2003 Lime Festival and prize winning limerick

The 2003 Lime fesatival was very much a do it yourself affair, so there's no documentation to fill up this empty blogosphere. Not even a digital photo. Clearly almost a last century experience.

The (one) holy lime took pride of place on its velvet cushion centrally located for homage purposes surrounded by 200 decorative limes occupying every perch and post in the house.

It also featured a Lime.erick competition which was won by Julian Pepperril. He still remembers it and promises to send it for the archives. Any other memorised limericks would be welcome for the 2003 story.

Other highlights included Gerry Bebendorf's beauty facial workshop where she demonstrated her concoction of lime juice, kitty litter and a secret ingredient (read i don't remember) on a group of enthusiastic and bent women (no human was harmed in the development of this product). Results are still evident 6 years later (all litigation has been settled out of court).

The Carmen Miranda tea cosy was the prized prize in the raffle and Loani Prior attributes this event to the beginnings of her international career as Queen of the Wild Tea cosies with her book currently in the top 10 in the UK craft sales.

Mark Cryle performed a medley of twisted lime songs - think "I am the Limeman for the county - Witichita Limeman" (Mark will remind me of others).

Dr. Ian Ward presented an audio visual talk on the place of the lime in the history of contraception - including footage of Rona Joyner extolling the virtues of the citrus douche pre or post coitus as a natural birth control method.

and great FOOD FOOD FOOD. (Lime cake by Louise booth (circa 2007)

Not to mention clothes and costumes in dazzling and vile shades of ... yes of course lime.
More to come on 2003 as it becomes available. Eccentric ? Yes. Mad? Perhaps.

Julian's Limerick:

Steve Capelin who once was a mime
Now worships the cult of the Lime
This fruit declared he
Is the epitome
Of everything good and sublime.

A MATTER OF LIME AND DEATH

The silky oak was weeping
feathery leaves formed a shroud
as life was slowly seeping
the lillypilly bowed,

freshcut jacaranda
standing strong and proud
potted fig on the veranda
shook and sobbed out loud

Crows and doves and kookaburras
thrice the curlew cried
the vine of hearts was bleeding
but the lime tree died.

Leaves had slowly withered
then the branches dried
the palm looked on and shivered
but the lime tree died.

There was an inquisition
autopsy was performed
result was inconclusive
but opinions swiftly dawned.

Some blamed caterpillars
insects were maligned
the dog turned very sheepish
when urea was divined,

but time can quickly pass
and heal the worst divide
ferns and lemongrass
growing side by side,

a wave of green
a rising tide
that soon forgot
the lime tree died.

Denis Peel

Lime Anthime

Proud Limealians across the land (street) sing this with gutso (sic) where two or more are gathered in his/her/its/their name(s):

Australian limes let us rejoice
The season’s citrusy
We’re full of zest,
We are the best
Just taste us and you’ll see.

We’re small and round but quite profound
We’re eaten everywhere
In cookbooks rare and Marie Claire
A fruit beyond compare.

Now’s not the time for kaffir lime
Tahitian lime’s the fare

Carmen Miranda - The Tea Cosy and the Lime Festival

Carmen Miranda - The Tea Cosy and the Lime Festival

Now, having initiated this Lime Festival, to further complicate this simple event, Mr Barren invited friends to create something hand crafted in keeping with the lime theme. His plan was to auction or raffle these items to benefit a cause in need. Mr Barren having suffered his winters of trial understood adversity and wished to alleviate such suffering in others. Among the works of art which were lovingly created for the night were a hand made mosaic tile featuring a lime in all its plumpness, a lime kite from a master kite maker, a full colour portrait of a lime dignitary of royal descent and many more but of particular note there appeared a hand knitted tea cosy adorned with the most amazing set of knitted fruit bursting with abundance from atop this masterpiece. This Carmen Miranda inspired creation was the prized piece and despite the general closeness of the group caused some jealousies to occur. The raffle was arranged so that each winning ticket holder could choose which item from the fine array on offer they preferred. Such was the power of this citrus creation that as ticket after ticket was drawn each winner studiously chose to avoid the prized tea cosy as if choosing would unleash a tidal wave of angst amongst this tightly knit group. Finally in a fitting irony after six tickets and six reluctant retreats from the opportunity to own this masterwork, Mrs Bounty was heard to cry after her ticket was drawn “Oh, bugger it. I’m not afraid of the bloody thing. I want it. And bugger the rest of you..” Ahhhh. The perfect solution. The serendipitous homecoming of the prize to its natural resting place. The origin of the Lime festival. No friendships were broken. No fights broke out. Justice had been served. The second miracle of the night emerged over drinks towards the witching hour when Grandpurlbaa, as she is now known, confessed that while she had knitted other tea cosies previously, this had been a quantum leap for her in her craft. It was evident that until this moment she had merely been knitting. The creator in her had suddenly been revealed and the rest, as they say, is history.

One small lime for a man, one giant leap forward in the art of the tea cosy.

The Lime Festival - Its Origins (a somewhat true fable)

The Lime festival began in 2003. It had a strange beginning. This story accounts for some aspects of that beginning and the goings on at that festival. Some of the names have been changed to protect the ignorant.

The Lime Festival - Its Origins (a somewhat true fable)

There were two families; lets call them the Bountys and the Barrens.

The Bountys had a citrus tree which was much admired by the Barrens.
Mr Bounty, being a thoughtful man, felt this deep gap in his friend’s world and presented to him, on his birthday, a potted Lime Tree.

The next day, a Sunday, Mr Barren excitedly planted the tree in a vacant spot in his garden - west of the spreading macadamia and east of the loquat tree. From that day he lovingly tended it weekend in and weekend out. He watered it by hand; he sprayed it with soap suds to fight off the ants and scale insects; he peed on it occasionally because he had heard that this worked wonders for the productivity of citrus trees – something to do with husbandry and hormones he mistakenly believed; he pruned, ever so gently, and waited and watched and waited and waited.

Each year Mr Bounty’s Tahitian Lime produced an avalanche of fruit and these would be shared with Mr Barren and his family in a non patronising and wholly generous spirit. And each year Mr Barren would watch as the fruit budded on his tree and struggled to survive and finally, each year, produce nothing.

Mr Barren was not naturally gifted when it came to gardening and hated nothing more than reading instructions, which is why he had inadvertently planted his beloved Lime Tree in a shady spot on poorly drained shaly ground. Still this was not known to him at that time and each year he found another excuse for his recalcitrant Tahitian.

After fiveyears, during which he obsessively loved that tree (call it a tree, yet it was still below his shoulder in height) his patience and obstinate optimism bore fruit in the form of a solitary lime. So amazing was this event and so heaven sent, that Mr Barren decided that this indeed was a blessed fruit worthy of celebration. He called his circle of friends and, in a state most of them could not comprehend (apart from Mr Bounty and his wife who had been witnesses to this agony), invited them to gather at his house to celebrate this unique event. Mr Barren, who had a penchant for excess decided to call this the Hill End Lime Festival, for that is where he lived with his wife and two bemused children. He did not regard this as self indulgent or grandiose but simply apt. And so began the Lime Festival.

Lime Festival - The beginning

The lime festival began in 2003 on the back deck of a house in Hill End Brisbane.
Its history is fabled and its existence legendary (at least in the minds of its creators and followers).
What follows is an account of its birth, rebirth, death and resurrection. Miracles have been attributed to it. Creative extravaganzas have emerged from it. Follow the story 2003 to 2009.