You may remember on 13 March, only 27 days ago, I posted a few photos of changes we’re making in the garden. We’d just planted a Chinese Tallow Tree. The Tallow is a reasonably small back yard tree with gorgeous autumn colour. Autumn colour is rare in Western Australia.
The tree, in only 27 days has changed from summer green (the photo on the left) to a little display of autumn red (the photo on the right). We look forward to the tree maturing in yearsto come, and providing a more significant reminder that winter’s on the way. It’ll be nice to see it burst into renewed life come spring too.
The greens are growing too
We hadn’t even finished erecting our three raised vegetable gardens on 13th March.
one raised garden bed partially filled with soil and manure – two to go yet. By the week-end we should be ready to start planting.
A few days later we’d finished the three garden beds and planted some seedlings. When we returned from our four day break away, some of the greens looked to have grown with the speed of Jack’s Beanstalk. We’ve been picking baby leaves of mixed lettuce for our lunch almost daily now, and have had a few small meals of nice, young silver beet.
Mixed lettuce and silver beet only about three weeks since it was planted.
It’s been a long time since we’ve had our own vege garden. We’ve planted strawberries, brocolli, mixed lettuce, silver beet, celery, parsley, leeks , garlic, turnips and rhubarb. So far we’re only eating the lettuce, silverbeet and parsley. I wonder if we’ll get any strawberries before winter sets in. They have flowers, so fingers crossed. In the meantime though, what a pleasure it is to be adding freshly picked, young greens to our plate.
You’ve possibly noticed the look of my website has changed. Last week when I tried to publish this post https://lifeofrileyow.com/2019/04/05/bunbury-farmers-market/, I had trouble loading it. It was quite a colourful post, with lots of pictures. I contacted WordPress and it seems my existing theme was a bit antiquated, and an updated theme might help in the future with lengthy posts!
As a result I’ve been playing around with new themes, and have decided to go with this one. I’m surprised how easy it was with WordPress to change it over. Not that it’s going to be without any hiccups, I’ve already come up against a few, but I’m working through them. I hope you’ll bear with me while I get used to the new format.
You’ll notice the Broome sunset photo has now replaced our previous photo of our rig overlooking the Great Australian Bite.
The old rig from an old life
Not before time – we sold that rig at the end of 2017. Not only that, the blog has long since evolved from a diary of our ‘life of Riley on wheels’. The blog now is about anything and everything, a real eclectic mix. Hence the ‘OW’ following life of Riley has evolved to be ‘on whatever’, instead of, ‘on wheels’.
I’ve thought long and hard about which photo to use instead, and finally settled on a sunset. Not another sunset I hear you moan! Haven’t we all thought that when being presented with yet another sunset, only to find it’s completely different to all the other thousands of pictures of sunsets. That’s the beauty of sunsets. They’re completely eclectic, with no two the same. I kinda think that suits this blog that jumps from travel, to Mr Tilly, and everything and anything else that sparks my interest to write about.
One of my favourite of Paul’s photos
Next I’m going to try and do something with the categories. They are a mess, absolutely all over the place, with far to many, and double ups that make little sense. WordPress tells me that if I delete a category, all the posts in that category will revert to uncategorised. I hope they’re right. I’m hoping to delete several categories and re-categorise a lot of the posts more suitably.
That’s the plan anyway. Wish me luck!
I’d appreciate any feedback, good or bad on this new format too. So please don’t be shy about leaving a comment below. And in anticipation of a few frustrations as I go through a bit of learning curve – thank you for your patience.
Mr Tilly’s not fond of being brushed, in fact he dislikes it with a vengeance. I’ve tried treats, coaxing, scolding, and barely touching him with the brush. It makes no difference, he’s OCD about the brush, any brush, and won’t have a bar of it. Consequently we try to keep him quite short. He usually gets a hair cut every 2 – 3 weeks to keep him Matt free.
