Weekends with the Sunshine Gardening Society

Weekends with the Sunshine Gardening Society by Sophie Green is a book about friendship, hope, community and the love of gardening. It is set in Noosa on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, a settlement by the sea and the national park and with a warm climate throughout the year - a great place for people to live and relax and enjoy the world around them. It is also a place where people can reflect on past events and determine their future.

The story, set in 1987, is about Cynthia, Lorraine, Elizabeth and Kathy as they work together with Barb and Shirl to help bring gardens back to life. The garden club, first established in the 1950s, was once a thriving group of women who enjoyed time in the garden, but now only Barb and Shirl remain. However when they are asked to help Elizabeth with her garden the membership of the group is revitalised.

We gradually learn of the stories of the four younger women, the challenges to be faced and decisions to be made. As they begin to enjoy the experience of gardening, friendships form and they all benefit from the support offered by new friends and the chance for a break from daily concerns.  

Each chapter of the book features a month as the narrative progresses and the name of a plant grown in the area.

The Bellbird River Country Choir

The Bellbird River Country Choir by Sophie Green is the story of a group of women living in the small New South Wales town of Bellbird River in 1998. Some of the women including Victoria, Gabrielle and Janine have strong family connections to the town while Debbie and Alex have only recently arrived. Each of the these women is facing changes and challenges in their lives. However the joy of combining in song with others in a choir on a Tuesday evening allows the women to re-evaluate the current challenges  and to form new friendships.

Those who have read other books by Sophie Green including The Shelly Beach Ladies Swimming Circle, Fairvale Ladies Book Club and Thursdays at Orange Blossom House will especially enjoy reading this book.

Vaxxers

'The inside story of the Oxford AstraZenica vaccine and the race against the virus' is the sub-title of the book, The Vaxxers, by Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green. The book looks at how and why the vaccine was developed in such a short time during 2020. The laboratory at Oxford University had experience working on other coronavirus vaccines so, once the structure of the new virus was established, it was a matter of working out how the research already undertaken could possibly be successfully adapted for tackling COVID-19.

Creating a workable vaccine is only one part of the task when making a vaccine to defeat a pandemic that is killing millions of people throughout the world. Acquiring sufficient funding to develop a vaccine and then finding a pharmaceutical company able to make and distribute large quanties of the vaccine is only one part of the equation. 

The vaccine has to go through many testing procedures that take months before final approval is granted by a variety of medical boards throughout the world. Then there was the media wanting a story. One piece of bad press could destroy public support for a project as well as provide fuel for conspiracy theories circulating about vaccines throughout the world. Derogatory comments from polititians, including those from other countries, also provided issues when trying to establish public confidence in a new vaccine.

The two authors write different chapters in this reader friendly description of working on the project which took over their lives in 2020.  The chapters also often include accounts of how working on the project affected their family lives. An original premise for writing a book about the vaccine for the general public was, by explaining how the vaccine was developed, to tackle concerns of anti-vaxxers.

But the chief emphasis is on the need to defeat a pandemic. At the beginning of each chapter there is a summary of the growing number of cases and deaths up to a point in time which emphasises how rapidly the vaccine was spreading.  The authors also emphasise that the work is far from over. The vaccine is mutating and alterations to the vaccine may be needed in the future to counter variants. There is also an awareness that another disease could be around the corner and preparations need to be made to tackle the next health challenge.

This is a book that everyone should read, those of us who have been vaccinated against the virus as well as those who are hesitating.

Thursdays at Orange Blossom House

Sandrine runs regular yoga classes at Orange Blossom House, named after the orange blossom orchids growing in the front garden of her home in Cairns, in Far North Queensland. It is at one of these sessions on a Thursday evening that three women meet, become friends and support each other through individual challenges.

Dorothy is in her early thirties and desperately wants a baby. She and her husband own a small cafe in Cairns. Patricia, in her mid forties, teaches English at the local high school and spends the rest of her time looking after her parents. Her mother has dementia and tends to disappear if not watched closely. Grace Maud, in her mid 70s, has moved back into Cairns after managing a sugar cane property out of town. Although Grace Maud still owns the property it is managed by her son. She is adjusting to her new lifestyle.

Through regular yoga sessions the three women begin to relax and recognise when their stress levels are rising. They also learn to re-evaluate what is important in their lives and that it is OK to trust other people and to ask for and accept help. 

This is a heart warming story set in the beautiful tropics of Far North Queensland, a place where I have spent many wonderful holidays before COVID-19. In Thursdays at Orange Blossom House, Sophie Green has captured the essence of this special environment and has introduced us to three strong, caring women.

Fairvale Ladies Book Club

Fairvale, a cattle station out of Katherine in the Northern Territory was a  property owned by Joe and Sybil Baxter who worked the station with the aid of their son, Ben, and his English born wife, Kate, plus additional full time and part time staff, primarily members of local Aboriginal communities.

When Sybil decided to start an occasional book club she invited Della (an American working on a neighbouring property), Rita (a long time nursing friend living in Alice Springs and working with the Royal Flying Doctor Service), and Sallyanne (a mother of three young children living in Katherine and a member of the CWA where she met Sybil) plus Kate to join. Due to distance and the extreme seasons experienced in the Northern Territory it was decided that they would try and meet at the beginning and end of the Dry Season.

The book club proved to be not only a place where the women could discuss books but also offered the opportunity for friendship among the five women helping to reduce the loneliness which often occurred when living in isolated area. Gradually the reader, as well as the book club members, learn more about the lives, past and present, of each book club member and the challenges they face. Racial discrimination is also a sub-plot.

This book is primarily about friendship as the women learn that when times are tough support is readily available and they are not alone.

The Shelly Bay Ladies Swimming Circle

This novel by Sophie Green is primarily about the special friendship that develops in 1982 between four very different ladies when they meet on the beach each day for an early morning swim.

Marie has lived at Shelly Bay, north of Sydney, all her life. Since her husband died five years previously, she now lives alone in the family home with her dog, Charlie Brown, for company. Marie is lonely but the real escape for her is the morning swim which she undertakes throughout the year unless the weather is really bad and the surf too rough. She is used to swimming alone but then she meets Theresa on the beach one morning as she is about to go for a swim and invites her to join her.

Theresa lives with her husband, two children and her grandmother in Shelly Bay. As well as looking after the house and her family, Theresa volunteers at the local hospital a couple of days a week. A comment from her husband that she is overweight motivates Theresa to take up swimming again, not just for exercise but also for some  'me time'.

At the hospital Theresa meets and befriends Leanne, a nurse in the childrens' department. Leanne has been having swimming lessons and eventually decides to give ocean swimming a try.

The fourth member of the swimming circle is Elaine who has left her home and children in England when her husband decides he wants to return to Australia. Looking for something to do she decides to attempt swimming in the sea.

As friendships among the women develop we, with members of the swimming circle, gradually learn of the problems that each member has experienced in the past as well as in the present. A strong support group develops from the morning swim as each of the swimmers gradually faces up to issues from their past plus current challenges. This results in lifestyle changes for all members of the group.

Once again it is interesting to read a book exploring, as one of its themes, the power of the sea over an individual.