Music in Murwillumbah
Murwillumbah, 23.6.34.
Dearest all! This week I again received a letter from my lovely mother, no. 242, which was written on Paul’s birthday. It was a little sad as the birthday child wasn’t home and because the Matron just had left and the house was quiet again. Take comfort with me, dear ones. My heart often longs so very very after you all and I think: "They are so fortunate they can visit each other so often." You are also able to invite your lovely friends, whenever you feel like it, while I only have my lovely Sverre and the useless creature Stray [pet dog] for thousands of miles. And there is little to see of Sverre except on our beautiful evenings and the weekend. This is not a complaint however, as I tolerate a good amount of solitude before I feel lonely. But it would be quite wonderful, if I could visit you now and then, or easily come to you for a few weeks if Sverre has go away for a week – like soon to Tumbulgum.
Sverre’s father hasn’t responded to my questions. The Eriksens are not so quick with such matters. Perhaps he doesn’t know quite what he should answer, because you don’t always have a job at hand in Sverre’s profession.
We had a wonderful experience this week: Climbed Mount Warning. I have never experienced anything so indescribably beautiful in my life. The view from the top itself is perhaps not any greater than many others that I have seen, such as Schneekoppe [Sněžka]. You can see far far away, on one side across long rows of forested blue ridges, and the Tweed River, villages, farms, small towns and endless pastureland (hilly), and the blue ocean. You should be able to see the lights of Brisbane in the distance at night. The peak is a flat plateau, about as large as your living room in Zittau. There are bushes about 3’ tall and tall grass up there. The best thing about the tour is the ascent. It takes about 4 ½ hours from where you leave the car and is very strenuous. First you walk for about 2 hours slowly up a proper path with high mountains with dense forests on both sides, and still the valleys are so wide there is pasture, plantations and a dam which provides Murwillumbah with water. But then you enter the real jungle. The wide path narrows and both sides become living walls of ferns, trees, palms and creepers. One almost feels as if they are trying to surround you and take you prisoner. Never before have I seen such variety and richness of plants. The path we walked on, was cut through by the first settlers decades ago. Precious cedar trees and other timber was pulled down from there by large teams of oxen. Now you can barely see the path and it would probably disappear completely within a year, if it weren’t for the many people climbing to the top. We also got lost once on the tour. That is not nice as you see so little around you – and even the sky is barely visible. It was too dark and I couldn’t take pictures, but I am sending a couple of postcards with pictures by someone who is a better than me, or who was at a brighter place on the path at a better time.
On one picture, the tall one, you can mostly see ferns, also on the right the leaves of a type of lilly that grows here, and a section of the path. The path is the dark place on the left in the other picture. You can’t see the creepers - it is too dark to take pictures where they grow. I have for the first time seen the type of cane grow which is used to make chairs. It stretches out indefinitely and has a prickly bark. There are giant trees, which drops their bark instead of their leaves. The new bark is ready when the old bark falls of, and it is white, wonderfully smooth, spotless white.
One creeper called “Wait a while", reaches across the path with quite thin, meter long branches with fine thorns which clothes get caught on. You have to stop and detach the straw by pulling it in the opposite direction, because despite its thinness, it won’t break if you simply try to walk on. It continues on very steeply, the last bit is almost vertical. My knees trembled quite considerably on the return journey. We left home about 7 and were back around 6 and it is only 6…7 miles from us to the start of the walk. I could hardly walk the next day. I have never had such pain. However, I am also quite out of practice. Sverre was not in such a bad shape. Stray, the monster, was naturally also on the trip and was at quite happy at the beginning, then quieter, and as we got to the car and I had sat down, she jumped into my lap, curled up in a ball and didn’t move anymore. And on Monday she could hardly move her back end and stayed the whole day on her straw bag. Once on the way, she ran away from us and we heard lot of barking from far far away. When we saw her again, she was covered in blood. We have no idea what she had murdered, as it was impossible to enter the thicket to see the prey.
