Tag: Quendryth Young

Thursday 24 February (summer) 2022
Home of Quendryth Young, Alstonville NSW

Present:
Laurel Astle                            Coffs Harbour NSW
Robbie Braithwaite              Tregeagle NSW
Nathalie Buckland                Lismore NSW
Helen Davison                       Lismore NSW
Quendryth Young                 Alstonville NSW
Norma Watts                          Ballina NSW (part-time)
Angela Smith                         Byron Bay (virtual ginko)

Somehow it had been difficult for the Cloudcatchers to settle on a suitable date for our summer ginko this year, but eventually six of us were able to gather on the last Thursday of the season, with another joining in by participating in a ‘virtual ginko’ at that time.

Here on the Far North Coast of NSW the weather has generally been kind this year, with no long stretch of heat, and no bushfire warnings. However the dreaded summer rains descended this week, with rising waterways and flooding, but fortunately none of our members was water-bound.

Continue reading “Cloudcatchers’ Ginko # 64, 2022”

Virtual Ginko (in our own homes/environs)
Thursday 28 October 2021

Once again illness and the family situations of some members prevented the group from conducting the preferred outdoor seasonal gathering. And once again Robbie Braithwaite stepped forward to organise and conduct the proceedings of a virtual spring ginko, held on the Far North Coast of NSW, on Thursday 28 October 2021.  

Eight of us, from seven different locations, thought of everybody else taking part at 9.30 am, and proceeded to maintain silence, to observe and write for at least an hour. A Round Robin followed, with writers submitting haiku for comment.  Responses were redistributed by Robbie, with feedback being both positive and constructive.

The photograph below was taken by Robbie, who lives in the Tregeagle area of the Northern Rivers of NSW. Perhaps it is the same all over Australia, but this year, in this area, the display of jacarandas in bloom has been stunning. 

Quendryth Young

Virtual Ginko (in our own homes/environs)
Thursday 12th August 2021

As we were in lockdown on the Northern Rivers of NSW, the majority of members, loathe to cancel the ginko altogether, chose to participate in another virtual gathering. As Quendryth had some personal family issues at this time, Robbie Braithwaite stepped forward to organise and conduct the proceedings.  

Nine of us, from seven different locations, thought of everybody else taking part at 9.30 am, and proceeded to maintain silence, to observe and write for at least an hour. Once again we experienced the camaraderie of another virtual ginko.

Continue reading “Cloudcatchers Winter Ginko # 62”

Thursday 29 April 2021
Virtual ginko
10 am onwards

As a number of our members were experiencing tricky personal situations, our autumn ginko became a ‘virtual’ one. There were ten of us, each maintaining silence in her own home and/or environment on the Far North Coast of NSW, ranging from Murwillumbah in the north to Coffs Harbour in the south, with one member joining us from Avalon in Sydney. Commencing at 10 am, each poet thought of every other participant, and then proceeded to observe and write for at least an hour.

What an incredible bonding the stimulation of haiku images has delivered to us once again, as we savoured the camaraderie of another ginko.

Continue reading “Cloudcatchers Autumn Ginko # 61”

Pop Denison Park, Ballina, NSW  
Thursday 28 January 2021

Cloudcatchers gathered for Ginko No. 60 at a lovely little seaside inlet, Shaw’s Bay, in Ballina, just north of the mouth of the Richmond River. Previously the group has celebrated each ‘noughty’ ginko at the site of our first gathering in 2005, at Brunswick Heads, but we have all aged since then. As most of our more senior and stalwart members are now reluctant to make the half hour drive in highway traffic, we ‘stayed home’, and the younger ones came to us.

Still in the search for ‘What makes a good haiku?’ we enjoyed reading snippets to each other from the recent ‘Windfall’, Issue No.9 2021 (edited by Beverley George, published by Peter Macrow of Blue Giraffe Press). We appraised a number of haiku by members, and also those of some highly respected haijin, savouring the process.

Continue reading “Cloudcatchers Summer Ginko #60”