IN THE COMMUNITY

from Your Time Brisbane - February 2022

BOOK REVIEW

THE Rotary club of Redcliffe Sunrise is taking on a challenge – one oyster shell at time.

The club is collecting shucked oyster shells from wholesale outlets and taking them – eight wheelie bins a week – to the Ozfish facility at the Port of Brisbane.

There, the shells are rested for at least six months to ensure they are bio secure for reuse, and then packed into 18kg baskets. With fisheries approval, they are put into the Port of Brisbane sub-tidally.

The Moreton Bay Foundation, Healthy Land and Water and UQ Marine research scientists with Ozfish are researching the outcome of restoration of a Moreton Bay once full of oysters.

“There were once oyster bars all over Brisbane and nearby coastal areas but now they have gone,” says Rotary Redcliffe Sunrise vicepresident Colin Scobie.

“The project is built on research at Pumicestone Passage to restore oyster reefs.”

Benefits are that the shells will not be going to landfill and

ROTARIANS SHELL OUT FOR MORETON BAY NETWORK WELCOMES OLDER WOMEN OLDER Women’s Network branches offer a place to meet, make new friendships, and share activities and conversation, as well as participate in discussions about issues affecting older women, such as housing. Branches run enjoyable oyster reefs provide a barrier meetings and outings. against storms and mangroves These include techno to stop erosion. morning teas to learn how Oysters – the lungs of the to use modern technology waterway – filter 180 litres a and stay in touch more day, cleaning the waters and easily, as well as day trips drawing up to 16 times more to a variety of interesting fish that are protected by the destinations. oyster reefs. There are meetings for Leftovers from the oyster dinner and nights for wine filtration process are enjoyed and cheese. by fish habitat and other Guest speakers cover marine life such as plankton, many topics from local seagrass and crayweed. history to safety at home “The cleanup of the and staying healthy. Moreton Bay Marine Park will Branches are at Bribie encourage the community to Island, Capalaba, gain confidence to swim in Lutwyche, Mitchelton, cleaner waters and the cleaner Morayfield, Woody Point, waters are a carbon sink Wynnum Manly and against climate change,” Mr Burnie Brae at Chermside. Scobie said. Call 3358 2301. There’s always plenty to do in retirement villages but writing poetry seldom comes up on the list. MOCCO WOLLERT is determined to change that.

Retirement villages have no shortage of entertainment or activities providing the brain stimulation needed by the elderly – bridge, scrabble and every card game under the sun.

There are interesting people with stories to tell arriving regularly as guest speakers and book clubs keep the love of reading alive while providing a challenge to evaluate the story and characters.

If you want to test your general knowledge, simply attend one of the many trivia events offered.

So, what does a lonely poet do when living in a retirement village?

Simple, start a poetry group.

Not surprisingly, my age group feels that a poem is only a poem if it rhymes. We grew up with rhyming poetry, which was like a song filling brains and hearts.

Great poets such as Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson produced poetry where rhyming words filled the pages. The rhymes seemed to fall into place without effort.

Today, however, there are many different forms of poetry, the most popular among modern poets being free verse which allows one to “string along” words in seemingly a haphazard way.

It also allows novices to try their hand at writing poetry.

Once upon a time, a poet was honoured, respected, praised and admired. Today, I feel selfconscious, almost ashamed, to admit “I write poetry”.

Today’s acknowledgements and accolades are for “real writers”, those who produce

Tickets are on sale now for Beenleigh Theatre Group’s fi rst production of the year, after being closed until late last year due to COVID!

Into the Woods is hitting the stage February 11th until February 26th! Th is production is directed by Mardi Schon with assistance from Jane Schon, and with musical direction by Julie Whiting. Th is classic piece of musical theatre, composed by the late great Stephen Sondheim with book by James Lapine, is an intrepid adventure into the depths of all your favorite fairy tales. In a tale as mysterious as it is hilarious, see Cinderella encounter the Baker and his wife. See Jack, of beanstalk fame, meeting Little Red Riding Hood, who is a bit feistier than you might recall. And revel as the Witch uses magic to confuse and confound all who venture...

Our next show is a re-imagining of the classic J.M. Barrie story, Peter Pan, which retells the tale with a modern twist. Our season of Peter Pan will run March 25th - April 9th. We also have an adult choir called A-Chord, which welcomes singers of all experience levels, their motto is sing from the heart! And an adult Th eatremaker’s club, facilitated by one our expert drama teachers Matthew French, for anyone who is a kid at heart and wants to jump back into reading scripts, acting out skits or having a crack at improv!

Check out our social media page Beenleigh Theatre Group on Facebook, or contact us via email to fi nd out more!

INTO THE WOODS FEBRUARY 11TH - 26TH

Tickets: http://www.beenleightheatregroup.com/into-the-woods Email: info@beenleightheatregroup.com or call (07) 3807 3922 Adults $35. Students/Concession/Pensioner $30.

page-turners, preferably in series.

Poets are not people who turn out book after book like Wilbur Smith and the many popular crime writers. I give them their due, I love to read a good story.

Poets don’t actually write to entertain, they write to connect with their readers on a deeper level, trying to capture hidden feelings, sad or happy.

So, I set about starting a poetry group at my village. I put out the word and a few people turned up for our first meeting.

We now meet regularly each month, with a new poem hot off the press. Each month’s topic is drawn out of a hat.

The variety of sentiments, facts, emotions, memories is amazing. We do not critique each other, but just enjoy putting words – beautiful, rhyming or not – on pristine pages.

Imagine if every retirement village had its own little poetry group. Even with only five or six members it would still be a large number of poets. What a boost to poetry in this country.

I know that the idea is a pipe-dream but who knows, dreams can come true.

I am sure there are many “oldies” out there, ready to write poetry if only somebody would give that gentle nudge to start somewhere, to put words on paper and share their efforts with friends. WITH all the rain everything is powering away and it’s time to give things a prune, either a light trim to keep plants in shape or a good hair cut to refresh.

Cuttings can be put in from these prunings. Coleous and pentas are both easy to grow and always colourful in the garden or pots.

Fertilise to keep everything healthy including citrus which should be forming fruit.

Prepare ground for your vege garden ready to plant cabbage, Chinese greens, and celery and plant seeds of carrots, radish and beetroot.

Put up a trellis in full sun and add aged manures with a dusting of lime ready for sweet peas.

Check out bulb catalogues to order Dutch Iris, freesias, gladioli, etc for a spring show.

Check plants daily for grubs and grasshoppers and remove.

The hippeastrum grubs are also eating the foliage and can move down to the bulbs.

It’s a good time to be outside. - Penny Hegarty Now stocking more brands and the largest size range from AA to K.

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