It was 15 years ago (more or less) that, on my first trip to Australia, I proposed to Delia. Fortunately for me and for the remaining two weeks of our time in Aus, she accepted. I had originally planned to propose in the Pinnacles park itself but ended up lining up a bottle of sparkling wine at the Hotel restaurant that evening. So, back again, on our 13th wedding anniversary weekend we found ourselves at the very same hotel restaurant drinking sparkling wine again. During the intervening 15 years the hotel had undergone expansion, as had Cervantes itself. When we actually ventured to the Pinnacles park, it too had undergone some changes in the form of a large “Discovery Centre” and a board walk viewing platform. However it seemed that little progress had been made in deciding the origin of these strange features – “lost aboriginals’ fingers trying to escape quicksand” seemed almost as unlikely an explanation, to me, as the more scientific idea of it being a fossil forest. We spent several hours watching and photographing the sunset. I had hoped to get some shots of the arc of the galaxy (and the core which can be seen here in Aus); however I was to be disappointed due to the clouds and a full moon. The Lobster Shack in Cervantes provided a wonderful lunch the following day and is probably the highlight of the small town aside from its natural attractions of sun, sea and sand. That evening we

Hi everyone, firstly an apology for the lack of paintings on my Instagram and to share via this blog.  I’ve not been doing a lot of painting of late, not sure why, but watch this space… the inspiration is kicking in.  Pat and I went to the opening night of an exhibition last week, and it really got me inspired again.  I am hoping to put some of my work in next year.  It is a fund-raising exhibition for the school my sister works at. I’m also back to Dragon Boating, but unfortunately, we haven’t been out on the water of late, the weather has been horrible and we won’t go out if it is raining or there is the risk of lightning (and the task of baling out!).  The river is also currently very, very high and there are lots of flood warnings in place.  Not the usual state of affairs for Perth I must admit, but it will make for an interesting Avon Decent in a couple of weeks (it’s a white-water event along the Avon & Swan rivers).  There is a 6km dragon boat race as well – but that isn’t in the white water! Last weekend we also had one of my cousins and her husband for Sunday lunch which was really nice, Pat made a slow cooked pulled pork and roast potatoes and lots of other veggies.  We also had cheese and some lovely little lime meringue tarts (which I made).  Today we’ve got my

Walking Siena for her evening “relief”, I was struck, as I often have been, by how springy the grass here is. In the UK if it’s mown it is pretty solid, but here, its like walking on a thick layer of rubber. It always takes me aback, just not natural!  I believe it to be buffalo grass and especially drought tolerant. That being said, come summer, any grass, that isn’t watered copiously, turns brown and vanishes (though usually returning after rain. I am sure an Aussie will pipe up and correct my misapprehensions but, whatever, it IS springy. Locked down this week so not a lot happening. Delia worked from home, it was like old times with us both at home, nice to have company other than Siena. Delia started back with Dragon Boating this morning (Saturday) but I stayed in bed too long to get out in time to see here paddling past my usual jetty. It sounds like its going to be a busy dragon boating year for her, what with Masters, the Avon Descent and a Regatta. She’ll have arm and shoulder muscles like Desperate Dan and will be able to open sauce bottles at last. More importantly, the Tranby House tea room are open and we plan a leisurely Sunday brunch. Its been a rainy week and tomorrow night is supposed to be a humdinger of a storm. So, in case we cannot do so tomorrow, we took another walk with Siena along the river and

Firstly, an apology we should have had a blog up last weekend, but unfortunately, we had a very sick Siena (our dog) – 2 trips to an emergency vet and 2 days in our local vets on fluids, x-rays, blood tests, an ultra sound – it was intense, we actually thought we were going to lose her so that made for a stressful time. On top of all that, Perth has gone back into Lockdown.  Thankfully Siena is on the mend, she isn’t 100% yet, but she is definitely getting back to her normal bouncy self. We have been in Western Australia now for just over a year.  It has been an odd year – once we came out of quarantine, Perth was so strange as Covid had been eliminated in the community so we could go out and about in a normal way – which after coming from France, felt very odd to us.  Thankfully we got to live that way for nearly 9 months (I think) before we went into our first lockdown (in Perth) in January, and when we finally got to move into our own place in April – another lockdown and now this one. For me the biggest noticeable effect of COVID once I was in Perth, was how long it took me to get a job.  It actually ended up being a much more difficult year than I anticipated, I think because things didn’t happen the way we expected.  But we did get to

