March 10, 2025

It's scarecrow time again

Scarecrows have become rather a thing in my East Tamar neighbourhood. They start popping up along fence lines and verges as we get closer to the annual Harvest Market. This in turn began as a way of supporting St Matthias Church that was on the Anglican list of Tasmania’s rural churches to be sold in order to raise funds for the redress payments to historic victims of sexual abuse. The community was incensed that such a historic church was being considered for sale, and very quickly came together to ensure sufficient funds were raised to see any potential sale was off the agenda.

 

That was several years ago but ongoing funds are necessary to ensure the upkeep of the church and grounds – including the small and equally historic cemetery. Hence the annual Harvest Market – and the novelty addition of a scarecrow competition, the brainchild of the local Garden Club, that’s proved so popular it soon became an annual event with more entries each year.

 

It's very much a community initiative with our local Men’s Shed creating and selling the frames for a very modest sum.

 

How effective these imaginative and clever creations are at ‘scaring the birds’ is a mott point, but I suspect not very - given few of them are anywhere near the property’s vegie patch. And that’s assuming properties all have a vegie patch to protect.

 

Unsure who has the task of deciding the best scarecrow but judging the best one will be a tough job because as well as lots of them, there are some really clever ones this year.

Share this post on socials

A red-faced moment

By Anne Layton-Bennett • September 2, 2026
A review of a very readable sci-fi thriller with a Doctor Who element.
Badger the beagle

The secrecy around toxicity testing on animals

By Anne Layton-Bennett • August 4, 2026
An Animals Australia article that highlights the use of toxicity testing of chemicals on animals is still being done around the globe.

Finding a publisher could be getting closer

By Anne Layton-Bennett • July 22, 2026
Attracting the interest of a publisher for this story of a community’s campaign to stop what would have been ‘the world’s fourth largest pulp mill’ being built was never going to be easy, but hoping the first of two 3-minute Literary Speed Dating pitch sessions will prompt at least one of the two publishers to request the full MSS. And preferably both of them. These twice-yearly Perfect Pitch sessions are offered to members of the Australian Society of Authors, and this is the first time I’ve taken advantage of them – mainly because of the need to have a completed MSS before doing so. Three minutes isn’t long to excite the interest of a publisher who is after stories in very specific genres, and who therefore needs to believe your MSS is worth investing the time needed to read it in full. I’m pretty certain I’ve excited the necessary interest, but given Jane will hear the pitches of many more optimistic and talented writers after my morning session today, there are no guarantees. That initial interest might well wane as the day goes on if other writers have written stories that sound far more intriguing – and marketable. One can never forget that aspect of publishing these days: will the book sell. I believe my story will – certainly in Tasmania it definitely will – but a wider Australian readership? That’s an unknown even if my mentor is convinced of the story’s universal appeal.  I’d certainly like to think I’ve caught the zeitgeist wave given the current widespread community unrest over AI data centres, that’s already prompting similar serious opposition, and for many of the same reasons the Tamar Valley’s community opposed the pulp mill. Environmental degradation, threats to public health, water usage – and water shortages in an era of escalating climate extremes – and the constant, relentless noise factor that’s associated with data centres, and AI data centres in particular. I’m crossing my fingers that the second pitch session will be equally positive, and that I could strike it lucky with both publishers requesting to see the full MSS. But I won’t get ahead of myself. I’ll just be keeping all fingers and toes firmly crossed for the next seven days.

Latest from my blog...