We’ve been back from our winter sojourn for approximately three months now. Whilst it feels like we’ve been back forever, when I look at how much we’ve accomplished, it’s hard to believe it’s only been three months.
Some of this years Broome beach finds have been added to Paul’s home made wall plaque.
Our front rose garden has been halved. The increased paving area has made a big difference to reducing future garden maintenance times, has increased parking space, and the half circle rose bed looks much better than the previous huge rectangular shaped bed. The roses are taking a while though to recover from their transplants, but I’m sure they’ll start to flourish soon.
Our back garden has had the contrasting paving added, and subsequently a percentage of this has since been removed – what a palaver! We started by removing just a small amount and planting a grevillea tree in the middle.
Then last week-end my ‘DOn’t waIT’ mantra came into play, and the whole native garden bed has now been planted. Everything looks so small….. But by next summer it should be starting to provide a good thicket for the birds to frolic in, and will hopefully help provide a distraction from the road noise on the other side of fence.
Tiny yet, – but they’ll grow
We’ve removed plants here and there, and added new ones. The blue salvia currently in full bloom in the above photo is last years plants that have been cut back several times, They continue to reward with a bigger and brighter show after each cut back. There’s plenty of new ones also been added, and they’re about to break out into a riot of colour, along with lots of white, easy care vincas. The red petunias in the baskets on the shed are also from last years plantings. I remember our friend, Bruce, being surprised when he learned how cutting back petunias to almost nothing rewards with increased floral displays. These baskets are testament to just that – there’s barely any soil left in the baskets, and when the above photo was taken they were flowering after at least their forth cut back. Yesterday I cut them back once again, almost to seedling size. Hopefully they’ll provide me with one last show just in time for the arrival of the first of our Christmas visitors – arriving Saturday week from the UK.
Our little part time job will conclude for the long summer holidays in just under two weeks, coinciding with the arrival of Margaret and Geoff. After that, it’s possible the company will want us to assist with the cleaning of holiday homes in the area. We hope not though. The few hours we do each week provides good pocket money, and we’ll be looking forward to more of the same when school re-commences at the end of January. Until then though it’ll be nice to just sit back with our visitors, a gin and tonic in hand, watching the butterflies and bees flitting from flower to flower as they enjoy the fruits of our labour. There’s so many butterflies and bees now visiting. Tilly loves them, as do we. The flowers, the butterflies, the bees, and next year, hopefully lots of birds as well – what a pleasure!
What’s, ‘The Liebster Award’, I hear you ask, and I’ve asked myself the same question on a number of occasions. This time when Suzanne from http://www.globehousesitterx2.wordpress.com nominated me for the Liebster Award, I thought I’d better shake the complacent, cobwebs out of my hair, and try to do something about accepting the nomination.
I’ll start firstly by apologising to previous bloggers who have also nominated me for similar awards. On the previous occasions my technological fears and phobias took hold. I kept promising myself I’d honour the person nominating me and my blog for such an award by responding as I should have. However, time passed by, and before I knew it accepting the award, and thanking the person who had nominated me had left my radar. So, I hope I do better this time.
This time I’ve looked up what the awards all about. Did I understand it? – not really, except to say that it’s sort of an award set up by fellow bloggers to acknowledge bloggers like myself, and show a bit of recognition for what the nominated blogs do to enhance the lives of, not only the blog writers, but also of the blog followers. (Goodness, I hope I’ve understood correctly).
I think I’m supposed to provide links to Suzanne’s blog, and to the Liebster award, and to the bloggers that I’ll be nominating later in this post. And I’m afraid that’s where my inadequacies take over. I’m bloody useless at this techno stuff – and getting my head around how to add links – well, if I could be writing my blog using old fashioned pen and paper I would be. About as good as this techno stuff gets for me is to be able to type up my blog and add photos. Trying to get my head around more than that ends up leaving me almost frozen in panic, and sort of ends up as ‘white noise’ in my head. So, I’ll do the best I can to follow the rules of accepting the award, but apologies in advance for where my inadequacies get in the way.
