Burrinjuck, January 13, 1932
I have finished with the cherry plums, apricots and blue plums. Now the peaches, blackberries and figs are getting ripe. I don't like figs. but Sverre loves them, so I will cook a few jars for him. It is not a lot of work. The fruit is easy to clean and I boil the jam when the stove is hot anyway. Then I put my bathing suit on and hop in the water along with my saucepan, and it cleans itself. It's lovely and warm here now. 30 degrees. I don't like the cold.
I didn't want to write about this yet, but I can't wait. The bank is open again, and on Saturday we are going to Yass to take out money for a car. I hope we get a good one. A friend of Hindwoods, Bryan Gilbert, who has something to do with car sales, is going to get one for us. I am writing to him today. How happy I will be! Then we won't be totally isolated from the rest of the world any more. We'll be able to go to a movie once in a while, and even to Sydney or some other large town, where there are things to see and hear. We have been living for so long in the wilderness that it is going to be absolutely marvellous to be able to get out. It doesn't bother me very much that we don't have electricity or water pipes. If I had a "comfortable" house, I would just have a lot of housework to do, and as you know, house work is not my greatest interest in life. When we have a car, it will be easier to invite people to visit us. The way it is now, it's terribly inconvenient. Keith, for example, on arrival and when he left, had to spend 6 hours waiting at the dismal railway station in Bowning, because that's how the mail truck goes. That's not exactly what one would call comfortable, but it costs 2 pounds to hire a car.
Sverre is earning 8 pounds 10, every two weeks (@4 days). We don't spend that much, so we can always save some. We have now finally paid off all our debts. Sverre celebrated that by having 5 pounds stolen from his pocket, last time he was in Yass. He only told me recently, since he didn't want to spoil the holidays with the news. At first I was quite shocked and upset about it, but not for long. Luckily I can't dwell on things like that for too long.
Last time I wrote was on December 27. Since then we have slid over into a new year. For me the year started in a pleasant way. We had been expecting Keith to come on the 31st, and we thought we would spend New Year’s Eve with him and Ann and Elsie, but he couldn't get away from his office and wasn't able to come until the next morning. So then we didn't feel like inviting anyone, and instead we slept our way into the new year. Keith stayed until the 11th and we had a very nice time with him. Sverre was of course terribly jealous, but that only made me feel good. I think Keith had a very good holiday with us. He slept, ate, read and went on shorter and longer trips both with and without us. He helped with the washing up and with hauling water, swam and rowed with us and took a lot of pictures. I also took some but have not developed them yet. Sverre’s holiday lasted till the 4th of January. On the last two days we made a lovely trip to Taemas in a motor boat that was lent to us. That is, Snowy Pedersen took us. It was beautiful, warm and calm weather. We slept on green leaves on the ground, under tall trees, but sleep was difficult since the opossums made so much noise. And as soon as one of them got down on the ground, Jip was naturally after it and there was great disturbance. As booty, we brought home a lot of blue plums delicious pears and a meat safe. We didn't shoot any opossums since they now have their summer fur.
The Pelicans showed themselves in all their magnificence. A big group of them sat on the bank quite close to us. Keith took pictures of them. It was a beautiful sight when they got up and flew away. We also saw a lot of flying foxes on our way. They hung with their heads down, and quarrelled noisily with each other. They have soft fur.
I feel quite lonely during the day, now that Keith is gone. Sverre is away from 6.30 am until 5 pm. Anyway Keith did make extra work for me, at least as far as cooking is concerned. He is a fussy eater and here you can't simply run to the shop and get what you want. So three times a day I had to cook something for him, because the gentleman would not eat sandwiches. He never touched cheese, tomatoes, sardines or cold cuts. I couldn't have stood it much more than ten days, since my brain could not have kept producing ideas. When Sverre and I are alone we start the day with porridge made of rolled oats, coffee and bread with cheese, tomatoes, jam, dates, cold meat or something similar. For lunch we also have coffee and sandwiches, and for dinner we have a two course meal. It was still awfully nice having Keith here. We both like him very much. He is always in a good mood, and conveys the impression that he feels at home and is relaxed. He is even a bit Russian. The whole time he was here, he wore Sverre's grey flannel pants, to spare his own city pants. Sverre's pants now have two holes on the seat and one on the knee, but that doesn't bother Keith. He is almost a head taller than Sverre, a real giant, but very thin - and good looking.
January 14
Hardly had I written that it was so nice and warm, when a strong southerly wind blew up and the temperature dropped to 15 degrees in the shade. I lit the stove and am sitting here in a sweater, with a rug around my legs and I'm freezing. After 35 degrees, 15 degrees feels like frost. Last night after dinner. Mr Corby came over and we played chess till midnight. First I beat him, then he beat Sverre. I am always very happy when I win, but if I lose it puts me in a very bad mood.
