ADD ONS

Hi again, just thought that while the Internet/Laptop/Blog site is behaving I would throw in a couple more of these beautiful photos of this beautiful part of the world.  You will also see a couple of my recent paintings, just to give you an idea of how I spend my spare time while we are on the road.  Forgive the amaturish attempts, but I do believe I am getting a little better as I go along.
Steph.

Island off Hamelin Bay



Still Hamelin Bay



AMAZING AUGUSTA

Early morning on the Blackwood

The Old Water Wheel - Fresh Water!

Feeding Rays at Hamelin Bay

Speccy Pic taken by DD

Some of the Waves that made Margaret River Famous

Lighthouse on the point where the Indian Ocean Meets the Great Southern Ocean

Addictive Augusta



After wishing our new found friends a fond farewell we trundled on down the coast to one of our favourite spots Augusta. Augusta is a small village right on the south-western tip of the country. It is where on the map, the Indian Ocean meets the Great Southern Ocean. The town sits right on the entrance of the Blackwood river and is surrounded on three sides by water, the River on one and the two oceans on the other two sides. It is without a doubt one of the most picturesque places I know. We have been visiting Augusta for many years now, but this is the first time we have stayed in a caravan park. We chose Turner’s Caravan Park right in town and we found it to be very good indeed. The only drama we had was the weather. I know some of you will find this hard to understand, but one of the reasons we headed south was to get away from The Hot. Well, while it has been considerably cooler (and I do use the term lightly) than Perth, we have still had pretty much warm weather everywhere, the only saving grace being that the nights down here are much, much cooler. Augusta was no exception. It was remarkably warm there. Not realising this, we accepted a bay without any shade and found to our regret that it was too hot and we were compelled to use the air-con quite a bit. Thank goodness that we had it to use! I have to say, it never occurred to us that we would be compelled to use air-con to cool in Augusta.


As usual we spent a good part of our week in Augusta revisiting all our old favourite scenic spots. The Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse is particularly good, although we didn’t pay the price to actually go in this time having done it plenty of times in the past. We visited the old Water Wheel and all of the surrounding coastal spots. There is some spectacular coastline in that vicinity, rocky and wild. It is even more spectacular in stormy weather, but as you would realise by now, we certainly didn’t see anything of that!


We visited beautiful Hamelin Bay where they feed the big rays in the bay. It just so happened that we wandered in at the end of feeding time and we were just amazed by the scene before us. Several large rays still loitered along the shore-line hoping for a hand out, and mingled amongst them were an abundance of Silver Gulls and Great Southern Gulls. The water of course is crystal clear there and it was quite a spectacle. We were told that 3 different types of Ray come in to feed there, I’m sorry but I cannot recall the names, but suffice to say they ranged from the dinner plate size to the rather large when we were there.


We also did a coastal drive from Augusta up to Margaret River visiting along the way a place called Redgate Beach. This was an amazing spot with enormous waves and huge rocks strewn along the coast. The beach was very popular with surfers and we were somewhat surprised after travelling along what appeared to be a remote back track to find the car-park at the end overflowing and the beach well populated. We discovered the same thing when we arrived at Prestons Beach (the main beach attached to Margaret River) where the considerable waves were quite thickly peopled by surfers. We were quite perplexed to understand how so many folk were there, on a week day, driving expensive vehicles and using expensive equipment. We are aware that the National Pro-Surfing Championships are happening at this time of the year, but must admit we had no idea as to the popularity of the event/sport. Every car park was full to over-flowing and every beach and part was full of animated well dressed youngish people – how do they afford to do this???