Monday, 25 June
I started this letter on Saturday and now it is Monday morning. Sverre came home and then there was no more writing as we bought a mirror of about 3 ½ by 1 foot, and it had to be set up. We had to do something to support the glass, as the pane has no frame and our house has no solid walls. I really needed a mirror. It is in fact difficult to get by without one. Particularly when you make your own clothes. I have unpacked my green jersey dress that I bought back in Berlin, and want to make something out of it. I have worn this dress endlessly, in Sydney as a daily dress and it has been washed a 100 times, has neither a hole or thinly worn places, nor is it stretched or bunched in any way. Only the colour has gone a bit. I have taken it completely apart and will colour and sew it dark blue. Hopefully it will be good.
Yesterday we drove in our car to Round Mountain, a god forsaken place between Cudgen and Cudgera. A farmer there advertised seeking offers to build a house. It was supposed to be 8 miles from Mur [Murwillumbah], but as we had travelled that far, along steep and winding mountain roads, it was yet another 8 miles and it was another 2 miles without roads when we had that behind us as well. It then started getting dark and we returned emptyhanded, having left a note for the man with a request to mail “particulars about the building”. We were then a bit “fed up’’ with it all – that is wsjo nam nadojelo [Russian: we are all tired] and for the thousandth time we decided to leave Australia. And then we envisioned how Sverre would work his way across on one of the Wilhelmsen ships and I would travel along as a passenger. I would leave in Belgium and go to visit you for a bit, while Sverre would look for work in Norway. We still have the 1000 Crowns in Norway and they would last us a while. We talked each others ears off for a long time, until we both felt quite satisfied. Another 9 months and then we leave, when it is autumn her and spring with you. That is in April. What do you think? We have wanted to leave here for a long time and have made all sorts of plans and built Spanish castles, but then we have given up again. But the longer we stay, the less we like it and the more shocked we are about the ways people here think and act. And it would all remain foreign even if we stayed for a thousand years. The only thing that would make one endure this would be the opportunity to earn a lot of money in a short time and then go away, but this possibility is falling away and nothing is left. At the beginning there was so much new to admire and all was strange and unknown, but I naturally saw everything with my eyes, saw peoples words and actions from my perspective and didn’t know what was bluff or truth. Now as I understand and can’t rid myself of my old European skin, I don’t feel so ignorant anymore, and neither does Sverre. I don’t believe it is my imagination, I don’t believe the people here are worse than at home. There are good and bad people both here and there. They just seem terribly strange and incomprehensible.
Sverre will finish Crompton‘s house by mid week and then he will stay until Sunday. On Monday he will start about six weeks work with Stranghairs in Tumbulgum. I will then develop my plates when I have time on my own.
My neck is still not quite recovered. There are still 2 or 3 big pimples there, but the skin has healed and I have no complaints. Sverre too has recovered from his itch.
Have I confirmed the arrival of 2 Illustrirten [Berlin magazine]? A thousand thousand thanks, I am always so grateful for them.
All last week was the annual "Music festival" in Murwillumbah. Three times each day – early at 9 and noon and 2 - there was competitive singing and playing. Whoever got the most points played in a concert each night and those who got most musical points then played in a big concert on Friday night where the District Champions was chosen. Ever since we have lived here, we have continually heard 2 pieces practiced at 2 neighbouring houses. Always the same 2 pieces, as everyone, day in and day out. One of the piano players always played his piece better, more confidently and more energetically, while one felt the other worm was quite fed up with the whole thing, and the closer to the day of the performance, played with more mistakes and insecurity. You could hear music coming from houses wherever you went in the street, some quite lovely. Not a note is to be heard now the festival has passed. I can imagine how, our neighbours would have closed the piano and thrown the key in the ocean. The music has embedded itself in us and is still playing on in our brains. We have met many musical people here in Australia, many with beautiful voices, but hardly anyone who loved or enjoyed music. Music is much more a fashion.
Now I must finish. Hopefully will my letter to you in good time. Live well my dearest all, and I hope to see you all in May, in time for Pauls 28th birthday. Bubi – and 28! Thousand loving greetings from
Your Antipodean