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Just Walking The Dogs

19/12/2013

 
Rufus Thomas wrote a song ,‘Walking the Dog’, in 1963 and the next year The Rolling Stones sang their own version. That was in the days when The Stones were a pucka R&B band. It was a hit. I loved it. It had something of the languid pace of their later interpretation of ‘Little Red Rooster’, although a little more athletic. It was soulful, honest, simple, and captured the essence of an age when dance crazes were the thing. Walking The Dog enabled Mick Jagger to strut a bit, to develop his stage persona. Interesting how songs about animals are scattered across the panoply of pop music - not always to be taken as literal figures, though.

Richards and Jagger had not started their song-writing partnership at that time, and chose instead to interpret past standards. I always felt this was made as an honour to the singers and songwriters who had come before them; a homage, in a way. A salute to the those who ploughed the furrow into which The Stones would drop the seeds of their own success.

But I digress.

Dog-walking, not R&B, is the subject of this musing. I walked our two dogs this morning, 15th December 2013, in the Bob Gordon Reserve located in the Perth suburb of Bull Creek, Western Australia. It was still dark when we arrived, the two dogs in the back of the Honda CRV. They know the place well, as we visit it each day at approximately the same time. This morning, Rex, a one-year-old Blue Heeler/Alsatian cross, lept over the car’s back guard, so eager was he to get started. The more sedate, Hallie, a grande-dame Staffie/Mastif cross of 10 years, with a lovely brindle coat, followed him after I had opened the car’s rear gate.

Orion and his belt welcomed us from the north-west. Venus, the brightest light in the sky, untwinkling, sat to Orion’s right. The Southern Cross hung in the opposite quadrant. They don’t change, thank goodness, and thereby reassure us that while ultimately all must turn to dust, at least it will be a good while coming. You have to bear in mind, of course, that everything is history - as are the lights of the night sky.

The Bob Gordon Reserve is a well-managed open space within the local authority of Melville, that reckons it is a ‘City’. It is mainly grassed which is mown frequently during the summer, and less so in the cooler, wet months. Ancient, sentinel paper barks and a variety of eucalypts are scattered about. Most years Melville council will plant young versions of existing varieties to extend the tree cover. These saplings are generally set out in some orderly pattern, so the Reserve grows to look like a municipal park, which it is.

Within its centre, a rather small area of bush has been preserved, untended, unmanaged, where nature has been permitted to thrive, or at least to strive as it will. Of course, grasses predominate but native wild-flowers have secured a foothold, and a couple of months ago they bloomed in the shy way that Australian flora seem to do: perhaps, wisely, to avoid the heat of the sun.

Some beautiful, delicate flowers with white petals positioned above one another on the stalk, like miniature gladioli, stuck their heads out of the surrounding vegetation, and for a couple of weeks were a welcome each morning, till they suddenly wilted and drooped. Some yellow flowers, tall like poppies, spread amongst the grasses and waved languidly in the timid breeze of early spring. Confident daisies flowered above sturdy stalks and green base-leaves, brightly yellow. They are deeper-rooted and remain still.

This morning we arrived before 4.00am, but the imminent dawn was already lifting the night sky upwards from the tops of nearby trees and houses. The southern summer solstice is a week away, when the night will be at its shortest. A week after Christmas Day the dark hours for sleeping will inch their way back.  

As I completed my circuit around the bush area, and came to face directly eastwards I was presented with the perfect early morning vista. There are some very old trees in the Reserve. You can tell from the diameter of their trunks, from the solid, twisted branches that hang and stretch outwards, that these fellas have been around for a good while. I look through those branches at the cloudless, lightening sky. Every one of them, every twig, every sprouting piece of foliage is set in infinite detail against the whiteness of an early dawn.

But wait. Those dogs are at it again. They are 9 years apart, yet behave together like close siblings. Rex is a relentless teaser. He will find a stick or a tennis ball that some dog-walker has left on the ground, and he will hold it between his teeth and push it towards Hallie to tempt her to take it. She never succeeds because this youngster is too quick. Moreover, he has an intelligence that belies his youth. He manoeuvers, he turns away from Hallie’s probing jaw and elludes all her advances. He pesters her to try again, coming back to her, placing a paw on her head to cajole her. Perhaps he will thrust the stick or ball towards her, actually pushing it against her jowls, as if to say, ‘Here it is, why don’t you take it?’.

Eventually, Hallie will succomb to frustration and will start barking in some half-hearted entreaty to Rex for comfort. That is my signal to walk away from the neighbouring bungalows and houses that straddle the Reserve. It’s not yet 4.30am, and I won’t be flavour of the month if the locals are roused from their beds on account of my noisy dogs.

So we travel down alongside the BMX cycle park that occupies a portion of the Reserve, straddling the main road through Bull Creek, away from the houses and back gardens. Rex is a true Blue Heeler, and carries the bulk of an Alsatian. The pure breed was reared in Queensland during the early colonial days to herd cattle. They are clever, loyal (thus ‘Heelers’) and will run and run all day.