I’m supposed to provide 10 random facts about myself. I hope you will all make do with the facts provided in the above couple of paragraphs – basically, I’m a bit of a numpty when it comes to technology. Putting that to one side though, I do love blogging. It enhances my life by getting me off my butt to do things. When I am doing, ‘stuff’, I look at what I’m doing in more detail, and better than anything – blogging connects me with other bloggers, and I get to experience a whole new world through the written words of others.
Next, I’m supposed to write a bit about my favourite blog. There’s soooo many, but I guess my stand out favourite, the one I can’t wait to open and read as soon as an email alerts me to a new post is http://www.livelaughrv.net. Oh, Ingrid – I do hope I managed to get your blog address down correctly. Ingrid has what she terms is a modest sized fifth wheeler. I think it’s 32 feet long – which by Australian standards is a whopper. You guessed it, Ingrid lives and travels throughout America. She writes beautifully, and more than anything I’ve ever read, or seen before, Ingrid’s photos, and writing has inspired me to want to see her great, big, wonderful country for myself. Thank you Ingrid – your writings are always a pleasure to read. I think Ingrid already has quite a large following, so although her blog is the one I get most excited about when I get the email alert, I haven’t included her in my ‘pay it forward’ nominations.
And now I need to answer the questions posed to me by Suzanne in my nomination, so here goes:
What country, city or continent would you most like to visit and why?
America – read my paragraph above as to who and what has inspired this desire. Thank you Ingrid.
What was the most inspirational time in your life so far?
When Paul and I decided to sell up and travel full time in our fifth wheeler. The dream life didn’t last – but the planning for it was amazing. Alas – the reality of the trip itself was interrupted by family commitments. Eventually, it all became to hard and we’ve since settled back into a normal, house dwelling existence.The excitement of the commencement of ‘living our dream life’ though lives on. Would I do it again – perhaps? but I think Paul’s happier as a part time RVer, so probably part time is the way it’ll continue.
What are you passionate about?
So many things. I guess one thing I’m nostalgically passionate about is breast-feeding, and the restrictions put on people by outdated and incorrect belief systems – but that’s a whole story on it’s own.
What is your favourite book, and why?
A Town Like Alice – I just love it.
What is your favourite time of year?
Definitely anytime of year when the skies are blue, the sun’s shining and there’s water near by. Hence, when winter comes to the south west of Australia, you’ll see us hitched up and travelling north. We try to follow the sun.
What other interests do you have besides blogging?
Beaches, forests, gardening, cooking and card games.
Do you prefer the beach or the mountains?
Definitely the beach, but I love forests too.
Where did you go for your most memorable holiday?
Mmmm!! that’s a hard one. I have three holidays that are all stand outs. In no particular order they are as follows:
Esperance, around 20 years ago with another two couples for ten days camping in Cape le Grande national park.
Coral Bay withbrother and sister-in-law and a few other couples to celebrate Paul’s and my 50th birthdays. We rented a house that accommodated 10 people, and had a great time – including snorkelling with the whale sharks. What a buzz that was.
Langkawi – staying at Casa del mar for Christmas a few years ago. Just Paul and I, a very, very belated honeymoon. On our first honeymoon we had both Kelvin and Alice, and Paul’s mum and dad in tow – the joys of a second marriage!
Do you prefer a sunny or a rainy day?
Sunny – every time.
If you had a day all to yourself, how would you spend it?
Most likely in the garden
The garden from our Duncraig house. We lived there for 13 years.
Okay, so that’s my questions out of the way. My next task is to pay it forward and nominate a few other blogs for the Liebster award, pose some questions for them to answer, and to comment on their blog to let them know. So here goes.
These are a few of the blogs I enjoy following (there’s plenty of others, but these ones have smaller followings, and are ones that for some reason or another, I can relate to the most):
I’m sure they’d all appreciate you taking a look as to why they stand out to me, (I only hope I manage to get their blog address down correctly). In no particular order:
http://www.boomingon.wordpress.com (a writer from Canberra, and the first blog I ever followed. Provides a good insight into Australia’s capitol city and it’s surrounds)
And last but by no means least, http://www.lovingthefiftysomething.com (I just love Sam’s writings. Sam has recently sold up and is now living on a houseboat in the UK. Please, my own UK followers – you really must connect with Sam through her blog. She’s an amazing writer and photographer who will teach you things about your home country that you never knew).
