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ask-de-writer · 5 years ago

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LOST TIME (part 2 of 3) A fantasy of Flocking Bay.

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LOST TIME

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

5556 words

written 2003 by Glen Ten-Eyck

Reproduction in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the express written consent of the author or proper copyright holder.

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Morton Hewitt did not last. He bought the house for back taxes in 1944. He lived there for a week. He painted the hardwood floors and then hanged himself in the garage the next day.

Byron Thomas bought the house from Hewitt’s estate. He was a grave digger for Trinity Graveyard. He updated the plumbing and lived there quietly for several years. Apparently he liked his work a little too well. He buried two people who were not yet dead. One of them lived. He was adjudged sane at his trial and hanged for his crime.

Mark Altman bought the house next. He was a reclusive sort and lived there for a quite a number of years before it was discovered that he’d had some visitors who had never left. He died in prison while awaiting trial. There was an interesting hand written note attached to the autopsy report which stated that the coroner had ruled out both suicide and homicide but refused to pronounce the death natural.

Dora Greene got the place next. She was Mark’s sister. Like Mark, she lived there quietly for years. One day she walked into town and set fire to the school, killing five and maiming six more. She spent her last years in a lunatic asylum, setting three more fires and killing two more people. She herself died in her last fire.

While she was in the asylum, one Tony Fisk, age twelve, urged on by several other urchins, had thrown some stones at the windows of the Vekin place. He had missed. Becoming angry, he took careful aim and they all watched the flight of the stone. In the young malefactor’s words, “It went away without falling.”

It would not have been worthy of a news story, except for the fact that each of the children who had watched the stone had gone severely and permanently cross-eyed. In a small town like Flocking Bay, that many kids going cross-eyed at once could not be hidden.

George Abbot bought the house and rented it at a very low price to a Michael Farley. The two had been feuding, down-state, and the house was supposed to have been a peace offering. Farley stayed only a few weeks. He went out and dynamited Abbot’s automobile. Farley was quite mad and lived out his life in an asylum for the criminally insane. The county coroner ruled Abbot’s death to be suicide. After all, he had known the history of the house and had knowingly rented that house to an enemy.

Cornelius Baker took the house next. He upgraded the kitchen and installed modern wiring. He lived there quietly and apparently got on well for about five years. He was a long-haul truck driver. Bodies followed him about the country. Finally, he was caught with one in his truck. He drove his truck into a bridge abutment at over ninety miles per hour rather than be taken alive.

Now, I had the place. I mentally withdrew my blessing. He had not been a good man at all.

Lois saw that I was finished with the file and making good inroads on my sandwich. She asked, “Did you sleep there, last night?”

“Yes, I did. Most restful sleep I have had in years.”

“What is your full name?”

“Vandervekken,” I replied, getting out my driver’s license. I was used to this. “No first name or middle initial. Just Vandervekken.”

“How old are you?”

“I don’t know, at least seventy.”

“You don’t know how old you are? Seventy? You look like you’re in your early twenties,” she said incredulously. “I told you that things connected with the Vekin place get interesting.”

“I got a head-wound during the war. Traumatic amnesia.”

“Viet Nam wasn’t that long ago. It would only make you in your fifties.”

“Not Viet Nam, Lois. WW II. Apparently, I was helping the French Underground.” I handed her the military fingerprint record. Her eyes widened as she realized that I was serious. “The amnesia’s been permanent, so far. I have language skills . . . too many. I’m a fluent, accentless polyglot. I even speak Basque. I know how to do an amazing number of things . . . no trace of name or personal past. No ID either.”

“Couldn’t they trace you by these fingerprints or something?”

“They tried. I was found among the bodies of a wiped-out unit of the French Underground during the German withdrawal from Paris in 1944. Someone from another unit was able to say that I was an American volunteer with a name that he could neither remember nor pronounce ... something sort of Dutch. That inspired my current name. I got back with a temporary ID and that military fingerprint record, which I still carry.”

“That’s sad, and eerie, too. What’s it feel like?”

“I’ve thought about that a lot. I think the best way to describe it is like a house that’s furnished but nobody is home. Empty. Alone.”

“So, how does that relate to your choice of name? You must know what having only one name does to our systems for indexing things and people.”

“True. I want to stand out, in case somebody recognizes who I am. As for Vandervekken, he was the Flying Dutchman, who swore that he would take his ship around the Cape of Good Hope, against a gale, if it took until Judgment Day. That was in the Seventeenth Century and he is still sailing. His ghost is seen as a Dutch East India Co. galleon with all sails set, sailing into the teeth of a gale. He can’t get home either.”

“I see,” Lois said, adding to her notes. “What brought you to Flocking Bay?”

“I was just passing through. I like small towns, so I avoid the main highways and big cities whenever I can. I liked the atmosphere of Flocking Bay enough to inquire about the possibility of settling here.”

“Look, we both know that small towns are dying. You could have had your pick from any of a dozen houses. Why the Vekin place?”

“I was shown fourteen places, actually. I know that it seems a bit forbidding at first, but it felt good. Like a warm glove on a cool morning. Have you ever actually been there?”

She shuddered, “No, and before you, I have never heard of anyone who said that the Vekin place felt good ... You say that you are a writer. What have you written?”

“Charles said it very well, ’Pseudonyms are great for privacy.’ My own writing aside, I do translations but you won’t find my name on most of them. Archaeologists like to take credit for their finds. I mentioned that I’m a polyglot? I sight read ancient languages as well as modern.”

I extended my hand to Lois and invited, “Would you like to come and see for yourself this house of dark history? I promise that you will find it worth your while. In all of those stories, not once was the interior of Vekin House described. Do come.”

“I have to return the file and get my camera,” she responded gamely.

“I shall await you in my auto, in front of the Voice,” I answered. As I walked her back across the street, I had the pleasure of seeing her stare at Lilitu.

“If that’s what I think its, I’ll ride with you anywhere!” she called over her shoulder as she entered the Voice’s office. True to her word, she emerged in a few minutes with a camera. Not one of those tiny little cameras that have become fashionable, but a business-like press camera. I opened the car door and gave her a hand up.

As I got into the driver’s seat, she asked, wonder in her voice, “Is this really a Packard V-12 Touring Car?”

We pulled away with the almost uncannily quiet, vibration-free ride that the car was famous for. I replied, “You bet she is. Lois, meet Lilitu. Lilitu, meet Lois. After the war, there were still quite a few of them to be had, and I liked both the ride and the durability, so I hunted one down and had it fixed up like new. I’ve kept her that way ever since. She’s only had two owners in over two-million miles. The first owner only put on about sixty-thousand of them.”

“You drive a lot,” she stated.

“I was looking for something ... I think that Flocking Bay has it. My turn for a few questions , if you don’t mind.”

“Fire away. If I don’t like the question, I won’t answer it.”

“What did you do before you took up the Voice?”

“The same thing that I still do. The stock and futures markets. I’m good at it. I got out of college with a degree in the sociology of medieval witchcraft. I got a job as a waitress on the strength of my looks. I put my first fifty dollars in tips into a risky stock that kited way up. On a hunch, I dumped it three days after I bought it. It nosedived shortly after I sold out. After commissions, I had three hundred and fifty dollars. I rolled it over the same way. The rest is history. So far, my hunches have always worked for me.”

