Is that rain? and other adventures

Apparently Western Australia was in a 'heat bubble" with unseasonably warm temperatures in late April and early May. We had had lovely warm days of about 25C with cooler nights, but worryingly, very little rain at all. Finally about a week ago, the rain started to fall!

I was harvesting limes, grapefruit, tangelos and limes, and still hand watering the snow peas and garlic I planted expecting winter rains. I still have so much citrus at this time of the year, and often I offer it to neighbours for their use. 

DH made a lime chutney but was disappointed in it -he thought the skins should have been softer after cooking. We left it in the jar for several months, and have discovered that now it is exceptionally yummy! 

Our 3 year old passionfruit vine has finally started fruiting. I grew it up over the dead lemon in the front garden, bordering our neighbours' driveway, so we are all getting excited to see the large round fruit appear. I check it every day to see the fruits change from green to yellow, when they will be ripe. It has been too many years since we had our own fresh passionfruit. 

This beautiful view of King George Sound's entrance is from nearly a week we had away in Kinjarling Albany -our favourite place for a holiday, 5 hours south of Perth. We had a really really good time. Due to the late winter, it was warm and sunny most days and while it is a worry for farmers, I have to admit it was a lovely time for us. 

I found this original watercolour of a beach shack on Wadjemup Rottnest island, in the op shop. I really love it!  We are gradually filling up the wall space over the sofa bed with a gallery of original paintings.

The autumn weather has brought seasonal flowers in our native vegetation: banksia and eucalypts in particular. 

I have been pleased with the roses in my garden which have enjoyed the autumn weather and put on a nice show of blooms, too. I am trying to put more perennials in my front garden so that there is a more full, abundant look out there. 

So glad to have a warm and comfortable home for the winter season, so grateful to have some rain at last! This is Dora who loves to sit on quilts, and will seek them out if they are available anywhere in the house. 

Thanks for visiting! 

Visiting Kinjarling (Albany)

 

We have been able to get away and have some time down in our favourite holiday destination! Kinjarling- Albany is about 350km south of Perth, a place of fabulous views, white beaches, unique flora and fauna and great cafes and restaurants. Sadly we missed out opportunity to see the whales make their visit this year, but there may be a more kind opportunity next year. Kinjarling is the Minang Noongar word for a 'place of plenty'. Recently the local council adopted a dual naming policy -indigenous place names and English names will be seen together on all signage. 

This beautiful land in the Great Southern region of Western Australia Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land. The custodians of the land for more than 50000 years are the Minang Nyoongar people. I pay my respects to their elders and their strength.

I think we have been visiting Kinjarling - Albany for something like 44 years! It was the place my DH took me on our first adventure together -which included meeting his parents, who lived there for a number of years. When we lived in Melbourne for 13 years we came home and visited them as often as we could. We have memories of taking our tiny children to the parks and watching them chase the seagulls while crawling in their little bodysuits. Later when DS was a teenager with a driving license he drove us to visit the wineries, while staying sober himself! 

We had a lovely place to stay with views over Princess Royal Harbour. Sometimes it was enough to just stay there, watching the clouds and the boats and the waves.

Kinjarling-Albany is notorious for its weather. As it is on the south coast of Western Australia, it is often brushed by low pressure systems coming in from the Great Southern Ocean. In summer people from Perth go south to avoid our heat. They are often rewarded with drizzly days and cold temperatures. We were lucky this time -four days of sunshine! 

DD wanted to see the trees of the Tingle and Karri forest - a unique and tiny geographical area where the giant trees are found. They grow just outside of Walpole (about an hour's drive from Albany) and we are so lucky that the forest remnant is still there, given the pressure of agriculture and climate change. The trees are big and old -they have the largest girth of any eucalypt in the world. Some of them have hollowed out bases -due to fire and other events -but continue to grow. One of these is easily big enough to park a car inside. We had bought some food from the Denmark bakery -a local award winning business -and found a coffee van in the car park of the Tree Top Walk. Once we had our picnic we had a walk through the forest, admiring the trees and flowers. 

The coastline is a particular feature of this part of our beautiful state. On the edge of the town of Kinjarling-Albany is a national park called Torndirrup, where the Wagyl Kaip people are the traditional custodians. It is a fairly narrow strip of land which has ocean views and views to Frenchman Bay and Princess Royal Harbour. The coast is rocky and the seas notoriously rough and unpredictable. The white sand means that the shallow water near the coast is an astonishing opal or tourmaline colour. This place is hard to photograph simply because the landscape is so big and so beautiful -where do you point your camera? And even then, you can't quite get the impression in a photograph of walking down a bush track and suddenly being on the edge of the hill, with the ocean laid out before you.