And now for some questions of my own for each of you to answer (I think there’s supposed to be ten, but five will do, and you are welcome to pick five more from the questions I’ve answered above for Suzanne):
1. Do you remember where you were, and what you were doing when you heard about the death of one of the following: Elvis Presley, John Lennon, or Princess Dianne?
2. Are you a ‘tours person’, or do you prefer your own itinerary, and why?
3. How do you prevent yourself from getting into a rut?
4. Are you a Christmas, or a New Year’s person, and why?
5. Christmas colours – traditional red and green, or other?
And I think that about wraps it up. Thanks again Suzanne for the nomination, and apologies if I didn’t quite get some of it right.
A couple of years ago I saw my first ever proper ‘skate park’ at Bondi Beach. Paul and I stood and watched, mesmerised – and terrified.
These parks are not for the faint-hearted, and definitely are not for me. But to watch kids, the teenagers, and even kids as young as four or five tackling the biggest of the big dippers, – gobsmacking!
Just north of Busselton’s iconic jetty, and overlooking beautiful Geographe Bay, and the jetty, Busselton boasts it’s very own skate park. And just as awesome as Sydney’s Bondi Beach Skate Park I might add. Quite a claim to fame for this quiet little back water place with it’s well above average population percentage of retirees.
One of the most photographed buildings in the area – the start of Busselton Jetty
With guests not far off arriving for the Christmas period, including two youngsters of around the early teen years, I thought a sneak preview of something other than beautiful beaches in the area may be in order. So, Emma and Luka – perhaps you may consider packing your skate boards, maybe even put one in for ya dad. I think ya granddad though will probably chose to just watch and be ready to pick up the pieces should there be any mishaps.
For the beginners…And the intermediate levels..Two teenagers checking it outWhoosh!!!
In my wildest dreams I couldn’t imagine I ever, at any stage of my life time, could have tackled even the beginners area here. The one for the more experienced – well, me coming down that slope could only figure in the wildest of my nightmares. Even though of me whizzing down there almost brings me out in a cold sweat. But the kids do it with little fear. Surreal !!!
Mmmmm, it’s been sometime since I last posted anything, and I’m realising we’re allowing ourselves to settle into mundane ‘house living’. I’ve just been through our recent photos, and the offerings are sparse indeed.
It’s not that we’ve been doing nothing. In fact, life continues to be very busy. So – why are there so few photos? Well, there’s really no excuse, just a few contributing factors. The main culprit has been the new job. What was supposed to be a two hour a day job, which we could comfortably do early in the morning, turned out to be a three hour job, which could only realistically be completed in the afternoons. We realised two weeks ago that the afternoon work was interfering too much with our ‘leisure time’, so we negotiated shorter hours. We’re now back to the two hours we wanted, 5.30am – 7.30am, then the day is our own. So far though, we still haven’t been managing to do much with it.
Next thing that’s added to this recent hump has also been related to our job. Cleaning the pre-school means working in a toddler, germ ridden environment (as anyone who has worked in a pre-school will attest). We’ve both picked up a bit of a cold virus, nothing to bad, just the sort of cold that seems to come on in the early evening so as to disturb our sleep overnight, then disappears upon rising, only to return again the next evening. We’re both tired.
We have still been managing to fit a beach walk in everyday with Mr Tilly. He’s proving to be a terrific little companion, and providing we fit a beach walk in with him sometime before mid-day he’s a well behaved little puppy for the remainder of the day. On the warmer days he’ll venture into the water, and I don’t think it’ll be long before the water will be his main focus.
Safe on the higher ground of a sand bar
He’s finished his initial puppy training, and has been quick to learn the first things a puppy should learn. So far, he sits, and lies down on command. He walks reasonably well on a loose lead, and when off the lead at the beach he comes back to us when called (most of the time). He stays reasonably near us when off the lead on the beach, and doesn’t object if we snap his lead back on when we see a need (a bigger dog approaching, or a child that we don’t want him to jump on). Generally, he’s easy to control even off the lead, but we still have a way to go before we’ll feel completely comfortable. He’s not five months old yet, so is still easily distracted.
