“Happy Australia Day” Blogites

Australians all let us rejoice for rain has returned to the land, where fires raged and people prayed, green shoots are now at hand.

How lovely to rejoice in the news of rain in these past two weeks, but as usual it is flooding rains, 200mls in 7 hours at our house at Banora in one night we are told, unheard of!  Still the dams are slowly starting to fill again as we move into the traditional cyclone month of February.  Haven’t seen too many of those in recent years, I wonder if the east coast will get some this year.

Anyway, it has been another quiet week on the western shores of this great land.

Mick and Micky came over to Jane Brook for a barbie on Friday evening, we had a great time.   We did some reminiscing about school mates, not too much to bore our respective spouses.  I can now confirm that Mick really does have a real-life wife and he can confirm that I have a real-life husband.  Not many of our school mates have met our better halves but have heard about them. 

It was a hot day but the ambience around the pool over dinner in the evening was balmy and pleasant.  We are catching up with them again on Wednesday for lunch before we leave these fair shores.

Saturday, we visited the Western Australian Art Gallery in Perth city.  It is housed in an old 1960’s building which looks like the Guggenheim when you walk in (well, the staircase anyway), so Ian says – he visited it in New York.  They had a couple of exhibitions on; modern contemporary which had us puzzled and wondering why they bothered, a 1970’s reflective (glad we aren’t in that era anymore), a photographic exhibition of all the big concrete buildings of Perth City, and the traditional paintings from the Gallery’s collection which we both enjoyed the most.  There were originals by Lowry, McCubbin, Rodin, Heysen and Roberts to name just a few.  I saw the original McCubbin painting “Down on his Luck” painted in 1889 which has become ubiquitous on calendars and such like.  I didn’t like it much on the calendars but in real life it is so much better, which is the case for all art works, the real thing is always much brighter and more colourful than a print or photograph.

Baz has been keeping us awake this week.  He refused to come inside on two nights and barked constantly all night just outside our window.  Last night when he came in, I refused to let him out afterwards.  He went to sleep before us and was quiet all night, so much so that I had to get up and check that he wasn’t dead.   At least we got a full night’s sleep. 

We cleaned out the van the other day and Ian pulled out the container that he had dried chicken in that we bought on the trip for Chester and sat it on a table outside.  There were two and a half kilos of dried chicken in there and Baz ate the whole lot one night when he wouldn’t come in, then drank gallons of water and moaned and groaned lying on the floor a few hours later.  Serve him right, the guts!  Even though he has been a bit naughty this week, we still can’t help but love him.

Taffy has been enjoying keeping the grass down around the house and on Friday I decided I’d get her feed ready before Mick and Micky arrived and I put it on the wall where I didn’t think she’d get to it.  We were having a cool drink inside late in the afternoon when Mick went “ohhhh  nooo” because Taffy had dragged the bucket down, spilling all the feed on the ground and breaking a ceramic lantern in the process.  She ate some of it but the rest had to be thrown away because of possible ceramic shards underneath it.  Didn’t someone once say never work with children or animals.   Still its gives us a bit of a laugh.

That’s it for this week folks, see ya in seven day, enjoy Australia Day.

Greetings Blogites

We’ve had a very quiet week, well, I have anyway.  I’ve spent most days painting whilst Ian has been out taking the car for various services, he can tell you all about that.

I’ve set myself up in the lounge room next to the window because its either too hot or too windy outside.  I’ve completed three paintings this week and have loosened up a lot, that makes 12 finished paintings.

On Wednesday we went to Guildford to have a look, as Deb suggested it.  It is an historic part of Perth close to Midland.  The main street is full of antique shops which are really interesting to visit.  It’s a shame we didn’t have any way of getting stuff home because the prices are really good, it’s the shipping to the east coast that is the killer.  Still it was fun to have a look around.

Its obviously a trendy place for Perthites to go when looking to do reno’s or for antiques.  There was one shop which I didn’t get a shot of with curiosities gathered from people that you wouldn’t find in any other shop.  Collections of all sorts of paraphernalia, movie memorabilia, old artefacts from the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s.  Kids aren’t allowed in because its all adult material.  I didn’t see anything off limits to kids but I guess it gets people in.  Its interesting to see just what people collect.  Old match tins, star wars memorabilia, stuff like that.

On Sunday, we went back to an area of Midland – not far from our house-sit, we stumbled across late one afternoon.  It was fascinating to both of us, probably because we didn’t come from industrial areas and didn’t see places like this.

It is the old 19^th century foundry where they made steam trains and carriages of all sorts.  There was line after line of warehouses, some with train tracks going into them, Pattern workshop, tarpaulin workshop, everything you needed to make steam trains and carraiges of old was here.  It is a photographer’s paradise, a pity we didn’t know about this place when you were here Ashleigh.  Its also an artist’s paradise with plenty of industrial subjects to work with.  I took lots of photos that may come in handy when I start studying.

You will find this post interesting Rodney, with all the train stuff.  We looked through the warehouse windows and whilst most of the equipment and machinery is now gone, there are still some items left as they were.

I can just imagine thousands of men working away here, hot steamy engines being tested and office workers walking from one building to another.  It would have been a noisy busy place in its time, but now it stands in silence

Some of the buildings have been taken over and used by Curtin University and modern buildings for housing and medical offices have been built where once dirty noisy warehouses reigned.  The hospital is close to here which is why some of the buildings are used for medical purposes.  The facades have been kept which keeps that old air about the place.

Most of the warehouses are still, as they were when the complex closed and thoughtful landscaping has been added to allow freedom of access to the outside of the buildings.  They have also established some sculptural art pieces around the complex that is poignant of the days when it was a bustling workplace.

Ian: I loved these old structures around the railway workshops…they are mainly red fired brick from the Victorian era and with northern facing roof lighting; large perimeter windows with wrought iron frames and small glass panes – maximising light into the workshops. Absolutely fascinating to see it all and I’m imagining the essential and very demanding engineering in motion back in the day!

There is a very sad element to the war memorial at this manufacturing site, with notables paying homage to the all the poor souls who lost their lives in the first and second world wars – I noticed an image on one of the tourist info boards which showed hundreds of the railway workers at a ceremonial site, after the ‘great war’ remembering the fallen; no Oz Flag here! Just four British Union Jacks?…confusing allegiance it is Skywalker.

Staying here at the Jane-Brook ‘Rancho’ ( creeks are brooks over here) it’s very restful and cool in the air-con set at -15ºC 😊. Leila and I spend a lot of time splashing paint on canvas, apart from the all-important prepping of both vehicles for our impending trip home across vast green fields and flowing waterways…Haha. A lot of our cashflowtrickle and time has been spent on the Colorado recently with Brakes, new rubber, valve timing belt, water pump, transfer case and automatic transmission servicing…along with overhauling the all-important wheel bearings in the hot WA sun; these bearings on both the caravan and four wheel drive must have such a tough life! – musing as we sometimes do…It really occurred to me, that the massive forces placed on these components would be incredible! apart from the usual 9.8m/s². Now, If the pre-industrial Luddites had won the day, we would still be driving horse and carts around on Romanesque wooden wheels, ……without our precision engineered metal taper bearings, which we can easily buy down at the local spare parts shop…hmm, ponder that one! What a daunting prospect that would be, aye? I just love thinking about how we’ve stopped swinging from trees and started being a tad more ingenious with our Sapiens grey matter! …well some of us anyway😊. Many of us have seen a lot of change over our short lifetimes and I wonder where we humans are headed, down this quantum technological future pathway? – Scientist and philosopher Gregg Braden has come back into my life again…off the parchment and on to you-tube; I am always fascinated by his theories on Fibonacci, a fractal universe/s and the divine matrix!…worth a look in folks.