“What brought you to Flocking Bay?”

“Like you, I was passing through. I was on my way to Lakeside Resort about three years ago. I got a hunch that I should stay, so I did. The Voice was failing. When a small town loses its paper, the end is in sight. I didn’t want the end to come, so I bought the paper. Here I am.”

“And here we are,” I said with a flourish as I pulled up in front of the house. We both stared. The yard was neatly trimmed, though the bushes and trees still retained a slightly forbidding aspect. Going up the path to the front door, I noticed that the flagstones had been leveled, the weeds removed and the joints and refilled with fresh sand. The iron fence and balustrades had been cleaned of rust.

“You’ve been busy,” was Lois’s comment.

“That’s just it,” I replied, puzzled. “I didn’t do it. I thought that stocking the fridge and setting out a snack last night was something that the real-estate agent arranged. Sort of a welcome wagon. This is beyond the call of duty.” Opening the front door, I felt that comfortable, welcoming feeling that had caused me to buy the house in the first place. Impulsively, I said, “Hello, house, you certainly look nice today.”

Lois looked at me quizzically and asked, “Do you talk to everything, or is this special?”

I thought for a moment before answering, “Actually I only talk to things that have personality enough to warrant a name, like Lilitu, my car, or Drachen, my typewriter.”

“Typewriter? You do like antiques, don't you? What are you going to call the house, then?”

“I’m not sure,” I answered. “Something good ... What does the place feel like to you?”

“The place actually looks and feels . . . well . . .” Lois groped for the right word, “I’d have to say . . . happy. Not what I expected, at all. It feels like what you see when a pup that loves its master is greeting him. No wonder you slept well, if it feels as good to you as it does to me . . .” She sort of trailed off. “I wouldn’t normally say this, but I’m getting a hunch about this place . . .” she trailed off again.

“I guess that the house was just waiting for the right kind of person,” I responded. “It was pretty rough on everyone else. I’m glad that you like it too.”

“Look at these floors,” she mused, “They were beautiful before Hewitt painted them over. You can still make out some traces of the parquetry patterns. If he hadn’t already hanged himself, I’d help you to do it.”

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#LOST TIME #Part 2 of 3 #Flocking Bay #Written by De Writer

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theconceptualcookbook · 3 years ago

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Aboriginal name: Bread fruit

Common name: Pandanas palm, Screw pine

Latin botanical name: Pandanus tectorius

Family: Pandananaceae

Native: Pacific Islands, Malaysia and Eastern Australia

Medicine:

No information is readily available about medicinal uses for the Pandanus palm.

Food, culture and ecology:

On Arakwal country at Broken Head, Byron Bay, Aunty Delta Kay hosts a regular cultural walk and talk tour, with stories about her ancestors and family told through local Indigenous food and medicine plants. The lands around Byron Bay are part of The Big Scrub, the traditional lands of the Bundjalung people, once the largest subtropical rainforest in Australia of which less than 1% remains today. Tectorius has been cultivated for thousands of years on coastal dunes and rocky headlands. For the coastal Arakwal Bundjalung people, Bread fruit was an important food source prior to their displacement from traditional lands and degradation of land and waterways. The Big Scrub was clear felled for prized timber like red cedar then burned for farming land. The sand dunes around Byron Bay where heavily mined for gold, which destroyed the coastal ecosystems.

Prior to the destruction of local Indigenous foodways, clear flowing creeks were an integral part of food preparation practices, like removing toxins from certain seeds and fruits. Aunty Delta speaks of the highly fragrant wood-like Bread fruit segments that produce an edible starch when processed. They were crushed then left in Dilly bags in running water for many days to extract toxins while softening the fibres. From my experience with fermentation processes, this can also be seen as a form of anaerobic fermentation, where microbes in the water would pre-digest the tough fibres and contribute to making the fruit more tender and edible. The symbiotic process of using microbes to pre-digest foods to make them bioavailable and digestible for humans is a practice as old as humanity.

The process would be hard to replicated today, due to widespread water contamination due to urbanisation and farming runoff and various other introduced water born pathogens. Also, certain microbes may no longer be present in the water, since many different bacteria species form microbial communities that created the beneficial niche environment for this kind of food preparation. Traditional food practices linked to interconnected ecosystems like The Big Scrub, are one way of understanding how food–plant–people relationships promote biodiversity for healthy and sustainable ecosystems, through everyday practices.

A similar process of pulping and washing seeds was widely used by Indigenous communities in North East New South Wales and Eastern Queensland with the large seeds of the Black Bean tree (Castanospermum austral). The seeds are also indigestible when raw. They were similarly pounded, placed in running water to extract toxins, then roasted and ground to flour to make a type of damper bread.

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byrontreesa · 4 years ago

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Tree Removal Services Near You

We love trees at Byron Bay Tree Services, but we also recognize that tree removal is occasionally necessary. We will remove any tree, in any state, in any situation, if necessary, provided the necessary approvals are obtained; nevertheless, we prefer to keep trees and execute tree pruning services whenever possible.

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juanitaheart · 5 years ago

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As it starts to heat up & I sweat more I get more breakouts on my face. Also with my hormones I get random spots. I don’t need to change my skincare to acne care just need a few products to use while combating the periodic breakouts. . I have been using a exfoliant with Tea Tree to cleanse my skin then I have been using this Blemish Spot remover from the Glow range by @sororis_beauty . This is a natural & Organic gel full of Blemish fighting ingredients to clear skin up. . Made on a Aloe Vera base and enriched with Australian Tea Tree and Lemon Myrtle to kill surface bacteria, plus Pineapple and White Willow Bark to dissolve dead skin and prevent future breakouts. This product is a fabulous alternative to chemical products and will not disrupt the skin’s natural balance. I love it is a light scented gel that soaks straight in without leaving a sticky residue. This has really helped clear up my spots quickly and effectively. I understand some people have a reaction to Tea Tree oil products but I find it works amazingly on my skin for breakouts so does my son. . Made in Australia Ethically & Sustainably. Is natural, Vegan & Cruelty free. . Do you love Tea Tree in products? . @sororis_beauty . . #teatree #sororisbeauty #glowrange #spotcorrector #blemishserum #breakouts #juanitaheart #australianskincare #australianmade #veganskincare #naturalskincare #crueltyfreeskincare #skincareroutine #skincareproducts #skincare #clearskin #bbloggerau #selfcare (at Byron Bay, New South Wales) https://www.instagram.com/p/CH6xNuqFlvH/?igshid=tzf59ssojeu6

#teatree #sororisbeauty #glowrange #spotcorrector #blemishserum #breakouts #juanitaheart #australianskincare #australianmade #veganskincare #naturalskincare #crueltyfreeskincare #skincareroutine #skincareproducts #skincare #clearskin #bbloggerau #selfcare

