Midsummer update

 

Here we are still, in midsummer, and just after Christmas 2023. A lot has happened since my last post, so I thought I should do an update. 

Christmas was quite lovely. Made special by family and friends.

This little picture is of a series of fairy light strings which now grace our home. Our grapevine has these coloured LEDs, and there is a string of white solar powered ones which enchant a small area near the DDs room.

There is a new bee bath near a frangipani and Geisha Girl duranta repens which I have decorated with glass beads and stones so the bees can escape the water while drinking. 

We finally got our ugly old asbestos fence replaced with green colourbond. The workers did a great job, and I am happy to report that the large jasmine vine has had a big haircut but is very much alive at the end of the patio. This picture above was just after the fence was installed. Since then I have been decorating the space and seeing what I can do about plants. 

DH and I escaped for a week to Albany for a holiday prior to him having a knee replacement in the first week of December. He is not driving at the moment due to his pain medication, but is doing well. He can walk around inside very well, and has ditched his wheeled mobility aid for a simple walking stick. We are now in 'rehab' mode which will ramp up as his healing progresses.

We are very grateful for a modern and free health system! 

I haven't done much quilting for a while -but I hope that now the surgery and Christmas is behind us, I can get back into the several projects I have on the go! 

Thank you for visiting this site. Gosh, I hope we can all see a renewal of peace for the new year. 

Delightful happenings to balance the rest!

 I hadn't meant to leave it so long to make a new post, but it has been a while. Nothing to hold me back excep the number of truly delightful things which we have been enjoying lately. Let me tell you about some of them.....

The most wonderful holiday

DH and I got away for a few days to our favourite holiday place -Kinjarling/ Albany on Western Australia's south coast.  We were between two bouts of surgery which DH had scheduled -he is getting both hands worked on to relieve carpal tunnel syndrome, and also surgery on his back to relieve pressure on his sciatic nerve. As he was not driving much, we took the opportunity to use a free bus ride there and back. I didn't want to drive all of the way. (DH has had his second surgery now, and is at home and recovering well). 

This free travel to our regions is provided by the WA state government to 'seniors' like us. We enjoyed the relaxed 6 hour journey very much, and hired a car in town. 

The weather is notoriously unpredictable on our south coast, but this year we got uninterrupted magnificent blue skies and warm temperatures (not hot like Perth has been). 

Albany has beautiful scenery, and is renowned for the colour of the waters inshore. We spent the time sight seeing, eating at cafes and restaurants, visiting art exhibitions and reading books. It was wonderful! 

A wonderful kid

DH and I have three wonderful grandchildren. Two of them are at school these days, but Mr 3 years old is in need of a babysitter day on Mondays. He comes to us and we have a whale of a time. At the moment he really likes to make cookies. I think we will work our way through most of the recipes in my Cookie Recipe Book -especially the ones with icing, cherries or lollies on top. 

A new mattress

It was playing with the grandchildren that brought us to the awareness that our mattress was in need of replacing. They were playing a game called "Veranda Santa", (from the show Bluey)  which involves lying on beds while one of the kids sneaks in and puts 'presents' under our pillows. The kids said that the mattress was sloping to one side, and in fact when we looked, we could see that the edges had deteriorated. We had a great deal from a mattress company which makes them locally, and we are really enjoying it. 

An election

I volunteered on two occasions to hand out 'how to vote cards" for the Greens at my local State election. I have done this kind of thing before, and enjoy it as a way of contributing to our democracy.  As it happened, the election resulted in a huge win for the local Labor party and I am pretty OK with it, even though the Greens candidate I was helping is probably going to lose her seat in the upper house. Labor is pretty progressive party. 

And the rest of the stuff

Dh and I went to a rally in Perth to protest at the sexual assault of women and the way in which we all live with a daily fear of being attacked or harassed. When a couple of assaults were alleged to involve our Federal politicians -one allegedly happened in a Ministerial office- the women of Australia said "ENOUGH". Rallies were held all over Australia, and the political revelations of more mysogyny and harassment are daily occurrences at the moment. It seems like a lot of women are no longer going to keep men's secrets but instead will be shouting them from the rooftops. We don't want women's testimonies to be disregarded because there is no 'evidence' , we want laws which will actually provide justice for women even while upholding the right to a fair trial for the perpetrators.

So that is a bit of a summary of life with us. Thanks for reading this far. Please leave a message or comment if you feel like it. 

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 

Precious

We are back home from our holiday in Victoria, where we stayed for two weeks with our family- our son, beautiful daughter in law and three precious grandchildren. They live in a sweet country town in the north on the Campaspe River. It is not too near the fires at the moment, but was impacted by smoke. One day we stayed inside and did not put the evaporative air conditioner on, as it would have drawn the smoke into the house. That was a long day.