As mentioned earlier – Leila hauled me into some of the Antique and Junk stores on the old Guildford antiques-strip, just down the road towards Perth; we discovered some really wonderful pieces at a great price…but alas, it’s 4500kms to our Banora letter box ..so not really  viable for transporting! The Caravan is already packed to the ceiling with Leila’s geological pieces, sea-shell collection, various feathers from around the country, expensive perfumes…..and almost 500Kgs of the most important art equipment, literature and art magazines😊 I, have my pillow and sock draw I suppose? ….In truth and fairness, the Colorado sliding drawers in the rear section, are grossly overloaded with most of my shed contents from home! although I overlooked packing the Lathe and welding equipment! Haha. The truth is, most of my tools and spares which I’ve brought along on our journey have had quite a lot of use, so have turned out to be on the essentials list.

Did I mention Bastion (Baz)? the 38Kg hyperactive sled-bearing, wolf like furry alarm clock, who delights at making absolutely sure we don’t oversleep! – He has become quite an issue in the mornings! and regrettably, ‘yours-truly’ is the pushover he feels a need to wake, by grunting and snorting right in my sleep deprived and whiskered face, just to let me know the sun will be rising at 5:30am… in about 15 minutes – so he might as well be let out the door to bark at anything that moves…Oh, and why not feed him while I’m at it? ##%*&+$$#!!  what a character!…just gotta love him – he’s just being true to his innate nature…..Woof.

No one saves us but ourselves.

No one can and no one may.

We ourselves must walk the path.

Lord Buddha­

Hi Bloggies

Not much to report this week.

We were in York at the beginning of this week and it was hot, 38 degrees and 7% humidity, very dry.  It was bearable in the shade but walk into the sunshine and you got instantly roasted.  Needless to say, we didn’t do much. 

We went into town early before it got too hot and had a look at the old shops in the main street again, nothing much different to last time only the light was brighter.  It is a beautiful town with loads of history still intact.  We drove around for a bit and then went back to the comfort of the air conditioning in the van and slept and read mainly.  In the late afternoon we went to town again, but this time to get some beer to relieve the heat.

Tuesday, we set off for Jane Brook and arrived around lunch time.  We had a chat with Deb for a bit then we went grocery shopping and back to the granny flat to settle in.

I can see now Vicky and Terry, why you are jealous that we are doing this house sit this year and not you.  It is real luxury isn’t it.  The granny flat is as good or better than any five-star self-contained apartment with access to the pool via the rear sliding doors.

Wednesday, we went through the jobs that need to be done on the property whilst Deb and Peter are away.   

Bastian, the spoilt hound of the residence is a delight.  His breed is “Keeshound”, they were bred for the dutch canal boats and are often known as the “smiling dutchman” because they actually smile.  It’s not a smile to be sneezed at though, it looks like he’s snarling at you because he pulls his lips back and bears his teeth, but it’s a smile, it’s not aggression.

He has such a lovely friendly nature, a bit too friendly some times.  He keeps wanting to get as close to me as possible including climbing up on top of me.  He isn’t any light weight either, 34kg with a head like a german shepherd.  He wouldn’t hurt a fly but I find it a bit intimidating when he tries to get up so close.   He insists on sleeping on the floor in our bedroom and with the full moon currently in the sky he sees every kangaroo or phantom that passes by the window and lets out an explosive barking at all hours of night causing us to lift off the bed in fright.  We resorted to pulling the blind right down and forgoing the cool breeze in order to get some sleep.  Poor Ian is woken every morning at 5am to take him to the toilet and feed him.

Bastian, or Baz as we call him, has ADHD, and is on medication for it.  Last night I forgot to put his medication in his meal and he was exceptionally disruptive and climbing all over me (he has big long claws) Ian had to come to my rescue, so we let him outside to run it off.  Then Ian said, “Did you give him his medication tonight” “Whoops” said I, that’s the problem.  He calmed down pretty quick after we gave it to him.

He’s a real character, he doesn’t like the heat either, so he prefers to stay indoors in the air conditioning rather than venture outside during the day.  There is no way we can get him to drag himself off the rug and come outside. 

Then there’s Taffy, the miniature horse.  I’ve never been a real fan of horses and in the past couple of months we’ve had to look after three of them, Taffy being the third.  Poor Taffy was mistreated when she was young by a previous owner and Deb said it took her years to get Taffys trust and that Taffy won’t let anyone other than her near her.  She didn’t count on the one who isn’t particularly fond of horses, did she.

The first morning I had to feed Taffy on our own I walked into the paddock and called to her, she came straight over to me and allowed me to pat her and feed her from my hand.  I simply offered the back of my hand for her to sniff and then she let me pat her.  I took hold of her mane and walked her up to her feeding bin where she allowed me to stroke her face, back and sides.  Whilst she ate, she let me play with her soft ears, she didn’t have any fear of me.  She’s very wary of Ian though and keeps her distance, although he hasn’t had any trouble getting her to feed.  Its quite an honour when an animal trusts you for the first time.  I’ve made myself a new friend.  Deb is most impressed because she didn’t think it was possible.  Maybe the lesson here was for me to learn to love horses and Taffy’s doing a great job teaching me.

Today Sunday is another warm day but not quite as windy as it has been so far.  This morning I spent out under the summer house in the pool area finishing off the joey pouches I’ve made.  It was very pleasant out there until it got hot, but that was ok, just jump in the pool to cool off.  Ian joined me then to swim and relax a bit.

I have spent the last three days making joey pouches for the wildlife rescue people to use for the animals injured in the bushfires.  I’ve made eight pouches and twenty-three linings for them.  It was quite a big job, making the patterns, cutting them out, stitching them up and then finishing off the threads, but now they are finished and ready to keep some joey, possum, sugar glider or whatever warm and secure as it grows and heals.

Ian has cleaned the pool a couple of times already because wild ducks keep coming and swimming there, so he’s currently in the process of making a hot pink eagle that he intends to suspend over the pool to deter them.  That should be a sight.

Unfortunately, the fires continue to wreak havoc throughout the land.  The Eyre highway across the Nullarbor was still closed until a couple of days ago, and you couldn’t get across the centre road because of flooding, what a contrast.  So we couldn’t have gone home if we wanted.  Hopefully everything will have calmed down a bit by February when we plan to make the long trek across, not the best of times to do it.

Well that’s it for this week folks, stay positive and find something joyful in every day.

“You can’t start your life over again, but you can start living it differently.”

Happy New Year Blogites!!!

We hope 2020 is a better year for this poor country of ours that has suffered so much in the past year.  Unprecedented droughts, fires and loss of life is what 2019 will be remembered for.   We have been talking about devastating fires for months now and they just keep getting worse.  The heat waves are relentless, the poor people in outback areas must be so parched, not to mention the animals.  The great cleansing continues.

So far, we’ve avoided the fires but a few have followed in our wake.  We hope we continue to be so lucky.  We’ve decided that we will lasso the clouds from Antarctica and bring them home with us, watering this great garden as we go, wouldn’t it be nice.

Our week at Cosy Corner has been very relaxing.  We’ve spent a lot of time drawing and preparing works to be completed at Jane Brook.  The new year was rung in to the sound of snoring with only a few revellers to be heard way down in the campsite closer to the sea. 

We started the new year, the new decade, with a long walk along the beach.  There were quite a few people out and about, I counted fifty, plus lots of dogs.  It was a pleasant walk encountering many friendly faces and licks from dogs.

We encountered a woman who lives here but is originally from Switzerland.  I spent quite a bit of time talking to her whilst Ian threw a toy for her two dogs to retrieve from the sea.  She was a lovely lady named Maria and she recommended that we take a look at Shelley beach a bit further around the headland in Cape West National Park.  She insisted on giving us both a hug before we parted ways.

We took her advice and went for a drive around to Shelley Beach.  We stopped at the lookout high up on the mountainous sand dunes first, to have a look from that vantage point.  What a view, it was really spectacular with unbelievably coloured waters.  Next, we drove the steep road down to the beach, again we were gobsmacked at the beauty of the spot.  Pure white sands against a turquoise sea of crystal-clear clean water.  The whole vista of this place is quite unbelievable.

