There’s nothing like a bunch of fresh flowers to brighten up a house.
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Friendly Friday – Ebb and Flow
This week’s photo challenge from Amanda at, Something to Ponder About, is Ebb and Flow. See Amanda’s post here, and hopefully you’ll be inspired to add some of your own images to join in with the challenge: https://forestwoodfolkart.wordpress.com/2019/06/21/friendly-friday-photo-challenge-ebb-and-flow/
Immediately upon reading this week’s theme the ebb and flow of the huge tides in the Kimberley’s came to mind.
Hundreds of visitor drive along the firm sands of Cable Beach daily during the dry season to find a place to park close to the water. As the tides can be higher than nine metres it’s vital to be aware of both the height, and the time of each days high tide. If you don’t time your exit from the beach to coincide with a suitable tide line you could end up with your car stuck on the beach until the tide recedes below the safe exit through the rocks.
Beach umbrellas and chairs are available for rent daily, or you can bring your own. We usually have our own with us, and if we’re not driving along the beach, we’ll set up near the flags on Cable Beach. The hire umbrellas are set up in line with what will be the high tide for the day, sometimes seemingly miles from the water. They always get it almost exactly right as to how far the water will roll in though, so we happily use their knowledge as our guide.
It’s fun to watch those not familiar with the tides set up close to the water line on a rising tide. Within minutes they’re moving everything back a few metres. A few minutes more and they’re moving back further, and so their day goes on. The huge tides can’t be comprehended by those unfamiliar with them, and we’ve seen many new visitors who only take notice when their beach towels starts swirling at their feet in the flow of the incoming tide.
I don’t think we’re heading up to Broome this year, but what a pleasure it’s been to re-visit Cable Beach again through Amanda’s prompt, if only through perusing our photo library. A great prompt for us this week Amanda – thank you.
Friendly Friday: Twins
This weeks photo challenge from Snow at,
Friendly Friday: Twins
is Twins. As advised by Snow we are free to interpret the challenge creatively with an interpretation on twins meaning, simply a pair, or two of a kind.
I’ll take Snow’s word for it that twins, although sometimes looking completely different from each other, usually manage to share a connection.
Partners in crime
Below are a couple of photos of my Paul, and his good friend, Bob. They’re not related, they look nothing like each other, but they definitely share a connection. They’re like peas in pod, and one look at their faces in both photos tells me they’re up to some sort of mischief!
Sister rigs
Our previous rig was one of the Australian built Travel Homes. Manufactured in Newcastle, NSW, there aren’t a great many of these around, and everyone is numbered. We had number 100, which was the 100th one built.
We were camped in Katherine in 2016 and there was one right next door to us. It was a much later model, built six years after ours, and I think it was around number 350. That gives you an idea how many there had been built at the time, so finding two side by side somewhere in this big county of ours is slim. However, on this occasion, it wasn’t just a chance meeting of the two Travel Homes as one of them belonged to a friend of ours.
What was surprising at the time was that another couple also arrived into the caravan park in a Travel Home. They took photos of our rigs, and advised they have a collection of photos of what they refer to as, ‘sister Travel Homes’. As ours were side by side they referred to them at the time as, ‘twins’.
So that’s my contribution for this week. I suppose I could always try to photograph something new for the challenges, but then I’d miss out on the excuse to peruse old photos and re-live old memories. Looking through photos of these two partners in crime gave both Paul and I a chuckle. We couldn’t see a photo of Bob without hearing those words, “when you think about it…..”, and what usually follows is some plot that will involve the two men mis-behaving in a very ungentlemanly like manner towards their wives – all in good fun of course.
Friendly Photo challenge – Shadows
Amanda from
https://forestwoodfolkart.wordpress.com/2019/06/07/friendly-friday-photo-challenge-shadows/
posted what has proved to be a difficult photo challenge for me this week, with the topic being, shadows.
Continue readingFriendly Friday Photo Challenge – Design
I’ve often seen photo challenges posted and for various reasons have never become involved, until last week. I finally took the plunge with my first post in an on-going series of Friendly Friday photo prompts. Looking though my existing photos for something that resonated with me for the theme turned out to be a great trip down memory lane.
Continue readingFriendly Friday photo challenge – Illumination
This will be my first ever participation in a photo challenge. I’ve been interested many times before – so what’s stopped me in the past? I’m a bit of a dinosaur with technology, and the guidelines for the challenge suggest links, pingbacks etc…. I start reading the guidelines, and suddenly my mind goes into white noise mode, and the thought of participating is quickly shunted to the back of my mind.
Continue readingThe new caravan has arrived
Last Thursday we headed up to Perth to pick up the new caravan.
We chose all white for our interior cupboards (I think the salesman thought we were a bit boring). We like the way white makes everything look clean and bright, and we’ll fit mirrors to the wardrobe doors and cupboards above the bed so as to make it reflect light even more, and make it look bigger. Our last van was all white, and we never tired of it.
