Hi dear friends
We have had a pretty busy month, unfortunately I haven't kept a diary so will have to trust to my poor memory. But firstly let me congratulate Lydia for travelling all the way over from America and seeing much of Australia, (She has now seen some bits I haven't seen yet!) Sadly she seems to have made the mistake of underestimating the size of this country (chuckle, yes it mighty big) so she was unable to get to western Australia to see this old peregrino. But she assures me the charm of this sunburnt country will bring her back one day and she will come to the west then. I do hope so, just take a look at this months photos of one of our coasts Lydia.
Many of my friends seem to have had some minor health problems but are on the mend now thank goodness. Elaine now walks a little in Canada and tells me the weather is unseasonably warm but freezing to my way of thinking chuckle. In Spain's north Vigi has it seems has found the answer to keeping warm and that is, go walk camino! (chuckle) she and her friend Conche walked 4 days on the North camino this month and she assures me they survived the icy wind and cold. I am not sure if cognac or orujo was the best medicine at the end of each day. It would have been if I had been there he he!
Remember to live in far away places is an adventure!!!! I keep hoping one of you might get the old fingers tapping, Maybe Lydia might on her return next month.
To get back to this page, we started off the month with the Red Bull air race in Perth and there can't be many city's that could boast a better place to have it than right over the sunlit Swan River and the aeroplane hangers set on the very foreshore!
We celebrated Simons birthday with family on this day and John and Tricia cooked a superb paella for us on their balcony. Just click on the play button on the picture to hopefully see and hear the planes.
I worked like mad on the Ford Transit van and framed up the cupboards and put the stove in so we could test my ideas out when we travelled to Denmark WA to see John and Silvia this month. I set to work making the gas stove fold out of the back, after opening the rear doors this time. The sink too was fitted but was not connected up and there is a lot to do to finish but there was no rush. I was now able to test ideas out and now on our return I think I will stick to this rear kitchen idea as it needs very little alteration to be quite successful, giving more space inside the van. The bed was comfortable and easy to erect too, and the storage space below easy to get at. I used curtains from the old van and while not fitting properly they gave me ideas on the best and simplest way to give us privacy. The Porta Pot toilet like the mother-in-law seems to be in the way wherever you put her! But I'll get over that yet.
Unfortunately John had to go to America the very week we were to visit him. We did see him for the Friday night as he left from Perth then on the Saturday we drove down to help Silvia and enjoy the grandchildren. Oh! how they have grown!!!
Emil is quite the sensible young man these days and spends all his free time belting out tunes on his ukulele to the amazement of all that hear him.
Click on the play button to see him play, anyway believe me this was not his best performance, when warmed up and not distracted by his friends with a Wally book (you know find the Wally! another great passion of his) he charmed all who passed as he sat busking in town. This was his idea too he had seen others, grown men do it so why can't he, he asked. He did very well too and says he will put the money to buying a new ukulele like his dads. His latest achievement is playing with his dad and some of dads friends in a talent completion! Not sure how they went but I believe they were well applauded.
Maya too has grown and becomes a fairy queen, most of the time chuckle, she loves dressing up and goes to ballet classes now!
Benjamin leaves you lost for words as he tries all the time to make you laugh and smile, mainly by getting up to things he knows he shouldn't! Just look at his cheeky grin as he comes running into the granny flat in the morning!
With the amount of rain we had I am amazed at the number of photos we took even after I had dropped my camera and smashed it!!!. First was on a walk Maisie and I made on the Bibbulmun track up the hill behind Johns and Silvia's house. This is a superb climb with flowers, rocks and tall trees and distant glimpses of the sea from the top.
The next trip was we took the van to Parry's Beach to use my little tent. The Bibbulmun comes through here too and here you can camp for $7, just toilets and not to good water (boil it well). A lovely beach but jellyfish on the beach showed it was probably better for fishing than swimming. The night on hard ground was as good as ever it gets for old bones, but I found my new idea of anti slip mat under my sleeping bag worked well and I was not so tangled up in it as I normally am. The tent performed well with no condensation in it. At 6.30 I sneaked in beside Maisie in the comfort of the van bed he he!