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iksathrob · 5 years ago

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Many Australians have had a tree or sea change in the back of their minds for a while, and now could be the perfect time to make that dream a reality. Now that most people are spending more time working from home due to COVID-19 restrictions, the time is ripe to up stumps in the city and trial a new home in beautiful regional spot. Looking to escape the confines of the city? These rural retreats will have you packing your bags. Picture: realestate.com.au With Australians increasingly eager to start travelling again – and domestic holidays the big trend for this spring and summer – realestate.com.au are supporting the Go And Get It campaign to encourage safe domestic tourism of whatever sort you can manage, from day outings to long road trips. Here are some dreamy sea or tree change rentals to try before making a permanent move. 1. A historic farmhouse in rural Tasmania For those looking to really get away from it all, this stunning spot in Ross is the perfect escape from the city for just $390 per week. The heritage-listed, four-bedroom home enjoys an open-plan kitchen and dining area for when friends come to visit, once restrictions ease. Connected to NBN and Foxtel, the new resident will be able to work from home comfortably. The abode also comes fully furnished, so there’s no need to worry about lugging furniture across the Bass Strait. This historic farmhouse is perfect for those looking for a Tasmanian escape. Picture: realestate.com.au 2. Coastal life meets country charm in southern NSW For the best of coastal living with a dash of country life thrown in, the stylish village of Berry in the Shoalhaven region is an ideal destination for a tree and sea change. Berry is becoming a mecca for those escaping city living. Picture: realestate.com.au Set on the doorstep of the south coast – with popular Kiama, Gerringong and Culburra beaches close by – a trial sea and tree change awaits in this beautiful duplex minutes from Berry village. This rental has all the amenities required for a country life. Picture: realestate.com.au Set across two levels, the modern home has well-appointed finishes, open-plan living and a sun-drenched, north-facing balcony for relaxing on your morning coffee break. There’s also an office, so working from home would be a cinch in this gorgeous abode. // // 3. The ultimate beach escape in northern NSW There are few places in Australia that inspire the sense of calm and relaxation that Byron Bay does, and this rental has all that on offer and more for $2000 per week. The three-bedroom, architecturally-designed beachside abode is available for a 3-6 month lease and is located in the exclusive Linnaeus Estate. Enjoy ocean views, a renovated kitchen, open-plan living spaces and plenty of outdoor areas to relax and unwind. There’s also access to a swimming pool, tennis court, 1/2 basket ball court and gym. A stunning Byron home perfect for a beach escape. Picture: realestate.com.au 4. A beachside shack with all the trimmings in SA This stunner, right on the water on South Australia’s Hindmarsh Island, will captivate any water lover. The three-bedroom beach shack home is positioned at the top of a hill taking in epic coastal views. For just $380 per week, the new resident will enjoy everything that comes with living on the stunning Fleurieu Peninsula, including incredible food and wine, all just a quick 1hr 20min drive from Adelaide Airport. Enjoy the best of SA in the waterside abode on Hindmarsh Island. Picture: realestate.com.au The post 4 rural rental escapes to consider a tree or sea change in appeared first on realestate.com.au. from news – realestate.com.au https://ift.tt/2SuZEmK

http://realestateiksa.blogspot.com/2020/10/4-rural-rental-escapes-to-consider-tree.html

#Blogger

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byrontrees · 5 years ago

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Tree Removal Services

At Byron Bay Tree Services, we love trees, but understand sometimes there is a genuine necessity for tree removal.

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leafitt · 20 days ago

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It is not easy to keep your property's trees healthy, safe, and attractive. Proper tree maintenance is crucial in an area like Byron Bay, where the natural environment is both a valued resource and a duty. This is where an arborist in Byron Bay can help. Hiring a trained arborist guarantees that your trees are cared for with professionalism, safety, and environmental responsibility in mind, no matter whether you own a home property or supervise a commercial location.

#Tree removal Byron bay #Arborist Byron bay

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whimsically-ominously-auspice · 5 years ago

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We have an emergency sickness...

This will cause COVID to eradicate quicker despite hospital interventions.

This will cause vomiting of good people Only -- enough of one good meal then possible other random symptoms such as sweating and/or pain and nausea. And diarrhea and coughing. And sleepiness. It is very limited to one evening/part of day.

It will cause eradication of unheavenly and extreme evil.

This is due to Bobbys death yesterday. One hero down y'all. So we all gotta be heroes. The babies will be born in 80 days. And COVID simply doesn't have enough time.

It won't cause many long term symptoms except coughing or sneezing.

It will cause the "zombie outbreak" of people that have COVID which is a sleepy brainless feeling that we will also experience.

I felt the zombie first when I woke. Then Vomited (threw up). Steven vomited then felt the zombie effect. Just sleeping is fine.

This is how I explained the Corona from the beginning. So testing will show a false positive if it isn't an antibody and illness test like those in London England, Ireland, and other upper European countries.

So if you need/want off work then don't get the antibody test. If you have to get back to work, get the antibody test.

We will not obtain the tests that are done in Europe. Because this is the United States and the government will supply cash funds due to those being ill and needing to take off work. If they do not Then they will not obtain the tests in Europe without an extreme war taking place. Russia will stand in the way of the United States to protect that side of the world.

To mimic the way the blood steam does begin to dry out the intestines will empty for those of the good. It is a virus and as soon as they're empty both ways then you're fine and shouldn't test positive after two to four days.

Because it isn't speeding up the Mummyfication process, quarantine is still important world wide.

Because hospitals will begin to be overwhelmed.

When i have a sunburn over a tan then that will cause the Mummyfication process to be speeded up to where they will die within one to three days of contact.

Tree says 35 days that will begin to be noticed by health practitioners.

Good people will see they have a shade of a tan by one level. Some may not notice at all. But some may. Health benefits that would occur from a seasonal tan of a healthy style will be in the body naturally. And will continue to feed the body. For us that is when we know that quarantine should be over.

So look to girls whom wear make up. Beauty influencers that always have the perfect shade match and see the difference in that one level. So y'all guys and gals that wear a colored skin protecting layer over their faces for whatever personal reason and are like insta famous -- please do complain.

At this point its safe to go out and spread the disease and not over whelm hospitals.

They will have had the zombie effect or a shade of, people whom need to naturally die because they do not belong to the Earth and so they will not feel the need to go to the hospital and will actually feel absolutely fine but a bit sluggish in their minds or so on and will think sleep will help like it did for the Zombie effect.

And then they will die in their sleep them spontaneously combust into a gold glitter.

No hospitals should take them as the hospitals will see the combustions themselves and will realize that there's no cure nor any reason to treat.

But for now Quarantine 2020 is still mandatory for bodies as the hospitals will become overloaded.

Again this is a simple "gripe water" or Gatorade treatment.

Children will get this disease and they will vomit. In school. Not at home. Only in public school. And in private school. Home school children will not be effected except they will be sleepy more often. They should be allowed to sleep.

Schools doing online schooling with say zoom. Should have meetings no earlier than noon and no later than 10 pm. They should only expect 3 hours of schooling to be done per day. And they may find that is excessive for some k - 12.

Some may only be able to focus for 45 minutes of schooling per day especially of new material.

