The Darwin Symphony Orchestra's first concert of the dry season, featuring ARIA chart-topping star and Australian Children's Music Foundation Ambassador Mirusia, and the Australian Army Band Darwin, takes place at 6.30pm on 11 May at The Waterfront. The program includes The Man From Snowy River, Schubert's Ave Maria sung by Mirusia and the 1812 Overture with fireworks. This is a free concert, but a gold coin contribution would be appreciated. Take a chair and a picnic – or purchase food on the spot. Click here for a preview of guest performer, Mirusia Louwerse, in a performance of Ave Maria with Andre Rieu.

Part Sixteen: What Monsoon?

This time of the year, May to June, is known as Yegge (meaning cool weather time) in the Top End Aboriginal calendar. Humidity drops and as the skies clear to just a few fluffy white clouds, the air also cools to a more pleasant degree.

The just passed season of Banggerreng – from March to April – usually follows on from the monsoon rains of Gudjewg. Out on the floodplains lotus lily perfume fills the air, brolgas raise their chicks in reed nests, grasshoppers call, and both the magpie geese and the estuarine (saltie) crocodile lay their eggs, whistling ducks gather in large congregations while long-legged jacanas straddle waterlily leaves, seemingly able to walk on the surface of the water.

By April, river levels should start to fall, the floodplains waters slowly recede, humidity remains reasonably high, and the speargrass drops its seeds. Then along come the knock-em-down storms which flatten the speargrass in huge swathes as though some giant roller machine has stalked the land.

The annual low-fuel burn-offs should take place now in accordance with indigenous practice and traditions in order to avert incendiary fires and choking smoke at the end of the Dry.

Just when we were under the impression that this season's monsoon had sidestepped the Top End of the Territory, a somewhat belated but very welcome west wind brought rain to Darwin's outlying areas over the Easter break. Brightly lit thunder storms produced sometimes heavy, if spasmodic, downpours, but it was enough to ease the high humidity for a short time. This alteration to the weather pattern appears to have modified some plants' performance, eg flowering, and even some of the birds and animals seem somewhat disaffected by these odd seasonal variations.

The first noticeable feature is the incessant throbbing crescendo of the drummer cicadas. Normally these cicadas emerge from the ground at night after the first drenching rains of the monsoon – usually in December and January. They issue forth at night when the ground has been softened, climb up a stick or some other nearby object and then proceed to shed their cocoon shell. Later, with now dry, uncrumpled extended wings, they ascend even higher into the trees singing their insistent chorus. To the human ear it can be likened to a shrill, strident tinnitus-like ringing in the ears – day and night !

But here it is now the start of April and the high-pitched, almost deafening background noise of the cicadas reminds us of this changed seasonal pattern. They are, however, a valuable food source for other members of the wildlife guild – birds just love 'em !

Another change is one that I am really quite happy about because this event did not occur in my vicinity this season. How many of you remember the pre-Christmas invasions of flying ants after the rains and high humidity allowed them to swarm (usually at twilight) into the air, pair up with a mate and then fall to earth ? How they managed to insinuate themselves into our houses through closed doors and fly-screened windows remains one of nature's mysteries ! Overnight they would scrap their wings, leaving huge piles of these discarded body parts, and try to wriggle whatever was left into every nook and cranny they could find, just aiming to start their own new colony ready for the next monsoonal mass swarming.

However, these flying ants (termites) do provide other wildlife with a much needed protein boost ! But frogs, lizards and birds seem to have missed out on this free dietary supplement this season because of the late arrival of the mini-monsoon we have just experienced.

Our Annual General Meeting takes place on 28 March. With this Newsletter you will find an agenda for the meeting together with a nomination form for election to the Board in general or to a particular post.

Please do consider standing for the Board – all positions are vacant – as our policies need to reflect the different opinions of all our members. If that is not possible, do, nevertheless, come along on the 28th and vote to make sure that your voice is heard and taken note of.

On 20 March, COTA is organising a Craft Workshop at which participants will learn how to paint and decorate eggs, and make cards.

The Workshop commences at 10am, and takes place at Spillett House, 65 Smith Street in the CBD. The cost is $5 which covers all materials and morning tea. For further details and to reserve a place call Julie on 8941 1004 or write to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

International Women's Day, which is celebrated around the world on 8 March, was first marked in 1911 in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland as a platform for the right to vote and for better working conditions for women. IWD was acknowledged for the first time in Australia in 1928 by a march in Sydney for equal pay, but it was only in 1974 that it was recognised by the Australian Government.

Here in Darwin, the annual IWD walk and community morning tea will take place on 9 March in the CBD. Participants, who are asked to wear purple, will set out from Parliament House at 9.30am, returning there at around 10.15am with events – including live music, speakers, entertainers, information stalls and refreshments – taking place in State Square until 12.30pm.

As a contribution to this year's commemoration of the Bombing of Darwin, the local branches of the Mapping Sciences Institute and the Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute have organised an exhibition, Mapping for the War in the North, which tells the story of how the military surveyors and cartographers responded to a major deficiency in the country's military capability at the start of the Second World War – the lack of maps of northern Australia suitable for military purposes. The exhibition, in the NT Library in Parliament House, runs until 17 March, and is accessible during the Library's opening hours.

There's still a chance to catch a couple of exhibitions:

Firstly, there's a two-part exhibition featuring glass: Handle with Care presents a rare opportunity to appreciate the beauty of historic, practical and artistic rarely seen glass objects that have been selected from the Museum's own collection. The second part, Tour de Force, In Emergency Break Glass, highlights the work of eight progressive Australian artists who have made work that breaches the traditional ideas, methods and materials of glass making. The exhibition runs until 10 March.