Owning a Blue Heeler is no easy job. Intelligence results in the undoing of all sorts of restraints or obstacles put in Rex’s way to keep him orderly, and his energy means he needs constant attention. Pity any person who owns a Blue Heeler without at least 10 acres of land for it to run across. I confess we don’t own so large a spread (a mere 800 sq metre suburban lot), but I now have the time to keep the two dogs occupied so long as weather permits.

There’s one thing I have failed to mention about our morning walk. That is the birdlife. The birds of Western Australia are a fairly sociable brood, and once one of them has woken and announces its presence, the others are not far behind. But on arrival, we have preceded their dawn chorus. This morning, only a pair of jabbering Kookaburras disturb the night air from a half-kilometre away. They are often seen in pairs and their territory is wide, so you only rarely hear more than a single pair. They often call throughout the night hours, and especially shortly before dawn. During the day they tend to be silent but often settle on telegraph lines or poles to survey their domain.


The Magpies occupy the swollen, arthritic branches of the old paper-barks, often hidden by the tangled, primitive foliage. During the night it is not uncommon to hear the warble of an insomniac Magpie. Its lilting call, the most complex of any bird, gently rides the night air reminding all listeners of its presence, the length of occupation of its territory, perhaps its name and its intention to remain for many a year.  At dawn the Magpies will take to the ground to feed on seeds and grubs amongst the grass. When approached, they stand with head erect, defying my trespass, until their will falters and they fly up into a tree’s safety, squawking defiance.

Even before them, a pair or trio of wild Ducks may circle the reserve, flying at tree-height and appearing to be in a great hurry. They sometimes come back for a second pass, as if they haven’t decided where to land. Occasionally, a mating pair will drop down within the Reserve to feed on the watered grass.

Before long, a brightly coloured Lesser Holland Honey-Eater will chirp up. Then will come the shrill carping of a Wattle Bird that pierces the early morning air. During the nesting season one of the parent birds will fly sorties against any living creature in the Reserve that approaches where their eggs sit. Neither humans nor other birds, no matter their size, are spared - especially dogs, whom the Wattle Birds regard as prime targets, swooping to within centimetres of the animal’s head. Hallie, now accustomed by age to these attacks, trots on unhurried and unstirred. Rex, ever the young adventurer, will give chase across the Reserve as he is lured away from the Wattle Bird’s nest.

Then appear the pairs of tiny green-necked parrots, that are not native to WA and are often vilified for occupying the nesting holes of indigenous varieties. As a newcomer, I love them - such brilliant plumage of red, black, yellow and green. I still haven’t got used to seeing parrots flying free in the wild - they should be in a cage. They fly at a hectic pace, squawking as they go, usually in pairs, one closely at the tail of the other. Then the gallas appear. Not so much in a flock as in a lazy mob, like sleepy kangaroos of the air. They are delightful birds, gregarious, noisy, and such relaxed flyers, if somewhat lopsided at times.

I went sailing on the Swan River later in the day, and saw a sea eagle and a bi-plane passing across the sky together. Lovely sight. That’s why I live in Perth - for it all.


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Nick Fielden Copywriter    www.nickfielden.com.au

Why A Newsletter Is So Good For Professionals - Part II

4/11/2013

 

What Has The Newsletter Ever Given Us?

Benefits, Dear Boy, Benefits

In Part I of this musing I referred to the technological advances that have enabled the newsletter of old to be both published and delivered by means that have transformed it.

From a paper-printed sheet tucked into an envelope and made available to the reader some day or two later courtesy of the friendly postie, today's electronic newsletter exists as an easily edited and instantaneously transferred message, almost cost-free, with greater impact than its hard copy predecessor.

Having said that, the benefits of the newsletter to the professional have remained largely unchanged. Such as...

The Personal Touch

Well, for a start, it directs information to the individual reader. If you have researched the characteristics of those persons or businesses that make up your client base, you can select information that is of particular interest to targeted segments. By doing so, you more accurately and efficiently disseminate that information.

We are talking here about your firm's success - the areas of expertise that your professional staff specialise in, the flexibility with which your clients can make use of those services and the degree of attention you give to individual clients that distinguishes your firm from your competitors. The newsletter has always possessed that peculiar, distinctive and personal characteristic.

Swim with the Big Fish

Thanks to the email's inherent egalitarian nature, every newsletter delivered to an individual inbox has an equal chance of being read. Neither size nor wealth of business will give an advantage. Content is the key. Every newsletter compiler will be judged upon the quality of his writing - it must be relevant and it must resonate with the reader. The sole practitioner ranks along side the macho city firm when it comes textual performance.

Metrics Mirror

As every newsletter is identifiable in respect of the target reader, the effectiveness of each can be easily and accurately assessed. The newspaper ad and promotional radio broadcast are like scatter-guns aiming at a mass audience. The newsletter, by contrast, is the equivalent of the sniper's rifle. What is more, every hit by the sniper can be identified and analysed.

If a reader has responded to an invitation contained within the newsletter, the reader's details are known and conclusions can be drawn about what items are of interest to that reader. Collectively, readers' responses can reveal in more general terms what topics should be covered in newsletters, and the amount of space each topic should occupy. The extent and detail to which newsletter responses can be scrutinised are pretty well boundless.