After an afternoon snooze it was time to go down to the beach for our daily ablutions in the ocean.  We have to be economical on our water because there isn’t any here so bathing in the ocean is the way to go when the weather is warm enough.  Walking into the ocean is bracing to say the least but once you’re in its very comfortable, that is until the wind blows.  I’ve had to splash Ian a couple of times to get him wet otherwise he wouldn’t venture in.  A massive sting ray glided past which we only saw from a distance unfortunately.

So that is how we spent the first day of the new year and decade.  I was pondering our footprint here and it is very minimal.  We generate our own power via solar panels, we use minimal water which we carry and use the long drop toilets.  You can have a very comfortable life with very little.

There is a café about half a kilometre from here that’s doing a roaring trade.  We had coffee and lunch on separate days, and plan to have lunch there on Friday.  They have a small gallery with works by some local people and they sell a small range of groceries which include the staples (no bread). 

Thursday and Friday are forecast to get cold and wet, so bathing will have to be a bucket bath in the vans shower cubical.  The maximum forecast for Friday is only 17 degrees, that’s winter weather back home, lucky us hehe.  It turned out that Thursday was winter with rain and Friday was Spring.  Crazy weather down here.

Saturday, we set off on the trek back to Perth, we have to be at our house sit on Tuesday.  Fortunately, the day was cool and there was little threat of fires along the way.  It was nice to see the wheat fields again, but as you head north, the temperature also rises.

We decided to make the first stop at a little place called Katanning.  It looked like a bit of a hick place and the reception at the caravan park service station only confirmed that first impression.  We thought we’d stepped onto the set of ‘Schitts Creek’; the guy behind the counter was just like the Mayor of Schitts Creek (can’t remember his name) and his wife was just like the African American woman who was a councillor and just as grumpy.  When we went to park the van, it was almost comical.  They allotted us a site in the park right behind the amenities block that it was impossible to get a van as large as ours onto.  I neglected to say that we were the only ones in the park that consisted of about 100 sites. The cement slabs were on the wrong side for Australian vans so they installed a small rectangle of astro turf on the ground so you didn’t track mud into your van when it rains.  Mrs Schitts Creek made it very clear to us that under no circumstances was our caravan’s wheels to impact that precious piece of astro turf, your life wouldn’t be worth living.

Well, Ian valiantly tried to manoeuvre the van onto the cement slab, which had a massive gum tree growing up close and personal next to it, without impacting the astro turf.  He failed unfortunately and I had to tell him to get the wheels off quick before Mrs Schitts sees him.  The reason he couldn’t get the van on the site was because opposite was the amenities block and next to it where he needed to turn the car in order to get the van on the site properly was a flower bed with big cement borders so there was nowhere to make the turns necessary to avoid the “astro turf”.  In the end I suggested that we take the site next to this one, it was so much easier to get into because there was manoeuvring space.  Out of curtesy I went back to tell them we had moved sites, Mrs Schitts says, that’s ok, it’s not as if we have people knocking down the door to get in, and Mr Schitts just looks at me as if I had two heads.   Hmmm, no wonder no one stays here.

After lunch we decided to go and have a look at this hick town.  Well, weren’t we in for a surprise?  It was a big town with beautiful old buildings in the street that have been beautifully restored and looked after.  We would have completely missed this little gem if we hadn’t decided to go for a look because we would have gone back out to the highway the same way we came in.

On Sunday morning we could smell smoke but we couldn’t see any so we decided to get packed up quickly and move on out.  We were headed for York and we encountered a couple of nice little towns along the way. 

One was Wagan where we stopped for morning tea.  Again, beautiful old buildings, some restores and some in various stages of decomposition.  It is clear that this area of the country was very affluent at an earlier age and a lot of money was put back into the beautiful buildings of the towns.

So here we are in gorgeous historic York again.  We will hang around here until Tuesday when we head for Jane Brook.

Leila described the Schitts family perfectly! Talk about blood hillbillies? They are perhaps not the most effectual business model available. It was sad to say goodbye to the beautiful Southern Ocean and cool days with cold nights☹. Driving our horse drawn Gypsy Caravan heading further north up yet another Western Australian country road, where the country opens up to vast wheat-fields with pockets of scrubland and sparse groves of trees. Of course, this vista comes with a considerable temperature increase, very dry sands and salt lakes, universes from our cool camp in Cosy Corner near Albany. We are hoping the fires don’t decide to start in our area with the crispy dry stubble and bushland around our Caravan park in York west of Perth.   

It is so very sad watching the destruction of the east coast, a sight that has never been seen before.  I’m starting to ask questions about the whole thing.  I said to Ian only a few weeks ago, “How come after only a three year drought the Clarence and Richmond River are dry in the upper reaches, why have towns run out of water.  When we had the ten-year drought at the turn of this century, these rivers and towns didn’t run out of water, something else is happening here”.   Well I’m asking myself the questions and looking into news other than main stream news to find the answers.  Also why did the fires start in Queensland and burn in an orderly manner down the coast to Victoria and why have they been so ferocious?   This is no normal fire and I don’t believe it is caused by climate change.  If it was climate change, we would be seeing the same things happening in countries on the same parallel.  Only Australia is experiencing this!  It’s not climate change.

I was feeling so useless over here and not able to do anything to help the victims of the fires apart from financial donations, but Jacqueline sent me a link (bless her) to a group with members from all over the world who are sewing, crocheting and knitting pouches, nests, wraps and other things to be used for the recovering wildlife.  So, I have the crochet hooks and yarn out and crocheting nests and when I get to Janebrook I will get the sewing machine out to make Joey pouches and Bat wraps for the beautiful wildlife that has been injured.  Finally, I’ve found something useful to do.  We also plan to sign up to Blazeaid and do some volunteer work helping to get communities back on their feet on our way home.  Ian would be a great help for Veterinarians with all his knowledge and skills so that’s also an option for him.

I do so wish that next week when we write this blog we will be able to celebrate the ending of this apocalyptic hell that has been unfolding in Australia.

My deepest gratitude to the brave fire fighters who have been giving selflessly of their time to help others, we are very proud of you.

Stay safe bloggers.

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better” – Einstein

Bonjour Wee Blogetty-ites in the blackened domains in the East

The climate has been very kind to us in our travels down here in the great South-West, where the nights are cool and days sooo pleasant! – In contrast with the far eastern states where fires and heatwaves rage. We have been out of TV range for some-time and now arriving in Albany, finding the devastation all over our country to be quite shocking!

Albany is definitely our favourite city in the south (34,000 Population) we arrived here yesterday and found the weather blissful and our drinking water perfect. This morning was taken up with a visit to the main shopping street in town (on a moderate gradient), it was so busy because of Christmas shoppers from … literally far and wide – there isn’t another city until you get to Perth! about 400 clicks up the road.😊

This town feels delightful and the 19^th century architecture is stunning – actually, walking around the old part of town is not unlike walking through an historical period way back in time. Albany was founded on 26^th December 1826 (193_rd anniversary today!) and was also the first port in WA.

It was planned to be the main Port/Capital city…but a sheit-fight between the WA pollies with their portly ego’s, forced a move to Freemantle! This is such a shame, because this place is moor accessible 😊; a more conducive climate; a deeper port and great for shooting Antarctic fairy penguins as they fly over!…plenty of food. The waterways are very attractive with beautiful teal coloured deep waters and large granite islands interspersed around the large Princess Royal harbour and the adjacent King George sound…. spectacular!   

As Ian said above, we decided to take ourselves into town on Christmas eve for a leisurely morning, visiting the local art gallery, checking out the local quaint shops and having coffee in a delightful coffee shop.

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There were loads of people out and about doing much the same as us.  There were also a number of young buskers playing their hearts out on the street.  There was a girl of about 12 playing Christmas carols on the violin, she was so accomplished.  When we asked her how long she had been playing she said six years, so much work and talent for one so young – we dropped a well-deserved coin into her case!