Anyway, the surf was spectacular and the waves were huge so we enjoyed the spectacle presented. We also took a drive over to East Augusta where we discovered there really wasn’t a great deal to see and down to a well known camping area called Alexander Bridge. Alexander Bridge is along the Bussel Highway not far from Augusta and is one of the best off-road camping areas we have seen. Now those of you who know us know that we are soft and don’t usually free camp, but we do go and have a look to see what we are missing out on. This was certainly a lesson for us – the place was right on the banks of the Blackwood and was heavily wooded with delightful little camp spots set amongst the trees. Mind you, a fire would be a disaster there and while that would normally not be an issue in this region, due to the prolonged dry spell at the moment, it could be a problem just now. We may have tried to get into Alexander River campsite after leaving Augusta except for the fact that we really felt it would have been too difficult to get Jezabelle into the tight spots available.


While in Augusta we caught up with friends Ken and Robin. Ken and DD are old work-mates and always talk up a storm when we catch up. As we caught up at the local watering hole, the Augusta Pub, it was no great hardship for Robin and myself, who while enjoying the stunning view from the hotel, spent a happy time running down and complaining about our respective blokes and ruminating over the foibles of our family and various children and grandies. It was lovely to catch up but it always strikes me as odd that whilst we all reside in the suburbs of Perth, we wait until we get to Augusta to catch up!! Says something about the stresses and strains of living and in their case, working, in the big smoke. Ken is now well into his 60s but is one of those blokes who thrives on his work and is finding it difficult to let go of the reins. I’m not sure that Robin who herself still works part-time, is looking forward to having him home all day every day. I know that all of you women who are in my age bracket are now sagely nodding your heads as it is a dilemma for most of us, isn’t it girls? The Augusta Pub incidentally must have the best pub view in WA – it is situated at pretty much the highest point in the town and overlooks both the mouth of the Blackwood and the surrounding bay – speccy to say the least!!! Enjoying the view with a good simple meal and nice ‘drop o’ somethin’ is a hardship, I can tell you!!


Turner’s Caravan Park incidentally was quite good, well situated right on the river and within walking distance (for the fit) into town. The amenities were fine and the park is dog friendly. There is a Factory Direct Fish outlet in town which sells (unusually) local catch including at the moment very well priced blue swimmer crabs. The local bakery is excellent and there you can purchase your mandatory crusty white with which to make the fresh bread, butter and crab sandwiches with salt, pepper and vinegar – doesn’t that sound awful?


I must warn you too, of the dangers of feeding the birds in that park! Of course, in my inimitable bad style I spotted and fed a maggie that I saw hovering one day, well.... before I knew where I was I had 11 of them and were they tame!! They were a pushy gang and all of them vied to eat from my hands. This exercise was hampered somewhat by the antics of one in particular of a group of black ducks that had also cottoned on to the available feed-train. One of these admirable critters would sit all day at my feet while I painted and every so often just gently tug at the towel I had draped across my lap. If the towel was absent, he would simply peck at my strides, just to remind me he was there. When the maggies were being fed he would literally jump up and down in agitation as they received what he obviously considered to be his tucker. In addition to the maggies and our ducky mates, we also had a very animated Wattle bird who jumped around on the table amongst my paints and a Grey Butcher Bird who literally sang for his supper – it was all just delightful – of course the gulls tried to get in on the action too and we had to suspend feeding operations when they came around .

See you soon Steph.



Surf Rolls in at Yallingup and Rocky beaches of Cape Naturalist

 

A Patchwork Cow at the Olive Farm

 Bustling Busselton



From Pemberton we took the scenic drive along the Vasse Highway to Busselton on the coast. Busselton is not the sort of venue we would normally visit as the town is quite large and the parks all a bit too ‘residential’ for our tastes. This time we were not there for the scenery however, we were there for the company. Whilst on the road last year, we met a delightful couple, Annie and JC who look after the Supreme Owners Group (SOG) in WA. Of course, they convinced us to join the group. Since then we have enjoyed the monthly News Letters and the odd question or enquiry from other Supreme Owners that they publish from time to time. Sadly we had not been able to participate in any activities until now and we were very happy indeed to be able to join the group at a get together in Busselton.


