Feb2014_Mt Mee Ramblings

By Ian Wells

Kalahari Downs recorded a record 1600 mm plus of rainfall during 2013 – but that wasn’t all good.  As in 2012, the precipitation was concentrated – so that we had six months of mud and six months of drought.  Indeed, more than 1000 mm of the 2013 total fell in January and February, and after a horrible continuing wet, the rain turned off like a tap in mid July.

The bog soon dried out, and as I write (in mid January,) Mt Mee is still bone dry, and the further westward you travel on the Mountain, the worse it gets.

We had teaser rain early in December – just enough to force the usual cancellation of the Mountain Top Church’s annual Carols night and to bring on a short lived flush of grass.  On the strength of that, we planted the Kalahari annual pumpkin and cucumber crops, in the barely moistened soil.  But the rain stopped, the season hasn’t broken and and the seeds have yet to germinate! 

There hasn’t been a drop of water run here since the winter and many livestock waters are fading fast.  Meanwhile, the extraordinary hot spell was disastrous for our carefully conserved grass – never mind the high thirties – our verandah max/min thermometer peaked at just a tiny tad under 45 degrees on that abominally hot Saturday – absolutely unprecedented in our time on the Mountain!  There are now great patches of bare ground that once carried grass, but if it ever does rain you can bet that they will be growing weeds, not grass.  In contrast, while driving through Kilcoy, Samford or Dayboro, we see paddocks full of lush feed.  The roadside stalls are already selling new season’s pumpkins – and ours aren’t even up yet, for goodness sake!

We didn’t vote in Tony Abbott for this sort of nonsense!

But never mind – there have been some interesting events here since the last column.

Firstly, I mention the Brisbane Boys College (BBC) “Vintage Collegians” annual reunion that took place on 27th November. An unlikely teaming of two local ‘Old Boys’ brought this landmark event to the Mountain. Some sixty participants who have successfully reached the biblical ‘three score and ten’ mark (including past resident Andrew Jeays) gathered in the community’s ecumenical church for the formal elements of the celebrations. Led by Old Boy minister Wally Thomson, they sang both the old and the new School hymns.  Then they crossed the road to the skirl of the pipes, played by Old Boy Lachlan Munro (not our Angie on this occasion) to settle on ‘birches’ restaurant, where they terrified the locals as they performed the old school warcry, and then attended to the needs of the inner man – with exemplary enthusiasm.

The popular vote was to come to Mt Mee again in 2014.

Secondly, I mention the “Festival of Small Halls” concert held in The Mt Mee Hall just before Christmas.  This was a joint venture between the Woodford Folk Festival, the Moreton Bay Regional Council and the Mt Mee Public Hall Inc.

Hall Committee has no members who had been to the Woodford event, and with visions of folk artists as scruffy, tattooed, red eyed social misfits with doubtful musical ability, it was not quite sure what it was letting itself in for.

It needn’t have worried.  To a man (and woman), the artists were clear eyed and impeccably turned out.  They were all very fine musicians, they all presented different but very interesting and high quality original material and without exception they were truly delightful people offstage. 

Who was ‘best’ was simply a matter of taste.  The tunes of fiddle and guitar duo Cole and van Dijk were redolent of Irish jig influences – and they had Cr Adrian’s toes visibly tapping.  Canadian singer/songwriter Rose Cousins switched seamlessy from keyboard to guitar to bull ukulele, and she sang her tunes with beauty and stark simplicity.  Jordie Lane proved to be an endearing extrovert and an astonishing guitarist – he can simultaneously produce a rhythm, a bass line and a melody and deliver an ‘off the cuff’ monologue.  It was a truly remarkable exhibition of left brain/right brain coordination.  He would talk, over his remarkable guitar background, of how he came to write his songs.  For instance there was the entirely absorbing tale of the afternoon that a bitch that happened to be in season visited their home.  When nature took its course and it became inseparably knotted with their Staffy, Jordie and his mother had to take extraordinary steps to remedy the situation – immortalised in song!

In short, it was a wonderfully entertaining evening, enhanced by a brief but moving speech of welcome to all from local Jinibarra elder “Uncle Noel”.

If the Festival bean counters are happy with the outcome (and almost 150 patrons paid to attend) – another concert will be held at Mt Mee in December this year.  Here’s hoping!

Most people will know by now that Ross and Di have sold ‘birches’ restaurant after many years of incumbency.  Happily, the new owners are a born and bred local – Darren, (son of Jan and Des Page of Ocean View), and his wife Lyn.

We will sadly miss Ross and Di, – caring, always affable, ever helpful and quiet contributors to many Mountain causes.  They have been wonderful community members and of course their successful business has done much for Mountain tourism.  We wish them every happiness, and all of the very best in their new lives as ex restaurateurs!

Most will also know that long-time Mountain residents Les Hyde and his wife Betty are not travelling too well.  Les has been seriously incapacitated by a stroke and is hospitalised in high care for an indeterminate period, while Betty has been in poor health for some time and no longer drives.

Les and Betty have been prominent in the Mountain community.  Les was instrumental in establishing our Rural fire brigade and working towards our fire shed, while he and Betty revived the defunct Mt Mee monthly dances and ran them successfully for many years.

Our thoughts are with Betty and Les 

Now a word of apology in advance – I will have no column in the March Grapevine.

The reason for this is simple – I have talked Kay into joining me in a tour of Tasmania in February – just as the new season’s cider is hitting the pubs!  And this is not any old tour – we are going topless – in our 42 year old Jensen Healey sports car – and driving all of the way to the ferry in Melbourne – and home again, (the gods willing.)

Yes, this is surely a case of “Adventure before Dementia” (arguably!)

And finally, this is the text of a very thought provoking bumper sticker that I saw this morning – “What if the Hokey Pokey IS what it is all about?” 

I can’t get this conundrum out of my mind, and I shan’t be able to sleep…….