potentially dangerous. At the end of our block of units is an old concrete path that is wobbly and crumbling and he was on a small piece of it that was wobbly and only held to the rest of the block of concrete by the reinforcing wire. So there he is rocking on this small unstable piece of concrete proudly and loudly telling me “It’s dangerous”. It didn’t stop him from doing what he was doing but at least he realized it was potentially dangerous.

After I got over the shock of him at that tender age actually knowing and acknowledging the fact that what he was doing was dangerous, I was also intrigued that it didn’t actually stop him doing it still. Which kind of reminds me of a lot of adults too, who readily admit what they are doing is dangerous but also have no intention of stopping despite the potential and obvious dangers they see. But what about you now? Yes as we now start to get serious about the New Year ahead of us, what is it that you are doing that you realize and acknowledge “Is dangerous” and that you are now going to stop and change? Over to you now for your reflection- and action.

More Heathmont Bush. 25.9.2017

Went across the Railway track this morning (with the dog) and went through one of the Bush reserves on that side of the tracks. While following a self guided walk (according to the posted sighs) I came across a Garden bench (Much like my cheap ones) with a sight saying “This Birdwatcher’s Bench kindly donated by Therese Starling.”And the only thing I could think of was, I hope there are better birds there to see than Starlings! Dirty, messy little ‘mice with wings’.

Bushland at Heathmont (Dad would have loved it!) 23.9.2017

 Whilst our lastborn and family have been away on holidays I have been going over to walk the dog along the Dandenong Creek trail near their home. As I have already covered a lot of the nearby  area from previous walks I decided this time to both extend the area I covered and also to cover some of the nearby bush reserves too.

 While walking through Dexter’s Reserve along its footworn narrow tracks, the thought came to me that my father would have loved it there, even though he was never a city person! That said once (when he was thinking of retiring from the Green Grocery Round,)  he did briefly contemplate doing an Uncle Ted. That is selling the farm (In Uncle Ted’s case, it was an Orchard,) and buying a house In Panton Hill, close to the shops etc. I think Mum would have liked that with a newer house and more modern facilities, but I think one of my cousins talked him out of that reminding him of the open land still around him compared to suburban closeness.

 Whatever the reason, it never happened and they remained there and Dad, for as long as he could, lived out his retirement there and often taking long walks with the dog, children or Grandchildren up along the creek and along bush tracks and enjoying the bush and sights there. The memory of those walks came back to me as I was walking along the bush tracks through the small but seemingly large Dexter reserve. And the thought came to me that I loved it there too. Although very close to the heart of Melbourne, there, along the Dandenong Creek it seemed like one really was out in the bush in the middle of nowhere!

Whose Memory Is Correct?

  Many years ago I started to write some of my memories from my youth down (and they are still around somewhere on Floppy Discs,) but I was discouraged when someone challenged my memories and so I stopped. Recently however, I have been encouraged by my son to jot some more down on paper. Well at least, on the computer. So I am currently doing so now, but in no particular order or chronology, but simply when currently inspired to jot them down. This brings me to the point of this particular Blog. Whose Memory is correct?

 Often, as I found to my discouragement, others memories disagree with ours. Yes, this can be so, but does that make any of them/us fully right or fully wrong? Remember these memories are of how one particular person experienced a certain event, and often people can experience the same event from a different angle or perspective to you and have a completely different memory to yours.

When I was not even a month past 11 years of age, the 1962 Bushfires passed around our house and so has become an indelible time line in my life, with just a few memories before it and a host after it. Getting married; Becoming a believer In Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour; Going to Africa; and coming back from Africa, have also become major defining times in my life.

 Going back to the 62 Fires, are my memories of it correct? Depends it seems on who you talk to. For instance I was talking to my two brothers earlier this year about the 62 Bushfires.  My oldest brother was there at the time, as was I, but our other brother was on Holiday with a mate and his family at Philip Island.  During our discussion earlier this year I mentioned one aspect about the Fire and a certain Gentleman who was there and who took charge of things where I was. My oldest brother started to disagree strongly saying that the person whom I mentioned wasn’t even there then. At which point our other brother (who wasn’t there at the time of the Fire) backed my story, saying that dad had often mentioned that the man I had mentioned, had indeed been there, and taken charge of things because initially, dad was not back from fighting the fire elsewhere.. At which point my older brother remembered that he and I, had in fact been on different sides of the Creek and with a different group of people, hence our experiences and memories differed greatly. Not because either of us were wrong but because both of us saw and experienced it from a different side of the Creek and from a different angle and perspective.