We booked in at the Kookaburra (No 3) park in Busselton almost right on the ocean front and only a short walk to the famous Busselton Jetty. I think they ended up with 11 vans and we had a most enjoyable week with our new found friends. Not all was smooth sailing however. The first casualty was my own beloved DD. Now those of you who have met The Bloke will know that he has an admirably smooth and bare pate these days and being of reasonably tall stature, his shinny dome is often decorated with bumps and scratches from where he constantly scrapes and head-butts various parts of the interior of the van. On this particular day, yours truly was outdoors happily throwing paint at a canvas when Helen who was walking towards me suddenly paled and gasped at something behind me. Well............I turned around and there stood my beloved with both hands clamping a white cloth to his head whilst blood cascaded in gory streams down his face. It appears he had been bending down under the awning struts to get something out of one of his splendiferous bags, when he stood up quickly, neatly sconing himself on the overhead strut. Now folk, he didn’t cut his head, instead, he came up so quickly and forcibly that he literally SPLIT his scone. When he gingerly lifted the cloth from his head, there was a gaping wound some 4 inches long right along the middle of his head running from front to back. Annie was on the scene quickly and both she and I were of the opinion that DD (Dilapidated Doug) should at least go to the Drs where we felt he would be stitched up. Of course it was like trying to put the proverbial cat in a box and our staunch hero simply refused to go. Now if you have any ideas how to get someone of DD’s stature into a car against his will I wish you would tell me.........as it was we had to acquiesce to his wished and instead we patched him up to the best of our abilities. It was thanks to Karen and her trusty medical kit that we ended up putting those neat little strips across the wound which acted pretty much like stitches anyway. I don’t think any man has been better looked after than The Bloke in the next few days – so many ladies looking after him and asking how he was. We monitored him closely particularly for the first 24 hours just in case of concussion and then of course infection. It seems he is made of pretty stern stuff after all and has recovered well from his mishap. He is still sporting a couple of those strips Karen and only removes them when after showering they sort of spring attractively away from his head!


The next disaster was poor old JC who suffered unmentionable distress when one of his body parts refused to function. A trip to emergency in the early hours of the morning followed by a couple of days of bionic type apparatus attached to his nether regions saw poor old John through the first part of his ordeal. The worst part was yet to come, I gather, when he returned home and his condition deteriorated. For the sake of John’s privacy I won’t go into any further details except to say how much I admired both John and Annie in their hour of difficulty. Considering the delicate nature of John’s situation I was just blown away by how well he dealt with the constant enquiries from all and sundry regarding his situation. Annie too was stoic in the face of difficulties and stood-by her man through all the problems. Not once did either of them shirk in their hosting duties and they continued to look after all of us without stint. What’s more they continued to smile throughout the whole ordeal. It reminds me of a quote my granny put in my little autograph book when I was a girl...


“A man worthwhile is one who can smile when everything’s gone all wrong”


Annie and John, thanks so much for the wonderful work you did to make us all feel welcome and to make the week such a success.


We met some lovely people in that week, particularly Helen& Jim and Karen & Fay who were our most immediate neighbours. Jim outdid himself in catching heron and JC complimented his efforts with diligent use of his smoker. The subsequent delight of freshly caught and smoked heron was delicious. Daily sun-downers were a feature of the week and I am sure we all left with an added kilo or 2.


The weather was kind to us as we enjoyed warm and balmy weather just a little cooler than those poor folk still sweltering in Perth. All good things must, they say, come to an end, and so too did our week with the Supreme Owners Group (SOG) as slowly each of our new found mates lumbered out of the Kookaburra Park. The park incidentally was very good and it was dog friendly. As I said before, it was perhaps a bit tame by our standards as we tend to prefer more unkempt surroundings, but it was level, grassy, shady and well appointed. Busselton itself is surprisingly large. We hadn’t really looked at Busselton for many a year and we were pretty well blown away by the growth there. Like many of our South West coastal towns, there have been quite extensive housing developments and land values, even now are pretty steep. The town sports everything you would be likely to need to live there and then some.


