Here is where we post adverts from Gumtree (the online buy/sell/swap site) that are either odd, unusual or just plain different. Most are for goods from around South-West Victoria, or close by.

All adverts, including the images, are reproduced direct from Gumtree, but some wording may be changed to protect privacy or for editorial smoothness.

(If you would like to follow up an ad, please do so through Gumtree: although it may not still be listed.)

Here is this week’s offering:

[box] Motorized horse over 2ft tall. Reacts to talking and patting. Eats carrots. Worth $700 new… Is a bit dusty, but she works well $250.[/box]

(What I want to know is, where do those carrots end up? – Carol)

My mother kept everything…and I mean everything. This used to be a source of great embarrassment, but now I am grateful.

Each week, I will upload something from Mum’s drawer – bits and pieces from Warrnambool’s past.

This week is a hand-signed Christmas note from the late Sir Fletcher Jones, given during the height of the Second World War.

Despite the rationing and hardships of the time, Sir Fletcher always made sure his staff still received a Christmas gift and a gift card.

This small card epitomises his famous generosity and respectful attitude toward staff who were treated as part of a big family, rather than as mere workers.

Like many of Sir Fletcher’s former employees, my Mum has long forgotten the gift, but never the gesture.

WE DON’T NEED TO TELL you that Paul Jennings has come a long way since lecturing primary school teaching students in the 1980s at what was then the Warrnambool Institute of Advanced Education.

(Actually, I can remember Paul reading us bleary eyed third years the draft of his very first book and asking us for feedback. ‘Not bad,’ we said. Hell, what did we know? – Carol).

We have invited Michaelie Clark from Warrnambool Books to each week choose a reading highlight for people who love books and, where possible, to pick a work by a local author. Michaelie has this week chosen Paul’s new series for young adults:

“The imagination of award-winning Warrnambool author Paul Jennings has soared to new heights with his latest series, Don’t Look Now. The four book series, illustrated by Melbourne cartoonist Andrew Weldon, tells the story of Ricky, a boy who desperately wants to be famous – and has the means to be.

You see, Ricky can fly.

The only problem is, Ricky can’t stay airborne if there’s anybody around to witness it. If anyone were to see him flying, he would promptly fall out of the sky and surely plummet to his death, leading Ricky to quite a conundrum…”

(Does anybody see an analogy here between Ricky’s problem and the fears that hold all of us back if we know somebody is watching us? I like it already – Carol).

• Please visit Warrnambool Books on Facebook for regular updates on new releases.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #8F9F59;”]B[/dropcap]eing sick in hospital is usually terrible and rarely does the outside world look more inviting, or more glorious, than when viewed behind the glass of a medical ward window.

It is a bit the same with nursing homes and even though we are fortunate in South-West Victoria to have some great aged care homes, they are not places we are rushing to get into.

This is where musician Garry Price comes in. Garry, and those like him, are the wandering minstrels of our modern age. He brings music into the lives of those who need it most: the sick, the aged, the young school kids who are still finding their way.

I had reason to be visiting South West Healthcare recently and walked past a room where Garry was playing guitar and singing to a young woman who looked very ill indeed. Yet she was, for a moment, transported from that illness as she leaned forward in her chair, smiling and mesmerised by Garry’s voice.

A week later, Garry wandered in to the hospital room of my older brother, Glenn, who has Down’s syndrome, and sang a song about chicken which had Glenn laughing and smiling for the first time that day.

And when I visit my mother at Lyndoch, Garry is often there: cracking jokes and playing his electric piano as he rolls back the years for his audience.

Music lifts hearts and it is for this reason that Gary Price, who makes a lot of music, is our second quiet hero.

Bluestone Magazine is donating a voucher for coffee and cake to each of our quiet heroes. This week it will be at Pavilion Cafe and Bar, Warrnambool.

[box type=”bio”] Do you know somebody in South-West Victoria who is worthy of recognition as a quiet hero? If so, let us know via email – in 150 words or less, plus a photo – and we will consider them for our weekly column. Email us at editor@bluestonemagazine.com.au[/box]

Who are our other quiet heroes?…

The artist

The face behind Fifteen Minutes of Fame

Embracing diversity