Mum's Poems of Ballarat

This postcard was taken at The Cedars when Mum was a baby. She is held by her Mum, her Father standing in the garden. Her Grandfather is sitting on the porch. The cedar trees, one bough of which became her favorite swing are in the background. Ballarat is a gold mining town in the mountains outside of Melbourne and gets very cold in the winter.

CEDAR TREE SWING
Memories of Ballarat, Australia, 1933
By Coral J.P. Ayraud

When young I had a swinging tree
A cedar bough so supple
My Father swung the branch
As up and down I flew
As across the way a sky blue lake
Came sailing into view

WOOLEN STOCKINGS

The skeins of wool about two chairs
Were draped and round I ran
Winding up the dark brown balls
As fast as small legs can

Then in the evening, mother knits
Long stockings, warm as toast
When wind blew cold from artic shores
Legs needed heat the most

Little girls in nineteen twenties
Wore dresses in all weather
And ice would lie along our path
As we walked to school together

Our teacher had us jump about
Before we sat for classes
Singing, “Here we go gathering nuts in May”
A folk dance for lads and lasses

When out of breath and rosy cheeked
So glad to sit awhile
Our books came out and down we sat
To do our work in style

I don’t remember feeling cold
Tho’ winds blew off the lake
And all because of stockings
Mother knitted for my sake

By Coral J.P. Ayraud

Climbing the Cedars

Climbing the Cedars

She climbed up in these cedar trees
She climbed so high she felt the breeze
She felt so grand as she climbed higher
The view was a sight, she was inspired!

However when she looked around
She discovered that she couldn’t get down
A little voice from high above said,
“Help me for I’m filled with dread!”

“I’m up so high and I can’t get down.”
“Is anyone here or are you all in town?”
Mum came out and looked high above
“Hold on tight!” she said with love

“Where is Coral?” Grandfather asked
“When I find her, I’ll take her to task.
“I know that she is only ten”
“But she’s been in my tools again.”

Mum said, “Finding your tools will have to wait.”
“She’s up in the tree again, in quite a state!”
Brother Laurie helped her down, he saved the day
Coral dried her tears and ran off to play

By Carol A. Ayraud

Mum's Memories of Ballarat

This is a picture of Mum as a child in Ballarat. The picture below is of the "The Cedars" where she lived from age 3 months to 11 years in Ballarat. I will add some poetry, 2 written by Mom, one by myself about Mum's childhood. We visited Ballarat, but "The Cedars" has been replaced by a white modern monstrosity and Lake Wendouree is currently dry due to the drought. This was a little disappointing, however, we loved visiting with Mom's cousin Gwen and family.

Somewhere over the Rainbow in the land of OZ

We were in K.I and Adalaide and saw rainbows that lasted for hours. In fact the rainbow day in K.Island lasted for most of the afternoon. I wonder if the longevity of rainbows in Kangaroo Island and Adelaide have anything to do with how far south they are? I googled the question, but couldn't discover an answer. Maybe it has something to do with the angle of the sun? I was taking a picture of these last 2 and Jacki and I ended up having about a long conversation with a couple on the street. They were very jealous that I had a camera with me!

Sydney Stories

This is the Overseas Passenger Terminal in Sydney. This is probably where we came in when we arrived in Australia by ship when I was 10. I very clearly remember leaving at the end of our trip. My Mum was very sad and crying because she was leaving Australia. I started crying also. She told me I didn't have to cry because I wasn't leaving my home and parents. I still cried. Sounds like me, huh. I think somebody had sent us a Bon Voyage basket with food to our cabin. I also remember that whenever we left a port there were streamers. Everybody on shore and on the ship bought these narrow different coloured paper streamers. You would hold the end and throw the paper roll to shore (or to ship). Someone would catch it. Those on shore and on ship would hold onto their end of the streamers till the ship left shore making the streamers break. There were hundreds or thousands of these colourful streamers connecting the ship to the shore. It was very beautiful and very exciting.
I will tell you another Sydney ship story as told to me by my Mum. When she was 11 her family moved back to Brisbane from Ballarrat. Mum and Grandma were going from Melbourne on ship to Brisbane and Uncle Laurie and Grandpa were going across country with a touring car. There was a ship strike and so the ship took them only to Sydney not on to Brisbane as planned. Somehow Grandpa heard about the strike as they were traveling by car and picked up Mum and her Mum in Sydney. They had to squeeze the whole family into the car with all their suitcases, etc, but managed to make it to Brisbane.

These are school children on a field trip to the Rocks (the oldest section of Sydney) sitting under a fig tree. These are amazing trees with exposed roots.
This is the view from out apartment in Sydney. When I was 10 we stayed for 2 days right across the harbour at with our Aunt.

Happy as Larry

Grandma enjoying her daughters, grandson & great-granddaughters with the Kangaroos at Lone Pine
Happy Grandma Jacki and Airah at the beginning of our trip in the L.A. airport
Bailey smiling it up in one of the Remarkable Rocks on K.Island
Look at these faces! Happy lot, huh! Happy as Larry, Happy as a dog with 2 tails, Happy as a pig in shit, Happy little Vegemite, all Aussie phrases describing a happy person. Listen up Larry, you are married to an Aussie now, turn that frown upside down and live up to your name! Actually the cute picture of Airah and Aubree was taken after all 3 girls each wanted something different to eat from different restaurants so they had to go back to the apartment and have a discussion with their Dad, Sean. After a few tears they were all smiles. Airah and Aubree remind me of my sister Diane and I who are also 15 months apart. We fought like cats and dogs, but were also the best friends. I used Mum's, "lets sing a song" technique when Aubree and Airah were fighting in the car and it worked great!

Dogs eye and other Rhymes

My cousin Geoff laughs at many American phrases. He seems to think, "I guess" is especially humorous, or maybe it's the way we say it that he finds funny. Anyway the above picture is a typical deli with different types of meat pies. "Dogs eye" is another way of saying meat pie. It is one of many rhyming slang phrases used by Aussies. They really have fun and play with language. For example "Capt Cook" means "take a look" and "china plate" means "good mate".
Inside the Sydney Opera House looking out at some of the roof sails
Bailey from our balcony in Sydney. "Good on ya" Jacki for finding us this apartment. We found when planning our trip that it was cheaper to stay in apartments since there were so many of us. Even when there were just Mum, Jacki and I apartments or small cottages were definately the way to go.

Back in the good ole' USA, but more Oz pics to come

Been away so long I hardly knew the place, Gee it's great to be back home. As you can see everybody at home has been bored and lonely without me. CC looking out for my return. I have posted Australia pictures on the slide show, but will continue with memories and pictures of Australia for awhile in my next posts. If you get tired of my yabbering, let me know.

Brizzie pictures

Storey Bridge

Brisbane through window of the City Cat
Train over Maryvale Bridge (also called Emma's Bridge because she was born as it was completed)