From Busselton we drove down to Dunsborough and Yallingup and much of the Cape Naturalist National Park. There is some very pretty coastline along the northern edge and some starkly beautiful wilder scenery on the southernmost end. Dunsborough is a delightful spot and very popular with retirees and Yallingup is a well known and popular surf beach, where once upon a time in another life altogether, I was part owner of the now rather upmarket Caravan Park and cafe.


In truth we didn’t do the area justice and will perhaps revisit to better describe it at a later date.

BRIDGETOWN & PEMBERTON

Giant Reflections

Gloucester Tree

Into the Heart of theKarri

Beautiful Bridgetown



While at Maranup Ford we drove into Bridgetown to visit our friends and old ‘neighbours’ Rod and Rita and their beautiful old dog Rebel. R&R have recently built a lovely new home in one of the little developments that have sprung up around this picturesque township. Their home was predictably lovely and the outlook from their back veranda quite delightful, overlooking a large spring-fed dam and plentiful jarrah forests. They have accomplished a great deal in the short time they have been there and have already made considerable inroads to establishing a garden. We were made very welcome by our hosts and they spoilt us terribly with a delicious meal eaten with a nice drop overlooking their new kingdom. Just beautiful!


The township of Bridgetown is in my opinion one of the prettiest spots in WA. It is only 3 hours drive from Perth and is set pretty much in the middle of the Blackwood River Valley. The country there is steep and green, and is one of the very few places in WA where you can actually enjoy beautiful autumnal colours at the change of the season. The town has a distinct ‘village’ feel to it and most of the buildings there have been either built or decorated to fit that particular vibe. It does have the dubious reputation of being the coldest spot in WA and we were amazed to see, only a couple of days after we left there, they enjoyed a minimum of 4 degrees while the rest of the state pretty much sweltered.


Priceless Pemberton


From Bridgetown we delved yet deeper into the South West and wandered down to the beautiful little town of Pemberton nestled deep within the Karri forest. For those of you who haven’t experienced our Karri forests, it is worth knowing just a little bit about this wonderful and stunningly beautiful part of the world.


The Karri trees of the SW forests are incredibly beautiful and amazingly tall trees, soaring high above the Jarrah and Marri which also grow in abundance. Karri timber is super strong and sadly that made it a wonderful subject for railway sleepers and the area was heavily logged in the ‘early days’ and in fact right up until not so long ago. I believe the timber is still logged today but a little more assiduously (I Hope). There has been much action to protect the ‘Old Growth Forests’ and many of the old timber towns have now been re-directed towards tourism as a means to survival. Of course the South West is also now a Mecca for gourmet foods and wines and even truffles are now grown in this region. The area is also dotted with a plethora of little studios displaying and selling a wide range of arty/crafty stuff from paintings, to pottery and glassware and so much more. I must confess, we have never really done the ‘tourist thing’ here as DD is (like most men) pretty adverse to wandering around these little boutique style venues. I think truth be told he is even more adverse to having his pockets ‘picked’ by the outrageously priced stuff that is sold by some of these establishments. The sad thing is that a great deal of the products really are very good, but they will overprice to capture that tourist dollar, leaving the rest of us in the cold. Can’t say that I disagree with Doug on this one!


There are many really good tourist drives through the Karri forests and many of these feature particularly large and impressive individual trees. One of the most famous of these is the ‘Gloucester Tree’. This was one of the original fire spotting trees where they built a platform at the pinnacle of the tree where resolute and brave individuals would sit and watch for the first ominous signs of forest fires. The Gloucester Tree sports 153 rungs which spiral up the tree to a platform 60 meters above. The rungs are really just steel pins protruding from the tree. There is some rather flimsy looking wire protection wound around some of the tree to protect climbers from falling from their precarious steps. The Gloucester Tree is a favourite climb for tourists and there are surprisingly (in this day of litigation mania) very few rules pertaining to the climb. The reason I am telling you all this is that around 5 years ago when DD was just a lad?!! We took we took some friends of ours on a brief tour of the SW and of course stopped to see the Gloucester Tree on our way through. Now our mate, Peter, is one of those folk who can never pass by a challenge and he was bound and determined to climb the tree. Not so, my sensible and staid man, who being of saner mien, maintained that nothing would induce him to do anything so radical. Well, girls, this is to prove that men will be boys and peer pressure is alive and well at all ages and intelligence levels. When we arrived at the place of the tree, DD parked the car and he and Peter went over to survey the monster tree, whilst Jenny and I followed at more sedate pace, well..........by the time we arrived at the base of the giant, what do I see but Peter well and truly on his way to the top, and hot on his heels who, but my sensible sane Douglas!! They both climbed to the top where a surreal moment in time occurred when Peter’s mobile rang and being the business man that he is, he paused to conduct a business transaction whilst 60 meters above the forest floor! Needless to say, this time around nothing could have induced DD to do anything so foolish and considering his (and my) state of unfitness it is a very good thing too.