This is where you'll want to do "block" scheduling like Penn and Foster where they are only doing one class at a time. So you'll want to do only one class or subject per day. In some occasions 2.

So for reading and writing you'll want to combine it with Science, especially. From there you'll do grammer and comprehensive skills. As well as spelling and writing such as one or two sentences for questions.

It will be school time when people begin to spontaneously combust and the children that are of a double gene that is unearthly will begin to die first. This is so they are not left without parents.

182,061 in/from Valencia County total will spontaneously combust. Or die from regular COVID.

Ghosts are also spending 20 minutes with extreme neasua they will provide the Mummyfication aspect of the disease and they will begin to spread it as of now as soon as they get ill.

I am the Queen of the Planet and I have already contracted and spread the disease and King Byron has began to spread it in the ghost world.

So Zulululu. You're fucking welcome. You shouldn't had killed him. This is how and why we made this disease as it is.

There is no stopping it and if i am killed all occupants of the Earth that do not deserve to live on the planet will immediately die.

Bees sting once and die.

I do mass extinctions like I learned from you Zulululu from killing our dinosaurs, minute men and Great Trees.

So fuck off about that. You don't want to mess with me. Accept it and stay in your fucking houses. Hospitals will kill you with some extreme and obscene ways. Although they're not supposed to. But they have been because you've been working in them. And we've caught you hundreds of times and I know its been done millions.

And so patients should not be admitted but sent home to hydrate and take Advil and gas x. As well as heartburn medication. Some may take propranalol or other blood pressure medication for their comfort. 89% should be prescribed heart blood pressure medication despite any symptoms they show.

Any blood pressure medication is fine but propranalol and others tree will update with cause a calming mental effect and increases emotional stabilization.

Sinus pressure medication for some as they will feel like they are continuously being punched in the face. At up to 12 pills per day. One every hour they're awake. Some every two hours. It will only work up to 9 days so no point to prescribe past that amount. Some it will only work for 4. This can also be bought over the counter.

Again the shelves will be depleted of supplies at major retailers through September 2020 and only medication made in Ecuador saved slave ships will be available. The slaves human trafficked where stolen from Africa and Ecuador had saved them and returned them home.

So you white supremacy, those pills were all touched and breathed on by black people. And you should know.

So this disease is now spread by ghosts and good people will test positive in some locations as,they are carriers

We will all obtain a stomach/gastrointestinal virus that we must eliminate from our bodies immediately.

To remind you to keep evil people at bay and away from you and to remember they will be eliminated soon.

We have had to speed up the process. So the twins can be born.

I've chosen Sukkot Eve as their birthdate. I pronounce it Suck it. Although that isn't as it was originally pronounced which is Sock It. Now is sock-ought.

We are gonna sock these fuckers in the face and eliminate them.

Stay out of the hospitals if you're a good person they're too dangerous and you'll have to wait until Christmas to return to life.

Royals will return on the last day of Sukkot.

Google will tell you a good truth .... The end of the story was we kept all the BAD people in these structures then lit them on fire as they slept. And they died.

Which is why I chose this Jewish Holiday. For my children I've been pregnant with for 18 years to be born on.

By birthday does fall during the week of the Sukkot celebrations.

We did celebrate and drink and eat and party with them to say good bye. As they were all two faced and both of evil and good.

True earthlings are only capable of good and do not have the ability to be two faced.

Most of us have learned how to be in order to survive.

Most especially the Royals. And even Tree.

And it isn't right. And so we will take over the Earth and the governments and fix it. Includinf Crystal Lakes and rivers and oceans. Perfect hazy skies to block the UV of the sun (like Jupiter or Saturn) and clouds. And the world will again be paved with gold and we will have gardens of Eden all across the globe. No more deserts and no more suffering.

In order to do so we must remove those that destroyed it in the first place as well as their families and friends.

Many Earthlings are genetically half human and half alien. The human half does take presidency if in fact the SOUL inhabitant is of Original Earthling status.

Such as my children that chose to be born in order to help the world fight to survive and were created in a lab that is of half alien and half human. Human is the main component.

Now the last day of Sukkot the DNA will change of those that are half human and half alien and The alien partition will remove and they will become full human. Then their bodies will revive as they should look. And so basically the body removes an exoskeleton of hell.

This is caused for the human ghosts to now be allowed to spread the disease. So that the schedule can remain steady.

99% of alien inhabitants will be dead by Sukkot Eve 2020.

The rest will fall away on the last day of Sukkot. As the 1% are Just half alien genetic codes.

So hospitals you must prepare to write prescriptions and send people home or you will be overwhelmed.

Im not gonna sit here and warn and discuss it.

Its a fact. These fuckers are gonna die and they need to die at home.

There's nothing anyone can do. Bodies will not traditionally bloat and stink. They will begin to mummify themselves regardless if they're alive or not until they are able to spontaneously combust on their own.

This is because 36 ghosts came back to life only to be cremated and assist in a suicide of one of the worlds greatest military combat veterans.

Semper Fi

Hoorah. And hip hop hooray!

Morgues I wouldn't even bother. Just load them up in trucks and let them sit.

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joshtaylorfan-blog · 5 years ago

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Hi, I’m Josh Taylor. Running the local Carlton North franchise of Jim’s Mowing has been the best part of my life. I am at my happiest when I am working outdoors in the fresh air, tackling challenging garden care tasks such as clearing overgrown flower beds and restoring lawns that have been left too long unattended. At Jim’s Mowing, we can take on just about any garden related task, including heavy landscaping jobs, garden clean-ups and lawn restorations. We can also help you choose the best combination of plants for your soil and water table. If needed, we can install irrigation to keep your newly restored garden in tip-top shape in even the driest months.

I am proud of the work I do for my customers, and love to see them enjoying their garden as a result of my hard work. I also believe that maintaining my tools and equipment to the highest possible standard is a prerequisite for doing a good job. By keeping my blades sharp at all times, I can make sure I only cut the tops of your grass, and don’t damage the stem, meaning it will stay green and straight, rather than turn brown after mowing. Safety is also a major issue and something we take very seriously. We always wear high visibility protective clothing while working on your garden. We will also clearly mark the areas we I’m working in with signs, so you know which parts of the garden are safe to use, and which are not.

If you happen to be out when we perform the work, we want you to arrive home to a freshly mowed lawn which sets your house off and makes you feel happy that your property is worth more than before we arrived. With Jim’s Mowing you come home to the fresh smell of newly mowed lawn, sharply cut lawn edges and neatly shaped hedges- without the sweat and stress of maintaining it – saving you time and giving you back your weekends!

My customers are the core of my business. Without them, I would not be able to do the job I love doing. So, I always go to whatever lengths necessary to ensure that they are happy with the service I provide, and the work that I do. I am fully trained in all safety protocols relating to garden care, and I have police check accreditation. When I am working in your garden, even if you are out, I will work safely and efficiently, in the true Jim’s Mowing tradition. To find out more, and get a quote for your garden maintenance, call 131 546.