But as it never rained that night. I did put it up again in the garden for one night and it poured but it let no rain in and also had no condensation and all seemed very dry inside the inner tent.
Some of you may know I have put an umbrella on the end of my staff and have picked up another nickname of Robinson Crusoe! So seeing a beach called Crusoe beach
we took the van down the track and found a superb beach right on the shore of the inlet. Here we had a lovely walk all to ourselves, see the photos of the island and those large marbles on the beach and the boat jetty and pelicans.
Another time Maisie and I walked on an old logging rail track by the side of the inlet (which is as big as a large lake by the way). The old rail track being flat and wide was a pleasant and easy walk. By chance we saw a large monitor lizard that seemed not frightened of us at all! He sat unmoving as we took flash photos of him. We could have gone as far as Crusoe Beach on this track but we did about 7 k then turned back as time was passing and the rain was starting again.
Another day we drove to Peaceful Bay, here we had lunch in the van on a sheltered carpark near the campsite and later a nice walk on the Bibbulmun track again along the beach but unfortunately the cool wind made Maisie have earache. This is stunning a coastline but must be hard trekking with a big heavy pack. Near the carpark we met a group of schoolboys setting off. They were very heavily laden and that night we had the most terrible storm!!!!! We thought of them as we went to bed in the cosy Granny flat!!!! I was glad I had not picked that night to camp myself!!!The local beach with just Emil was great too as we drew boats in the sand as we wandered the shoreline
John was due home when I fell victim to some horrible bug and spent the day in bed, but by the time he had arrived and I had awoken next morning I was feeling a little better. I said I would risk driving home so after breakfast we all met up in a café in town and here we said our goodbyes and hugged the children and set off back home.
Maisie had not driven the van before and it does seem big after the little Ford KA but we chose the quiet road home and she drove some 70 odd k and did very well. By the time I took over again all tummy pains had gone it had been a pleasant drive in sunshine too.
Christmas is coming and I am trying to get the pool working for some hot swimming weather by fitting a new filter, then that rotten bug returned and slowed me up again, Oh well till next month
Abrazos
Michael and Maisie
We have had a pretty busy month, unfortunately I haven't kept a diary so will have to trust to my poor memory. But firstly let me congratulate Lydia for travelling all the way over from America and seeing much of Australia, (She has now seen some bits I haven't seen yet!) Sadly she seems to have made the mistake of underestimating the size of this country (chuckle, yes it mighty big) so she was unable to get to western Australia to see this old peregrino. But she assures me the charm of this sunburnt country will bring her back one day and she will come to the west then. I do hope so, just take a look at this months photos of one of our coasts Lydia.
Many of my friends seem to have had some minor health problems but are on the mend now thank goodness. Elaine now walks a little in Canada and tells me the weather is unseasonably warm but freezing to my way of thinking chuckle. In Spain's north Vigi has it seems has found the answer to keeping warm and that is, go walk camino! (chuckle) she and her friend Conche walked 4 days on the North camino this month and she assures me they survived the icy wind and cold. I am not sure if cognac or orujo was the best medicine at the end of each day. It would have been if I had been there he he!
Remember to live in far away places is an adventure!!!! I keep hoping one of you might get the old fingers tapping, Maybe Lydia might on her return next month.
To get back to this page, we started off the month with the Red Bull air race in Perth and there can't be many city's that could boast a better place to have it than right over the sunlit Swan River and the aeroplane hangers set on the very foreshore!We celebrated Simons birthday with family on this day and John and Tricia cooked a superb paella for us on their balcony. Just click on the play button on the picture to hopefully see and hear the planes.
I worked like mad on the Ford Transit van and framed up the cupboards and put the stove in so we could test my ideas out when we travelled to Denmark WA to see John and Silvia this month. I set to work making the gas stove fold out of the back, after opening the rear doors this time. The sink too was fitted but was not connected up and there is a lot to do to finish but there was no rush. I was now able to test ideas out and now on our return I think I will stick to this rear kitchen idea as it needs very little alteration to be quite successful, giving more space inside the van. The bed was comfortable and easy to erect too, and the storage space below easy to get at. I used curtains from the old van and while not fitting properly they gave me ideas on the best and simplest way to give us privacy. The Porta Pot toilet like the mother-in-law seems to be in the way wherever you put her! But I'll get over that yet.Unfortunately John had to go to America the very week we were to visit him. We did see him for the Friday night as he left from Perth then on the Saturday we drove down to help Silvia and enjoy the grandchildren. Oh! how they have grown!!!