The Pemberton Caravan Park is very good but sadly not dog friendly. It is set right amongst the Karri and is rather euphemistically described as the prettiest park in WA.

MARVELLOUS MARANUP



Rod & Rita's Lovely New Home




Maranup Crossin




Reflections



Shades of the Past




A Litte Friend Who Came to Visit

  From Donnybrook we meandered southwards and ever so slightly east to the beautiful township of Bridgetown. To our dismay, Bridgetown Caravan Park was full due to a couple of festivals and a large bike-riding event so we were compelled to find an alternative spot. This proved to be fortunate indeed as we ‘discovered’ a beautiful little spot called Maranup Ford. This is a ‘farm stay’ where the very intelligent owners have decided to make caravanners welcome. They have around 8 serviced sites in the some of the prettiest country you can imagine. They raise cattle there, although I suspect the farmer (Hugh) is probably in what you might call semi-retirement and currently only runs around 100 head. The property sits on the banks of the Blackwood River, Hugh’s ancestors having settled there many moons ago. When we first arrived we were privileged to be the only guests and were warmly greeted by one of their 3 dogs who immediately made us at home in her owners absence. The nearby bush was almost awash in bird life, particularly the beautiful little fairy wrens which were quite tame. A large and somewhat noisy family of geese wandered around happily fertilising the grass, and in the background a vigorous rooster competed for sound rights with a bevy of Pea-fowl. When Hugh and his wife Melva arrived home they greeted us warmly and we met the other 2 dogs and the 2 cats which all follow Melva everywhere she goes. We arrived there on a Thursday and by Friday evening pretty much every bay was occupied. There was no phone coverage there although DD did find that by taking his lap-top up to the top of the hill in an adjoining paddock he could just pick up sufficient signal to check the stock-market. He was an incongruous sight, I can tell you, sitting on his little stool, at a tiny table, in the middle of a huge paddock. We took some interesting and delightful strolls along the road checking out the river banks and some of the placid looking cattle grazing there.

Maranup Ford is some 18ks out of Bridgetown on the Greenbushes/Bridgetown Rd and we strongly recommend it to anyone wanting to take a bush holiday away from the hustle and bustle of city life. It was truly lovely and the amenities whilst not very pretty were more than adequate and DD tells me that the showers there were excellent. (No, it’s not that I don’t shower, it’s just that I prefer to use the shower in the van!) For all the dog-lovers out there, it is also ‘dog-friendly’.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Karens Country Cottage

View from Karens Front Verandah

Well, what a crabby, cranky and unpleasant Old Woman I sounded in that last blog!!! I must have really been peeved when I spewed that one out – sorry folks, I will try to make amends this time.


We are on the first of those Sanity Breaks I mentioned and it is just wonderful to be back on the road and in true caravan mode again. We have been away from over-heated Perth for 3 beautiful weeks and still have another couple to go. I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when I checked the calendar and discovered that we still had 2 weeks up our sleeves not just one as I had previously (in Seniors Mode?) thought. I have to tell you my moods had been deteriorating just thinking of having to go back, but now I have more ‘unwind’ time ahead.