Don’t you just love some dialects. The Yorkshire/Lancashire dialect has some beauties. Paul, coming from across the Pennines in Lancashire, uses a few of the words and sayings from time to time. He won’t appreciate me linking the two dialects together though. He thinks they’re completely different – I think there’s so many similarities that it’s ok to link them. Without the accent these don’t sound quite ‘reet’ (right). Hopefully you’ll be able to hear them in your mind with the correct accent while reading them. Here’s a few I love:
Nowt – nothing. My mother-in-law told me once about a relative that used to make Nowt Pie. It consisted of pastry, spread with butter and a sprinkle of sugar and spice, and topped with more pastry. When asked what was in the pie her answer was “nowt, there’s nowt in it, that’s why it’s called nowt pie.” I wonder what the dieticians would say about that one. We do have our own updated version though.
Today’s dietician’s nightmare – cinnamon palmier (nowt pie just a different shape)
Summat – something. Is there summat wrong lass?
Nine while five. This one had me perplexed once when at a job interview I was asked if, ‘nine while five’ suited. He meant, 9am till 5pm.
Eeh, by gum – an exclamation similar to, ‘oh my God’.
Ow do – hello
Ta-rah – good-bye
Mither – worry. When Paul was out as a lad his mum used to lay awake mithering until she heard him arrive home.
Perhaps my favourite though is, “there’s nowt so queer as folk”. Do you remember the movie, The Full Monty. The red haired guy was spotted climbing out the window of one of the other guy’s bedroom early one morning (clearly the two had formed a gay relationship). One old guy looked at the other and said in an accent so broad many watching the film wouldn’t have understood a word he said, “there’s nowt so queer as folk”. Then realising in this case there was a double meaning to the word, ‘queer’ they both cracked up into laughter. It was a scene in the movie that would have sailed over the head of anyone not familiar with the saying. I loved that scene, I loved that movie.
I saw this movie at a premier before there was any hype. I’ve never laughed so much in my life…..
For such a small land mass the UK has an astonishing number of dialects, and localised slang. Some can be endearing, some can be grating. Do you have any you love, or any you really dislike?
Bunbury Farmer’s Market is no ordinary farmer’s market. It’s my favourite place to shop, and without doubt, the best of it’s kind that I’ve ever come across.
I’ll let the pictures show you why:
They sell just about everything
They support our local farmers, and they pay them a fair price
A great selection of lunch food at the coffee shop
Or cake to have with a coffee
Everyday items, very fresh and reasonably priced
Some produce that’s less than usual
And the exotic
Once past the fresh vegetable section we come to the gourmet butchers.
Adam the butcher takes great pride in his work
Today Mary was cooking some of Adam’s lamb creations for us to sample
There are sampling stations throughout the market. The samples are generous, and there’s no pressure to buy. The market owners believe in giving the customers a good shopping experience, without pressure. It must be working. This place is always busy, and is well known throughout the south west. We prefer to do the 130 km round trip fortnightly for our fresh produce than to use our local supermarket. The vegetables are fresher after we’ve had them for a week than they are when we first buy them at the local supermarket.
I had the privelege of doing Mary’s job for a short time a couple of years ago. I say privelege because I enjoyed it more than I’ve enjoyed any other job. Cooking, great quality food, and talking to people – now anyone who knows me knows for me that’s not work, it’s all pleasure. So why did I leave? At the end of the day I had a 60 km drive with the sun strobing through the trees on high speed country roads. I didn’t feel safe. I’ve hoped Paul would spark some interest in working there too with corresponding days. He’s a confident, and competent driver in that sort of situation. Alas – he hasn’t shown any interest. Never mind. It was good while it lasted.
Check out those tomahawk steaks
There’s always something special from the butchers counter. Fantastic in-house made sausages, gourmet meat filled pastries, and special cuts of top quality meats. Today they had some Wagyu rump steak on special for $33 a kg. They also had some wagyu scotch fillets for closer to $100 kg. We treated ourselves to a piece of the rump. The wagyu scotch fillet can wait for a special occasion treat (like winning the lotto).