 So, if someone’s memories differ from yours, it is possible that they or you are wrong but more likely that they have seen and experienced it from different angles. So please check your facts before commenting and if they, or even I, have gotten the facts wrong, please forgive and please gently correct where needed. However, do remember that even though many people may experience the same event, that doesn’t mean that they experienced it in the same way or angle as you, and thus may well remember it differently to you. Again this does not make either of you right or wrong.  It just means that you may have experienced it from different angles.

Do you know/understand what a virgule is?

I feel/ suspect that you, like me till today, have no idea what a virgule is. Nor how to properly pronounce it (\VUR-gyool\) But while you may not know/understand what a virgule is, I believe/know that you see and use them regularly.  In fact in just reading this far, you have seen/read six of them so far and will see another five before you finish. If you finish!

So what is a virgule? According to Word of the day for July 28/2016, a virgule is 1. a short oblique stroke (/) between two words indicating that whichever is appropriate may be chosen to complete the sense of the text in which they occur: The defendant and his/her attorney must appear in court.
2. a dividing line, as in dates, fractions, a run-in passage of poetry to show verse division, etc.: 3/21/27;

 So a virgule is a thing most of us use regularly without knowing its name and are happy enough about that so far, not to even want to know its name. Which is fine for things I guess but not fine when we treat people like that, is it?

I wonder how many of us treat people like we treat the virgule. We see them, even use them or their services, but barely recognise them, let alone know their names. Maybe you are even being treated like a virgule yourself. What say you from your perspective and what can you do about it. Wood love to hear from you on this subject. TOWPG.

Aspidistras Again.

 Here is something  I wrote about 18 months ago but obviously forgot to post then:

 About five years ago now I wrote a Blog called, “Aspidistras making a comeback again”, describing how a plant once very, very popular in the early part of the 20^th Century but then had gone out of favour by the late 20^th Century, only to come back into fashion again this century.

Lately I have seen how these once out of date plants come back into popularity with my own eyes. In my previous Blog I mentioned that although my mother grew it, it wasn’t particularly a favourite of mine. However when 3 years ago, when cleaning out the long overgrown ivy in our block of units I found a clump of Aspidistras that someone had dumped there. Loathe to let any, even if only semi desirable, plants die, I transplanted it into a 12 inch pot and more or less forgot about it until early this year when I decided it badly needed repotting as it was already splitting the plastic pots sides.

For the past 3 years my wife and I have been volunteering at a nearby Brotherhood of Saint Lawrence Opportunity Shop,; and knowing my intrest in plants and having some old pots they deemed unsaleable, they were given to me to use if I could. So I took these 3 unsaleable pots and divided up the Aspidistras into them, but also keeping a small clump for myself. I then took the other 3 pots of Aspidistras up to the Op shop where they sold within a week and brought in over $50 for Charity work.

So inspired by this, when my daughter asked me to dig out and throw away most of the Aspidistras in her Garden I brought them home, divided them up into 10 large old unused pots I had lying around and grew them on for a little while, before taking a couple at a time up to the Op shop to sell. A few weeks later I have 3 pots left that I still deem too small to sell, but the other seven have all been quicly sold and raised over $130 for Charity.

Not too bad an effort for some old pots, a bit of soil and some plants not wanted by one person but obviously still desired by others; many others it seems!

But enough of me, what about you? What things or plants do you have lying around that you don’t really want but don’t really want to throw away either? Perhaps, with a little effort on your part, you can clean or fix them up a little, or like with plants, pot and grow them on a little and then donate them to a local Charity, school or Church Fete etc?

 Over to you now for your thoughts on the matter. TOWGP.

Have you got the right Person?

My wife and I went up to the Polling Booth in our local Primary school this morning to Vote in Australia's Federal Election.  We went early to avoid any long queues and although I had no problem, the poor lady  handing out the voting forms, just could not get it through her head that  my wife was not our daughter. (They have the same two Christian names but in reverse order.) Even though our daughter has a different address and voting I.D. Number to what my wife showed the lady , it took her nearly 5 minutes to finally work it out despite a bit of urging from us.

 As an appendix, when our daughter went to vote at her local school, she was asked, not if she was her mother, but whether she was another person with the same two christian names (albeit with different spellings for both names) who it turns out was registered in the very next line to our daughter's name!

Moral to the Story? Not sure there is one; but it is a good reminder to us all, I think, to thoroughly check our facts and not just go with the first thing/name we see and assume it is the only one of that name etc.

What about you? Do you have any stories of mix ups with names?

Jacks Got A New Master

 Jacks got a new master, albeit only for a little while longer hopefully.  You may not know, but I have been walking the dogs (now dog) around  our area for the past 4 years now and in that time, have gotten to know a few of the other dogs and their walkers. Some, I have learnt the names of; others I only know in relation to their dog's names. Such as Ricky's mum & Jack's Master etc.