I have just finished writing the blog and have realised that it is much too long to put into one issue, (I know, how unusual!) so I will break it into several separate blogs and that way I can give you more photos too. I suggest that you just read one blog at a time otherwise you will be cursing me. Steph.


Delightful Donnybrook


We left Caversham on the 9th March and headed southwards to Donnybrook where my younger son’s mother-in-law Karen has recently set up home. Karen recently purchased a few acres just outside the town and has had a small one bedroom transportable home erected there. She is in the process of adding on another 2 bedrooms and an additional bathroom to the existing dwelling. She has decorated the tiny home in very pretty ‘country style’ and her little front veranda overlooks a little brook which wends its way through both pasture and jarrah forest. It is all looking quite good, but we can see that she has a great deal of hard work ahead of her yet. We left there feeling somewhat concerned for her – she has done extraordinarily well to get as far as she has in creating her idyllic lifestyle, but we feel the biggest tests are yet to come. We wish her all the best in her endeavours and hope that it all works out as planned for her. One of the reasons she is having the additional bedrooms built is so that she can start fostering children. She is of course heading for sainthood and we, being terrible old sinners, just cannot imagine doing anything so altruistic and are somewhat in awe of her plans.


Karen insisted on having us for ‘tea’ and we were well and truly looked after and treated to a tasty BBQ before heading back to the caravan park. The Caravan Park there was a pleasant surprise, having only recently been established by the local shire. It consists of several simple drive-through sites on beautiful green grassy sites. The amenities are brand new and designed to be a sort of ‘shared’ en-suite style.


Donnybrook is only a couple of hours drive from Perth, and is largely a fruit growing community. Many of our apples come from this region, along with an abundance of other stone fruits. The area is pleasantly undulating and very easy on the eye. The little town there boasts pretty much anything you would need and when necessary it is only an easy drive of 35ks across to the major centre in Bunbury. The area also boasts some wonderful taste experiences (or so it says in my little book!) which include sundried fruits, wines, ciders and an absolute abundance of delights.





FAMILY TIES



Mother 'Sharing' with a Friend



The Ferocious Daniel Off to Kindy!















 Well, Happy New Year folks. It’s hard to believe we are already into the second month of the New Year. I hope and trust that everyone is well and safe and largely unaffected by all the extreme weather we have experienced in Australia over the past couple of months. I hope too that the ‘Silly Season’ left you sane and solvent. We have downsized the present -giving dramatically now that we are not generating income anymore. We can only hope that our general monetary caution will catch on within the family and become a trend. So far so good! Mind you DD (Douglas Darling) formerly known as TBBITW (The Best Bloke in the World) could perhaps take it a little less to heart where yours truly is concerned. Oh well, it could be worse, we could be living in one of the flood affected areas and all the pressies could have been washed down the proverbial drainpipe!


So.......to bring you up to date – my son Brett, his wife Nom and their two sons Daniel and Jack are all doing well. Nom is still recovering from her ordeal, but largely coming along quite well, Brett had his leave extended until the 17th Jan and was able to support Nom through the first few weeks at home and Jack is now more than twice his birth weight. He is quite a chubby little one in fact! Daniel turns 4 on the 7th Feb and we went to his birthday party yesterday. He continues to have a few behavioural issues but started Kindy this last week. Hopefully that combined with a few different parenting/disciplinary measures will sort out any bumps. He is such a bright kid; it would be a shame if he didn’t reach his potential as a result of being naughty. Of course, despite all attempts to the contrary, he is suffering the usual first burn’s anxiety/jealousy problems as a result of Jack’s arrival in his world.


I had my first turn at baby-sitting with Jack last week when Daniel had his first day at Kindergarten. I have to say I was a bit scared, not being used to such a tiny bub any more, but Jack and I sailed through the experience with ease and I now feel quite comfortable with him. He seems a placid little thing and seems to fade into the background far more than his brother did as a baby. Perhaps that is just how it is for the second one along these days.


