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Wanniassa Probus Club  incorporated

Wanniassa Warbler

October 2023

next meeting - Thursday 19 October 2023  -  10:15 am for a 10:30 am start

birthday party in the Function Room at Greenway Views - more details later in this Wanniassa Warbler

Coffee, Cake, and Chat – 10:00 am   Thursday 5 October

This month we are returning to the Brew Bar (the Anketell Street venue) at SouthPoint in Tuggeranong.  Tables will be booked outside if the weather is fine.  As usual, there is no need to RSVP just turn up on the day. 

If you have a favourite café, let us know and we can slot it in for a future Coffee, Cake, and Chat, generally the first Thursday of each month.

Wanniassa Probus Club’s 5th birthday party  – 

10:15 am for a 10:30 am start   Thursday 5 October

Our Club reaches a special milestone in October - our 5^th Birthday! We will be celebrating with a birthday party lunch in the Greenway Views function rooms on our regular meeting day Thursday 19 October.  There will be no guest speaker on this day – instead some fun activities! 

Our birthday party menu will comprise:

• platters of sandwiches with vegan and gluten free options 
• hot snack food including sausage rolls and mini quiches 
• platters of fresh sliced fruit 
• cheese and crackers 
• birthday cake 
• tea and coffee 
• specialty coffees, wine and soft drinks may also be purchased on the day.

It is expected that all Members attending the October meeting will be eating lunch on the day.  An email will be circulated requesting RSVPs by 12 October to confirm numbers for catering purposes.  The cost for lunch is $15.00 per person, pay on the day.

Visit to Geoscience Australia  –  11 am   Thursday 9 November

For those Members who have not yet visited Geoscience Australia with their children or grandchildren, we have arranged an educational tour, followed by lunch on Thursday 9 November.  There is also the opportunity to complete an outdoor walking trail (45 minutes at slow pace).  No cost for the tour, lunch, RSVP at our October meeting.

From Bruce:

At the 21 September Member Meeting, Jan Morgan treated us to a collection of photos and diagrams taking us on a visual and explanatory tour of the Canberra arboretum, and overseas arboreta, sharing names of rare local plants as well as others from world arboretums.

We explored the Latin names of several significant plants, delving into whom they were named after and why, and their histories and a renaming event.

Jan also showed us the planning behind the layout of trees at the Canberra arboretum, with an aerial view and explanation of the planting layouts.  Did you know that architects had a hand in the planning of trees in Canberra’s arboretum?  Who’d have thought that?  There are some more details later in this edition.

From John:

In November, our guest speaker will be Mercy Ships volunteer Robert Gane.  I am sure you will find this informative.  So, what is Mercy Ships all about?  The website mercyships.org.au shows it is a charitable organisation and shows the health care work it does.  It relies on donations and volunteers and is so important for communities and populations where it operates.

For over 45 years, Mercy Ships staff and volunteers have provided lifesaving and life-changing services.  There are now 5 ships in their fleet.  Just in the past couple of years these ships have operated in Spain, Senegal, South Africa, and Sierra Leone.

Volunteering with Mercy Ships will not only change the lives of those you serve, but it will also change you.

There are many ways to support Mercy Ships in our global medical mission to help the poor.  It takes all kinds, with all skills.  There is a need for both medical and non-medical volunteers.  There are volunteer positions in a variety of areas including: housekeeping, galley, deck crew, doctors and nurses, and everything in between.

Volunteer opportunities are both long and short-term.  Short-term volunteers can serve from two weeks to two years depending on the position and typically fill service roles or very specialised medical or technical positions.  Long-term crew make an initial commitment of two years and typically fill positions that require more continuity and training.

If you are one who enjoys a trip or a cruise and like to volunteer, linking up with Mercy Ships might tick all the boxes.  You can do great things in whatever way you decide.

We will be celebrating the Wanniassa Probus Club’s 5^th Birthday at our next meeting on 19 October.  Our meeting will be held in the function rooms next to the restaurant at Greenway Views and will be a time to party, talk with friends and share a buffet lunch.  We will also have a birthday cake.

As October is also Probus month, Telstra Tower was lit up in Probus colours on Friday 29 September and the Australian mint was lit up from Friday 29 September until Sunday 1 October.

I hope as many Members as possible can join us for our birthday meeting to celebrate our club as well as Probus Month.  I will need everyone to RSVP when I send out the details at the beginning of October.

The cost is $20.00 per head.  Members will pay $15.00 for their lunch and the club will subsidise the remaining $5.00 per head.

Four of us went to Mr Bennett’s Bride at the Rep Theatre on 24 September.   We all enjoyed the play which was well acted by the cast with plenty of laughs.  It was a great set, and the costumes suited the period.

We were pleased to be able to nominate Max Lethborg as our nominee for Probian of the Year.

The Committee felt that Max had been a very supportive President who saw the Club through the COVID pandemic.  Max helped the Club recover from the fall-off in attendance during COVID and even presided over a growth in membership.

Unfortunately, Max will be away for our birthday meeting and the Probus Association of Canberra and District (PAC&D) sport day on 29 September where he will be acknowledged.  Thank you, Max!

