The house is progressing. We still have loads more to do, but the first stages are almost complete.

Both guest rooms have now been painted and, along with the rest of the house, have been furnished adequately with a mixture of new and Gumtree bargains.

We’ve made a few mistakes that need to be rectified, the biggest one being the lounge suite which we love, but it just doesn’t work in our small lounge. That’s now re-advertised on Gumtree and when it’s sold we’ll replace it with something more size suitable.

It’s been a very busy three weeks to get the house looking close to acceptable. This week-end with a visit from our dear friends, Bob and Di, & Marina and Terry, it was a perfect excuse to have some down time for fun and relaxation.

We drank too much, ate too much and exercised too little. We played cards, till the late hours having a good laugh as we always do. Bob, the master of derogatory name tags didn’t disappoint, (another totally unmentionable name tag – but one that had us in stitches, as usual).

Saturday we took a drive to the nearby vibrant little town of Cowaramup. Cowaramup has a current population of only around a thousand people. With it’s close proximity to Margaret River the town is now being sought out as a more viable residential alternative, so the population is expected to expand considerable in the not to distant future.

There’s a quaintness to the town that Paul and I find endearing. The town has used it’s name to create an identity for itself with statues of cows adorning the streets. The local shops have taken the cow theme on board, and all manner of cow ornaments and souvenirs are available for purchase. There’s cow aprons, cow garden statues, cow place mats, cow salt and pepper shakers, cow anything and everything. The shops are delight to walk around, and the shop owners don’t seem to have any objection to people just browsing without buying.

Alas, on this visit the wind was cool (bracing) and rain was threatening, so our visit to Cowaramup was rushed, and our planned visit to Canal Rocks later in the morning cancelled.

A very pleasant day is forecast for this Tuesday, and as it’s Melbourne Cup day (the race that stops a nation), we’ve decided to take another day off. We’ve moved to this wonderful area because there’s so much to see and do here, so Tuesday we’ll make a start. It’ll be fun to be a ‘tourist’, in our own back yard, only without the hefty price tag of buying a tourist bed for the night.

Our plan is to spend at least one day a week getting out and about with our camera to take photos of the wonderful south western corner of Australia. So watch this space….