My younger son Troy and his family are all doing well. I spent a delightful week looking after Chloe (8) and Cooper (6) during their Christmas holidays. Kids of those sorts of ages really are a delight. They are so interesting and so easily entertained at that age. Of course, I suppose if I saw more of them, I wouldn’t be such a novelty and perhaps they would be a little more fractious. They did wear me out tho’. I took them out to an amazing place called Chipmunks where we met up with Nom and the ever ferocious Daniel. I don’t think my ears will ever recover. For the uninitiated, this is one of those ‘for children only’ places where an enormous space has been simply filled with climbing, sliding and running mechanisms where kids just literally run riot. As you arrive the kids simply disappear into one of the cavernous mouths leering from the front of the colourful paraphernalia – it took me a little while to realise that Coops was directing me to look for his blue shirt – this is largely the only way you can keep an eye on the little darlings once they have bolted. You just watch for the blur of blue (or red or whatever) to race past on one of the several levels spread around the barn-like building. I had to laugh when I first heard some child call out the magic word ‘Nanny’ – around 20 frazzled older women looking much like myself did periscope type manoeuvres frantically trying to see which and from where their small charges called. Apart from around 10,000 kids at least and several dozen very good grandmothers the place contained a goodly portion of young mothers, all looking like they had just left primary school, dressed in an array of floor length sexy numbers, exposing unbelievable amounts of bare skin all lounging around drinking Lattes and exotic de-tox type juices and looking for all the world as tho’ they were enjoying an exotic spa experience. Obviously nature has devised some sort of audio-block-out device for young mothers who only seemed to be able to hear the gossip from their girlfriends and none of the manic screeching around them.


Now to Mother! We were planning on renting the other side of her duplex, but as best laid plans often do, this one turned to muck when the owner decided he is no longer going to rent the place out. He is instead going to sell it vacant. Poor bugger has had it on the market for the past 12 months and due to difficult tenants, poor marketing and a plunging real estate market has not been able to shift it. The agent who I had been dealing with did ask if we would be interested in buying the property but we just cannot see the logic in this idea. A) the market, we feel, has still a way to go down before it bottoms out and B) the duplex on that side is next to a Homes West house which is so obviously run down and semi derelict that it would definitely be a problem when it came time for us to sell. So, back to the drawing board. It is obvious to me (if not to DD) that mum needs help if she is to continue to live independently. The Caravan Park here is 9 ks from mums by road and so we have decided to stay here for the time being and for the foreseeable future. I have agreed with Mother (and I thought also with DD) that I would give Mum 3 days a week. Monday take her to her Library Group, Wednesday take her to have her hair done, pick up library books and shopping and Fridays to be a Mother and Daughter bonding day where I write down her life-story as she dictates it to me. On Fridays DD was going to do a weekly clean-up at Mum’s while we worked. Sometime also I need to help her out a bit with the house and ironing and such. Yes, I know, it is quite a bit of time and effort, but really, there are not too many desirable alternatives. The big thing here is to get Mother off the roads, as in all honesty I really don’t think she should still be driving. I am leaving her to drive to her fortnightly garden club as that is just around the corner from her home. DD also believes, and I agree, that we must leave her some effort and responsibility or she may throw in the towel prematurely. Whilst Mother is supremely independent on most fronts, she is more than happy to lean heavily on me as she deems it to be my duty to support her in every way. She is not always a joy to be with and does stretch my patience in many ways, but then of course, so does DD! In essence, I think I have become a nasty, impatient and crotchety old woman, finding fault with all those around me. I am making a conscious effort to overcome my nastier tendencies folks.


