PAUL has been practising madly for his upcoming concert at Caboolture Seniors Citz Centre on Sunday 28th August at 2pm. Mike and Neville from the Community Radio Station have arranged to stage the concert as ‘Paul’s Farewell to Caboolture’.
Over the years he has done many concerts for them, all with fantastic response and better than fantastic afternoon teas!!


On the following weekend (Sunday 4th September) he will be a guest at Marge Graham’s Cedars Festival at Lismore at the Australian Italian Club.
HARTWOOD 2011 last Easter was another fabulous year and all campers and visitors need to be congratulated on their overall happiness and contentedness with all that was on offer. The weather was glorious, the artists all fantastic – all went extremely well. We would like to congratulate all the campers in the successful operation of the garbage re-cycling this year. All went smoothly and efficiently, thank you everyone. Thank you also to Mike and Susie & Stuart who did a fantastic job at the gate. Paul celebrated his birthday just before the festival with friends and family, and a beautiful Anzac Day Service was held by Clarence Ormsby on Easter Monday. Quite a variety of happenings.


Sadly this month, Lorna Caldwell passed away. Lorna was known to many as ‘Housemother’ at Hartwood and attended for at least 10 years in succession. Lorna delighted in looking after the visiting artists, making cups of tea and coffee etc. Each year she brought her home made fruit cake and we weren’t allowed to touch it until it was cut for the artists at the Easter Weekend. Lorna also used to weed the little bush garden in front of the stage which we called “Lorna’s garden”.
Our Burmese cat Rahni is the famous one at the moment, being featured in the local paper with her upstairs/downstairs cubbyhouse which Paul wire-netted in so she can’t go wandering and annoy the neighbours’ goldfish and birds.


She is also trained to lead and wear a harness for travelling with us. Not much travelling done at the moment but we do hope to get to Bedgerebong Festival in September and do a bit of a caravan trip.
Hartwood 2012, the 25th Anniversary of the Festival has another great line up of artists. We are pleased to have Wayne Horsburgh coming for the first time and I’m sure he’ll be a crowd pleaser, as well as the return of Rodney Vincent, Tom Maxwell, and Peter Horan … and not forgetting of course Paul and the popular Royden Donohue (my favourite Elvis performer). As additional treats, Rex Dallas will be performing on Good Friday and Saturday, and Brian Letton will be performing on Sunday. For full details, click on Hartwood 2012.


We have just had a whirlwind visit from Paul’s son, Craig who lives with his wife, Rebecca and five children in Georgia USA. We haven’t seen Craig for ten years so it was so good to catch up. He visited his sisters and Mother and had a week with Paul at Hartwood before spending the final week with us in Buderim. He was most impressed with the changes at the farm. The visit passed all too quickly.
We still hope to sell both the properties in the not too distant future, do some caravanning and settle somewhere (??) in one place. In the meantime we will be spending some more time at the farm and getting it ready for next year. More area has been opened up and slashed and water pipes need to be laid. Unfortunately the dam is empty again so more good rain is needed. Let’s hope it fills again before next Easter!
See you at Hartwood 2012.
Cheers,
Hele & Paul
