Noisy Miner

Gull taking a bath

                              Lockdown!

     A year ago the virus menacing everyone seemed to be nothing more than a joke. I remember coming back from a trip to New Zealand and there being a lot of scuttlebutt on the internet about people going crazy buying up toilet paper because of this corona virus. 

     It got more serious when it was discovered that certain people in New South Wales were buying up all sorts of medical supplies and sending them off to China. After that the corona virus became very real as news reports came in about people overseas dying from it. 

     The death toll among Australians, so far has been low compared to the numbers in the USA and the UK. In New Zealand the numbers of casualties has been even lower. Even so, the greater part of New South Wales is in lockdown and likely to remain so for some time. It is hoped by September the numbers of infected will be low enough for everyone to go back to what was once normal. In the meantime, we wear our masks to go shopping for food and sit tight, looking for the day we can socialize more.

     Two plays I have written are now on hold because we cannot risk bums on seats and so we don 't have an audience. Not much in the way of television  shows and movies are being produced right now anywhere. Businesses are looking to governments for more handouts so they can stay in business. 

                  The Birds of the Illawarra  

     It is fortunate I do live in a part of New South Wales abundant with birdlife even in winter. Going out walking and looking for wildlife can keep one sane. You just have to keep an eye out for crazy bike riders. Some think they own the footpaths and trails to our beaches and lagoons.

     Kookaburras sing to us of an early morning and late afternoon. The other day I saw three singing away together on the outskirts of Corrimal. 

     We are not short on cockatoos of an afternoon. Lots of them about. 

   Some good sales of late when it comes to my Dragon Queen which is a science fiction novel set in a possible future where mutations known as dragons exist. It is available on Amazon. 

Second-Hand Creeps, in which I have a story, is also selling well. 

 With the way Doctor Who is going right now, I wonder if Wollongong will ever have another Dalek Christmas where we get to exterminate all the  bad boys and girls. All in fun, of course! 

  

               REPEAT BUSINESS 

             

    Sherlock Holmes: Repeat Business, by New Zealand writer Lyn McConchie, published in 2013, is well worth getting your hands on if you are a Holmes fan. It is about clients who have returned to Sherlock Holmes with fresh problems that need solving. 

     Put out by Borgo Press, each story has the charm of Victorian England coupled with Lyn's extraordinary knowledge of farming, horsemanship, Victorian manners and how the class system back then worked.

 

     In one of the stories we find that even a rat might have an eye for beauty. In another, we learn that a suicide might actually be murder. In yet another, we discover something about Gypsies and Gypsy secrets. 

                  Cats Do it Better Than people

Edited By Theresa Mancuso for Adams Media (2005), Cats Do it Better Than People is a great set of stories for cat lovers like Lyn McConchie. In fact, it was Lyn who talked me into submitting some stories to this collection. There are tongue-in cheek moments such as Go Away! which I wrote about a girl who has a cat follow her home. My favourite by yours truly is Old Salt about a seafaring ginger. Then there's Dopey and Sneezy by Lyn McConchie and Just Good Friends, also by Lyn.     

                     

   

        The Latest Issue of Night to Dawn 

          Plus What to do During Lockdown!

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     Yes, Night to Dawn has reached the 40 mark with great writers such as Gerald Browning, Todd Hanks and Marc Shapiro. There's even a story by yours truly, Rod Marsden.

     Illustrations by Marge Simon and Chris Friend add a nice touch to the horrific going's on.

     It is edited by Barbara Custer who has been sailing this ship of evil now for quite some time. Among the novels put out by Barbara through Night to Dawn you have Dragon Queen. 

Of the horror anthologies that are around Second-Hand Creeps has proven popular in Canada and I reckon it is indeed a good read. 

      So what can you do while in lockdown? Well you could pick up a copy of Night to Dawn 40 or check out Dragon Queen. Then there's going for walks and generally getting exercise that way. I suggest birding in your local area.  