We only stayed for four days, but we all feel so much better for having refreshed our memories of this lovely place, during NAIDOC week. To read more about NAIDOC week click here 

Merry Christmas

It is Christmas Eve down here in Perth Western Australia -and I am planning a gentle, easy day. Last night we attended a 9 Lessons and Carols service and it was a wonderful reminder of all that Christmas means about love and hope. Things are tough for many people around the world - certainly the horrendous fires are on the minds of Australians. I am concerned for many people I know, and lovely towns I have visited. I am hoping and praying they are all safe.

Our world is in trouble because of the way we are living without regard to the impact we are having on the systems which sustain us.  We need to take note, and transition away from exploiting the earth's resources and start the healing and safeguarding of our planetary home. Simple Living can be a good example of the kind of wonderful life we can lead -a life of abundance and not hardship!

I hope that we can all have a good Christmas Day. If it is difficult for you -for whatever reason- please take good care of yourself. Do what you need to protect your soul. Enjoy the escape of a good uplifting book -go to join in a faith community- go for a walk in the natural world ( a city park will do) but whatever you do, try to think of something you can be grateful for. Rebecca Solnit says "Hope is an axe you use to break down a door in an emergency". I wish you hope. 

Today we are doing a couple of gentle things to get ready for Christmas Day. We will be just the three of us for lunch -and that is just fine. We have moved in this year to a largely plant based diet -even more than in the past, so that 'feast days' when we have something like a lamb roast are extra special. I am going to cook it with slivers of home grown garlic embedded in it, and rosemary and fennel. I might do this later today as tomorrow Christmas day will be 37C. (It will go in  the oven after the patatas bravas I am planning for our dinner tonight -having been re-watching Rick Stein's series on Spain).

I am making a couple of salads - I have some baby potatoes for a potato salad with mint and sour cream. I have asparagus. I have olives and feta for a Greek salad to go with the lamb. We are going to have Eton Smash for dessert.

We won't be with our grandchildren until later in January -they are in Victoria. We will enjoy being together then. Before that, we have 2 family birthdays between Christmas and New Year! We like to got to a casual fish cafe near the beach for a celebration on DD's birthday.

We will be back at the beach every morning we can. We will be reading books, keeping the garden alive (I hope) during the heat of the summer, and I will be sewing. I have a new improvised project on the go, inspired by a book I got from the library. I am using gelati coloured solids and leftover indigenous pattern fabrics from my "Blue mountain" quilt.

Thanks for visiting my blog and for leaving comments. I appreciate the connections we make across the world.

Stay well and live simply! Merry Christmas!

A little break down south

On Sunday it was our traditional day to put up the Christmas decorations: the first Sunday in Advent. We all got stuck in and by the end of the day we had 6 (yes, you read that right!) trees up and decorated, the stockings hung and the advent wreath out with candles ready to go. I still have a bit more tweaking to go, but that is what Advent is for!

I was glad to get this done, because on Monday we drove the longer way round to Albany (350km or more) on the South Coast, for a little break in our favourite place. We had a lovely time! The weather was much cooler than up here in Perth, and yet the sun shone and everything looked glorious. We wore our jeans and a jumper on one evening!

On the way, we stopped at a WAQA quilt show in Katanning. The quilts were made by a small group of women quilters, who were all riffing on the same 'drunkards path" block. They were all wonderful, but these ones I took a particular note.

Here are some of our favourite views around Albany. The one below is near the Gap and the Natural Bridge. 

Albany is a natural harbour with offshore islands.

The water is either deep blue or turquoise. There is a national park which keeps much of the very fragile ecosystem safe. It is a 'biodiversity hotspot". We have been visiting this place for 44 years, on and off. It is special to DH because he did his high school here, and brought me down to show it to me, as one of the first things we did together.

It was only a couple of days, but it was such a refreshing thing to do.

Since we got back we had several very hot days -more than 40C, and will have more next week again. Australia is suffering during a climate crisis that our government refuses to acknowledge or act upon.  I am throwing shadecloth around over plants which have survived previous summers -one of our blueberry bushes got burned leaves last week. I am saving all the water I can from sink and shower, to either use on the garden or flush the toilets.

One of the things that keeps me going is the stories of people who are working hard in troubling and difficult places, to keep on growing things and thrive in them.  This youtube series by Geoff Lawton on "Greening the desert" is an inspiration. As he says "The Greening the Desert Project is located in the Dead Sea Valley of Jordan. At 400m below sea level, it is one of the lowest places on earth. The project is positioned on a West facing slope, in an extremely hot, arid climate, with extremely poor, shallow highly alkaline top ‘soil’, covered in rocks, with very limited water supply. It's here that we're demonstrating and educating people on permaculture because if it can work here, it can work anywhere!"