Jim’s Mowing Carlton North provide the following lawn and garden services:

Lawn mowing

Ride on mowing

Edge trimming

Mulching

Hedge clipping

Tree pruning & trimming

Garden maintenance

Weeding

Garden pest control

Top dressing and fertilising

Aerating of lawns

Turf laying and repair

Irrigation supply and installation

Landscaping

Gutter cleaning

Garden Clean up and rubbish removal

Installing synthetic lawns

Jim’s Mowing Carlton North service the following areas:

Lennox Head, Skennars Head, East Ballina, Ballina, West Ballina, North Ballina, Uralba, Tintenbar, Knockrow, Newrybar, Broken Head, Binna Burra, Nashua, Teven, Alstonvale, Alstonville, Wollongbar, Suffolk, Park, Banalow, Eureka, Clunes, Eltham, McLeans Ridges, Lindendale, Tregeagle, Goonellabah, Richmond Hill, Bex Hill, Lismore, East Lismore, Lismore Heights, Empire Vale, Wardell, Meerschaum Vale, Wyrallah, Byron Bay, Ewingsdale, Coorabell, Federal and surrounding areas.

To contact your local Jim’s Mowing franchisee call 131 546 today!

If Josh Taylor is unavailable we will have another of our professional mowing franchisees service your mowing and garden care needs.

#Lawn Mowing St Albans

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byrontreesa · 4 years ago

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Best Tree Removal Services Near Us In Australia

At Byron Bay Tree Services, we love trees, but understand sometimes there is a genuine necessity for tree removal service. Occasionally, trees display defects that can be associated with an elevated risk of failure.

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jeremystrele · 6 years ago

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Shannon Bennett’s Steamed Snapper With Chermoula + Miele GIVEAWAY

Food

Shannon Bennett

Preparing the fresh snapper. Photo – Eve Wilson. Styling – Lucy Feagins.

Herbs from Shannon’s garden. Photo – Eve Wilson. Styling – Lucy Feagins.

The flavour-packed chermoula takes this dish to the next level. Photo – Eve Wilson. Styling – Lucy Feagins.

Living the dream in Byron Bay. Photo – Eve Wilson. Styling – Lucy Feagins.

Fish cooked in a bag is an old technique with French influence. I like it because it takes the guesswork out of cooking fish in large numbers. Each bag is made with parchment paper or foil, I prefer foil as it takes less skill to seal.

I try to use small fish such as snapper, sea bream (especially in spring), whiting or mackerel and then add complementary flavours that like fennel and shallots to the bag. Always ensure the foil the tightly sealed so the fish steams in its own juices.

The pouches can be made up a few hours before, which helps relieve pre-dinner party anxiety greatly. Then, the unwrapping of individual foil pockets also adds to the theatre of the event! I like to have presentable pair of scissors that haven’t been dipped in paint or used to saw a tree in half and have guests open their own. Add some side dishes, for a complete, as well as fun, meal.

While different types and cuts of fish may take a little longer to cook than other it can be a little bit trial-and-error, but the method ‘en papillote’ is something that actually makes cooking easier!

Serves: 6 Preparation time: 25 minutes Cooking time: 10 minutes Cooking programme: Steam

Ingredients

6 x 180g snapper fillets, skin removed 1 cup chermoula

For the chermoula 1 red onion, roughly chopped 1 tablespoon ground cumin 1 tablespoon ground coriander 1 lemon, juiced 1 bunch fresh coriander leaves and stalks 1 bunch parsley leaves and stalks 4 cloves of garlic 1 tablespoon sweet paprika 1 tablespoon turmeric 1½ tablespoons ras el hanout spice mix 1½ tablespoons ground chilli 1 heaped teaspoon sea salt flakes 185ml extra-virgin olive oil

Method

For the fish, place each fillet on a sheet of baking paper measuring approximately 40cm x 35cm. Place fillet on the bottom half of the paper leaving enough room to fold over and form a parcel.

For the chemoula, place all ingredients for the chermoula into a blender, blend until pureed.

Place 2 tablespoons of chermoula over each fish fillet. Bring the top half of baking paper down over the fillet. Fold in the side edges, then fold in the bottom edge to form a parcel. Place parcel on the bottom half of a similar sized piece of foil (shiny side up) and fold as per the baking paper. You should now have a parcel that looks like a puffed pillow. Place parcel on a perforated steam tray and Steam at 90˚C for 10 minutes.

Serve the fish in its opened parcel and garnish with coriander sprigs. You might like to add a plate of Zucchini Tartines to the dinner table too!

Learn how to cook with steam like Shannon at your local Miele Experience Centre. Book your spot in a complimentary cooking demonstration here.

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theconservativebrief · 7 years ago

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“The whole thing was actually kind of an accident, like all things are,” Bob Pranga tells me, about his career decorating rich people’s houses for the holidays. He’s otherwise known as Dr. Christmas.

He was working at the Macy’s in New York City’s Herald Square in 1984, just after he graduated from college, decorating a tree on the sales floor, when Mia Farrow walked past and said, “I wish someone would do that in my home.” Pranga said he would do it, and he did — and then themed, expensive Christmas decor exploded in 1986, as American culture steered itself into an apocalypse of gaudiness.

Pranga was decorating as “a survival job” until he met the Hiltons. Then it became a career — a bi-coastal Christmas empire, thanks to his Los Angeles business partner Debi Staron.

There’s “no ceiling” on Christmas, he says, and his clients spend between $5,000 and $200,000 on decorations for the holiday. “Sometimes it can go higher than that, but there’s a point where I ask them, “Really?” It becomes Christmas-by-the-pound at that point. Your Christmas tree becomes one big jewelry stand. You’re literally hanging jewelry on the tree.”

(Pranga can’t give me any examples of people who pay for this kind of thing, but says it’s not celebrities so much as “what we used to call the captains of industry.” Like Steve Jobs, he says, but not Steve Jobs.)

“My business always depends on the economy,” he says. “It’s a luxury item, not a necessity.” But his business is also part of a broader industry that’s growing.

The question of Christmas each year is, simply, how to get it. We’re all allowed to look at the window displays at American Eagle. We can all go to the diner to say “Hi” to a paper Santa. But that’s really just looking — what about having? What about possessing Christmas decorations that transform your home from that place where you keep your other shoes into the set of a Hallmark movie, where love interests are always sending handwritten notes and a roommate in a slouchy sweater proffers a cup of tea? How do you wake up every morning with rosy cheeks and peppermint breath?

The services industry is the biggest and fastest-growing sector of the American economy, and that means all kinds of things

For a not-insignificant number of Americans — not just celebrities, apparently — the answer is quite obvious: Rent some Christmas decorations from someone who will store them for you in a warehouse you never have to see; install them for you, maybe while you’re not even home; and then remove them when you’re tired of looking at them.

The services industry is the biggest and fastest-growing sector of the American economy, and that means all kinds of things, like the option to have a single bottle of pinot noir delivered to your apartment at 11 pm or to hire someone to take your Instagram photos for the evening — and the option to borrow decorations from someone who will set them up in or on your house.

The Texas-based Christmas Decor network, one of the largest professional Christmas decoration companies, was created in 1986, mostly as an additional service tacked onto a landscaping business, and now has 300 franchisees nationwide. Its website boasts that the average member of its network — made up mostly of landscapers looking for off-season work — brings in more than $200,000 per year.