After the gourmet meat counter there’s the normal meats and chickens. All the chicken is free range, and you can get thigh cutlets or breast fillets with the skin off, or on if you’d prefer it. I love the skin on my chicken and am frustrated when the supermarkets only sell skinless.
Next the deli counterThe best selection of cold meatsThis cabinet full of pastries, all made in house – including their own melt in your mouth puff pastry – and there’s soups, and olives, and pates’ and pickles and sauces….. there’s just about everthingThen to the cheese section. Their demonstrators at the cheese counter have taught me loads of things about cheese. They really know their stuffToday on the sample table a delectable imported washed rind, oozy soft cheese. Just the way I like a soft cheese to beLocal cheddars, cheeses from all around Australia, Greek feta, italian parmesans, and some wonderful imported French cheeses. Cheeses green with sage, orange cheeses, blue cheeses, white and yellow. The best selection for a colourful cheeseboardAnd what would cheese be without bread – Rolls and loavesGluten free tooThere’s even a florist sectionThis was this week’s shop which includes cupboard staples like condensed milk, golden syrup, and caraway seeds, and fridge staples like fresh milk, yogurt, cream and butter
If you stick the items you’d normally buy from your local supermarket you’ll go home with fresher produce, and you’ll pay less than you will most likely be paying at you supermarket. That’s if you stick to the normal items. When it comes to a quality, washed rind, imported cheese, or one of their in house made vanilla slices, well I can’t resist. Could you? But believe me, the treats on offer at the Bunbury Farmer’s Market are worth ever cent spent, and every calorie consumed. Those vanilla slices, eating them slowly and savouring every mouthful of creamy custard and melt in your mouth butter pastry – what a pleasure!
We had a fabulous few days away with our good friends, Kaye and Brian.
Great company
The first three days in Albany served as a great reminder of how much Albany has going for it. We’ve all promised ourselves a return visit.
So much to do in Albany, gorgeous walks, stunning beaches, and much, much more
For our final night we moved on to a farm stay, Ayr Sailean, approximately half way between Denmark and Walpole. At $23 for a powered site it was considerably cheaper than the nearby caravan parks, and is well located for sightseeing around the Denmark/Walpole area.
Farm stay camp ground
There were plenty of friendly farm animals. My Tilly enjoyed touching noses with the small pony, but then he wanted to do the ‘rear end sniff thing’.
The pony was happy to have Mr Tilly check him out, they almost rubbed noses
I was a bit worried the pony may have given him a bit of kick for his effort.
Why do dogs insist on the rear end sniff!
The sun-set for our final night was gorgeous.
The sun sets on another holiday
And after the sun set came the fire pit.
A red wine or two around the campfire to finish off
Don’t you just love a camp fire!
Damn, we forgot the marshmallows
A fabulous mini break, and time spent with a fabulous couple – a great reminder of just what a pleasure life can be.
Our main purpose for this visit to Albany was to see the Avenue of Honour, Field of Light. This avenue of light is a massive art work of illuminations designed by artist Bruce Munro. It pays homage to the Anzacs who departed from Albany for the Great War.
On our second day in Albany we put Mr Tilley into doggy day care so as to be able to visit the National ANZAC Centre. The recommendation is that at least two hours would be needed.
Our last visit to Albany was early in 2014, and this interactive, museum experience wasn’t opened until November 2014 so this was our first opportunity to take a look. I’m pleased we did, and yes, at least two hours were needed.
The National ANZAC Centre overlooking King George Sound
Upon entry each visitor is given a card with the details of an actual service man or woman who left for Gallipoli, from Albany, with whom to identify. There are little screens throughout the centre on which to place the cards for details of that persons life to be revealed. We were taken through their lives from enlistment to their eventual death.