It is 9 am. I have tidied up and started knitting a bed jacket for Mama. The wool is lovely and soft. I hope it will turn out nice. I shall do.my best. When Evelyn was here I asked her to get the wool for me. When I got her parcel there was a surprise in it for me – a ‘short’ suit. People wear them a lot around here, on trips, and on the beach. We see tourists in Burrinjuck wearing them. Mine is floral, dark and light blue and brown, sleeveless, and with a white collar, belt and pocket. I have quite a tan (except in the face) so a short suit suits me. It's nice and cool to wear when the weather is hot.
Keith gave Sverre a beautiful book: Neville Cayley ‘What Bird is that?’. It has all the Australian birds in it, with coloured illustrations. He gave me a small necklace of blue beads which-is very pretty. Sverre was jealous, thought he should have given me chocolates or something else short lasting. I will wear the necklace a lot now, just to spite him.
Burrinjuck, January 19, 1932
I have just hung my washing on the line. What a relief to have finished that horrid job. It is so hot today, I feel quite exhausted. I would like to go swimming, but I don't when I am alone because the water is quite deep.
We were thinking of inviting Mrs and Miss Anderson, who are still here, over this evening to go spinning with us. The only trouble in that then we shall have to invite them in afterwards for a cup of tea, and the last thing I feel like doing now, is lighting the stove and baking cakes. Besides, Miss A. really is the most boring woman on this earth. One never knows what to say to her. Whatever you say, she invariably answers ’I say !!’ and never says anything herself. Last Friday evening we went to another dance evening and she was there too. Both Sverre and I tried very hard to entertain her, because she looked so lonely, sitting there all on her own, but it was no use.
Last Saturday I went to Yass and got money out of the bank. I sent 60 pounds to Keith, where Mr. Gilbert can get it when he has found a car for us. So I still have about 150 pounds in my account and Sverre has about 30 in his. We have heard from Gilbert, that he will do his best, but that he won't hurry, rather wait till something good comes along. I wrote to Chaffers, asking if they wouldn't like to bring the car down, and come and stay with us at the same time. That would be so nice. Then Sverre and I could drive to Sydney at Easter. A big new bridge is supposed to be opened just then. I would like to see that. A Mr. Leonarder from here, drives to Yass every Saturday and takes passengers along for 10 shillings. Last Saturday I was the only passenger, which gave me some great advantages. Firstly he wouldn't take my money, because my company was so enjoyable. Secondly, he treated me to a delicious breakfast. and thirdly, he let me hold the steering wheel, something I have never done before. We certainly didn't go very fast, not more than 30 km/hr, but it's a very winding road with a high cliff wall on the right and a deep valley on the left. However the road has never seemed so short to me before, and I was quite sad when we reached home. Oh, I am so looking forward to our having our own car.
Burrinjuck, January 27, 1932
This is the third piece of paper I am starting on. I tore up the first two. I think my brain must have got burnt out yesterday. We had a sports day and were in the sun from 11 am till 7 pm, and the temperature was 38 degrees in the shade. In spite of the heat it was a lovely day and we had a great deal of fun. I took part in rowing, running and shooting events. I came second in the rowing competition. I would have come first, but my oars were much shorter than all the others. The prize was 7/6. I came fourth in the running, and in shooting, in which all the competitors except me, were men, I shot brilliantly past the mark. That didn’t bother me, however, since out of thirty competitors, only three or four hit the mark at all. The mark was only 3/4 the size of this page and was at a distance of 150 yards. Sverre and I forgot to bring our rifles, and we were no good with the ones we were unfamiliar with. The only people who hit the mark were the ones who were using their own rifles. Sverre took part in several events too, but had bad luck.
I am certain that Sverre is the best rower here, but he only came in as number three. The boats were all different. He didn’t make it in the high jump either, and in the three legged race he had an unsuitable partner. I think Sverre is a bit unhappy about not doing better, but I guess he’ll get over it
We have had some lovely long holidays lately. Tuesday was Anniversary Day so they decided to give people Monday off and let than work Friday instead. That meant we had five days in a row to ourselves.
Sverre has now read all of Aanrud's stories aloud for me. What a shame there are not more of them. They are so good. Now we are going to read an Australian book. We spent one day amongst the blackberries. Sverre got stuck in the bushes, and tore a lot of small holes in his shirt, which meant a lot of extra work for me. On Saturday and Sunday we went with the policeman, Mr. Brick, up the river to Taemas. He makes the trip every week to see if anyone is shooting, lighting fires and not extinguishing them etc. So we asked him to take us with him. We spent the night in an old disused shack, visited Roach’s who gave us some beautiful yellow plums, and also brought back a sack full of pears. It was lovely. We left our boat here, since Mr. Brick has a big motor boat.
We have still not heard anything about our car. Perhaps I will get a letter today. I can hardly wait.
NEXT: February 1932