Secondly, there are still a few days left, until 3 March, to see the curiously fascinating exhibition, Beyond the Self, which examines the representation of the self in current South and Southeast Asian art practice through the work of artists from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines and Thailand. Exploring the possibilities of portraiture, the exhibition includes painting, photography, sculpture, drawing and media works created from the early 2000s to the present.

Then, opening on 28 March is the annual Exit Art exhibition which showcases the works of 2012 Northern Territory visual art students, and celebrates the talent and creativity of young Territorians expressed through traditional and non-traditional media.

Part 14: Finale number 2 – maybe

Well.......following in the footsteps of those two famous singers, Nellie Melba and John Farnham, I obviously don't know when to stop and just keep coming back with additional observations and snippets of interest (to me anyhow) about nature, wildlife, and climate effects IMBY! So here goes with the next instalment.

As the dry season morphed into the 'build-up', the green-ant tree co-operated with me by expelling all the green ants and their nests, along with its leaves, in its annual total leaf-drop. By mid-September not a single leaf remained on its branches – it looked bereft: naked, spiky and quite unattractive.

Raking up the crumpled, mottled, leathery, brown fallen leaves (being stung all the time by the displaced ants) and bagging the leaves (at least three extra-large garbags per day) was a necessary daily chore as the tree shed its previous year's coat. Then suddenly, almost miraculously, small brilliant green baby leaves began to appear on all the spiky twigs of the bare outstretched branches. By the end of October the whole tree was awash with new foliage – sans ants.

A variety of birds would flit through the open branches picking off any foolhardy returning insects, and, as the summer sun crept lower into the southern sky, the leaves slowly grew to normal size. The shade created by this tall, now ant-less tree seemed to be appreciated by birds, animals, garden plants – and humans as well!

As my garden took shape and began to benefit from this extended shade, more lizards, butterflies, grasshoppers and so on soon appeared – each species unwittingly presenting themselves as a delectable dinner for another larger, more aggressive species. (Such is life!)

Having festooned the lower branches of 'the tree' with shade-loving hanging baskets; draped the partly shaded fence with potted orchids; planted colourful shrubs in decorative pots placed strategically across the lawn space, it was pleasing to see how this cool, green ambience was brought right up to the patio area and seemed to cool the inner lounge room.

As for the regular and temporary visitors of the bird world, they are all still here with a couple of new additions. Each morning for the last two weeks, a band of corellas fly in, amazingly silent, and peck diligently under a specific seed-bearing tree. Once replete, they perch in a row on the top rail of the nearest fence, nod to each other, riffle their short crests, and then take off as a squad for the next food bowl.

The hard core troop of about fifteen permanent ibis continually patrol around and around this whole enclave, endeavouring to keep the area free of all unwelcome insect intruders. They have voracious appetites which need constant feeding. In fact one brave ibis has staked his claim to my garden and regularly chomps down on any grasshoppers, worms, centipedes, spiders and other edible delights from the insect family that have the temerity to invade my space. I think he regards this as just foraging for hors d'oeuvres before setting out for real chow time with his pals.

My old office chair collapsed. Having had it for more than 15 years, I decided to pension it off and buy a new one.

I did my usual “market research” and eventually found one that was comfortable to sit on, the right height, without the extremes of a
gadget to move it up or down like a lift, and it was the right price.

This was in a large emporium that I do not usually frequent. I found a likely lad wearing the right logoed shirt and said, “I would like to buy this chair, please”. We wheeled over to his sales desk; he fired up his computer and then asked for my telephone number! I said ”Did you want to make a date?” Obviously not the right answer from the look on his face. He informed me that it was the first field on the invoice document and had to be filled in. I replied “I don’t have a phone”. By this time alarm bells are ringing in his head, but he asked if I knew someone else’s number that he could put in.

I said “I've only just moved up here, I don’t know anybody that well”. Now he's really alarmed and sought the aid of another person lurking in an office behind all this action. Second person came out, looked me over and asked for my driving licence. I said ”I don’t drive. I was dropped off here”. This had gone on long enough so I reminded both of them that it's not compulsory to have a phone or a driving licence and they might like to know that it's not even compulsory to wear underpants or knickers! All I want is to buy this chair!!

Then, second assistant had a moment of enlightenment and decided it could all be done on a cash docket. So I bought my chair and wheeled it out of the store, stashed it in the boot of the car, turned and gave them both a big smile and a wave and came home with a grin on my face.

Ask me for something not related to the job in hand and I can have a lot of fun

On 28 February, we'll be holding an open meeting, and all members are urged to come along to a discussion on the way forward for our organisation. After last year's AGM, we came very close to having to close down, and if we are to avoid a similar situation this year we really must make an effort to ensure our future, whatever that may be. So, please, do make an effort to attend – and be ready to participate!

Many thanks to everyone involved in the organisation of our Christmas lunch at Kantilla's last November – it was a great success, as usual. Gayle Carroll's quiz sorely tested our knowledge, and scores were abysmally poor! Congratulations to the lucky winners in the raffle: Charles Atherton, Cath Beaton, Fran Wickes, Arthur Williams and Mary Woodrow. The Door Prize went to Teresa Lugg.

2013 is something of a mathematical rarity: the individual digits, when rearranged, can form a simple arithmetic progression: 0, 1, 2, 3. The last such year was 1432, and the next will be 2031. After that, we will have to wait until 2103 for the following one.