Further up the street outside a great bookshop there were two young boys of about 15, playing street type rock music with one guy playing lead guitar and the other playing drums made out of two different sized upturned plastic buckets and his foot holding a symbol on the ground.  The talent of these two boys was absolutely astounding, I had to ask if it really was them and not recorded music they were adlibbing to.  Ian filmed them so the guy on the drums did an impressive riff and then the guy on the guitar was improvising to the drum beat (when asked he said he was influenced by 1970’s guitarists). They were fantastic, they really have a future ahead of them.  WA is full of talented young people; it must be the isolation that makes them try harder – or the convict genes!

After lunch I marinated the duck for tomorrow’s Christmas lunch and cooked a boiled fruit Christmas cake.

At 5pm we went to the crib service at the Anglican Church in town.  It’s the oldest church in WA.  I said to Ian the church might fall down when we go in because it had been so long since either of us had been to a church service apart from funerals. 

The service was lovely, it was conducted by a female minister wearing Doc Martin boots and a boy’s haircut.  The way she conducted the service reminded me of Dawn French in the Christmas episode of “The Vicar of Dibley”.  There was no dogma in the service just a reading and re-enactment of the nativity story.   The Minister directed the service to the children in a way that they would be interested in and would want to participate, it was really lovely.  She introduced the characters of the nativity who were all children with one or two adults, they walked down the aisle to show us all their wonderful costumes.  The highlight were the angels, and in particular, a little girl of about two with her little furry halo stealing the show.

The kids acted out the nativity whilst the minister narrated and the congregation sang Christmas carols.  Even Ian sang with his marvellously deep and soulful voice.  He was a bit irreverent by trying to be like Prince Michael with the occasional “Oohhrrrr” in his deep voice which would make me giggle.  I had to scold him to behave himself.  It was nice to hear him singing.

The service only went for half an hour, so by 6pm we were back home where we relaxed with a drink and nibblies to laze away the evening.  It was a great day, very enjoyable the…. whole thing.

Christmas morning, we woke late and sat outside with coffee.  Ian didn’t want to wait until after breakfast to open presents so we opened in an orderly manner.  Lots of books to read for both of us, art supplies and a gorgeous pendant Ian gave me from a shop in Denmark where I commented on how pretty it was.  I can’t for the life of me work out how he managed to go back to the shop and get it in such a short amount of time while I was looking in another shop, he can be quick when he needs to be.(IW: actually, it was easy; I simply smashed the glass cabinet, grabbed the pendant and ran like the wind!…. Easy!)

Breakfast was at 9.30 (12:30 AEST) and we had our traditional bacon and eggs.  After breakfast we sat back and started reading our books for an hour then went for a walk over to the beautiful pristine King George Sound to look at the sea. It was really cold and the wind was howling – we didn’t stay too long.

The duck was cooked on the barbeque and a sauce made from the marinade which consisted of Ginger and Orange and a couple of other spices.  The duck was yummy with lots of baked vegies.  After lunch we went for a walk over to Oyster bay which wasn’t too far away.  There were lots of people celebrating Christmas down by the water, not too many swimming though.  The wind wasn’t too bad over this side.  I tested the water and it was actually a very comfortable temperature…(perhaps the sharks movement warms it up?)  It was lovely to see families gathered in different areas having a great day.  Some smart people got in boats and went to the beach on the other side of the inlet out of the wind and set up over there.

The van park was really quiet which was unusual, we thought it would be rocking with kids running everywhere but there wasn’t a kid to be seen.  We think they all went over to oyster bay for the day.  Late in the afternoon though there was a game of cricket in action at the park with kids riding bikes around and having fun. 

We tried to have the compulsory snooze after lunch but each time we dozed off, the phone would ring from the east… and that would be the end of that.  This occurred four times before we finally gave up. It was 6pm over in the East but only 3pm here.  We’re not complaining in the least, as it was lovely to hear from our family.

There was no dinner that night, we were both too full, even though we hadn’t eaten much, I think it was the pudding that did us in.

Boxing day we decided to take a drive out to the Porongurup National Park about 40 kms north of Albany.  It was nice to look at from a distance but up close there wasn’t anything amazing to see unless you were willing to get out of the car and go walking up the rocks which we weren’t going to do in the 38-degree heat.  I did the driving today and encountered lots of gravel roads through the national park.  We continued north to have another look at the Stirling Ranges which are quite spectacular from a distance.

We drove up to Bluff knoll and the views from up there were fantastic out across the Stirling Ranges and the flat landscape of endless wheat-fields to the north.  The Stirling ranges started out life as sand and other minerals at the bottom of a shallow sea and is a visible part of ancient Gondwana land that was thrust up many millions of years ago. The photos below can describe it better than me.

On Saturday we moved about 27 kms west of Albany to Cosy Corner, a free camp.  We intend to stay here for 7 days.  Saturday was very windy and Sunday it was even worse.  The host of the camp came around to tell us that the Ranger asked him to remind people not to have any open fires.  Who in their right mind would light a fire in this weather?

Well, the Stirling Ranges went up in flames yesterday, it is about 70kms away from us here.  A foreign tourist had lite a camp fire the night before and left without making sure it was completely out, now the local firies and personnel from Perth are spending their weekend fighting the fire.  It can only be done from the air as there are no roads in there.  We stayed at the campground weeks ago where the fire started and we called in there the other day when going back to have a look at the ranges.  Ian said at the time, that you wouldn’t want to drop a match here, it would go up like a bomb.  Well, he was right.  So, the camp ground is no more.  We were lucky to get up there the other day for a look because it wouldn’t be so nice after this.

The host said that the foreigners understand what they want, things that are convenient for them but dismiss everything else.  We have seen people light fires on this trip when there have been signs saying not to.  We’ve seen foreign people doing all sorts of things when there are many signs (with pictures for those who can’t read) about the dangers of certain actions, but still the idiots disregard the warnings even to their own personal danger.  We’ve decided that we will grab our valuables (Grog) and some clothes, throw them in the car and get the hell out of here, the van will have to fend for itself, it would take too long to pack up and hitch it up.  We are camped in a forest of peppermint trees that apparently go up like bombs in fires so we won’t muck around.

The wind is so fierce that the car is getting sand blasted as I write this.  Its black sand and is really fine and it gets into everything and on every surface no matter how hard you try to keep it out.

Well, let’s hope we’re still here to ring in the new year 2020, the year of clear  and sharply focused sight!

Until next year dear blogites, stay safe and well and don’t party too hard.

Greetings Blogites

We drove to Walpole on Wednesday.  It was great to be back in the land of the giants.  I absolutely love the tall timber wilderness area of Walpole.  Beautiful coastal inlets along the rugged coastline, tall trees and very few people, it really is wilderness down here.  It feels ancient, pristine and pure.

We decided to go to Walpole to get out of the park for a bit and also to pick up a little something for Ashleigh at the Art Gallery.  We spoke to a lady there who is a Paleo-climatologist PHD, extremely interesting person.  She has studied the climate of the world and Australia going back millions of years.  She told us that what we are going through at the moment is cyclical but humans have been accelerating the process since the beginning of the industrial age.  We are headed into another ice age in a few thousand years but because of what we have done to accelerate it, it may occur much earlier.  She said that with the dry usually comes cold, and it is unusual that we have been drying out for some time but it is getting hotter.  She also confirmed what Gregg Braden has been stating; in that the temperature rises ahead of a CO2 increase, so C02 and the subsequent greenhouse effect actually lag behind; a natural cycle.  She is still optimistic about the future, but also said that the combined climate sciences confirm the outcome is all coming together right now – which is a disconcerting proposition.  I remember in the movie, “The Day After Tomorrow”, where the earth plunged into a mini ice age after just three days, they said that “all the science was coming together right now”.  I don’t expect an Ice age any time soon though.

She also told us that science refers to Australia as the extinction continent which is also scary and that the level of extinction currently going on is greater than at the time of the dinosaurs.   I really felt like crying when she was talking, it was just devastating what she was saying.