What humans do best is adapt to changing circumstances -that is why our ancestors survived! So we just pick ourselves up and keep adapting.

Planes, buses and trains

When you have travelled from Perth to Melbourne by air, you might as well keep going, to enjoy what we West Australians call "The Eastern States", before coming home again. This picture is of the new Silo art in the town of Rochester in Victoria. We travelled by both train and bus to Rochester on this trip. Rochy is where our family are living. 

We sandwiched two important family stays in country Victoria with a lot of journeys on trains and buses through New South Wales and Victoria -almost 3,000 km of journeys which took us to Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Orange (because it is on the other side of the Blue Mountains!)  Choosing train travel meant that we could relax and enjoy the day. I spent most of the time just staring out the window, unwilling to miss any scenery.For people at our stage of life, public transport is often much cheaper with our Seniors discounts than hiring a car would be. 

This picture is from Flagstaff Hill in Melbourne. We had arranged our public transport concessions in both Melbourne and Sydney and found that it was very easy to get around in both places.

The other consideration is that the use of public transport cuts down carbon emissions per person who is on the bus or train! This is slow living at its best.

 

We hadn't visited the Old Cathedral church in Melbourne until this trip, but found both a lovely set of stained glass windows and some CDs of choir music which we have greatly enjoyed on our return home. 

Melbourne was our home for 13 years, and we still have friends and family who live there. It was great to be able to catch up with them. This picture is taken from Southbank. 

From Melbourne we caught the XPT to Sydney and then the next morning went off through the Blue Mountains to Orange. Each train trip was comfortable and convenient. The staff were cheerful and helpful.

In Orange we stayed at Duntryleague Guest House, which is situated in a lovely golf range. We took our first ever wine tour of vineyards in the Orange region, and had a lovely time. There was snow in Orange just before we arrived, and it snowed a few days after we left, but the days were were in town were sunny. My puffer jacket, thermals, hat and gloves got a real workout, however. 

 Then it was back to Sydney for a longer stay. DH hadn't had as much opportunity to explore the city as I had, during my working life, so I was glad to show him around. A trip on the Rivercat up to Paramatta must be one of the best value and most scenic public transport trips in Australia. You get a 90 minute trip up river for the price of a cup of coffee!

One of my favourite historical homes is Elizabeth Farm in Parramatta. 

Despite all our travels around, it was really all about visiting our family and supporting them with some grand-parenting, which were the real reasons for our trip. It is hard to bring up three children when you are far from family support. Our son and daughter in law do an amazing job, but when they have to go away together for work, we needed to come over and help.It was a lovely time, even though exhausting and busy! 

We are now home and recovering! DH came back with bronchitis but is getting better. I had a cold or some kind of sinusy-allergy thing which laid me low for a while but I am feeling better today. It may be something to do with being further away from the canola fields in flower!

Winter holiday

A winter holiday in Victoria, New South Wales and the ACT.

All the cold places!

We are from Perth, which has been having a good cool winter, but nothing like the weather we are experiencing whilst travelling in these states this month! On Tuesday it was 7 degrees C in Bendigo at lunchtime! Good thing we brought lots of warm clothes! There are plenty of rewards for travel in winter: first of all, we are doing important family things, and the weather is not getting in the way of those precious moments: see for example DGS1 and his water painting of the garage door. 

Secondly, the wattle blossom is coming out -and we are looking forward to seeing a lot of it over the next few weeks. We are travelling in some rural areas, where golden canola flowers add a spectacular view under dark cloudy skies.

Thirdly, the wineries and other attractions we are visiting are not at all crowded, and prices are cheaper in accommodation options too. 

We have planned a lot of train travel this holiday, because it is fun, relaxing, cheap, and saves on the  carbon debt of travel. We are not only visiting family, but catching up with friends too in Melbourne and Canberra, and also visiting Orange and Sydney. 

I don't know when I will be able to update you all with our travel stories, but you will find more updates on my Instagram account in the meantime.

Mid Winter feast

It was time for our Mid Winter feast last Friday: the nearest weekend to the winter solstice. It has become a tradition for us to have friends over for a meal to celebrate the end of the time of the shortening of the length of days,and the start for the days to get longer again. 

The menu this year started with wine and nibbles -home made dukkah and dips, followed by roasted lamb with parsnips, cauliflower cheese, baked pumpkin and a herb salad from my garden.