In New York City, renting decorations looks even more appealing because of our collective, severe lack of storage space. I don’t have exact numbers on how widespread decoration rental is here, but I will say that it was very difficult to get in contact with people who build Christmas for a living, as it’s nearly December and it was incredibly rude of me to try to occupy even a small amount of their time with questions.

I will not say which local decorators hung up on me, or which said, “Are we done?” in a way that was maybe worse than being hung up on, because it’s the holidays. In the end, I was able to spend an entire weekend watching Christmas get borrowed and built in New York. I don’t know how it happened — presumably magic.

“I’m getting glitter all over your baby,” Rent-a-Christmas founder Kristen Parness says, handing a baby covered in glitter back to its mother.

New parents Byron and Karen Hagan hired Parness to set up a 6-foot fake tree in the corner of the living room in their apartment in the Riverwalk Point luxury rental complex on New York City’s Roosevelt Island. They know Parness because she got her MFA in theater with Byron at Pace University, and this is the third year she’s shown up in their home in an elf costume with two elf assistants to set up their Christmas tree for them. When Parness is not doing this, she’s a drama and English teacher at the extremely competitive Bronx High School of Science.

Parness runs Rent-a-Christmas with her husband Judah, who has a day job as a sales professional. “We had this idea one year when we were living in Bay Ridge [a neighborhood in Brooklyn], we had just started dating, we had no decorations, and absolutely zero storage space,” she says. “We went to Home Depot and bought $500 of decorations and the house looked amazing, but we were like, ‘What are we gonna do with this? This is so crazy, it would be great if we could rent this stuff.’”

This year, they’ll serve around 40 customers with the help of around 10 part-time elves before they close up shop on December 23. The business is small but legit — through research and trial-and-error, Parness has picked out two interior decorating suppliers who provide the vast majority of her wares, though she still buys stuff at Target or the bodega.

This year, she contracted a firefighter to do the more complicated lights and an electrician so she wouldn’t burn any restaurants down. She has a warehouse space in the Bronx, which is also where she met her live tree vendor, and which serves as the unofficial headquarters of the operation. The elves preassemble garlands and wreaths and complicated decorations there, in heavy coats because the heat doesn’t really work.

“It’s not only rich people,” she tells me, when I ask who the customers are. “It’s so widespread. We have people with one-bedroom apartments or who are really busy or have a baby. And then, yes, there are obviously rich people who go all out.”

Rent-a-Christmas’s services range in price, from $185 for a single wreath with lights (and installation!) to $12,000 for complicated packages in which an entire apartment is coated in garland. They also decorate restaurants, bars, salons, banks, bagel shops, and law firms, starting around $15,000.

Most residential customers spend between $500 and $5,000, and Parness says the most popular purchase is the “Feels Like Home” tree package ($499), which includes the rental of a 6.5-foot artificial tree, lights, tree skirt, tinsel, ornaments, and a star, as well as a team of elves to set it up.

Rent-a-Christmas elves Cara Weissman and Sarah King, with the Hagan family’s tree. Kristen Parness

That’s what the Hagans have ordered. Parness’s assistants for this particular job are her head elf Jingle Bell — also known as Sarah King, an actress who makes the bulk of her living as a Disney princess-for-hire — and new temp worker Cara Weissman, who typically works as a casting director for reality TV shows on TLC and MTV, but needed some extra cash this year.

They’re both wearing full elf costumes, complete with glitter-covered ballet flats, and, in Sarah’s case, a sparkly silver fanny pack full of stage makeup. Most of Parness’s hair is dyed Christmas red. They sing while they work, and it takes about two and a half minutes for the tree to go from box to standing, five minutes for Sarah and Cara to cover it in gold tinsel, and 10 more for the whole team to put about 50 generic red, green, blue, purple, and gold ornaments on it.

The Hagans are watching the Hallmark Channel and drinking red wine, chatting with Parness about her plans for the holidays and about the Josh Groban concert that Karen is going to that night. The tree barely fits in the corner of a tiny living room that looks out directly onto a basketball court — where teenagers are flopping around in five or six sweatshirts apiece — and then the East River.

There is one moment when the lights go on and “The Christmas Waltz” is playing on Sarah’s portable speaker, and the kids outside are moving real slow and clumsy … it’s really good. There’s also a creeping urge to eye-roll, at the baby’s grandparents saying, “That’s your first Christmas tree!” while someone else sets it up, but that’s my cross to bear.

When she’s done with her work, Sarah comes over to where I’m trying to crouch out of the way of both the TV and the process, and tells me she gets a real high off of dressing as an elf. Kids love it, and adults appreciate it too, especially when they’re having a rough year.

Rent-a-Christmas decorations at the Sleepy Hollow Country Club. Kristen Parness

A first-time customer in Manhattan last year called them because her son had just died and she couldn’t bring herself to bring out the decorations. There are cases where people going through divorces find that their ex-partner took both the kids and the ornaments. “You have no idea the joy you’re gonna bring,” she says, “Or how hard somebody’s holidays were going to be.”

I ask her if she’s going to build a career as an elf, maybe transition it into her own business in some way. “Well, I like Christmas,” she says. “Doing it 365 might be too much.” We are in and out of the Hagans’ home in half an hour.

House of Holiday is the largest Christmas store in New York, owner Larry Gurino emphasizes to me over the phone. It’s in Ozone Park — the neighborhood of Queens best known as the stomping grounds of John Gotti. It’s also somewhat well-known as a real setting from Jack Kerouac’s On the Road — next to the Tastykake Wonder Bakery Outlet, which may or may not be closed but still features a giant mural of a Hostess cupcake. When it’s not Christmas season, House of Holiday sells Halloween decorations. And when it’s not Halloween season, it sells discount pianos.

“We’re the largest square footage. We make gorgeous displays. Our store is gorgeous,” Gurino says. “Get in the train, come down, and take pictures for your article.”

So, I do. The store is gorgeous. I don’t think I’ve ever swooned in the face of a commercial enterprise, but that’s the most accurate wording I can think of to describe the first-blush of my experience at House of Holiday.

Elf buckets at House of Holiday. the largest Christmas store in New York. Kaitlyn Tiffany/Vox

There is a section dedicated to Christmas-themed trains and miniature villages, one of which has a working Ferris wheel. There is a whole hall dedicated to fake trees, all of which are outfitted in different styles of lights, from tiny and bright white specks to heavy, old-school multi-color bulbs the size of overripe grapes.

There are tacky things and beautiful things, Budweiser ornaments and buckets of gold poinsettias. There is an entire room dedicated to different styles of 3-foot-tall, super thin elves, which is a horrifying nightmare. There is also a display of dish towels that say things like “Dear Santa, I want a fat wallet and a thin body” and “The tree isn’t the only thing getting lit.” These items are easy to ignore in favor of an arrangement of enormous angels with fluorescent wing tips and gowns more beautiful than any wedding dress I can imagine owning.

I ask Gurino how long it took to find suppliers to fill his store, and he simply emphasizes again that House of Holiday has been open for 25 years.