Emil is quite the sensible young man these days and spends all his free time belting out tunes on his ukulele to the amazement of all that hear him.
Click on the play button to see him play, anyway believe me this was not his best performance, when warmed up and not distracted by his friends with a Wally book (you know find the Wally! another great passion of his) he charmed all who passed as he sat busking in town. This was his idea too he had seen others, grown men do it so why can't he, he asked. He did very well too and says he will put the money to buying a new ukulele like his dads. His latest achievement is playing with his dad and some of dads friends in a talent completion! Not sure how they went but I believe they were well applauded.
Maya too has grown and becomes a fairy queen, most of the time chuckle, she loves dressing up and goes to ballet classes now!Benjamin leaves you lost for words as he tries all the time to make you laugh and smile, mainly by getting up to things he knows he shouldn't! Just look at his cheeky grin as he comes running into the granny flat in the morning!
With the amount of rain we had I am amazed at the number of photos we took even after I had dropped my camera and smashed it!!!. First was on a walk Maisie and I made on the Bibbulmun track up the hill behind Johns and Silvia's house. This is a superb climb with flowers, rocks and tall trees and distant glimpses of the sea from the top.The next trip was we took the van to Parry's Beach to use my little tent. The Bibbulmun comes through here too and here you can camp for $7, just toilets and not to good water (boil it well). A lovely beach but jellyfish on the beach showed it was probably better for fishing than swimming. The night on hard ground was as good as ever it gets for old bones, but I found my new idea of anti slip mat under my sleeping bag worked well and I was not so tangled up in it as I normally am. The tent performed well with no condensation in it. At 6.30 I sneaked in beside Maisie in the comfort of the van bed he he!
But as it never rained that night. I did put it up again in the garden for one night and it poured but it let no rain in and also had no condensation and all seemed very dry inside the inner tent.
Some of you may know I have put an umbrella on the end of my staff and have picked up another nickname of Robinson Crusoe! So seeing a beach called Crusoe beach
we took the van down the track and found a superb beach right on the shore of the inlet. Here we had a lovely walk all to ourselves, see the photos of the island and those large marbles on the beach and the boat jetty and pelicans.
Another time Maisie and I walked on an old logging rail track by the side of the inlet (which is as big as a large lake by the way). The old rail track being flat and wide was a pleasant and easy walk. By chance we saw a large monitor lizard that seemed not frightened of us at all! He sat unmoving as we took flash photos of him. We could have gone as far as Crusoe Beach on this track but we did about 7 k then turned back as time was passing and the rain was starting again.
Another day we drove to Peaceful Bay, here we had lunch in the van on a sheltered carpark near the campsite and later a nice walk on the Bibbulmun track again along the beach but unfortunately the cool wind made Maisie have earache. This is stunning a coastline but must be hard trekking with a big heavy pack. Near the carpark we met a group of schoolboys setting off. They were very heavily laden and that night we had the most terrible storm!!!!! We thought of them as we went to bed in the cosy Granny flat!!!! I was glad I had not picked that night to camp myself!!!The local beach with just Emil was great too as we drew boats in the sand as we wandered the shoreline
John was due home when I fell victim to some horrible bug and spent the day in bed, but by the time he had arrived and I had awoken next morning I was feeling a little better. I said I would risk driving home so after breakfast we all met up in a café in town and here we said our goodbyes and hugged the children and set off back home.
Maisie had not driven the van before and it does seem big after the little Ford KA but we chose the quiet road home and she drove some 70 odd k and did very well. By the time I took over again all tummy pains had gone it had been a pleasant drive in sunshine too.
Christmas is coming and I am trying to get the pool working for some hot swimming weather by fitting a new filter, then that rotten bug returned and slowed me up again, Oh well till next month
Abrazos
Michael and Maisie
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