We are still enjoying our exploration of the area. An evening drink at The Swallow Bar. A good atmosphere and cosy, heaven knows where they would put the live jazz bands they often advertise. On another night, a meal with the Motivated in Maylands Meetup at Rifos and on to the Lyric Bar for some expensive drinks. A good social evening. Last Friday we decided to give the nearby (walkable) Golf club bar a try. We sat outside, watched the end of the sunset and enjoyed a glass of wine served by a very enthusiastic bartender. I guess being only two of 4 customers made us popular. It was a bit chilly and the outside was not the best place to be but the interior was deserted and set up for a function it seemed. Even the free sausage rolls and pies (for the clientele they hadn’t got that evening) didn’t really make us think this would be a regular friday evening for us, perhaps in the spring? Yesterday , we joined a dog walk Meetup that followed much of the route we had followed in our walk into town that Delia recounted in the previous post. We cut off the first couple of kilometres to meet at the Maylands Yacht Club with where we had a wonderful view of this meander of the Swan river, even graced by a black swan gliding along with the Perth skyline as a backdrop. For myself I entered my photo club competition with

It’s been a while.  I think I’ve needed a break from a few things, blog writing and art being of the big ones.  I’ve also not been on Instagram or Facebook so I guess I’ve taken a break from a few things.  Except my sewing – now that I’m in our new place I have been doing some sewing – I think it’s because I have a nice big table to work on – and the reality is I do need some creative outlet and if I’m not doing my art, I need to do something.  However, we are planning to write regularly now – the plan is for every week. What have we been up to?  We’ve been doing a few things, we had dinner out last Sunday with a new social group we have joined.  It appears to be fairly active and it has things on in our suburb so that is great.  We did miss one yesterday which we would have enjoyed, but we already had plans.  We’re currently having a long weekend, which is nice, on Saturday morning we walked all the way into East Perth – return journey is around 10km – and since I haven’t really done anything like that for a while, I did feel it.  But it was a lovely day and the walk is beside the river the entire way.  We were also able to get coffee and sit down at the mid-way point – always a good thing – it’s

We moved on 24th April to a compact 2 bed unit in Maylands. Just a 15 minute drive to Delia’s workplace and 50 metres from the Swan river. We were surprised to get it so easily, we had been looking at some of the far north suburbs with no luck. We were looking at a place in the same development and the agent showed us this place. It already had a dog door which the house owner thought she might need to remove and that seemed to have clinched the deal… two weeks later here we were. A 3 day snap lockdown in Perth, to our surprise, hadn’t affected us much. Our removalist considered themselves an essential service and who were we to argue. Winter approaches and the dawn gets later each morning. This gives me a chance to see some lovely sunrises over the river on my morning dog-walks. One evening I came across an enclosure and some long canoes and a sign advertising a Dragon Boat club, notable the Amazons – a women’s team especially for breast cancer survivors and their supporters. Delia managed the last few sessions before they pause for winter. Dragon boats are long canoes which are paddled rather than rowed by up to 20 or so crew. It does involve competitions but for now Delia has to wait for 6 weeks before the next session. I did manage to see her paddle past, from the jetty in the photo, at one session. I waved

A house hunting that is.  Before anyone gets too excited, it is for rental property.  We had a chat with a mortgage broker this week and now know a lot more about the Australian market.  While being a contractor doesn’t preclude me from getting a mortgage, I do need to have had at least 12 months steady income.  Therefore, Pat and I have decided to rent, and since we are planning on renting we decided we would head somewhere which would give me an easier commute into work.  We are now looking in the Inner Eastern suburbs of Perth and I’m considering getting a bike (preferably electric) to ride to work.  We had a good look around yesterday near the river and found a couple of places that we think would suit us and we have applied for them.  We shall see what happens.  We think we will be renting for between 1-2 years. If any of you remember I mentioned a while back that Pat gave me a bread baking book for my birthday – I’ve been slowly working my way through – and up to know have had fairly good success with my baking.  That is until I tried Croissants!  I do have some very nice, sweet, bread rolls that are croissant shaped – but I don’t have croissants.  I totally lost the lamination in the dough (which is what gives you the nice flaky pastry).  These may definitely take more than one attempt. We had a nice