I also watched a scientific you-tube presentation on how the earth moves around the sun, it is not a circular orbit but an elliptical orbit and it can never return to the same location it started from.  The earth is currently very close to the sun – and the sun which is quiet at the moment and is very unusual – it’s also another reason why the climate is behaving so badly.

We stand to lose many species of not only animals in Australia but flora as well and the fires have exacerbated the whole problem by destroying vast tracts of habitat.  She said that there are many groups currently meeting to discuss how they will manage the land once the fires are over and how we can help it to recover. 

The water problem is a result of too many people being herded into too few places such as cities and then expecting to have all the water channelled to that place.  We used to move around to find water back a few hundred years ago or we lived in places where we knew there were permanent water supplies.  We also didn’t have the problem of multi nationals making vast fortunes by buying up water rights that should be going to our farmers.  I don’t know where this will all end, but one thing’s for sure, we have to stop looking to Government to provide the solutions, we have to come up with answers ourselves.  Governments aren’t going to help us; they are only interested in putting profit into their own pockets and the pockets of the multinational puppet masters.

We stopped in at Green Pool on the way back to Denmark, it’s the local swimming spot it appears, it was very crowded.  Its an interesting beach and coastline here, lots of huge smooth rocks jutting through the sand as they make their way to deeper waters. 

They pool they swim in is created by a number of these large rocks that form a kind of circle that protects it from the open ocean and sharks and the water is a lovely bottle green.  We didn’t go down to the beach because Ian wasn’t feeling so good, I think he has the virus I had a few weeks ago.

Thursday evening was the annual Christmas carnival in Denmark and we, along with the entire population of Denmark and all the visitors from the caravan park went along (well it seemed that way with the large crowd that was there).

We grabbed a possie on the stone fence in front of the RSL hall and all the mums and dads and their kids lined the footpath.  It was so cute watching the littlies play and run and squeal with such joyous abandon.  One little girl of about 18 months had a white tutu on over tights and she was a bit chubby just like my two were at that age, well she had the biggest smile on her face as she skipped around and around on the road in front of her parents, she didn’t care who was watching her she was just have fun, bless her.  Mum gathered her up to sit on the gutter in front of her with the other kids when the time came to start the parade and she sat their all excited.  It’s such a delight to watch little kids at Christmas.

The parade was impressive for such a small town, Ian thinks it was a bit hill billy, but I thought it was quaint.  I counted seven Santa’s (which probably confused the kids) and all the different children’s groups had a part to play in the parade.  They were clearly enjoying it, parading in front of mum and dad all dressed up in their tinsel and red and green and other fancy costumes.

There was the ubiquitous Santa on the fire engine, in the police car, on the local surfing school float, being pulled by a team of one dog and just walking along, no one was going to miss out on Santa.

They had a bagpipe band consisting of six members all of whom would have been 90 in the shade.  They weren’t too bad but they had difficultly filling the bag with air on a couple of occasions which resulted in a sound reminiscent of cats howling on the back fence, sick cats at that.  But they had a go and they did a damn good job of it.

After the parade there was dinner to be shared on the street.  There were numerous food stalls and we chose the Spanish one serving Chicken and Chorizo paella.  There were stalls selling things for Christmas presents and raffles of iced Christmas cake but unfortunately, we didn’t win anything, and there was the local high school band entertaining everyone.  They really have some musical talent in this town.  We had a great evening slowly strolling through the whole thing soaking up the happy vibe of the evening.

Speaking of happy vibes, as we were walking back to the car, I was admiring the beautiful cottage garden plantings in the front yard of a house, there was a bunch of oldies sitting on the veranda talking.  As I got close one old guy asked me if I wanted to buy some weed, “it’s cheap” he said.  I looked at the ground and then asked “What kind of weed”, “Oh you know the usual, you can put it tea or cookies, you know”, “Oh I said, you mean hooch”.  The old guy next to him quickly said don’t listen to him he’s silly, I just laughed and said, “No I’m fine thanks”.  That’s the first time I have ever been asked if I wanted to buy weed and it was from an old guy, probably an old hippie.  I had to have a chuckle.

Back to reality in the park and lots of people started moving in on Friday, lots of kids around now which is nice, Christmas lights strung up on tents and vans.  The one across from us has a manic flashing sequence that goes all night, fortunately we are able to pull down the heat shield and block it out.

Most families disappear during the day, I don’t know where they go, probably to green pool and I think a lot go fishing.  They catch pink bream in the river next to the park.  I gave Ian a fishing tackle last year for Christmas because he said he was going to fish on this trip, but it hasn’t been out once yet.

The fires have been terrible over here as well, although not as bad as the East coast.  The Nullarbor is blocked on both the WA and SA sides of the highway with fires.  There are fires either side of Norseman and the people can’t get out.  There are trucks, cars and caravans lined up on the road for miles and there is no available accommodation out that way.  They say the road will be open tomorrow 23^rd December, but not sure I’d like to be driving on it, it would be like the M1 on the Gold Coast, chocked!

It got to 49.9 degrees out there on Thursday, not good conditions to be driving in anyway or being stuck on the side of the road.  Supplies are running very low and so is water I believe; people are taking travellers into their homes to give them some relief from the heat.  It seems a few Christmas plans have been changed slightly. 

Caravan parks will be doing well, because you have to pay before you get there over the Christmas period and if you can’t get there because of the fires the caravan parks pick up a tidy fee for no output at all, they don’t give refunds no matter what.  I’m sure they would be able to book the site, everything is booked out along the south coast.

We had smoke over Denmark Saturday evening but there weren’t any fires near us.  We checked the app and the smoke was coming from the Norseman fires 300 odd kms away.  The wind was blowing from that direction.  I asked a lady who lives permanently in camp what they do if a bush fire comes to town because there is no where to go and the forest is right in town.  She said you go to the water, which is just behind us.  You leave everything and wade out into the water and stay there until its safe to get out, there is no where else to go.  A bit scary, thankfully the forecast is for cool weather in these parts over the next week and even colder in Albany.  We can expect 24 degrees on Christmas day.

Well folks, at this difficult time when the world is in chaos, we give thanks to the brave fire fighters risking themselves and giving up their Christmas to help others.  May they all receive a special blessing this Christmas.

Aussie Jingle Bells

Dashing through the ash

In a big red shiny truck

Firies hold on tight

Wish and pray for luck.

Bells and sirens ring

Lights are flashing bright,

Weary men and women there

Stand united and fight.

Oh jingle bells, is this hell,

I think so some would say.

This ain’t no fun for anyone

So close to Christmas day.

Fire bells, thick smoke smells

Burning night and day.

So much thanks to our heroes out there

Sending help our way.

(found on facebook)

Merry Christmas all you blogites, we hope Santa finds you and stay safe and cool.

“Should you shield the canyons from the windstorms you would never see the true beauty of their carvings.” – Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

Greeting Bloggies

Not a lot to report this week.  We’ve stayed mainly in the caravan park with small excursions out to the shops.

The park is very peaceful and we noticed there are a number of other campers doing exactly the same thing as us, just chilling.  There are a young couple across from us who have sat outside their van for the last couple of days watching the cricket on tv, its very laid back here.

We’ve been mainly painting, reading, sleeping, watching movies and I’ve been doing some hand quilting.  I finished another painting this week, that makes six finished works and a couple ready to go and ideas for others coming all the time.  I should have quite a body of work completed by the time I get home.

Ian has started experimenting again but doesn’t find landscapes inspirational so will be working on a portrait again of someone.

We’ve been to look at the local beach, not that pretty, there are some others on the Walpole road that we may take a look at next week.  Friday, we went to Mt Barker for a look.  Its only a very small town but exceedingly clean and well looked after. 

We had coffee in a quaint little coffee shop and spoke to a couple who had two little kangaroo joeys they are looking after.  They are cute little things and very curious about us, just gorgeous.

We visited a collectables shop and got some ideas on how to go about putting embellishments and finishes on our reno’s when we get home.  We also visited the local art gallery, which was very small but its great to see the work of local artisans and artists.