 Since our last dog has passed on, I have changed my then regular route and  so don't see some of them as much as I used to. Jack was one I used to see a lot of; and often even when driving would often see them.  Today I went to take CoCo for a walk, she stopped at the end of our drive looking at the Water Easement  exit across the road. Eventually I saw Jack come out of the bushes now growing there. As I hadn't seen him or his master for a little while, even though I was heading in the other direction, I decided to wait till his master appeared and say hello. 

Eventually a young lady appeared with jack's lead in her hand. A bit confused I called out and asked if that was indeed Jack. When she said it was I said I often saw him and his Master but hadn't for a while. She said that he was her father; and when I asked how he was, she said He was okay now and able to walk a little bit now. Turns out he climbed up a ladder to get onto the roof and the ladder went with him on it and he did his knee/leg in.

 Another reason why I won't get up on to the roof, (even though I do want to check it and the spouting) unless someone is around in case I too fall; and the weather/roof is a lot drier than it is now.

What about you now? Is there something you really would like to do now, but for health and/or safety reasons, really should leave for a better time?  Better to do so than pay the price like Jack's master is currently, don't you think?

How carefully do you check important things?

 After our Phone Interviews yesterday, we went to the Centrelink  office inn Ringwood today to prove my Identity. Along with my ATM Card, I took my driver’s Licence as the second identity item, to make up the required 100 points needed, to prove my identity.

  For a while it didn’t look like she was going to accept my driver’s licence as it turns out it expired in the first week in February this year.

 As I was wondering to myself why I hadn’t received a renewal notice, I turned it over to make sure that I had our Currant address on it, when  it was pointed  out to me that when I had it changed about 14 months ago, a major mistake had been made with the address. Whilst they got the unit number and street number, and even the suburb and post code right, they had only put down half of the street name.  Thus they only had on my licences all the other information, but where the street name was required, all they had down was: “The”. Instead of; “The Pass”.

 So after finishing with Centrelink, I then had to go over to Burwood and get it both renewed and the address corrected. I know that a lot of people complain about the delays and service at Government offices etc these days, but I only have praise for Vic Roads on today’s experience.

 Although there were a lot of people there, I was served very quickly and pleasantly. The Lady also laughed when she saw the partial address, and upon checking her computer remarked that the Renewal notice had been returned, and laughing and with a grin "a mile wide" asked, “I wonder why?”  Anyway to cut a long story short, I paid my money, had my photo taken, and in around 10-days, will get my new driver’s Licence e for the next 10 years.

So all is right again and I am again driving legally, but it just made me wonder though how carefully we all check things, as I have had that Change of address sticker on my Licence for over a year now and never picked up the mistake till now. What important things do  you now need to check that all the details are correct?

What is your perspective?

Warmest greetings to you there for the New Year from Martha and myself. We trust and pray that you had a very blessed Christmas time with family and friends. 

Talking of Christmas, I was just reflecting on the difference between the Christmas seasons here in Australia and the one in the CIS countries where the  Slavic Gospel Association ministers. Here, we will have been complaining about the heat, but over there, many will have been struggling with the snow and intense cold. Something most of us here in Australia have no real understanding of the difficulties and dangers such extreme cold conditions can wreak, because we have never personally experienced it as an “insider”.

 This insider understanding reminded me a little of one occasion in South Africa, (whose climate was not that dissimilar to Australia’s), when we were in this remote rocky, hilly but otherwise very beautiful, valley, and I remarked to one of the locals on how beautiful it was, only to have him remark that it may be beautiful to visit, but it was not so beautiful if you had to live there and to try and grow crops and graze livestock for a living.

So here he was, seeing things as a resident and Insider, while I was seeing things as an outsider and visitor: Both of us were seeing the same thing, but from different perspectives. In truth, what we were both seeing, was only a part of the wider picture and neither of us saw, or even cared about, the perspective of anyone else. With both views being equally one-sided and incorrect!

What about you when you see this world in which we all live today? Do you see it as a resident and are simply trying to make a living and not worrying about anyone else?  Or perhaps, you see it just as a visitor and just seeing the beauty and ignoring the hardships of others? Again: Both ways of viewing things is not how God would have us as His Children behave. So, as we enter into this New Year, let us again be thankful for all that the Lord has given us and share our blessings with others, wherever and whenever God shows us how. 

 Practically, there are many ways that you can do that and only you can know how to do that best, so I will leave that decision with you, but one way all of us can do something worthy for God, is to Pray. So again I would like to humbly encourage you to again spend time in prayer for those less fortunate than yourself, whether in other countries, or just here in Australia and in your own community.

 Thank you and have a blessed New Year: Walter