House of Holiday’s decorators are completely booked for the season, which starts overnight on Halloween, and the team of 25 will have decorated (or designed decorations for) about 200 homes and 200 businesses throughout all five boroughs by Christmas Eve. Typically, residential customers order a 7.5-foot tree, “decorated where you go, ‘Wow’ when you walk in,” as well as garlands for their railings, a couple of wreaths, and a centerpiece. They spend between $1,000 and $5,000.

House of Holiday, in Ozone Park. Kaitlyn Tiffany/Vox

Gurino points out that there’s a hole in my story: “Do-it-yourself is just exploding. Even bigger buildings and business are starting to push back a little bit [against rentals]. They’re coming in and buying all of their own stuff and then having maintenance put it up.”

That way, they get the same decorations at a fraction of the price. I ask him if this bothers him, and he says no, “We encourage do-it-yourself because we have the … largest … Christmas store.” Okay!

These customers have uncovered, in Gurino’s opinion, a con. “Most guys won’t tell you that because they only do decorating. They don’t have a retail space for people to come to. Most will tell you it’s the fad, it’s the hottest thing, but if they give you a quote for 5 grand, you can come to my store and do it for 2. That’s a big difference. If you need a crane, maybe [hiring a decorator and renting] is the way to do it…”

Most people are not renting Christmas, he says. Most people invest in Christmas, accruing it over time. “We don’t rent. It’s just taking the money from people. We don’t think it’s right. Everyone can afford a storage unit. Once you rent products from someone, they always have you over the barrel. You have to rent new stuff every year. Once you buy it, next year you have the same budget, so then you have twice as much, and before you know it you can make a beautiful scene.”

The data would seem to support most of this. The National Retail Federation reports that people are spending more than ever on Christmas — an average of $1,007.24 each — but they are still spending only about $215 of that total tab on non-gift items like food and decorations. (I don’t totally agree that “everyone” can afford a storage unit, but it doesn’t seem worth fighting over at Christmas.)

More than anything, Gurino hates the line about how everyone is too busy. “There’s always time to enjoy the season,” he says. “Make time because it’s important. At the end of it all, this is what we have. We have the seasons and the holidays.”

At the House of Holiday, which is incredibly reasonably priced, I am paralyzed with indecision. Should I try to decorate my home? I agree, the season is important because what else are we going to do, just cry until it’s spring?

Way less than 1 percent of House of Holiday’s selection of ornaments. Kaitlyn Tiffany/Vox

I also have nowhere to store these beautiful things, and I want a tree taller than my body but I don’t think I can fit it in my living room, which has a non-functioning piano taking up 30 percent of the floorspace.

After an hour of walking in circles, alternating between adding things to my Instagram story and staring solemnly at the nativity area, where you can look at, no big deal, the face of God, I decide on one small owl with straw-and-glitter feathers ($5.99), to put next to a fake crow I bought at Target when I was in a bad mood. And a light-up Santa-and-sleigh ($14.99) to put in my front window. For the children!

I ask Larry if he can tell me about the best Christmas decorations he’s ever created. “I don’t have anything special,” he says. “Everything is special.” And then, “Are we done?”

On Staten Island, the best-known best friends in the Christmas decorating business are Vincent Nicastro and Dexter Calimquim, high school buddies who have been stringing lights up on the stoney mansions and saltbox cottages of the largely-suburban, increasingly expensive “forgotten” borough for more than a decade.

Nicastro started the business when he was 16, a sophomore in high school in Park Slope, and got 10 jobs his first year just from passing out flyers. He did them on the weekend or after school; now he works 12 hours days without a day off for the entire season.

An intimidating house on Staten Island, decorated by The Christmas Decorators earlier this month. Kaitlyn Tiffany/Vox

I meet them after dark, for a job at a home nestled between two cemeteries and a country club on the east side of the island, where house prices hover around $2 million. They’re doing a modest installation — just $1,500 for labor, using lights that the homeowners bought from them some years before.

Nicastro drives me around the corner to a project they just finished, to the tune of around $8,500, including light rentals but not including the 6-foot-tall nutcracker on the stoop or the 8-foot inflatable teddy bear by the private basketball court. Those, the homeowner, Jennifer Bock, picked up herself, as she did with the teenager-sized elves in the side yard and the Santa-sized Santa in the driveway.

He has to ask her about a timer that stopped working on the bear, so he rings the bell and she opens the door immediately. A gush of aroma reminiscent of a vanilla Glade plug-in slaps the freezing air around us and I try not to very obviously stare at the chandelier behind her, which is the size of a Toyota Corolla and hanging from a cathedral ceiling with cherubs painted on it. “We love Vinny,” Bock says, “I found him on Ironmine [Drive], I was driving past and I said you have to come help me.”

She comes out to show him where she’d like some extra wreaths, then stands outside and chats without a jacket on. “He does amazing work,” she tells me. “And I love Dexter. He really knows his stuff.”

This assessment seems, from all the available evidence, accurate. Her house looks like the set of a Tom Ford ad. It looks like where Diane Keaton would live in a movie about how she’d made millions writing a hit book series and simultaneously raised elegant and educated children, and was now learning to enjoy the holidays without her handsome and kind husband who died. (Jennifer Bock’s husband has not died; I met him and his name is Tom.) It looks like, if you lived there, all you would do is stand in the driveway and talk to strangers about Christmas.

The Christmas Decorators’ handiwork, last year on Staten Island. The Christmas Decorators/Facebook

The Christmas Decorators do about 175 houses in five weeks. There are two vans and one truck, crews made up of roofers who are eager to take the off-season work and, as an added bonus, won’t fall off a roof. Calimquim says the only training they need is some easy electrical tips, because customers really only get mad when you blow their fuse box. A house like Bock’s will take all day, nine hours at least.

“I do enjoy it,” Nicastro says. “A lot of landscapers, companies come and go. We always see 20 percent growth every year.” Then he explains that, for the Bocks’ home, they had to glue each bulb onto the roof with a silicone gun, individually, and revises his tepid enthusiasm. “It’s 40 days of torture,” he says. But on the other hand, “I do okay.”

Calimquim and Nicastro also co-own a Halloween store in East Brunswick, New Jersey, which is open from August through February. There was a second store in Princeton for a while, but Amazon ate too many of the sales. The team decided to take part of their business online, selling on the platform as Costume Wholesalers.

Vincent Nicastro and a large wreath. The Christmas Decorators/Facebook

“I’m shipping blood to Alaska, gallons of fake blood,” Calimquim says. “A dragon to Puerto Rico.” The costume business is year-round, not confined to Halloween. They’re selling Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin costumes to schools for plays, Jesus and Moses costumes to churches.

In February — the coldest month of the year, Calimquim reminds me — they’ll work from 7 am to 5 pm taking decorations off of about 10 houses per day. He prefers working in the Halloween store primarily because he gets to be inside.

There are perks to being outside, though. He likes hanging out with the crew; he likes fresh air. He doesn’t like having to take the van to a Dunkin’ Donuts to go to the bathroom. He likes the holiday business because he gets time off to travel, and is going to the Philippines as soon as this is all over. He also hates Christmas, he says, the way McDonald’s employees hate french fries.

“Sometimes I’m like, ‘Is this what we’re doing for the rest of our lives?’” he says. It’s more a sincere hypothetical than anything resembling a complaint.

Bob Pranga, a.k.a. Dr. Christmas, makes a good living. He’s noticed an increase in demand for decorating services because people are “back on the ‘No one has time for anything’ thing.” They’re also increasingly forgetting to plan ahead, which is why he’s been called to give up his own Christmas Eve to decorate somebody else’s house.

“I did it,” he says, “For an additional cost. You have to be willing to sacrifice your holidays for this career if you really want to make it.”

Even in the most glamorous corner of this market, where the customers are Stevie Nicks and Beyoncé, there is a little twinge of a reminder: This is the six-week period during which our feelings about whose time is more important and what dismal dollar amount everyone else’s time can be bought for are spoken a little more loudly and crassly than they are the rest of the year.

“You have to be willing to sacrifice your holidays for this career if you really want to make it”

I know there is a lot of suspicious cultural and emotional goop around Christmas that makes what I’m about to say sound insensitive or delusional: I totally love Christmas, and both need and crave the “magic” of the most wonderful time of the year.

I know that Christmas, as popular culture has come to define it, is a nightmare of commercialism, a creepy propaganda tool of the Evangelical right, and a truly unfortunate time to work in any service industry — hardly a heartwarming combination of things.

At the same time, I think winter is a harrowing experience that humans are still ill-evolved to cope with, and that we deserve an elaborate charade to ease us into that and into the blinding horror of yet another year. We have chosen something with an irresistible aesthetic and wonderful set of smells, and we could have done much worse. The people who build Christmas are at least pretty into it. They do okay.

“My philosophy is always, you know, just remember to sparkle,” Pranga says, laughing. “Glitter gets you everywhere.”

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Original Source -> Why buy Christmas when you can rent it?

via The Conservative Brief

#IFTTT #The Conservative Brief

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iksathrob · 5 years ago

Quote

Tom and Emma Lane from Byron Bay’s The Farm have sold up after five years, but the community-led business is here to stay. Just outside of Byron Bay, the foodie haven has been a thriving hotspot for locals, visitors and celebrities alike (the Hemsworths live just up the road) – full of wholesome treats from its garden, bakery and cafe, it also allows visitors to learn about food with their nursery education programmes, and tour the property on horseback. Famous for its Grow, Feed, Educate and Give Back philosophy, the business was listed for sale earlier this year with the aim to keep it running and growing with the help of its new owners and 120 staff. After five years Tom Lane, the grandson of Oroton founder Boyd Lane, and wife Emma Lane have sold The Farm. Tom Lane described the sale as “an interesting one to digest” but said he and his family are excited about their next chapter. “It’s really all about a full circle. We originally came up here with our four kids to have a slower pace of life and spend more time with our kids and grow our own food, which really led us into the whole idea of creating a farm, so we did it for ourselves now we’re doing for everyone else. And we feel like we’ve done a pretty nice job. “We’ve built a community, generated over 120 jobs, given back in so many ways… so we feel very proud actually, I think that would be the best way to sum it up.” // // Fans of The Farm (and there are about 165k of them on Instagram) will be pleased to hear the project’s legacy will be continued with the new owners – local business and property owners Fraser and Allyson Short – taking the helm when the purchase settles later this year. Mr Lane said the legacy was a crucial part of the deal when selling The Farm to the Shorts, who also have four children, who he has known for about 10 years. “We bumped into [the Shorts] on a holiday recently and that really just started the discussion, around our family values and what we’re trying to do. Fraser’s got a house up in Byron, he’s obviously got another business up here and we’ve got a lot in common, and that’s sort of how the whole deal came together in the end. “It’s like handing the baton over in a relay race. Continuing the legacy. “We had many people circling, and we’ve had many people circling since we opened it, to be honest. We’re had plenty of taps on the shoulders and I gotta tell you, most of them were inappropriate in terms of the fit for the long term.” The Farm is well-known for it’s sustainable food and delicious treats from the bakery and cafe. Picture: The Farm Just a 10-minute drive from the centre of town, The Farm is a paradise of rolling green hills, historic farm sheds surrounded by ancient trees, as well as all the wholesome, sustainable produce you can poke a carrot at. Fraser Short said he is really excited about taking over the reins, and he’s not planning on changing much. “We just love it as it is, everything’s working so well. My dad used to always say, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. The Farm is known for its Grow, Feed, Educate and Give Back philosophy. Picture: The Farm “What we would love to do is lean into some of those principles [of The Farm] and see if we can develop them further. There has to be opportunities around farming and agri-business, we’ve got 80 acres so there’s a lot of opportunity that comes for everyone when you’re well funded and you can continue to invest in small agri-tech and agri-business.” It’s going to take some time to get their heads around the program and ethos at The Farm, but the Shorts won’t be alone – Mr Lane will be there to give hands on help. “That’s a big part of the transaction, Tom is part of the community,” Mr Short said. “The thing that we feel really good about is the fact that [Tom and Emma] are going to be there for advice and also just for a bit more education for us as to what their midset is.” New owner Fraser Short wants to further develop the principals of The Farm. Picture: The Farm The unique property was originally listed for $20m+, and while both parties are remaining tight-lipped on the final price, Mr Short said everyone is “very happy”. “I mean, Tom won’t have to work too hard and hopefully he can buy himself a lot more cattle,” he said. “He deserves it, Tom and Emma deserve it for what they’ve done for the community… here’s a business that has not only fed the community but employed the community, encouraged small business and encouraged small business to employ each other, it’s an amazing outcome and I think they deserve to be paid for it.” For Mr Lane, the sale was less about the money and more about finding the “right fit”. “But we’re very happy. I suppose if you look at it from an economic point of view [we got] return on our investment and return on our effort. Most importantly, we’re happy that it’s going to continue in its current form, everyone’s staying, all the tenants are staying as they are, Fraser’s gonna turn up and it’s going to be business as usual and I’m going to be there helping him,” he said. Ownership might have changed, but The Farm’s legacy will be continued – with a little hands on help from the previous owner. Picture: The Farm. The Lanes now plan to turn their attention to the other property they own just up the road, The Range, with the intention of regenerating and developing it into the site for an education program called Whole Beings for school children aged three to 10. “We’ve got 120 acres at The Range and we’ve started planting our veggie gardens and having animals… we really wanted to just get back into an entire regenerative way of living, and focus on our kids and our passions,” he said. However, Mr Lane said it’s very much a case of “watch this space”. “We’re got a few more ideas bubbling in the background. We’ve got a bit more work to do [at The Range] and we’ll probably be focusing more of our energy on a couple more private regenerative farm-style operations, not open to the public, he explained. “Maybe we’ll focus more on the accommodation side of things, the personal experience of coming to a farm as a guest and actually immersing yourself, one-on-one. The post Byron Bay’s The Farm has sold, but its legacy will continue appeared first on realestate.com.au. from news – realestate.com.au https://ift.tt/3lpycnw

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