Saturday was the Denmark annual Art Market in the local park by the river.  We got there early and stayed for four hours.  There was almost every conceivable art or craft on sale and all very professionally finished and reasonably priced.  Not like the markets at home where the prices are as high or higher than the stuff you buy in the shops, they’ve lost the plot there.

There was also music in a natural amphitheatre in the park.  We sat for a couple of hours listening to the sounds of the Denmark Fiddlers, consisting of 90% children from the three schools in the area.  They are so polished and professional and their repertoire was wide.  It was delightful listening to them.

Then there was the Denmark High School Pop band who were great and the lead guitarist is guaranteed to have a future ahead of him, he was that good. They were fun to listen to.    They also had the local womens “dance” band who will be featured in a big music festival in WA in February.  They danced part of their piece for us.  The dance was done with their arms and it was so dynamic and expressive, very well done.

We sat under a huge London Plane tree in the shade to watch with a lovely breeze blowing. The temperature was supposed to get to 34 today but it was very pleasant, no humidity you see.

I think the entire 2,000 population of Denmark was there plus the inhabitants of several villages in the area, there was a huge crowd all happy and the vibe was just lovely.   It was interesting to watch the teenage girls and boys and the little dances they did around each other to attract attention, to think we used to do that!

In the evening Ian and I were sitting outside our van chatting when a couple from a van a couple plots up walked past and said hello, they told us they were going to dinner at the restaurant in the park.  Well that opened up a whole world of torture didn’t it.  They stood there, both of them talking at the same time about different subjects none stop, I think Ian and I said only a few words.  Finally, their stomachs got the better of them so off they went to the restaurant.

We made the fatal mistake of still being outside when they came back.  They again stood at the end of the van and started talking, they talked across each other for an hour, all I said was how was dinner, not another word was uttered by me.  They told us about their health and their history and when they saw that we were painting they proceeded to tell us about how wonderful and talented their son was at singing, and I have no doubt he was pretty good, but maybe not as good as they were making out.  It was an hour of abuse by them just talking at us none stop, not taking breath, not allowing us to engage in the “conversation”.  They were sucking our energy.  I was so exhausted and busting to go to the loo after an hour I just got up and excused myself and disappeared into the van.  They looked at each other astonished and started moving away.  I felt bad because I might have offended them, but they gave no consideration to how we were feeling under their energy sucking onslaught and gave us no opportunity to politely extract ourselves from the situation.  Sorry to be so negative but I had to get this out.  Ian was as distressed as I was. We didn’t even find out what their names were!

So, until next week, stay cool and carry on blogites!

Plant seeds of happiness, hope, success and love; it will all come back to you in abundance.  That is the law of nature.” – Steve Maboli

Greetings Blogites

The whole catastrophe headed for the Stirling Ranges today.  We headed up the Borden-Bremmer Bay road watching as the Stirling Ranges came into beautiful view then slipped behind us as we drove the road.  We got to the crossroads to Borden or Amelup, Borden was only 8 kms in the wrong direction so we decided if we were going to do some driving in the Ranges then we needed to fill up. 

Borden was a revelation.  Huge grain storage facilities, but a ghost town virtually.  There was a pub that was closed, a general store and a few houses.  We went in search of fuel and found the petrol station.  Unfortunately, the windows were broken and the fuel pumps were without there coverings.

Hmmm, well we have enough fuel to get back to Amelup.  We stopped for morning tea and had no bickies, so I went into the general store and stepped back in time.  Every step I took squeaked (a robber would have a hard time robbing this place), the food shelves were virtually empty except for a few packets of Tim Tams of which I bought one .  We haven’t had luxury like this since mah-jong nights. 

When I was paying for them, I asked where the petrol station was.  A young bloke in a 4WD had pulled up as I entered the store and he weighed in on the conversation with the proprietor.  You have to go to Amelup for fuel about 22 kms down the road, “seriously” I said.  Yep, you won’t get any around here.  “Where do you get your fuel”, “Amelup” was the reply.  “Your joking, you have to drive to another town to get fuel”.  “Yep”.  Hmmmm.

So off we went after morning tea, and devouring half a packet of tim tams, to Amelup.  Well, Amelup wasn’t much better.  It was a shop in the middle of nowhere on the top of a hill with nothing around it, talk about Hicksville.  Ian got out to fill up the vehicle but the lady wouldn’t let him, she had to do it herself. Ian asked how long she had been here, “All my life” she said in a slow drawl.  There was a sign saying “Caution, Nudists crossing”, god knows where the hell they were going to come from and it would be a sensation when they did.  Probably the only action this place would get in a lifetime.

We drove up into the Stirling Ranges and came across the National Parks camp where we decided to stay at.  God it was hot, Ian lay on the bed and listened to a podcast whilst I tried to paint.  The water dried on the paper before I could get the paint on.  I persevered for about an hour and then gave up. 

Late in the afternoon it became a lot cooler so we had tiffins outside in the breeze.  A car pulled up with a couple of girls who were staying the night also, probably glad to see us old buggers staying as we were good protection for them.

Monday night in the ranges was painful for me, diverticulitis had hit again, completely out of left field.  So, no exploring the ranges at the moment, it was a fast-unexpected detour into Albany hospital.  The doctor and I both thought the symptoms were a bit unusual for diverticulitis so she decided to do a scan to make sure it wasn’t anything nasty.  Nope, all good thankfully, just bloody diverticulitis again, I’ve had it three times in the past four months.  So strong painkillers and antibiotics for me and rest.  Ian is a sweetheart, he cares for me so well and it upsets him to see me ill, so I had better get well as quick as I can.

A strange thing happened whilst I was bed-ridden in hospital.  Ian had left to find a caravan park to book into and leave the van; lying there on my own with my eyes closed and feeling very unwell, I was thinking of nothing in particular.  Then mum appeared next to the bed.  She looked like she did in the seventies and was wearing a  particular dress I recall her wearing back then, in autumn colours.  Her hair wasn’t permed like she always had it when she was older and it was dark in colour, no greys.  She looked quite young, around her thirties.  I said “Is that you mum” (knowing full well it was) and at that very moment a nurse touched my arm on the other side of the bed to take my blood pressure and startled me! and that was the end of it, she disappeared and didn’t come back.  It was nice to think she came to be with me when I was on my own in hospital and not feeling well, it was quite a surprise.

On Wednesday when I finally got out of bed, we decided to go and have a look at the town centre.  It is in the historic precinct and there are still lots of lovely old buildings there.  Albany is a beautiful city built on a bay that is somewhat like Sydney harbour or the Hawkesbury river, its very picturesque.

We went for a short walk up the main street and found a quaint old building that housed a gallery of woodworking art.  It has to be the best wood work I have ever encountered.  Southcoast Woodworks is its name and it is considered one of Australia’s finest woodcraft galleries.  It sure was, I’m not normally taken with woodwork but these pieces were exceptional.  The artisan, Dean Malcolm, is obviously influenced by Leonardo Da Vinci with some of the wooden mechanical pieces he has made.   I’ve asked Ian to craft some of the pieces for me when we get home.  One of them was a door harp which plays a glorious sweet melody.

We then visited St Johns Anglican Church.  It is one of the oldest churches in WA.  It was gorgeous inside with beautiful stain glass.  We had a long conversation with the old lady welcoming visitors.  She told me about a Crib service they have on Christmas eve for the children where they sing Christmas carols and the children go up and each puts a figurine into the nativity crib.  It sounds lovely so we might go along if we remember.

Thursday, we went for a drive around the bay to Torndirrup National Park.  Along the way we took a detour to the local Wind farm.  Amazingly it generates 80% of Albany’s power.  These windmills are huge and look like something out of the Day of the Triffids walking across the landscape.