My soldier, Alan Duncan Stitt, was from Ashburton near Christchurch in NZ. I’m from Christchurch, I wonder if he served with any of my ancestors. Stitt enlisted for service on 14 August 1914. They departed from Lyttleton Harbour and sailed into King George Sound, Albany, to join a convoy of ships ready to sail away to the war. They expected to be heading to England and to be fighting on the Western Front.
They were informed whilst at sea that they would not in fact be going to England and the Western Front as anticipated. Instead they were to sail to Egypt and await further orders. The orders came and on the 25th April 1915 they landed at Gallipoli. Stitt was amongst the first to land.
He participated in all the major battles of the Gallipoli campaign and was wounded three times. In November 1915 the decision was made to abandon the peninsula. On the night of 17th December, almost eight months since the first ANZACS landed at Gallipoli, 10,000 New Zealand and Australian soldiers were evacuated. Stitt was in the last group. He was there from the beginning of the Gallipoli campaign right up until the end.
Having survived Gallipoli Stitt then moved on the the Western Front where he was wounded for a fourth time. He finished his service as one of the youngest Lieutenant Colonels of the NZEF.
After the war he moved to England to marry his english sweetheart, and the two moved to Kenya in Africa. Stitt returned to active service during the second world war serving with the British forces in East Africa. He died in 1950 at the age of 56, from causes unknown.
We all know about the war, we all know about the Gallipoli landing, and we all know about the terrible toll it took on the Australian and New Zealand soldiers. To have a real soldier to follow through the campaign brought it all to life in way that no movie, nor any book has ever brought it to life before.
King George Sound was the last sight of Australia for the many soldiers who never came back
Not only can you follow your own man or woman, the museum provided a small hand held radio which links into all the photos of other soldiers and nurses and plays the relevant account of their war experiences. Some of the accounts were from letters with a voice reading the words. It was easy to imagine the accounts given were first hand.
A statue in the foyer of a soldier giving his horse a drink from his hat
The war to end all wars – most of us have only a vague idea what the first world war was all about. Who knows if the solders knew why they were fighting. But fight they did, and many died for their efforts. Those that survived came back with both physical and mental scars, and many lived for long enough, as did my soldier, to realise that the Great War that was supposed to end all wars, whilst won by the allied forces, didn’t end all wars. When will mankind learn!
We’ve just spent three lovely nights in Albany WA with our good friends Kaye and Brian. We had a few things ear-marked to do with the first being a visit to the Darrell Radcliffe Sculpture Drive, located at 333 Mercer Drive, Albany. There’s a sign at the gate asking visitors to remain inside their vehicle, and there’s a donation box at the conclusion of the trail.
I’d recommend taking at least a 30 minutes to drive the trail, and stopping from time to time to look high, low, close and far away. There’s an amazing amount of sculptures. Some are very tiny and would be easy to miss, some are long and thin and close to the ground, also very easy to miss. And others are huge, and while their size makes them unmissable, the detail takes a few minutes to obsorb.
A man with his dog at his feet, and owls at his head
Take a closer look at the detail in his face
And now I’ll let the rest of the pictures speak for themselves:
Pilgrims
This is one of many with dogs featured
Check out the chicks in the nest
Serenity of pouring water
A quiet place to read a book
The detail was superb
A honeyeater
A cowboy on his bronco
My favourite – the flute player. Look closely at his eyes, they’re carved out of the wood (not stuck on)
These are only a few of many sculptures to see. The detail was unbelievable, and to think they’ve all been carved using a chainsaw – incredible. The eyes of the flute player captured me, and was my favourite. Can you pick a favourite?
Next time you visit Albany WA, please put this place on your list. It’s amazing! And unbelievable that it’s an unsupervised, drive through place, with only a donation box at the end of the drive. Thank you Darrell Radcliffe for allowing us access to your property, and for sharing your wonderful artwork with us.
Life of Riley - on whatever 