Giant Sunflower. 1946.

After my post yesterday about the small sunflowers in our garden defending us against the zombie apocalypse I found this picture of a giant sunflower from St. George’s College, Crawley, in 1946.

The West Australian 4 Jan 1946 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article50319088

I just showed this to the kids and yes, a row of giant plants just like this is what they have planned for our house next time around!

I am going to have to negotiate the extent of planting though.

Although I expect that they will keep the house quite cool, and keep the dust from out dirt road out, they will also keep the light out as well!

I’m not sure I can get by without being able to look out of the window for months at a time!

Maybe the kids can have one large flower bed rather than the entire front of the house….

I am not sure what the others living in our street will think as our house slowly disappears behind a leafy green wall. 😉

Hmmm… I wonder how effective this defensive wall will be? I guess it will be fine as long as the zombies don’t lean on them or anything… 😉

Strange but true? 1946.

Notice the question mark in my title? Strange tales, yes. True? I’ll leave that to you.

Morning Bulletin 31 Dec 1946 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article56412657

Obviously most of the news stories I blog about have a pretty good chance of not being true, and, as usual, these ones probably all have a small element of truth behind them.

Except for the little girls and the salt on the bird’s tail though, that one sounds like someone listened to too many folk myths in the past!

The man in Montana who punched a cow and broke his hand got what he deserved really didn’t he? Cows mainly just act like cows as far as I know, losing patience with one won’t make it do anything it didn’t want to do.

The liquid shampoo made from the active ingredient in flame throwers sounds a little scary. You wouldn’t want to lean too close to the fire when you were drying your hair just in case…

I love the urban myth type tales of the man who found out the fine for slapping his wife was $50 and considered it money well spent and the prisoner who dieted to fit through the bars of his cell.

The Brooklyn man and the whooping rabbit though, that guy probably needs the kind of help that the courts are not capable of dealing out….

Melbourne floods. 1946.

Meeks asked me a while ago to look for a particular picture of flooded Melbourne suburbs, I have been searching through the articles but so far have had no luck finding a picture like the one she described.

I have found lots of other pictures of a wet Melbourne that have entertained me though, so here is one she might like that will tide her over until I find another.

Funnily enough, this slightly interesting photo of an old train is a record of something dear to the heart of many Melbournians.

If this photo was in colour the train would be bright red, an instantly recognisable Red Rattler. Red Rattlers were bought into use on the train lines around Melbourne from 1910, when they were hauled by steam locomotives, before being converted to the electric system from 1919.

I remember going on these trains throughout my childhood and can still picture the old fittings, the door handles, the brass luggage racks and the scuffed leather seats. Actually, just writing about them I can almost smell that distinctive smell too.

They weren’t called red rattlers for nothing either, I expect that many a commuter was rocked to sleep, or driven mad, by the noisy rock and rattle of their daily trip. On hot days the sliding doors were held open by rebellious travellers as the trains lurched down the tracks.

They were phased out from the start of the eighties, replaced by the horrible silver cylinders of modern trains. Yuck. I still love those old red rattlers and the slightly newer blue trains that ran alongside them for a time. The noise, and the smell, was irresistible. I still look at those new trains as boring tin cans! 🙂

Sunday Times 3 Mar 1946 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59350692

Don’t Mess With This Granny. 1946.

Worker 16 Sep 1946 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71428985

You wouldn’t want to be a local kid stealing fruit out of Mrs Logan’s trees would you? You might have copped an apple to the back of the head.

Perhaps those young scrumpers were what she honed her carrot hurling skills on?

We have had a lot of rain and warm days in the last few months and I have noticed that the rabbit numbers are rising here, almost as fast as the grass is growing. We took the dog for a walk to the river yesterday and plump, well fed rabbits were everywhere.

I feel for Mrs Logan, I am still battling with the rabbits over veggie garden access. I am not as good a shot as her though. My weapons are chicken wire and sending the little buggers bad thoughts!

Bromley Easter Bun Tradition. 1770-1946.

Going to the shop today I was delighted to see that they are already selling Hot Cross Buns. Yeah, I know that the first week of January is obscenely early to be selling Easter treats, it is a bit like when the shops put Christmas decorations up at the start of October. Regardless of this, I love Hot Cross Buns and I think that breakfast throughout the rest of the year is a little diminished without the option of these delicious treats split, toasted then spread with cold butter….mmmmm….yum…unhealthy, but yum…..

I would not like to see what state the very old buns in the bottom of this basket in Bromley would have been in though. They would definitely not be included in my breakfast menu. A quick trawl of the interweb shows me that this is a tradition still being upheld at The Widows Son, each year a sailor puts a new Easter bun in a basket hanging from the ceiling. Sadly for tradition most of the old buns were lost during a fire some years ago. A few blackened ones were saved and are in the new basket still taking pride of place above the bar. I am sure the spirit of the long-lost son appreciated his mothers devotion and her belief in his eventual return.

Now the buns are in the shops I will be doing my part as often as possible to worship the spring goddess even if I am in the wrong hemisphere. Better add some more butter to my shopping list…..

Albany Advertiser 15 Aug 1946 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article70502655

A 3000-year-old priest in a box. 1946.

How can you forget you have an ancient Egyptian priest in a box? A person who no doubt commanded respect during his life, spent a few thousand years entombed, then a few decades stuffed in a box in a dusty attic. Hardly the noble ending he envisaged in his lifetime!

Worker (Brisbane) 6 May 1946 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71426296

The famous Curse of King Tut was rumoured to be involved in the premature ends of many involved with the discovery of his burial-place, even though his remains and treasures were treated with respect.

If shoving the bones in a box and then losing them in your attic doesn’t bring down a few plagues upon your house I think it is safe to say these curses are not as threatening as some would have us believe!