We’ve just about finished knocking the garden into shape. The roses and annuals are all starting to flower, and soon I imagine they’ll putting on a show pretty enough to inspire Paul to get his camera out. Today while I weeded the front garden, Paul divided and repotted some of our hanging baskets.
Re-potted baskets
I love my garden, and I love having a dog. I don’t mind our little job, and I don’t mind living in a house in Busselton in the summer months. However, I do mind that we seem to have let it all descend into a bit of rut. Now that I’ve realised that’s what’s happened though, I will do something about it. So, watch this space – starting tomorrow I think we’d better get ourselves out of comfort zone and start looking for somewhere close by to explore. There’s so much in this area to see, and to do, and we’ve hardly scratched the surface.
Have you ever heard that song, ‘Life gets Tedious, don’t it.’ Well, sometimes I wish for a bit of tedium, or at least a chance to get just a little bored. No such luck – an extra hour or two in a day, or an extra day in the week wouldn’t go astray. Not to mention what I couldn’t do with a second life time…..
Since we returned to our summer house early in September, it feels like we haven’t had time to scratch ourselves. So, what’s been occupying our time:
Frolicking on the beach
As you know, a big part of our time is now taken up with puppy training, and puppy exercising. We take Mr Tilly to the beach most days. He loves it, and so do we. The beach is like Doggy Heaven to a puppy, and having Tilly with us as we wander along adds an extra dimension to our own walks.
Raiding the neighbourhood Mulberry tree on the way home from daily beach walk
Then there’s been the garden to organise. We’ve removed half of the front rose garden and have had a guy in to pave that area. To get matching bricks, we removed some of the bricks from the rear paved area, and decided to add a contrasting paving to the back garden. The front garden is almost finished now with its initial tidy up – less garden to maintain, and more space for visitors to park. We’re happy with it.
More parking space, and less garden. The annuals are planted but aren’t showing yet
The rear garden has now had the contrasting paving added. It’s only been laid for a little more than a week, but that’s been time enough to tell us our choice of contrasting pavers has been a big mistake. The ones we chose are plain coloured and show every little mark.
New plain coloured paving – big mistake
We’ve already put plans in place for them to go….. but it probably won’t be this summer. One things for sure, by summers end we’re going to be well and truly over our contrasting cream pavers!
Never mind, what’s life without change, and now we can see clearly the solution to the disliked paving is also going to solve another problem we have.
Although we live in a quiet little estate, our house is at the entrance point. Consequently we border busy Bussell Highway with just a wide verge of natives between us and the road noise. We’ve been looking for additional ways to either block out, or distract from the traffic noise. The wrong paving choice has shown us the way. Our intention now is to remove the pavers so as to extend the garden bed at the side of the shed, and plant the new area densely with bird attracting natives. Hopefully, the bird song will provide a pleasant noise distraction. So, next years garden job is already in the planning stages. We always seem to have a list of jobs waiting…. our own worst enemies as far as cramming goes!
Paving which will be lifted to make way for a native gardenGrevilleas to attract the birds, some already planted, and more to come soon
Just like our last dog, Sophie, Mr Tilly is clearly going to try and get himself into any photo we take. It’s not intentional I’m sure. He just wants to see what’s going on, so follows us around like ‘a puppy dog’.
Just checking to see if anything’s going on
We’ve both commenced a little shared job. We’re cleaning one of the schools in town, doing the primary and pre-primary classes. It’s intense work, but is only for three hours five times a week. We can choose whichever hours suit us, any time between the end of the school day, and the commencement the next school day. Sometimes we clean in the afternoon, and sometimes we go in early the next morning. The flexibility is great, and the money helps our savings stay in tact a bit.
Then there’s the planning – we always have a multitude of plans going on. Our plans are usually lose and flexible, but extent for many years to come. Currently underway is our plans for next winter’s trip, and an updated rig to make it in. Yes, we’re marketing our much loved Travelhome. It’s a slow market, so I don’t know how long it’ll take us to find a buyer, but when we do we’ll most likely replace both our cars with just one, and it’ll be one I’m happy to drive as well. The manual Hi-lux really is very much ‘a man’s car’, so we’re thinking most likely a Ford Everest will replace it, and a smaller, normal type of caravan will replace the Travelhome.
