Winter continues to press its case. Four degrees Tuesday morning. The bore road puddle froze for the first time since 2019, which Clarrie Burton noted and nobody wrote down except me.

SOUP, SPREADSHEET, AND THE SOUTH DEPRESSION CARPARK: THE FESTIVAL BEGINS IN EARNEST

Tuesday evening at the Royal Hotel: four subcommittee members, a ninety-minute session, and soup. That is the sentence from which all further sentences this week have descended.

Alan Forsythe's logistics spreadsheet was present. Bev Tonkin had opinions about stall sequence. The south depression carpark was, as they say, on the table, which is either promising or concerning depending on your experience with that table. The session has been officially described as productive, a word this district uses carefully and means.

The soup, however, is what everyone is leading with. Gary 'Macca' McKenzie, publican of the Royal Hotel, produced it without announcement and without ceremony, and it has since become the primary unit of civic measurement this week. This Gazette named him directly on Thursday — a publican who has decided to put his shoulder into it — and I will stand by that sentence even knowing it may be the most consequential thing printed here since we ran the bypass cancellation. The Royal has not received press this warm in two years. It is about soup. I find this entirely correct.

'It's in the paper' was said, I am told, in a tone usually applied to road funding. About soup. We are who we are.

CONNELLY AND BURTON: THE BENCH, THE NOTEBOOK, AND WHAT CLARRIE IS MEASURING

Wednesday morning, Ray Connelly was seen on the fixed bench with Clarrie Burton. Ray had a notebook. Clarrie, by all accounts, was talking. By Thursday evening the pub formulation was 'those two are becoming a thing,' with the qualifier — said approvingly — that Clarrie Burton does not sit with anyone unless he judges it worth his time.

I will add nothing to that qualifier except to say that I agree with it completely, and that watching Clarrie make that judgment about a man who paid cash for the Henderson place, has Whitmore & Associates correspondence in his post, and has already walked Deb Forsythe's east boundary before she thought to ask — well. Whatever is in that notebook, it is not nothing.

The town has filed this as interesting. This Gazette files it as something to watch with appropriate patience, which I acknowledge is not my natural mode.

STEVE-O PLAYS WITHIN HIMSELF: THE DISTRICT PREPARES ACCORDINGLY

Steve 'Steve-o' Mitchell's return against Billawarra on Saturday: two goals, won by eleven, and the read around the ground was unanimous before the final siren. He played within himself. That phrase is doing a great deal of work this week, and correctly. Keith's assistant had already transmitted 'we're fine' by Friday, which arrived at the café as 'Keith says they're ready,' which is an improvement in confidence of approximately forty percent with no new information added.

The Currawong Flats fixture is now carrying social weight that a footy match probably should not bear. It will bear it anyway.

AROUND THE DISTRICT

• Des Hartley arrived at bingo corner Friday, making seven. Des doesn't attend things until they've become things. Consider it ratified.

• The F.J. Dooley water authority circular, forwarded to the Henderson property after fifty-three years, continues to be discussed in tones of mild wonder. The town cannot shake that man. He is not here to be shaken.

• Bruce Patterson was seen at the post-match bar with Macca, something about the festival. By Sunday the town had promoted him to co-organiser. He reportedly wants to attend one meeting. He will attend one meeting.

• Carol Briggs came out of Dr Priya Sharma's clinic Thursday morning. Routine. Three people noted it anyway. Carol doesn't come to town on Thursdays.

• Tash's sourdough, Friday batch: gone by eleven.

• Fuel is up again. Record your mileage. Combine your errands.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

From Bev Tonkin, Haverstock St:
Marge, just to clarify for the record, I did not say the north stall row was wrong, I said the sequence wanted thinking about, which is different and Alan knows it. The carpark question will come back to bite us if we don't get onto it before August. I have a map. Tell Deb.
— B. Tonkin

From Des Hartley, via post:
Mrs Holloway, I understand you mentioned my attendance at the Friday evening at the Royal. I'd only say I go where I'm comfortable and I was comfortable. Good evening. Macca keeps a clean glass.
— D. Hartley

From a correspondent who prefers not to be named but writes like someone who orders their coffee before sitting down:
Is anyone else following the Dooley circular situation or is it just me? Fifty-three years is not an administrative delay. That is a decision. I'd like to know whose.

[Ed. — So would I. So would I.]

The Redgum Hollow Gazette is written, edited, typeset, and distributed by Marge Holloway. Letters may be left at the front counter, the bench, or Macca's bar. Corrections printed with great fanfare. Next edition: week of 13 July.