      With birding you don't have to come in contact with other people and it is a great way to get to know the wildlife in your area. I live on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia. Even in winter we have sightings of all kinds of birds. 

Here we have a New Holland Honeyeater found recently at Towradgi Beach.

Here we have a pair of Terns found also recently at Towradgi Beach. They say a tern should never be alone since one good tern deserves another. 

White sulphur-crested Cockatoos are with us all year round. Here is a flock of them found in Corrimal. 

Photography doesn't have to all ways be about wildlife. Here is an afternoon scene close to Corrimal Beach near the end of the day. 

Here we have a photographic study of a rather ordinary plant perhaps made less ordinary when looked upon from a design point of view.

 Sunset at Bellambi Lagoon where the lagoon meets the sea can look magnificent.

The moon can be a great subject to study.  

It always seems, though, we end up coming back to the birds and what they can offer in way of walks and entertainment. Here is a White Sulphur-crested Cockatoo in fine voice. 
 

Willie-wagtail on the loose.

Street art Wollongong style

Friendship Wollongong style

A Peewee making himself presentable

Wollongong Cockatoo drinking

Wollongong Cockatoo watching the cameraman!

Cockatoo on the move in Wollongong

                       Strange Happenings

There are people in the USA and in the UK who appear to have lost their marbles.

   Can you believe a movie about Snow White in which the main character is played by someone who screams out that her skin is not as white as snow? Should the moon be some other colour to calm down the loonies or do we keep it white with dents in it here and there?

  Is this butchering of Snow White coming from Disney and is it in any way true?

  It is hard to believe Disney productions would go so mental. Maybe it isn't true and is just scuttlebutt. All very weird if true.

   I have read that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a tale that originated in Poland where the majority of the people there are, in fact, white and they do have snow in winter. And the moon there is also, no doubt white. So, someone in the USA has a problem with Polish people and Polish fairy-tales? That is wacky!

   What is happening to Doctor Who in the UK over the last couple of years is tragic. I grew up with William Hartnell as the first Doctor. He was a cranky old man but in some ways loveable. Back then the Daleks were a real threat and the stories were good, even if the sets and costumes were sometimes not so great. 

William Hartnell's performance as the Doctor set the standard for the other Doctors that followed. Now those in charge of Doctor Who want some woman to be the Doctor before Hartnell and fans my age don't like it. Me? I am not happy with it either. Fine with me that the latest Doctor is a woman. A pity she is given the worst scripts and her companions are about as fascinating as cardboard cut-outs you move about. They seem to blindly follow the Doctor no matter what she says or does. 

   I don't know if it really is true or not but the present Doctor might be replaced by a freaky dude who cannot be described as a gentleman though that may change if he gets the role.

Will Doctor Who survive the current scriptwriters and actors? I don't know.

 If they reinstate Hartnell as the first Doctor they might stand a chance.  

   There was a time when racism in comic books and in  movies in the USA was the norm. That was way back in the 1930s and 1940s. Is it going on today in American comic books and movies? I don't believe it is in the comic books but I haven't been keeping up. Is giving the impression that white people are evil a form of racism? I believe that is the case but, if so, it has become a form of racism that some people in the USA and in the UK appear to approve off. It is a case of nothing to see here, moving on...

    I remember back in the 1980s there was this woman on a mid-day television show who said that only white men are racist and that white women simply go along with what their fathers, husbands and sons believe. She probably didn't realize it at the time but this kinda makes women associated with male racists wimpy, not able to express opinions of their own. No woman I know and associate is like that. They do have opinions and are not afraid to express them to anyone and everyone. 

     Meanwhile pale men are on the hit list everywhere. It doesn't make much sense but it doesn't have to. We are likely to get even paler with lock-down in winter in Australia but we may be able to get tans in summer so maybe then we will be saved. Also redheads, both male and female, are not very popular with the BBC and quite possible Hollywood. Ah! The times we are living in!