So, that’s a bit about what we’ve been doing. Paul mentioned this morning that we’ve been back for two months now, and as yet he hasn’t had a chance to take his bike out once. Yes, we’d love to have a chance to get just a little bit bored. There’s always so much to do – the puppy, the garden, the beach, catching up with friends, and making plans for the future; we enjoy it all….. A lot of the little pleasures that make for a busy, busy life.
Yippee, Tilly’s now fully vaccinated, and we can take him further afield without fear of him contacting the deadly Parvo Virus.
He started puppy training last week, and the comment was that we have a very intelligent dog on our hands. The comment came with a bit of an implied warning – beware, if you’re not firm he’ll run rings around you both! And don’t we just know it….. But so far we’re very happy with his progress, and his training.
We’re aware he needs lots of stimulation, so with spare time on a fine day last week it seemed the perfect opportunity to take him out and about. We started by attaching his lead, which usually means a walk to our beach – and didn’t he just let us know we weren’t living up to his expectations when instead of heading in the direction of the beach, we attached him to his tether on the back seat of the car. We ignored his complaints, and within a minute or two he had settled back to enjoy the ride.
First stop, Gracetown. Gracetown’s a gorgeous little surfing town near to Margaret River. The township’s small, with virtually no commercial facilities, but with some very expensive real estate. The surrounding location is gorgeous.
The 135 km Cape to Cape walking track has a section that follows the shore-line on the edge of the town. Most of the Cape to Cape walk meanders through National Parks, but the section on the edge of Gracetown is Dog Friendly.
We had only followed the track a short distance when we came across steps (lots of steps) leading down to an interesting rock beach. Tilly wasn’t sure at first how to tackle the steps, but one flight down and he had found his rhythm and would have made short work of the remainder had he not been on his lead. As it’s the first of the warm weather we have to be very snake aware as they start moving about, finding warm spots to sun bake in. So, even if he had fully learned ‘recall’ yet, he still wouldn’t be walking freely at this time of the year in bush areas.
Returning to the car, the next stop was directly above the surfers. The surf was good, but not fearsome by their standards. Believe me, it can get fearsome in that area. You’ll notice in some of the photos the surfers wear helmets for protection. The rides they get are good and long – but if dumped, the power of the water above, and the reef beneath can have dire consequences.
Note the crash helmetThe power of the waves as they crash into a rock
One more beach stop at Prevelly Point, Margaret River’s world famous competition surfing spot. There’s been a lot of work done on the foreshore since I was last there. What an awesome spot to sit and watch awesome waves, and the awesome folk who are brave enough to surf them.
Brave people
By this stage Mr Tilly was getting a bit tired, and we were getting a bit hungry. We headed inland to a place where Paul had been promising himself a sample of their ale – Cowaramup Brewing company. They have a lawned area where dogs are welcome, so Tilly and I settled down under the shade of umbrella while Paul headed inside to fetch some beers. A pint of IPA for Paul, and 1/2 pint for myself, and they provided us with a large bowl of water for Tilly. We ordered one serve of beer battered fish, chips and salad which we shared. It was easily enough for the two of us. The batter was crisp and delicious, but the fish was a bit tasteless and let it down a bit. The chips were perfect, and the salad small, but adequate. There were lots of choices on the menu, and we had trouble deciding on what would have. So, with the fish letting this meal down a bit, but everything else being absolutely perfect for a day out with our fur ball – we’ll definitely be making a return trip to sample one of their other menu delights.
Lunch over with we wandered around the grounds with Tilly’s leash extended so as he could romp around a bit. We don’t have any lawn, so the grassed area was something he hasn’t seen since he left his birth home. He clearly loved it, jumping around happy as a pig as mud – or should I say, a pup in grass……
‘Are you looking at me’!Grass – happy as a pig in mudor ‘a pup in the grass’
He slept all the way home. He’s such a little treasure, a real pleasure!