Relationship Builder

Probably the most significant benefit for the professional service provider, in the long run, is the opportunity of establishing and retaining a business relationship with the firm's clientele. To some extent a website will perform the same function. But the content of the firm's website will tend to remain more static than that of the firm's newsletter.

A newsletter should be published not less than once a month. Each issue will contain fresh information on topics not recently covered. Thus the newsletter acts as its name suggests: it is a regular, current and vibrant medium by which the professional firm can present itself; it aims to attract new clients and to underline to existing clients the strength and quality of its services.

The extent to which the newsletter succeeds in these aims will be gauged by the degree of reader interest. Relevant, informative, clearly written content is the best means of generating that interest. Readers who comment on the content, who take up offers or who give feedback are interested and engaged. It is those people who will want to hire the services of your professional firm, and who will become your clients.


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Nick Fielden Copywriter    www.nickfielden.com.au

Why A Newsletter Is So Good For Professionals - Part 1

4/10/2013

 

The Newsletter Past and Present

The ubiquitous newsletter. Professional firms feel obliged to offer a newsletter to their clients. It has become a marketing necessity. Why is that so?

Let's first look at how the newsletter arose. It demonstrates how the human mind is anxious to learn - how we all eagerly consume information that is current and reflects changes that impact on how we think, how we relate to others and how we choose to spend our money.

The Origin of the Newsletter

There had circulated throughout Europe during the 17th century letters of a social nature, keeping groups of citizens with a common interest abreast of 'news'. These were private, informal pieces of writing that would be passed on from member to member. Reputedly, the first known example was written in 1631 by English 'expats' giving overseas news to friends at home.

The 'news letter' arose during the 17th century for the consumption of a growing literate elite. These began as single hand-written sheets containing either information of interest to those in commerce, or items of news that would appeal to a more general readership.

The first printed newsletters appeared in the 18th century. They were discrete trade or business  publications, issued by a trade association or the company concerned, and were regarded as a swift and convenient means of giving information to the association's members or the company's customers. Many newsletters transformed into newspapers proper, or trade journals, comprising several pages and attracting a wider readership.

The printed newsletter found its pride of place at the very beginning of the 20th century. Advances in technology and manufacturing processes necessitated the dissemination of specialised information. The early shoots of consumerism also generated greater interest amongst the moneyed classes in commercial products. Amongst the first to identify the benefits of newsletter distribution were the financial institutions offering investment advice to their customers. You've probably come across those stock market trading pamphlets predicting the next hot share to take up, or the new company-launch that's predicted to produce a handsome capital gain.

Those newsletters proved very popular, and subscribers were prepared to pay thousands of dollars to receive their insights and tips. Each institution's newsletter was perceived as giving unique information to its readers. In other words, subscribers saw themselves as a select group, the chosen few, who alone were privy to the 'secrets of the market' or the latest 'investment opportunity'; they persist to this day.

The Present Day

Those bodies that see the importance of the newsletter has expanded beyond the business sector. The 'community newsletter' is now commonly published by clubs, societies, associations and religious groups. It encourages member-participation and seeks to reach out to potential, new members. Even local government has entered the arena, and residents may find in their mailboxes a quarterly newsletter explaining their council's initiatives, activities and proposals for change.

The business sector has also seen the benefits of the non-promotional newsletter. In addition to informing the customer of the latest innovation, the company now seeks to bond with its workforce by issuing a regular 'employee newsletter'. The management sees it as an ideal medium to instill the company ethos, to rally team spirit, reward individual endeavour or initiative and to generally connect with those within the company whom they will not meet on a day-to-day basis - shop-floor networking by proxy.

Much of this expansion and development of the newsletter as a tool of communication has, of course, been as a result of the digital revolution. It is now trite to talk of how the computer has transformed society. 

What it has done for the newsletter is twofold:
  • Firstly, it has facilitated composing, editing and printing. The ease and productivity with which a newsletter can now be compiled has taken its publication out of the hands of the advertising agency into the office or home of the individual.
  • Secondly, the introduction of the internet has provided a means of delivery to the reader that knocks the socks off the previous alternatives - the fax and its land-based predecessor, by courtesy of the friendly postie.

The e-newsletter combines ease and speed of delivery, at a low cost. It also offers a flexibility of presentation and design that is light years distant from its printed predecessor. It can now incorporate internet links that draw traffic to the sender's website and enhance search engine optimisation.

It is no exaggeration to say that the metamorphosis of the newsletter of just twenty years ago, into its present form, is no less an advance than Edison's 19th century, scratchy recording of 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' compared with Phil Spector's 'Wall of Sound' music production technique of the 1960s.

Part II of ''Why A Newsletter Is So Good For Professionals'', explaining the benefits of keeping in regular touch with clients, will appear as my next musing. Nick F.

Sources

American Antiquarian Society. www.americanantiquarian.org
Massachusetts Historical Society. www.masshist.org

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Nick Fielden Copywriter    www.nickfielden.com.au
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