We did all the things grandparents do when visiting grandchildren. 
We cooked, we played games, we read stories, we ate meals together. After months of being apart, we need to find out again who we are, how we have grown and developed and changed. The grandparents are a bit slower, but the grandchildren are bigger and faster! They ride bikes and scooters, they climb monkey bars, they bounce on trampolines. The little one has more speech, and now plays imaginary games -putting the baby to bed, having it wake up and cry, then needing to be comforted. He plays with the Duplo in new and creative ways.  The middle one is taller and more confident after a year of kindy. The older one is loved especially by the baby, and crafty and creative and sensitive.

One day when the little one was in daycare, the older two enjoyed a big ride at the Netball Courts -and a further ride to town for a special morning tea in the cafe and a play at the Rotary Park, then home. In order to get home you have to cross the Bridge, after negotiating the pedestrian underpass. How much fun can you have going fast down into a subway on your bike? Lots of fun -especially if you are allowed to do it several times!

We had a couple of times of sightseeing too- the wonderful exhibition at the Bendigo Art Gallery, for example, and the Ian Potter Gallery at the NCV in Melbourne. We visited a historic home -sadly couldn't get inside.

We ate fabulous Melbourne lane way cafe breakfasts, and had yummy dinners with friends. We took our family out to lunch or dinner and we took ourselves out too. It was all wonderful.

In fact, we did a whole lot of things in the space of just a couple of weeks, that we don't do for most of the year. We don't usually spend this much money on eating out -and we don't usually travel so far either. We budget for our holidays, and save up for them too. Our simple life makes it possible to do this even when we are retired.

Now we are home and reflecting on precious times. Mementos like the paintings and pictures they drew for us, the photographs we took, the memories they embody. Each day is precious and each time we spend with someone, near or far, is precious too.

Our normal routines are being re-established. The garden is growing and needs attention. The dishes need washing. I did a bulk grocery shop.  DH has washed the clothes which are now drying on the line, in our wonderful sea breeze. We are re-adjusting to the 3 hour time difference, and setting ourselves up for a couple of projects this year.

Thanks for your kind thoughts. It was a wonderful time!

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.

How to take a day off from retirement: Monday 2 September 2019

I love being retired. I try not to show off about it too much, because so many of my friends are still workers in the salt mines (poor things), but I love the freedom, the creativity, the flexibility. I am very self-directed, and always have quite a lot of things I want to do. I have some volunteer work and there is always the gardening and the housework and cooking.

Every now and again, though, you just need 'a day off"- change of routine, change of scenery.

DH and I saw the opportunity to do that last week on a day which was quite unusually warm for the end of winter. It was going to be 28C so we packed a picnic full of the leftover nice things from the Choir supper we had provided the night before: cheese, strawberries, cracker biscuits, cut vegetables and a feta dip.

We recently bought a year pass to the National Parks With our various discounts, this was quite a bargain, and will encourage us to visit scenic places nearby, as often as we can. This time we went north to a park that used to be 'way out in the bush' but is now being surrounded by suburbs: Yanchep National Park.

When I was a girl, we went there a LOT. It was a destination, a picnic spot and for my mum and dad, it had a pub where they could get a quiet drink on a long weekend! (Not much used to be open, in those days). 

DH and I walked around the lake and enjoyed the different scenery than the places we usually visit. I was delighted to spot this native orchid -it is quite small but exquisite. You have to keep your eyes open in the Australian bushland. (I might also have been scanning for snakes, but that is another story!)

The wattle is in bloom (hello hayfever!) and it is really pretty just now. Look at that blue sky!

Have you ever noticed that you feel calmer outside? It is easier to slow down, take your time and breathe outside. It is easier to take a long time over lunch, to enjoy a quiet talk with your nearest and dearest, and then to come home feeling refreshed.

Apart from this lovely day we are still getting quite a lot of rain, which is lovely. We are thinking of spring, however, and making plans for our Sustainable House Open Day, which is just 2 weeks away now. Just a bit of preparation and planning to come.

Island life -another weekend

DH took a turn on a duty roster on Wadjemup (also known as Rottnest Island) this past weekend. The roster provides cheap accommodation, and subsidised ferry ride for him. It was open for me to go for a relatively small price too, but I wasn't sure. It is winter here, and the 23 km stretch of water between Fremantle and the island is notorious for being rough even in summer! 

In the end I decided to brave it and booked my tickets a few days out...and watched as the forecast began inexorably to link our travel time with the onset of a huge wind and potential storm. Oh great! I bought some sea sickness pills and we had a wild ride, with the largish and fast ferry bumping it's way through the waves and swells. Up the wave we went---the boat was above the water---and then bang, down we plunged! 