President Julie

Summer is upon us with a vengeance, and I would like to remind everyone to dig out your sunscreen and hats and keep it convenient for regular use to protect yourselves from skin cancer and melanoma.  Unfortunately, the statistics for these serious conditions continue to grow and we need to get into the habit of using sunscreen and hats whenever we are outdoors!

Also, a reminder regarding the availability of a 6^th vaccination for COVID for those over 65 years! General practitioners and Pharmacies both provide a choice of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine if your last dose was at least 6 months ago.  Consider further vaccination especially if you are intending to travel.  There are reports of the virus infection rates increasing in several areas and the use of masks may also be recommended or required in some situations such as airline travel!

Please let the Wellness team know if you need any assistance with transport to meetings or activities - [email protected] or the Club phone number 0490 413 093 

Income for August 2023 was $764.03 which included membership fees ($50.00), prepayment for outings for Oklahoma and Mr Bennett's Bride ($658.00), payments received for the Friendship Lunch ($48.00), donations ($8.00) and interest ($0.03).

The expenses for August ($589.46) included payment for the Friendship lunch ($480.00), badges ($38.25) and payments from petty cash ($71.21). 

Thirty-two Members attended our September meeting, and we welcomed visitors Kirsten, Mike, and Brenda. It is pleasing to greet a steady stream of visitors, most of whom decide to join us.  Our current membership stands at 56 with another 2 applications to be approved at the next Committee meeting.

If you have misplaced your badge and wish to replace it, Membership Officer Anne can arrange for a new one to be made.  Cost is $13.00.  And remember that your Probus card is very useful if you wish to take advantage of any Probus travel or shopping offers that come our way because it has your unique Probus membership number.

Our September “Member Behind the Badge” was Tiiu Kroon – who told her story of leaving Estonia, a series of migrant camps, teaching in the Northern Territory, then to what was known as The Woden School, a school for students with mild to moderate intellectual disability.  What an interesting life story!  

As there are other activities at the October Meeting, there is no Member Behind the Badge in this edition.  The next will be in the November edition of the Wanniassa Warbler with a brief on-stage interview at the November meeting. 

Talk to President Julie if you would like to have a go – it’s not too daunting! 

Here are the lyrics from two of the Dubliners songs, all of which can be found on the internet.  Old folk songs always hit an emotional chord with their home spun truths.

The first ditty here is a love song and pulls at the heart strings: 

A bunch of red roses

A sober black shawl hides her body entirely
Touched by the sun and the salt spray of the sea
But down in the darkness a slim hand so lovely
Carries a rich bunch of red roses for me

Her petticoat simple and her feet are but bare
And all that she has is but neat and scanty
But stars in the deep of her eyes are exclaiming
I carry a rich bunch of red roses for thee

No arrogant jewel sits enthroned on her forehead
Or swings from a white ear for all men to see
But jewelled desire in a bosom so pearly
Carries a rich bunch of red roses for me

The second song is a reminder that not all of us have good lives, but we are all still human beings deserving of help and respect.   I certainly know people who have suffered like Danny Farrell.

I knew Danny Farrell when his football was a can
With his hand-me-downs and Welliers and his sandwiches of bran
But now that pavement peasant is a full grown bitter man
With all the trials and troubles of his travelling people's clan

He's a loser, a boozer, a me and you user
A raider, a trader, a people police hater
So lonely and only, what you'd call a gurrier
Still know, Danny Farrell, he's a man

I knew Danny Farrell when he joined the National School
He was lousy at the Gaelic, they'd call him amadan — a fool
He was brilliant in the toss school by trading objects in the pawn
By the time he was an adult all his charming ways had gone

I knew Danny Farrell when we queued up for the dole
And he tried to hide the loss of pride that eats away the soul
But mending pots and kettles is a trade lost in the past
"There's no hand-outs here for tinkers" was the answer when he asked

He's a loser, a boozer, a me and you user
A raider, a trader, a people police hater
So lonely and only, what you'd call a gurrier
Still know, Danny Farrell, he's a man

I still know Danny Farrell, saw him just there yesterday
Drinking methylated spirits with some wino's on the quay
Oh, he's forty going on eighty, with his eyes of hope bereft
And he told me this for certain, there's not many of us left

He's a loser, a boozer, a me and you user
A raider, a trader, a people police hater
So lonely and only, what you'd call a gurrier
Still know, Danny Farrell, he's a man. 

 Elizabeth Barrett Browning (née Moulton-Barrett; 6 March 1806 – 29 June 1861) was an English poet of the Victorian era, popular in Britain and the United States during her lifetime.  Elizabeth's work had a major influence on prominent writers of the day, including the American poets Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson.  Here are two of her most popular sonnets.  Her 43^rd sonnet is often recited at weddings. 

If thou must love me...Sonnet 14

If thou must love me, let it be for nought
Except for love's sake only. Do not say
'I love her for her smile--her look--her way
Of speaking gently,--for a trick of thought
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day'--
For these things in themselves, Beloved, may
Be changed, or change for thee,--and love, so wrought,
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry,
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby !
But love me for love's sake, that evermore
Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity.

 How Do I Love Thee?   Sonnet 43

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. 
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height 
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight 
For the ends of being and ideal grace. 
I love thee to the level of every day’s 
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. 
I love thee freely, as men strive for right. 
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. 
I love thee with the passion put to use 
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith. 
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose 
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath, 
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose, 
I shall but love thee better after death