We continued on through the park to The Gap and Natural Bridge (there’s always a natural bridge isn’t there).  The wind sculpted rocks were quite lovely to look at down this way.  There was a lookout built 10 metres out over the Gap, very disconcerting when you look down and you can see the boiling ocean below your feet through the floor.  The natural bridge was interesting and will one day collapse with a great crash into the sea.  The coastline along here is wild in some areas and very treacherous all the way along the coast.

We drove further on to the old Whaling station but only went to the café for a coffee.  They wanted $32.00 per person to look at a whale skeleton and a whaling boat that you could see from the café and the road. Across the bay we could see Albany and in the distance the Stirling ranges.

The museum in Albany is well worth a visit.  They have some great exhibits of the history of the area and an exact replica of the Brig “Amity”.  It’s all free except when venturing down into the bowels of the ship but it was only $4, very reasonable so we ventured forth.  It was a really interesting experience to see the inside of a Brig.  Neither of us had ever been inside an old ship so we found it fascinating, particularly the lack of space and head room for the poor convicts that travelled over here on this ship. 

It was original the ute of the sea, only carrying cargo, then they changed it to carrying convicts (not many) so they put a second level in the cargo hold.  You have to walk completely bent over and we both banged our heads on the overhead beams a couple of times.  The Captains quarters, whilst had good head room wasn’t that large and his bed wasn’t much bigger than his Batman, Doctor, Quartermaster and other officers.  It was a great experience!

Friday we visited the local art gallery and were pleased to see it didn’t contain any abstract expressionism or political statements, just beautiful paintings that don’t need a written statement to tell you what you’re looking at.

It’s quite warm today, it got up to 28 degrees.  The climate is strange around here, we’ve noticed that is usually cloudy in the morning and quite still, by lunch time the sky has cleared and the sun has come out but by 2pm there is fog coming in off the sea and the wind has picked up whipping up waves on the bay.  Today is different, the sky is very stormy with clouds roiling around but nothing has come of it yet, I hope they get some rain from it, just like the rest of the country wants rain.

Well the storms manifested, accompanied by wind and rain.  They are different to home, the sky is quite different in that the clouds are flat with patches of white in them, if you can imagine what I’m saying.  There was loads of lightning all across the sky and it was magnificent to watch.  We walked out to the beach right on sunset and looking west towards Albany township, the sun set between a couple of mountains and the sky looked like it was on fire with the dark clouds in the foreground emphasising the brilliance of the light and colour.

It was lovely to go to bed listening to the rain and the wonderful booming symphony of thunder overhead. 

The next day was overcast and cool.

Sunday, we left early and headed for Denmark a mere 64 km west. We found a lovely park right on the bend of the river that flows into the bay.  So, we’ve booked in here for two weeks, right up until we return to our Christmas Caravan Park in Albany.  We decided that we should visit the interesting places from here rather than carting the van along.

There is a Swiss family (Nay…not Robinson!) staying next to us and they have a three-year-old boy named Joel, pronounced (yoi-l).  Yoil can’t speak English, although he recognises a couple of words.  He has taken a liking to us and spends a lot of time with us. Its amazing that we can communicate with the little fella and not speak his words.  Ian was able to speak a few words of Barossa German and so he and Yoil had a great time playing with his toy tractor.  I spent a bit of time playing paper planes with him and not speaking a word that he could understand, so I reverted to hand signals and we had fun that way.  Cute little guy.

Well that’s it for this week, you know where we will be next week but we will be doing some exploring in the meantime.

“Those who find beauty in all of nature will find themselves at one with the secrets of life itself” – L. Wolfe Gilbert

Greeting lovely Bloggies

December is here already! where has the year gone?  We’ve finally got to the point where we don’t know what day it is, we no longer care what time it is and just go with the rhythms of the day.

We dragged the whole ensemble back to Esperance on Monday and took up the campsite next to the one we had last week.  It’s a nice park, it has a very comforting feel about it.

We’ve spent the first three days finishing off some stuff that had to be posted before we left here so we haven’t explored much.  I did however take myself off to explore the historic town section that has converted a lot of old buildings to galleries for local artisans.  I had a lovely hour, wandering in and out of the galleries by myself, talking to the proprietors about their art etc. 

I had a conversation with one guy about the area and we got onto the subject of the quicksand out at Duke of Orleans Bay.  “Oh yes” he said “you have to be very careful out there”.  He said that so many 4WD’s have succumbed to the sands out there, there is a photo in a car repairs business up the road that shows just the top inch of a 4WD visible above the sand.  Its great out there he said, if you know how to read the sand, but most people don’t know.  They bringing in heavy earthmoving equipment a couple of times per year and dig out the 4WDs that they can, but there are still some buried under the sand.  I told him about my incident and he said, yep you could have gone a lot deeper.  He told me I did the right thing by lying on the sand to get my legs out.  It’s because the sand is so fine and it creates liquefaction.  The fine particles create a massive suction.

He also told me that the sand is made up of very fine ground-up quartz crystal which is why the sand is transparent and why it reflects such glaring white light.  I’d believe it, the white sand has got to come from somewhere.  Apparently, it’s from the granite rocks around here.

We left on Thursday and were intending to go as far as Jerrumumlup (don’t ask me to pronounce the names over here, you need two tongues to get around them I reckon).  We stopped in Ravensthorpe to get Ian’s prescriptions filled and they had to order one of them in so we had to stay overnight.  The local caravan park didn’t inspire us at all so we drove four kilometres out of town to a free camp which is through a truck stop.  It was in the bush and very quiet.  We snoozed away the afternoon and thought we’d be the only ones here until close to dark when they started coming in.  We shared it with about 5 other rigs.  Still, its nice to have the security of others around, not that anything untoward ever happens.  I love free camping in the bush.

We drove through miles of wheat farms and part the Fitzgerald River National Park on our way to Bremmer Bay.  It took a few hours and we passed wheat fields where the wheat was grown in pure sand, how it grows there I don’t know, but grow it does. 

Bremmer Bay’s population is 300 people but at Christmas time this swells to 6,000.  We’ve been told that Perth is empty over Christmas and the January holidays because they all head off for the south coast.  We were fortunate enough to book a spot in Albany for the five days over Christmas early, otherwise we wouldn’t have got in anywhere.

We went for a long walk along the estuary at Bremmer Bay on Saturday morning which was nice, then we took a drive to see the sights from the lookout.   The beaches are beautiful here as well with that lovely blue colour.

The estuary is filled with sea birds, we stood there watching a flock of birds flying in unison over the estuary and as one they would turn instantly and fly in a different direction without hitting one another.  I believe they do this by forming a hive mind when they fly as a flock, its magic to watch. 

There are tiny birds that fly all the way from Russia and Asia to come to this very estuary, they rest and then fly back to breed in the northern hemisphere summer.

It was lovely seeing so many birds out on the estuary, “this is what I have been waiting to see” I said to Ian and this evening – we are going down to watch them again as they settle in for the night.  I just love it.

Bremmer Bay is known for abalone fishing and most of the 300 population are employed in that industry.  I couldn’t work out where the harbour was or where they kept their boats because there is no obvious river, apart from the estuary of the Fitzgerald River.   We found the tiny man-made harbour at a sheltered bay at the end of the peninsula.

We had noticed a lack of rivers and creeks in this part of the world, as far down as, and even past Esperance.  The only river we saw really was the Fitzgerald.  There are signs along the roads reminding people that the ground is the catchment area for underground fresh water supplies.  The amount of underground water is plentiful in places like Duke of Orleans Bay but here at Bremmer Bay it’s a different story and you’re not allowed to buy water from here.   I’m not partial to underground water, although it would taste a lot better if they didn’t put so many chemicals in it, but gotta kill the bugs somehow.  I force myself to drink it to stay hydrated.

So not much more to say this week, its been pretty quiet and restful.  Monday, we head off to the Stirling Ranges which you can see from the road coming in here as they loom large on the flat horizon.