DD made the dessert: rhubarb and apple crumble with custard.

There were plenty of candles to encourage the light to return! We decorated with evergreen trees and some of my belsnickles. 

We dragged the furniture out of the lounge room and brought the dining table in, so we could extend it and make a long table for our guests. 

We missed some of our friends, who were not able to be with us due to sickness or family obligations, but those who were able to come had a good time I think.

It is our tradition to give a bag of produce as a gift when the evening is over. This year's bag had a jar of preserved limes from our garden, some kaffir lime leaves and one fruit, a jarrah soap dish made by DH in the workshop (we added a cake of soap to it), and a jar of DH's marmalade. 

Not an Instagram holiday

Do you have an Instagram account? I do, and I am not very regular at posting there. It seems that every post needs an award winning photograph to accompany it -spectacularly lit and staged, with everyone's lives being equally glamorous.

Well, we have returned from a two week trip in Victoria, and it was by no means an Instagram worthy holiday. It was full of joy and adventure, however.

The first week we spent in country Victoria, up by the Murray river, visiting our son, daughter in law and grand children. The weather was sunny almost every day, but a little cold in the mornings for those of us coming out of a WA autumn.

Rochester Town Hall in the afternoon sun

The Campaspe river.

We spent a lot of time playing with our grandchildren, of course, and enjoying family time with their mum and dad. We played all sorts of games, read stories and watched them jump on their trampoline.  

MR DGS with his granddad, playing "Wake Up Pa!" in the hammock. 

After having a really lovely time, we went by train back to Melbourne, intending to have some luxurious times in one of our favourite cities. 

It did not exactly work out like that! My DH and I both were sick with colds, but shortly after we arrived, he came down with bronchitis, and we spent most of the days either attending medical appointments or resting in our hotel room! We both were on antibiotics by the time we got on the plane to come home. 

We did manage to have one nice dinner and lunch with friends, and we saw some of the NGV art collection. We took ourselves out to a  couple of  lunches when it was warm enough. We ate breakfast in our room, and dinner too on a couple of occasions.  

I was able to visit a couple of hidden-away fabric shops when a friend took me to see them, and came away with these nice pieces:

Fabric from Kimono House, which I am planning to make into a quilted wall hanging. 

For a few days, we weren't sure we would be well enough to make it onto the plane, so when we arrived in our lovely home we were most grateful. We are still on annual leave, but taking it quietly as DH is still coughing badly, and I am in a lesser degree coughing too. The weather has turned cool and showery today, so we are quite content to do what our energy levels demand.

One good thing is that Mother's Day brought some new books and DVDs, so we should be capable of entertaining ourselves quite well at home until we are recovered properly. 

I am grateful for the care we received from the medical people we turned to, when DH was sick. I am also grateful for this coming week, as I do enjoy pottering around at home. I have chicken soup in the crock pot for tonight's dinner, and bread rising near the heater in my sewing room. 

In a couple of months we will be back to do some babysitting. We hope to have a better run of health on that occasion.

Joy Joy Joy

DH had a birthday this week. This is the cake we made for him: with 6 candles and 4 candles! I made Norma Jean's whole orange cake recipe, but substituted two Meyer lemons for the orange. The lemons were from our tree. The recipe is entirely capable of making a transition to being a lemon cake: delicious! 

There has been a lot of joy around here, with DGD who is 4 and a half, visiting us from far away. 

We have had so much fun -she has visited bike parks, gone to the library, played in mud, searched for treasure, cooked all manner of things (including the cake above) and planted her own garden space within our garden.

We also planted garlic cloves together. It was VERY exciting when the shoots came up! 

We have played all kinds of hide and seek and treasure games. Here is a picture of one we played in the dark with a TORCH! 

And when we went to the beach, she had an enormous mango ice cream. This picture is where she pretended to be sad because we had bought her a tiny ice cream -after she had eaten most of it! LOL. 

As a result of all of this fun, not much quilting has taken place around here.

There is plenty of time for that when she goes home again. 

Tomorrow is Easter Day. I have been getting ready for it with a few themed decorations.

DD found these gorgeous bunnies in her op shop and brought them home to add to our collection of Peter Rabbit and bird themed Easter decorations. Much of what you see here has come from the Op Shop browsing DD and I do regularly.

Of course my icon display has changed. I have the Entry into Jerusalem on the right, and the foot washing on the left. The little monk reading a book, is a new addition -again, found in an op shop. I thought my 'mind blown" quilt made a good backdrop for these! 

Happy Easter!