It’s been my turn to be lax and delay my blog post. Delia’s post of two weeks ago diarised our day trip to Margaret River and I haven’t done much photography since then. But I’ll put some of my Margaret River ones in a gallery at the bottom of this post. The main photography that I have been doing is Delia’s own artwork in preparation for launching her website. She has been challenging herself with a 90 day artwork in a day challenge. Here are some of my recent favourites. We haven’t been idle otherwise though. Last Sunday we went to Fremantle to see the WA Water colour exhibition with F&B. The talent on show was amazing. After that we had a meal enjoying the spring weather at a pavement cafe. After lunch we found a gallery showing selected professional artists, definitely a very arty day. So Spring has definitely arrived, apart from lovely outings needing sunscreen my morning dog walks benefit from being a bit earlier to enjoy the early coolness. The nights aren’t (yet) hot so sleep is easy (when not disturbed by a bored nocturnal cat). As for me- I have been busying myself with Delia’s website as well as my son Adam’s (the psychiatrist) blog. He has been publishing on Medium and is gaining some traction. Have a look https://dradambell.com I have also been attending workshops and network meetings at the WBA (Wanneroo Business Association). I have even been on the radio – albeit a local

We had a day trip yesterday and were out of the house from 7am and didn’t get home to almost 9:00pm.  It was a very long day, but dad was driving so Pat and I just got to enjoy ourselves.  At 7:00 am we jumped into dad’s car with coffee in hand (dog walk and breakfast had already happened).  We headed to Margaret River 275 km south of Perth.  It’s a wine, food, art and surfing region.  We had a lot of fun, but it was an exhausting day for me.  We arrived at Margaret River around 10:30 (we had a stop for coffee, bathroom and petrol on the way).  It was drizzling a little, but nothing to really worry about, half an hour later and a few purchases later (cheese included) we headed into the main part of the town, unfortunately the main road is currently being worked on so it wasn’t very pleasant.  We did do some more shopping – this time to start our Christmas shopping.  Yes seriously, Christmas shopping – this is what happens when you need to send things overseas. Then we drove out to the coast out to Surfers Point then up to the river mouth (going past Fraggle Rock- yes that is its name).  I’ve got some fabulous photos (see below) and one of these will definitely be a painting before the end of the week.  (Follow me on Instagram if you want to see my paintings – deliawallaceart – I have a

I have to say I miss the songbirds of Europe. No melodious song thrushes or blackbirds here. I believe there are songbirds in Aus, just not here. Its the dawn squawk. The ravens here have a peculiar cawing – elements of UK crows but often ending with a diminishing aaaaaaah that sounds like one of those cheap cow noise makers – you know small cylindrical things you turn over and they make a kind of mooing sound. The sulphur crested cockatoos have a really raucous squawk too. Not to mention the pink and grey galahs. And don’t get me started on the magpies. A haunting fluting sound that some love but around here they call all night, in a repeating pattern every few minutes.  Apparently its about the time they start to breed and no longer “sing” at night but commence dive-bombing passers by with those wickedly sharp beaks that Wallis has learnt to be wary of. And lets not forget the kookaburra! Below are some pictures and sound samples. Try clicking on them all to get an idea of our dawn “chorus”. Araluen Tulip Festival Less than an hours drive away from Perth is the Darling Range, within which lie what is locally referred to as the Perth Hills. Deep in these hills lies Araluen Botanic Park. Each year they have a Tulip Festival where we went to see some tulips. It was towards the end of the season and whilst some tulips were going over most were still

Despite me not being very good at writing a blog recently, we have actually been doing stuff! I’m actually going to work my way backwards as it is easier on my brain. Sunday was Pat’s and my wedding anniversary – this time 12 years ago we were in Wales in the sunshine getting married. Sunday (20 th ) here in Perth was windy – very windy – and wet. We decided that we would treat ourselves to a meal out at lunch time and went to a restaurant that overlooks the beach and is located where I grew up. We had the best table in the restaurant – on the corner of two windows looking out over the sea – we could watch the clouds race across the sky and the rain coming in. We had a lovely meal and enjoyed sitting and talking. On Friday, we went on our usual evening walk with a walking group – Siena had her first encounter with an Australian snake – thankfully she didn’t get bitten but it definitely made us very aware that the weather is getting warm enough for the snakes to be out and about. On Thursday as it was a beautiful day Pat, Siena and I drove to Kings Park. Kings Park is a huge park that is on a hill overlooking Perth. It was stunning as the spring flowers are now out (and I’m having to take hay fever tablets daily). We got to explore only a small

North Beach We fancied trying a different dog beach, so satnav suitably programmed we headed off to North Beach dog beach. North Beach is a suburb so its not North Dog Beach. Actually its only a few kms to the south of out usual dog beach but as it turned out is a very different prospect. Initially hard to find, I stopped someone with a dog and said that our satnav tells us there’s a dog beach here – but she just knew about the one we usually go to. However a few metres along we saw dogs on the beach and a sign at the stairs saying dogs allowed. So down we went. We wouldn’t have been able to do our usual trick of just taking our shoes off and padding along the path to the sand because the rocks we had to traverse were sharp limestone. Not that Siena was bothered. Once down we were presented with a series a fairly small beaches separated (at least as far as the tide would allow) by sharp rocks. It didn’t seem to bother the many dogs who were there and, as usual, Siena had a great time. Pernod Pernod or any Pastis is difficult to get here. Delia has just shown her crazy love by actually bringing a bottle back from her cat food shopping trip. No we don’t give the cat Pernod (though who knows he is such a fussy oik). Anyway we had seen some Ouzo for $53