We survived, remarkably well, and I felt (and still feel) very proud of myself for conquering my fears and doing it anyway! The weather was setting in for a big storm, so we took ourselves to the island store for a few groceries and snuggled in for a night of reading novels and eating pizza! 

The next morning, the storm had pretty much blown itself out. We ventured out for a walk to the closest lighthouse. It did rain again in the afternoon, but we were again snug in our little cabin.

Sunday was the day DH had duties, but they were over in time for us to take the island bus to the furthest part of the island, the West End called Cape Vlamingh. The colours in these pictures are not enhanced at all- this is as it looked on the day! 

The little Thompson Bay settlement is a meeting place for island visitors. On the Sunday we ate lunch in the pub, which was a nice treat.

The trip back on Monday was a delight -absolutely flat calm and sunny!

An Island Get-Away

Off the coast of Fremantle in Western Australia is a very special island. The locals call it Wadjemup. The others call it Rottnest Island. It was named by a Dutch explorer called Willem de Vlamingh in 1696  who charted a lot of the Western Australian coastline, a long time before Captain Cook turned up in the east. 

It had a sad settler history: used as a prison island by the white authorities, there are many indigenous people buried on the island. They were removed from their lands and never saw their families again. 

In later years the island has been set aside as an A Class Reserve (like a national park) and is administered by the Rottnest Island Authority. It is a tourist hot-spot, where people can have holidays and go for day trips. There are very few vehicles on the island, but it is a great place for bike riding, snorkeling and fishing. There is a ferry service which takes you there. 

We were able to spend a few days there this weekend, staying in a self-catered cottage. As it was our 43rd Anniversary this week, it was a great opportunity to get away and have a break from everything.

We took a bus around the island, getting off and stopping as we liked.

The weather was cool but very sunny and the place looked stunning. The crossing from the mainland to the island is often rough, but we were very lucky and had smooth sailing. This was lucky as I am a pretty terrible sailor! 

One distinctive feature of the island is the presence of a very local marsupial called the Quokka. It is a very gentle little animal, and a great favourite with the visitors. 

Proud family time in Melbourne and country Victoria

We spent a few days in the lovely city of Melbourne, catching up with some exhibitions and friends.

The biggest reason for the visit, though, was a very important graduation: our son and daughter in law have completed their studies and graduated on the same night, from the same university my husband and I graduated from nearly 4 decades ago!!!

It was a wonderful celebration.

What a fantastic achievement -not only did they finish their studies, they had 3 wonderful children and held down some challenging work situations at the same time.

Of course we had to go up to the country town where they live, for a quick visit with these same 3 grandchildren -now 6, 4 and 1.5 years old. This drawing is of me! I assure you the eyes are 'sort of green" and the hair is 'sort of grey and white". LOL

The exhibition on at the Immigration Museum on the topic of love, was moving.

The National Gallery of Victoria has a splendid exhibition on at the moment -frocks from designers over more than 100 years! On display among their usual paintings and sculpures, these designer gowns from fashion houses of significance, were truly wonderful.

We loved the whole thing but it wasn't long enough with our family or with our favourite city either.

It is always good to be home.

Now to re-adjust to the 3 hour time difference! 

Mirnang Boodjar -a visit down south

The Mirnang Noongar people are the traditional custodians of the land which people like me call "down south" - around Albany on Western Australia's coast. This is a heart stoppingly beautiful country, with sweeping views of harbours and islands, with unique wildlife and plants, and saffire coloured beaches.

It had been too many years since we were here -we were all missing Albany, so when DH managed to think of a few days we could get away, and could organise some accommodation, we jumped at it! This time we were able to take DD with us -many times when we go away she can't come, but not this time. Our friendly neighbour fed Dora so we were free to go. 

 We were so grateful that a generous donor had provided this wonderful house for people in DH's work to use, and for quite a modest price we could have all these views to ourselves for three days! Way up on a hill, with the wonderful water and clouds before us. 

The first evening we just sat and looked at the view as the sun went down and the harbour lights came on. I had brought some food and we bought some local cheese and bread, so we could relax and enjoy.

There is a favorite walk around Mount Clarence from Middleton Beach which we adore. The French explorer Nicholas Baudin visited this coast in 1801 and this is one of several busts of him up and down the West Australian coast. He was a very accomplished navigator and drew wonderful maps of the coastline. He met the Mirnang people and treated them with great respect. I wonder what Western Australia would have been like had the French settled here instead of the British? 

There is a national park which the Mirnang people call Torgadirrup ( and we call Torndirrup- the early settlers probably misheard the language). The coastline is very rough and very spectacular. 

It was a lovely couple of days.

Soon we hope to return to this beautiful place. DH is going to retire after Easter, so our time will be much freer to indulge such things!