Growing up in Scotland there were – and probably still are – a number of popular brands of paints. One of the most popular was Dulux. This, as far as we children were concerned, was a British Company using a very recognisable Old English Sheepdog as its company mascot. As children we stopped thinking of the dog as an Old English Sheepdog and it became – and I expect in the UK at any rate, still is – known as the Dulux Dog. I liked
Dulux, not really as much for the dog but more for the fact that this was the paint my dad used. That’s all there was to it, the Corporate Identity, the fact that the company traded in India, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada – and other countries, was unknown to us and as children – what did we care anyway. For us it was just Paint. It has been almost 40 years since we left Scotland so we brought with us the memories of all these early days. I have no idea what has changed or how much has changed. For example, I can say this – I worked for a Government Department and the place where I was stationed, the Distillery and all the Bonded Warehouses, have been demolished; everything has been flattened. I mean some of these warehouses were built by Prisoners of War — From Napoleon’s Army ! So if I annoyed anyone by saying “It’s a British thing” then I apologise but that’s what I knew and understood and when I wrote it I was thinking of my childhood, nothing else.
The Australia Day celebration ( at least here) ended up being cold and very windy. In the afternoon it was a nice breeze, not too cold at all, but as the sun went down, the wind
increased and the South Wind off the Spencer Gulf was strong and cold. So much so that the Bouncy Castles were taken down and two of the major kite units broke their moorings and came down. The RFDS Site was fully exposed to the wind and the ladies were just about frozen, so they closed fairly early as did a number of other sites. The fireworks still went ahead. In previous years we have been at Ada Ryan Gardens for Australia Day but this time the City Council was making a great play about Australia Day returning to the Foreshore. I don’t think it was the success they had been counting on. The coolness of the day would have been fine, but the wind put a bit of as dampener on things. Personally I would liked to have had Benji with me – it was cool enough to have him, but the thought of fireworks close up was the decider to leave him at home – to look after mummy!
Next weekend is the first meeting of the year so I will be heading off to Adelaide for a few days. Mount Gambier wont happen until the May meeting. I have plants in pots and they are dying. Those that are not dying are severely wilted. They may come back but based on past results it is unlikely. Yes I pick heat tolerant plants but 46c is pushing it just a tad. At 06;40 this morning they were all watered and those that could be moved were moved into the shade, but the extreme heat was just too much and even the shaded ones suffered. Even now in the early evening it is still too humid to take Benji out for a walk. The present temperature at 7:45 pm is 32c and not expected to fall below 28 overnight with heavy rainstorms and possibly flooding
forecast for tomorrow and Saturday- what joy! From the sublime to the ridiculous.
Edgar's Page 