Now our decision to stay here in this CP for what will most likely be the next 12 months while I asses just how to deal with Mum has some problems. There is a ruling, Australia Wide as far as we know, that says itinerant travellers (us!!!) cannot stay in a caravan park continuously for more than 90 days. I really must explore this as we have encountered it several times before as well. The management here will not budge on that ruling at all. We have heard that other parks will and that it has something to do with a government ruling about GST not being chargeable after a 90 period. Now in itself this is not a problem as we will use it as an excuse to take 3 monthly, 4 week ‘Sanity Breaks’. In other words we will bugger off somewhere for around 4 weeks each time our 3 month period is up. The only drama is that the first 90 period is up on the 2nd March and I have a long awaited Dr’s appt on the 8th March. As I said the management here will not budge or attempt in any way to accommodate us for that week. I am not happy! Customer Service as you and I know it really seems to be defunct these days. Anyway we will either go, and stay in another metro CP for that week or I will once again defer my Dr’s appt and we will leave a week earlier than planned for our Sanity Break.


We have loosely planned 3 breaks for this year, the first being in Busselton in the South West where we will join the Supreme Owners Group for a week before moving on down to Augusta and surrounds for another few weeks. The second one will be early July and Kalbarri whilst the last one for the year hopefully will be Esperance around October. Augusta, Kalbarri and Esperance are all favourite haunts of ours and will present a lovely getaway for 2011. Not quite the same thing as being footloose and fancy free travelling around Tassie and the East Coast, but hey, it could be much, much worse.


Why am I calling these getaways ‘Sanity Breaks’, oh well, that’s because THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT THEY ARE GOING T BE – ALRIGHT!!!!! My dears, we have had more blues and spats here in the past 2 months than we have had in all of our eight years. Living in a caravan 24/7 whilst travelling and having fun is one thing, although even that can be a little testing, but 24/7 with Family Ties and not much fun is another thing altogether.



NEWEST GRANDPUPPY - SONNY!

 

CHLOE UNDECIDED!




COOPER & SONNY CHILLING!

 

The van has become DD’s office 24/7 and I have become the Annoying Interruption. I have also become the proverbial meat in the sanga, trying to do my dutiful thing for Mother and trying to Do The Right Thing by DD at the same time. It is testing. I am fortunate in so much as I have a couple of dear friends who I can go and have a cuppa with and let off a bit of steam and of course I have my writing and now of late, also my painting where I can disappear into my own space when I have the time.


The issues here are complex and I guess NFP but suffice to say Sanity Breaks are a necessity. Incidentally, perhaps I should add here that I do what I do for Mum not out of the DUTY she so fervently believes in, but out of Love for her. Sadly, I don’t think she will ever believe that is my motive. The good news is that from all of this I hope a readable book may be born dealing with the eternal problems and often hilarious dilemmas which are integral to Mother-Daughter relationship around the world. The frustrations and resentments sometimes resulting in biting retorts and nasty remarks to DD are also born of my unrelenting Love for him and the difficulty inherent in being caught between two people I care so deeply for. The added spice to all of this is the odd request from my much loved sons and their wives for a little grandmotherly help. The kids are the sugar! Even ferocious four year olds!


The other sugar for me suddenly, is painting. Through a convoluted series of events I found myself the owner of a fair size canvas and some Acrylic paints. I had never tried to really paint before, apart from a very brief afternoon spent with some water-colours and I was surprised at the results I was able to achieve with the acrylics. A have now completed 2 canvases and am keen to do more. My attempts are amateurish but not tooooooo bad, so hopefully there is some hope for me as a budding albeit ancient artist. DD has been super supportive and has managed to smile thru’ my purchases of an easel and more painting apparatus. Perhaps he really still is TBBITW!


Sorry about the photos, we will try to get some good Swan Valley photos taken to show you, but for now you are going to have to put up with some family photos and some shots of my new hobby. DD has a brand new You Beaut camera and is keen to get some practice so you should be in for a few treats in the not too distant future.


I won’t be back probably until we are on our first Sanity Break, so you won’t have to wade through another one of these for quite some time. Lots of Love for now, please be kind to each other – Steph.







The Three of Us - DD in Reflection!








Jack surveying his Kingdom



Jack finds the whole thing amusing!



Coop's Box of Secrets



A Birthday Dinasoar No Less!



Second Attempt



Nasty Crotchety Old Woman

  


My First Attempt