Having the addition of a four legged family member changes our ‘out and about’ focus. Whilst we will still go out on our own from time to time, there will be many days where we’ll be wanting to include Mr Tilly in our outings. Consequently, dog friendly venues are now on our radar.
You’ll notice I’ve included a new DOG FRIENDLY category. Posts such as this one will be listed under all the relevant categories – food experiences, tourism at home, WA the south west, and when appropriate will now also be listed under this new category – Dog Friendly.
On a particularly busy day last week we hadn’t had time to eat, and had passed our usual lunch time. We still had a number of things to do before we would be returning home, so we used the opportunity to try out a little boutique bar and eatery in the centre of Busselton’s Main Street – The Fire Station.
Located at 68 Queen street, Busselton, the fire station was constructed in 1936. Built in the inter-war, functionalist style of architecture, the building was used for its intended purpose until 1990. A number of years followed when it was used by local art groups, or charity shops. In 2013 an application was made, and granted, for the building to be re-incarnated as a boutique bar, a welcome addition to the Busselton food and beverage establishments.
When we visited last week we didn’t have Mr Tilly with us, but when some patrons arrived accompanied by their fur baby we realised it was ‘dog friendly’. There’s an outdoor area to the side of the building, and also a pavement alfresco area where dogs are allowed. Not only did we not have Mr Tilly with us, we hadn’t taken our camera either. So, apologies for the quality of the photos, all have been taken directly off the net.
From the food menu we chose to share a plate of steamed bao buns, along with a basket of chips with aioli. An IPA was chosen from the selection of rotating craft beers to wash down the buns. Both hit the spot beautifully.
After the light lunch had established the Fire Station is a venue worthy of a return visit, we enquired as to their happy hour offers. They offer ‘five at five’, between the hours of 5pm & 6pm week days. Five items are chosen each afternoon to list from between their food and drink menus. These are offered at the reduced price of $5. I’m sure we’ll find something to suit us when we return during their happy hour one afternoon, perhaps with Mr Tilly next time.
Now that we have our four legged family member, and are on the look out for places that allow dogs, we’re delighted to see an abundance of choices. Our last canine family member passed away almost 25 years ago. I remember finding the choice of places available to which she could accompany us were very few, and often far between. There’s so many venues, and places available now. Being able to include him in our outings is going to add to our outings, and to his lifestyle. It’ll re-enforce his acceptable social behaviour, and will help satisfy his need for mental stimulation. The positive changes in places that now accept and welcome dogs to their premises – what a pleasure!
Paul says he’s not taking me shopping with him again! We went to Camera house to look at a Lumix FZ300. However, a few questions later, and a bit of a look at the Lumix FZ2500, and we had it (the FZ2500) bagged up, along with a starter kit, and a tri-pod, ready for us to be on our way. Of course, it was me asking the questions, so the bigger, better camera is my fault……
So why the FZ2500: Firstly, from what I’m told, it’s a pretty good little Bridge Camera. What’s a Bridge Camera, I hear you ask (I know I did). Apparently it’s a camera with lots of capabilities that are normally associated with the big cameras that come with lots of interchangeable lenses (the full Monty) – only with a Bridge Camera, the functions are built in, and the camera is still relatively light weight and portable. They’re not as good as the Full Monty, but they’re not a bad step down. The zoom on the FZ2500 is particularly good. It has good light sensors. And setting it to 4K, it’ll take a burst of photos, which will apparently be good for action shots.
Six days later and so far so good, but it’s a bit of a learning curve.
Although the photos I’m displaying here are by no means particularly good photos, they will demonstrate a bit of what the camera is capable of – the photographer though still needs some experience to get the best out of it.
Paul took the first group of photos at a bay nearby, Point Picquet (pronounced PeeKay). Point Picquet is famous for whales. They come in to within around 15 metres from shore. Despite their massive size, our usual little camera (Lumix DMCTZ 65) wouldn’t have been up to capturing a photo of them at all.
We were in luck. Two whales were heading south, and only about 20 metres off shore. Unfortunately, they didn’t stop as they sometimes do, nor were they having a frolic as they also sometimes do. The only chance of getting a photo was to be zoomed in on them as they surfaced fleetingly for a breath.