I’ve heard you all had a little rain over your way this weekend, I hope you get much more of it and it finally puts out those dreadful fires.  I’ve seen the reports of the decimation of the koala population which is really sad, not to mention all the other animals that have perished and now have lost their habitat, what happens to them?  It’s seems the cleansing is to be complete, lets hope when life return’s we can nurture it a lot better than we have in the past.

It’s the 1^st December, the first day of summer and I just had to go inside to put a jumper on because it is really cold sitting outside typing this.  I’ll go inside when I’m finished and stay there.  We have been rugged up and wearing our ugg boots in the evenings for weeks down here, this really is a country of contrasts in so many ways.

Ian: As usual Leila has filled you with many of the details of our past week😊    – I have become a little blasé when viewing these beautiful bays which ‘appear’ in front of the windscreen! It’s such a wonderful part of the world…..and no bloody sly Crocodiles, to make our day grim.

Our caravan Park-grounds have a constant swish-whirring sound 24 hours a day, from the nearby electrical wind-generator on the hill behind us – I do understand now why some folks complain about the noise from these wonderful monsters! It seems that the air between the ‘mast’ and blades is compressed and lets out a whoosh each revolution. It’s all a new experience for both of us.

Leila put up our enormous 300mm Xmas tree this morning and proudly stood back (with sunglasses on) admiring her efforts – and the masses of bright coloured lights….causing a major power loss in Bremmer Bay! I can hardly believe that we have been on the road for ten months now! It’s been a magical experience for us both, and of course quite a luxury and privilege to be exploring this immense countryside. Most of us travel from A to B when holidaying during our family/worklife, because of time constraints, commitments and limited dollars, consequently the vast majority of us don’t stop at interesting towns along the wayside; mind you, some of the hillbilly towns with less than progressive councils are better avoided!

We’re off to the great southern Stirling ranges this week and expect to see some glorious sights along the way. The bushfire menace has not yet affected WA down here as yet! So, I do hope the Ranges stay cool and damp while we are up there! Because I don’t expect it to be all that easy escaping a bushfire when towing a ‘large tram’ behind us 😊

Stay safe fellow Blogites.

“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth” – Henry David Thoreau

Greeting Bloggies

We hung around Esperance Monday and Tuesday, but Wednesday we headed across the bay to Cape Le Grande.  It was a very windy day so we were pushed along nicely.

Our camp was at Lucky Bay and they make sure you have a booking prior to you entering the park.  There are lots of beaches and coves for us to explore over the next few days.

As we came over the hill to get down to Lucky Bay the vision before us was unbelievable.  We thought Esperance was heaven but this place is something else entirely.  The water of the bay is the most magnificent jewel coloured water of sparkling manganese blue with a splash of phthalo blue thrown in.

Not long after we arrived it began to rain, not to mention the gale force winds.  We were expecting these so it was ok.  We spent the day painting, snoozing and reading.

Thursday was cloudy to start with but fined up to clear blue skies during the morning.  We went for a drive to the other bays in the park.  Hell Fire Bay, so named because it reminded sailors of the blue fire of St Elmo’s fire, Le Grande beach, which was ok, then to Thistle Cove.  The glorious blue of all the beaches was mesmerising. 

Thistle cove had a whistling rock.  There are large rocks on end at the top of other rocks just off the car park.  One of these has been weathered to form a perfect amplifier.  The sound of the ocean can be heard in minute and loud detail when you stand before it.  Walking to the end of the massive granite rock we were standing on you could view Thistle beach around the corner and the gorgeous swooning blue.

On the way out we stopped to photograph Le Grande Mountain, a massive granite monolith (there are lots of monoliths in WA and one of them is bigger than Uluru).  The bush is in flower here in this late springtime, it looks so lovely as if manicured.

Frenchman’s Peak is another massive monolith with a huge cave at the top.  You can climb this one and people who were climbing it looked like tiny ants as they inched their way up the massive beast.  We toyed with the idea of climbing it but after some serious consideration we decided against it.

The rest of the day was spent around the wonderful camp at Lucky Bay.  National Parks over here really know how to look after people.  The facilities are amazing.  The toilet and shower block (yes, hot showers in the middle of nowhere) were immaculate and tiled like the trendiest house on the street.  We showered after lunch to ensure a good supply of hot water.  The solar heated showers were excellent.

I finished a painting today and Ian is continuing on a couple of his.  So, after a lunch of a vegan salad that Jacqueline gave me the recipe for and which was absolutely delicious, I took myself, my sketchbook and camera down to the beach.  I was having a wonderful time sitting on my thongs on the finest white sand you could possibly wish to find, it was wet however from the water seeping out and flowing down to the sea.

Whilst I was sitting there painting my sketch, I heard a strange scrapping noise coming towards me and thought it was dogs (not likely in a national park).  I looked up to be greeted by two kangaroos, a Mumma and her out of the pouch bubba.  The bubba was very curious about what I was doing and came right up to me sniffing everything.  Mumma didn’t seem to mind.  It was so lovely.

Speaking of Kangaroos, we were having breakfast this morning when I spied a kangaroo just outside our door, it was really quiet and hung around.  We offered it some cabbage leaves and it took them out of my hand, biting my finger in the process, it didn’t hurt though.  He even allowed us to pat his lovely soft fur.

We had a family from Norway camping next to us and they came over to have a look.  We encouraged them to feed them and pat them.  They were most impressed.

On Friday we drove over to Rossiter’s Bay, not as pretty but the water was completely calm, just a gentle lap lap into the dried washed up sea grasses.  We encountered some more weird plants here, honestly if Antarctica thawed, what you see here is what you would see there, very primitive flora.

The sea grasses are also on the beach at lucky bay in great mounds.  The sand on the beaches around here is so fine is sounds and feels like your walking in snow.  Its like cornflour its that fine and it is probably why white it is so glaringly white.  Its also transparent!  When we were walking along the beach yesterday, we noticed that some of the broken-up sea grass had been caught under a layer of sand about 1 cm thick.  You could see the grass like looking through lightly frosted glass, it was quite impressive.

Saturday. we towed the van around Rossiter’s bay and across to Duke of Orleans Bay.  There is a van park there and they sure know how to charge.  Still its only for two nights and the park is peaceful with few people around and lots of little birds twittering in the shrubbery.

We drove over to Warton Beach to have a look and again we were totally stunned by the colour of the water.  We’ve both agreed that this is our favourite part of Australia.  Not only is it beautiful to behold, there are few people, you can go for hours and not see anyone and if you pick your time you can have a whole beach to yourself.  There is no rubbish anywhere, its warm in the sun but the breezes are cool and there’s lots of wildlife and pure pristine air straight up from Antarctica.

We got out of the car on one of these isolated beaches because it was so sublime and I spied the gorgeous white sand with the pure blue water breaking on it and decided to climb over some rocks to take a walk on it.   I didn’t get too far, about four steps then down I went to my knees in quicksand.  First my ankle disappeared, then as I tried to pull it out it sunk deeper to my calf, then when I was down to my knee I decided I had better stop struggling otherwise I’ll end up up to my neck in it.  I’ve never experienced anything like it before. Before I knew what was happening, I was going down.  I let out some expletives and lay down on the sand as your supposed to do.  All Ian could do was laugh, but it was no laughing matter you rotter.  I struggled and got one leg out but left my thong behind which I had to fish my arm down to retrieve it.  I didn’t give any thought to my rings until after I had retrieved it but it could easily have sucked them off.  Then I had to get my second leg out.  I’m curling my toes trying to keep the thong this time, but the suction was so strong it pure ripped the toe bit right out of the thong.  By the time I crawled out I had sand caked from my toes to just past my knees and my hands were also caked in it.  Its not like when you get wet sand from home on you, it literally cakes on.

The camp at Duke of Orleans Bay was ok, very quiet.  Everyone raves about Lucky Bay and the Le Grande national park which is absolutely beautiful, but for pristine colour and sheer beauty I don’t think you can go past Duke of Orleans Bay.

It’s a hard life this one, it exhausts us, lol.  Couldn’t get any better, we are so lucky.

Until next week.

“Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations”