Xmas Market Carols by Candlelight Treasure Box Charity Request
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Dainfern Nature Association INYour CommunityFOCUS Magazine • DecemberNovember 2013 Xmas Market Saturday, 7th December Carols by Candlelight Wednesday, 11th December Treasure Box See details on p.32 Charity Request See details on p.50 Dainfern Fellowship Adult Service and Sunday School 09:00 at the Clubhouse Glory to Glory Ministries Sunday Services - 1 - December 2013 • 126th Issue CONTENTS Dainfern Nature Association Official Publication of the Contact numbers ........................................................................3 Dainfern Nature Association Monthly Newsletter .....................................................................6 IN FOCUS Since 2002 Flower of the Month ..................................................................42 PUBLISHING & ADVERTISING Tree of the Month ......................................................................44 Bird of the Month ......................................................................46 to place an advert contact: Community Outreach / Supporting our Charities ..........................50 Colleen Kreser Tel: 011 469 3629 Dainfern Home Association Cell: 082 898 6566 • Fax: 011 469 4920 Security Contact Numbers ............................................................3 Email: [email protected] Chairman's Report ....................................................................10 or Tessa Dreyer Cell: 083 456 7204 Estate News ........................................................................12/24 Fax: 086 689 1971 • Email: [email protected] Christmas Market .....................................................................28 Christmas Day Menu .................................................................28 DESIGN & LAYOUT BY LilyHouse Design Studio Carols by Candlelight ................................................................29 Cell: 083 456 7204 • [email protected] Competitions Colouring Competition / Colouring Competition Winner .................32 PRINTED BY Typo Printing Tel: 011 402 3468 Win a Garden Voucher ...............................................................42 COVER BY Shutterstock Golf Ladies Golf ...............................................................................36 Golf ..........................................................................................40 Photographic Competition Recreation To enter the cover photographic competition Running Club ............................................................................34 please email high resolution photographs to Tennis Club ...............................................................................35 [email protected] Squash Update .........................................................................38 Other Interior: Decorating ...............................................................18/20 Treasure Box .............................................................................32 Security Contact Numbers Interior: Painting ........................................................................22 Listings ..............................................................................51 Security Control Room: 081 030 0251 & 011 469 0099 Security Manager: Alfred Steyn 011 875 0607 Birds - FREE ME 011 807 6993 Snakes - Security 011 875 0600 Dainfern Nature Association Committee Monica Condy Chairlady 082 459 1539 DCC Treasurer 011 875 0400 Christine Shaw Events 011 469 3401 Olivia Denny Trails 082 735 5385 André Marx Birdlife 083 411 7674 Sean James Turfnet 082 878 9281 Jill Terblanche Estate Enquiries 011 875 0401 Tony Border Newsletter [email protected] Colleen Publication 082 898 6566/ 011 469 3629 Clubhouse Reception 011 875 0401 - 2 - - 3 - - 4 - - 5 - Nostalgia: could perhaps be associated with depression and sadness but it has been found that the bitter-sweet emotion of longing in fact counteracts loneliness, boredom and anxiety. It allows the mental stimulation of previously enjoyed states – makes us feel warmer. I quote, “When people speak wistfully of the past, they typically become more optimistic and inspired about the future”. Of course music (and poems too which have their own DNA Newsletter rhythm and can sing) is full of nostalgia – we all like a good tune especially one we know – so enjoy the moment, enjoy the ride. Dear Friends By the time you read this I will be playing in the snow with And the Nature Association hopes you will continue to two of my grandchildren who, new to Canada, have not enjoy the In Focus and its fruits which have been spread seen snow before. Last time I was in Canada I had a photo all around through its trails, its woods, the nature areas, its of me in the snow barefoot and in my rugby shorts. Thank people and the many contributing personalities. goodness I have grown out of doing such silly things! We Birds, Beasties, Trees, Updates and will be enjoying all the decorated houses which show up Important Things to well when darkness descends so early. You will all be Another successful bird walk. How blessed you are to have celebrating the silly season in lovely sunlight and warmth Andre with all his knowledge to guide you. Hope you all and we wish you all well over the festive season. enjoyed the morning. Sitting on the Stoep Nature’s True Colours I was playing the piano the other day and started drifting It is Amber who is the lucky winner of the prize for the into some sort of the best loved tunes I’ve known for many month. Christmas is nearly here so the money can be used years. I play by ear so it’s easy to go where my mind or to buy something special for yourself - or you could even feelings lead me. I also grew up in a home where there buy a nice box of chocolates for your Mum! Enjoy! were always songs and both parents were pianists – Mum ‘classical’ and Dad ‘pop’. I follow in the path of ‘pop’ and Crackerjack usually if I can sing it I can play it! The Way through the Woods by Rudyard Kipling So my musical range tends to go way back to the ‘gay They shut the road through the woods nineties (1890s+) Seventy years ago. Weather and rain have undone it again, and is pretty solid through the fifties and gets a bit patchy And now you would never know into the modern era although I always like a good tune There was a road through the woods and there is always wonderful stuff around. Crosby in High Before they planted the trees. Society with Sinatra and Grace Kelly sang a famous song It is under the coppice and heath, “Now you has Jazz” where he describes the Armstrong And the thin anemones. quintet’s music as ‘Positively Therapeutic’, and, you know, Only the keeper sees it is. I can sit down at the piano feeling very blue and That, where the ring-dove broods, start with sad nostalgic songs and often shift my mood And badgers roll at ease, to happiness and joy half an hour later – and I’ve really There was once a road through the woods. enjoyed the ride! Yet, if you enter the woods Recently on an inside page of The Times a headline Of a summer evening late, announced that nostalgia was good for the brain. I’ve often When the night-air cools on the trout-ringed pools felt nostalgic about nice things in the near and long past Where the otter whistles his mate. but have tried to rein in such feelings as being slightly (They fear not men in the woods, suspect, thinking there may be an element of longing Because they see so few.) to go back to the past rather than just a fond memory You will hear the beat of a horse’s feet, to enjoy. I’ve always been an optimistic futurist trying to And the swish of a skirt in the dew, live in the moment but having had a happy life I do have Steadily cantering through some fond memories which surface from time to time. The misty solitudes Now, according to Southampton University which did the As though they perfectly know research I can indulge guilt free! The old lost road through the woods….. - 6 - continue on page 8 - 7 - DNA Newsletter continued from page 6 But there is no road through the woods! as boat after boat came safely in Riposte by Tony Border and all was movement and people and sea and now is just a monument. And I can remember 70 years ago But I was there seventy years ago ‘cos I was seven then, and at seven one remembers well. And the ghosts of long ago linger on and I wonder what happened to all those seventy years In my seventy seven year old memory bank old things that I remember well? The Old Harbour at Hermanus was working then. And linger very happily with a touch of nostalgia. with white and coloured fishermen (Though the wakes of the boats are long gone.) working together to bring their catches in A shift of scene to Kipling’s poem of the lost road in the waiting for the waves to lull outside the harbour woods; these two long verses have always haunted me so they could come safely in. and prompted my own response to 70 years ago and a Beaching, unloading, then lifting their boats lucky boyhood free to wander along the cliffs of Hermanus Their very heavy boats with poles across and men’s and often to the old harbour. shoulders under. So let nostalgia make this Christmas one of the best ever Lift together and carry above the high water mark. - may you also garner some happiness and warmth this With fish to clean and sell on the hard December 2013. and seagulls squealing and wheeling overhead plunging for scraps I think we are very lucky! and a seven year old boy sitting on the sea wall and Regards from Tony Border watching for the Nature Association - 8 - - 9 - DHA Chairman: Costa Spheris Chairman's Note Reflecting