We chose soft grey for our bench and vanity tops, and a slightly darker grey for the upholstery.
The kitchen is definitely small, but I think we’ll manage.
The van is 9 feet smaller than the Travelhome, so we’re surprised at how much storage space it has inside. So far it looks to have storage space to spare, but of course we still have a lot more things to add yet – namely clothes and food.
We’re still a week or two off having our first try out run in it. Hopefully next week-end will be dry and we’ll be able to head to a camp ground, somewhere that’s dog friendly, and has nice big fire pit.
We have to clock up 1000 kms and then take it back for it’s first service. After that we did have plans for a big winter trip taking us through three states. However we have a few things happening at the moment including Paul possibly needing some major dental work, so I think that trip’s going to be postponed.
Instead it looks like we may be doing a few camp trips closer to home, enjoying some winter camping for a change. Irish coffee around a roaring camp fire after a day of bushwalking with Mr Tilly – well I think that’s going to be more pleasure than hardship.
So, that’s a bit of a look at our new van which we’ll be towing with the Prado. It’s quite a bit different than our 25 foot fifth wheeler with the Hi-lux, but I think it’ll do. Watch this space to see how we go with our winter camping.
Whoops – bloody hell!
I’ve just realised all the reclassification updates I’ve been doing over the past few days has ended up linking to face book. So, so sorry everyone.
Yeh hah, the news we’ve been waiting for.
I don’t know if any of you remember what happened when we last applied for work on a cattle station,. What an experience that was. The agency we went through virtually told me the cooks job at Anna Creek was mine, and the manager would phone and confirm it within a few days. That was more than two years ago – and I’m still waiting. Then the mad dash from the NT to the Qld/NT border for similar station jobs, only to be told by email the day we arrived they’d employed someone else literally hours before we arrived. After which getting employment on a cattle station seemed like a bad idea.
BUT, about a month or more ago I put a short advert in the Grey Nomads on line magazine asking for work for Paul and I and briefly outlining our skills. I didn’t really expect to get anything worthwhile from it. Least of all did I expect a call from a cattle station. We’d no sooner arrived at Mataranka when we returned from a swim to find a message on the phone from a cattle station.
A few days later, and the necessary checks have been completed, and we’re packed up and ready to move off at first light tomorrow, heading back up the road a bit to Queensland and up to the Gulf of Carpentaria. It’s times like this the old Aussie Country Mile comes into play – the ‘just up the road a bit. It’s actually 1700 kms up the road – but that’s nothing in the scheme of things in this big, vast, wonderful country of ours. In fact we’ll leave Mataranka and turn onto the main highway after around three kms. Then we only turn two more corners I think before we turn into the station. I think we’ll hit a couple of sets of traffic lights in Mt Isa , but that’s about it for traffic lights. I guess that’s hard for my UK readers to comprehend. Its what gives Dorothea MacKellar’s poem about this big sun burnt country it’s meaning, all the wide open spaces. I love that poem. For those of you not familiar with the poem, please google it, I think it’s called, My Country. It sums up Australia perfectly.
Anyway, details of the jobs are still a bit sketchy. I know I’ll be cooking for around 15. I think Paul is going to be a station hand/handy man. The job will last for the season, and will finish up before the wet season sets in at the end of the year.
We’re both excited. Paul will be pleased to be using some of his life/work skills. I think he actually misses his trade, so I think he’s hoping they’ll be in need of some welding repairs around the property, but even just to be out and getting ‘work dirty’ will be good enough. For me, I’m really excited to be getting back into cooking. And I couldn’t think of anyone better to cook for than appreciative hungry men with good appetites. At least I hope they’ll be appreciative, but I’m sure I’ll win them around once they realise I’m not going to poisen them, and they’re going to bed with a full, contented belly.
If any of you remember a scene from Forest Gump – the one were Bubba is talking about all the different meals made with Shrimp…. That’ll be me in a few months, only it’ll be beef instead of shrimp.
We don’t know the details yet. The station manager will phone us tonight. I do know it’ll be full on, possibly hard, hot and dusty work for Paul, and possible long days for me. I’m sure my feet will feel it for the first week, but after that, I have no doubt I’ll settle into it well.
Despite having worked the past 10 – 15 years in the tax office and in office administration, I’ve never felt like an office worker. I’ve always referred to myself as a cook as far as work goes, and I’m really excited to be going back to it. Hopefully it’ll work out well for both us and the station, and as we’re planning to be up in the top end around this time for the next few years, maybe we’ll be invited back. But I’m getting ahead of myself, we’d better wait and see.
One thing I know is, Internet and mobile phone coverage is sketchy there. We’ll endeavour to check each at least weekly, and update the blog when time and technology allows. So, please watch this space…..
Life of Riley - on whatever 