Torby you are right and this was a pretty large one at that; but of course there is a more serious crime here in Australia nad that is stealing “Nevilles”; They are like garden gnomes but more in the image of Australian aborigines, usually with a spear and sometimes standing on one leg.
Rgds Ian
A criminal underground down under[:O]
Haven’t you got somebody like a Neville in the White House then? Or is he more like a gnome? I bet Bush would go down well in the bush, outback - so to speak. Nevillles, I love it, wouldn’t like to fall on one of them with his spear after a few beers.
Kim[swg]
I’m REALLY in the doldrums now. When I got home yesterday, it was too dark to work on the garden RR. Blame it on the end of daylight savings time! Why can’t DST be year-round? Would create more light in the gloomy winter!!! In the summer we don’t need all that light and heat.
Baaah Humbug!
Yeah Kim I think the name was derived from Senator Neville Bonner an aborigine ploitician.
Ian
Well this year I have lost 10 acres, my shop, the net, and this was all when I was going to get started kitbashing. Man it is screwed up!
One more curve to go and I’m all converted to 5’ turns. Torby, I wish I could, but five is the best I can do in the limited area my layout occupies. It’s a 20’ x 7’ (approx,) irregulary shaped planting area surrounded by sidewalk, thus no expansion possibilities. Well…I guess I could go up.[:)]
This winter I’ll be trying to finish up:
Dont feel bad Eric, I’ll be rebuilding my layout this winter and I’m sticking to R1, its what I’m used to and keeps me from making anything to big that would dwarf my layout. I’m afraid a Neville up here would be very politically incorrect due to the inherent racial issues something like that is likely to stir up. Up here they’re called Lawn Jockeys, although originally they were ment to represent a slave servant who would hold the horse for his master in antebellum days. They were popular in that form from the 19th century right up to the 1970’s then they started morphining into little horse racing “jockies”, same figure, different colored paint schemes, but there’s still alot being sold with black facial coloring. What I dont get is that if your African American the you can have something like that without any fuss at all, but if a tightie whitie like me puts one out its akin to a racial slur even if they have the same figure in their yard, huh? Even my black friends can’t figure out that logic. Oh Well, welcome to America 2006. Anyway at least I dont have to worry about it, no protesting gnomes showing up at my house demanding I remove my pink flamingoes, or maybe I can be more racially diverse and get some blue flamingoes before the manufacturer closes shop.[;)][(-D]
Found this very ineteresting connection between lawn jockeys and the Underground Railroad.
http://www.loudounhistory.org/history/underground-railroad-jockey-statues.htm
A sample of a particularly offensive Lawn Jockey
http://www.lawnjockey.com/images_jocko_N.jpg
These have morphed into this:
http://www.lawnjockey.com/images_cav_front.gif
What happens if I get offended by that last lawn jockey?
TJ you’re not allowed to be offended.
That you lost a wad of cash at the racetrack last weekend?
I also subscribe to a list on speeders/put-puts, but the Cabin fever material usually starts just after Christmas. Heres GR talking about the pillage of Gnomes! Heres some info on Neville Bonner. http://www.abc.net.au/news/features/obits/bonner/bonner_bio.htm The term “Neville” for garden ornaments in the appearance of an indigenous warrior was made very popular by an Australian Sit-com that was very politically incorrect “Kingswood Country”. The show centred around a racist (in todays values anyway) bloke, Ted Bullpitt (yep, there are lots of ways that can be spun into a line) who drove a Kingswood (built by GM’s (subsidised by my governments) Australian Brand, Holden). He had such a statue in his garden! all sorts of terrible things happened to Neville! heres a link for more on Kingswood country http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingswood_Country As for the earlier comments re crime in australia - its a bit like watching American Sitcoms - the telly here shows all the death and gore holliwood can produce, and the news shows all the murders etc etc so one could believe if you don’t get mugged murdered and or raped when stateside, you ain’t been. yet I managed a month in North America, drove the freeways of LA, and did not get mugged, raped or murdered or even experience road rage. Rather, I met some great people! reminds me of the old statistics/lies quote - same can be said for the media!
Sorry, we’ll try harder next time[:-,]
I don’t agree with Nic on much but i have had the same experience he had in North America. I have been there 4 or 5 times, once for 3 months and i have visited 20 cities in 12 states and i didn’t even see a crime or even hear of one. Even the supposedly arraogeant darker type americans in Nan Francisco were pretty pleasant to me.
Rgds Ian
Well here’s my list of winter projects:
The clock changing always reminds me of the "politically incorrect"quip by someone like Churchill or Will Rogers that Daylight saving time was like the old Indian chief that wanted a longer blanket, so he cut a foot off the top and sewed it on the bottom…I guess we could get up an hour earlier…naw! It’s dark by 5:30, the leaves are falling faster than I can rake them off the tracks, but the weather is perfect here in Virginia- it’s always something. The really bad part about all this is the political ads this time of year but if I understand them, they say if we vote out the damn Reporkicans and vote in the damn Demoncats, they will fix everything including this winter doldrum problem and pay me a subsidy to not rake my leaves-or did I get that wrong?
No, you got it right. But remember Kerry voted for winter before he voted against it.
I’m with Mark. I can barely keep up with the leaves. I don’t blow 'em—they just keep coming back. I use the shop-vac. Four times I’ve sucked 'em up so far. The trees are all bare, and yet more leaves keep appearing as if by magic. This is my first year in garden railroading. I’ve got the railroading part down pretty good. The garden part I’m not too sure about yet. [:)]
By rights we should not have this leaf problem here in Australia as all our native trees are evergreens, mainly eucalypts no less.
Interesting enough we have about 2500 tropical islands here in Queensland and mostly uninhabited and none of them have palm trees except that have been planted there.
Rgds Ian