As you can see, it was a dull day, so not the best of days for photography. Despite the lack of natural, bright sunlight, the light sensors have clearly let enough light in to allow a clear photo, even if the whales are only two tiny specs on the horizon (about a third of the way from the left hand side).
Zooming in, Paul managed to get a shot of one of the whales as it surfaced to breath. It wasn’t the photo we had hoped for, but it demonstrates the zoom ability of the camera.
Next, some photos of some birds on a rock.
Zooming in, the birds become clear.
And on another rock.
The next photo was taken at Bunker Bay. A dog was standing guard on his owner’s fishing line. He didn’t take his eye off the line, clearly ready to sound the alarm should a ‘bite’ have become obvious. If you look closely you’ll be able to see the fishing line across the top, right hand corner of the photo (follow the dogs line of sight). We were impressed that the line showed up. Any photos taken with our normal camera on this particularly dull day would most likely have ended up too dark, and would have been discarded. Certainly, the fishing line wouldn’t have been visible.
The next two have been taken of Mr Tilly. Until the new camera Paul had been frustrated trying to photograph the little ratbag. Tilly’s dark colouring doesn’t lend itself to good photographs, and any photos we’ve taken in the past have required a lot of editing to lighten them up. This first photo was taken in the lounge room in the late afternoon. No lights were on, Paul didn’t use the flash, and it didn’t require light editing. The light sensors within the camera did the work, and the auburn lights in Tilly’s chocolate coat are shining through.
The second photo was from a burst of photos taken on the 4K setting. Tilly was jumping for a ball – and yes, I know it’s a long way from being a great photo, or in fact, even a good photo. Despite Paul’s many attempt to get the Tilly facing the camera as he jumped, he always managed to get the ball on the wrong side of the camera, and turned his back as he jumped. The only reason I’ve included the photo here is because it’s the first action shot Paul’s taken with the camera that has been kept.
I’m sure one day in the not too distant future we’re going to look back at these photos and think, why on earth did we publish those terrible shots. And that’s exactly why I have published them – to create a record. It’ll be such a pleasure to see the improved shots as Paul familiarises himself with the new camera, and it’s functions, and gets some experience behind him. Watch this space to see the progress……
Driving through the south west of WA in the spring, the fields of Arum Lillies are breathtakingly beautiful. Growing with wild abandon absolutely everywhere, they create displays that must surely rival Wordsworth’s Daffodils. Beautiful, but not wanted in WA.
A perfect specimen of a flower – if only it was wanted
The Arum Lily, from South Africa,was introduced as a plant to glorify our gardens. The flowers are beautiful and indeed, glorious, albeit poisonous to both humans and animals. However, that’s not where the real problem lies. No-one could have anticipated how rampant it would become once it escaped the confines of the household garden. It’s now classified as an invasive pest, and you only have to drive through the Margaret River region in the Spring, knowing it’s not a native, to understand why
The 2011 bushfires that ravaged the area around Margaret River had an additional devastating consequence. The open soil left in the wake of the fires provided ideal conditions for the lilies to multiply, dare i say it, faster than wildfire!
In open areas, birds are spreading the seeds, and individual clumps are sprouting up, only to later multiply into visually stunning fields of toxic green and white. They’re taking over the land faster than our our own natives can regenerate, and are consequently making it difficult for the native bush to compete.
This years clumps become next years fields
Despite an eradication program, the banks of Arum lilies don’t seem to be diminishing. One day, hopefully they’ll be gone, but until that day, with reservations – I’ll still enjoy the stunning (albeit hopefully temporary) display they create in the spring.
Our front rose garden has been halved. The increased paving area has made a big difference to reducing future garden maintenance times, has increased parking space, and the half circle rose bed looks much better than the previous huge rectangular shaped bed. The roses are taking a while though to recover from their transplants, but I’m sure they’ll start to flourish soon.
Our back garden has had the contrasting paving added, and subsequently a percentage of this has since been removed – what a palaver! We started by removing just a small amount and planting a grevillea tree in the middle.
Life of Riley - on wheels (with a dog) 