July



With Peter still on his LSL we were still enjoying beach walks, trips to Perth and getting some long term goal jobs done around the house. We were invited to visit one of Peter's clients newly renovated home. Janelle joined us and we fell in love with it. It was very English themed and we loved looking at everything as we sipped our champagne. This bathroom was one of our faviourite rooms...



 

 

The winter sunsets were beautiful as the weather continued to be quite warm and dry for this time of the year... 

We went to Perth (one of many, many trips ) and helped Janelle pull out her courtyard garden and concrete fish pond...

 

Peter laid a slab where she will put a storage shed...

For 18 years this breeze window in our bedroom has annoyed me. It is hard to dress, off centre to the room and lets way too much light and sound in. So with the help of a builder a simple solution was to put glass bricks in the gap (our bricks no longer available) and plaster in the inside.  Result = should have done it years ago!...

 

Peter continued to paint, paint and do more painting...

 

We continued to do our fortnightly trip to Busselton so Peter could chop Mum and Dad J's wood for them. It is also nice to walk the dogs somewhere different... 

Sunset over Busselton jetty

It was also time to start getting serious with Mildred's makeover and renovation. Peter managed to find where to buy new sheets of aluminium for the new roof. It was very delicate stuff and had to be handlde with great care so it wouldn't bend and dent...

We had also been using the inside to store junk so it was time for a cleanout and work to happen!...

 It was going to be a lot more work than we thought as one problem we uncovered just led to another!...





June

June started off with a trip to Perth to catch up with Janelle and Sarah and Nathan. Peter did some maintenance in Janelle's yard and she had made us a lovely lunch and afternoon tea...

It was time to go back to work for me and I started in the brand new Dalyellup store which I got transferred to with the closure of the Plaza before my holidays. It is certainly much bigger and busier!...

 

With so many hat badges collected on our trip I had to make a new wall hanging for them all. I left plenty of space for more we will collect on future travels...

 June weather was stunning with hardly any rain and warm days. We enjoyed some quiet mid week walks along the beach with the dogs...

 

Janelle was feeling a bit flat after a bad week in the hospital so we met her in Mandurah for afternoon tea. Nothing like a big dose of hot chocolate and churros to feel better!...

 

A few weeks later Janelle came home for the weekend and we found her car window smashed in the morning. Apart from the mess everywhere it was really hard to find someone to repair it on the weekend so she could drive back to Perth. We managed to get a temporary plastic one put in...

We took a trip down south to check out flowers for Nicole's wedding and had afternoon tea at Samudra. Sadly this would be our last visit at one of our favourite places to call into as they are closing down...

 Peter made a start on painting over Janelle's beautiful childhood choice bedroom wall. Farewell yellow and blue, hello fresh and crisp white!...

 





Turning 90

Our next major celebration of this busy year was Dad J's 90th birthday. What an amazing milestone to reach! Equally amazing is the fact that in a space of a few weeks 3 of his best mates and lifelong friends also turn 90! Rather than a big party he opted for a family only lunch to celebrate. So we all gathered at one of his favourite cafes.

 





 

He received letters of congratulations from the Prime Minister and other local government representatives...

 

I made him a huge birthday card with a few pages of collaged photos...

We then had birthday cake at home followed by a well earned rest in his favourite armchair!


Still laughing together after 65 years of marriage

 



May

Most of May was spent traveling and when we did arrive home it was unpacking, gardening and trying to get back into some sort of routine.  We had worked arriving home just in time to celebrate Jean's 50th. It was a lovely weekend spent down south. We spent a morning doing a winery tour and then a long, long lunch at Arimia Winery. It was a beautiful day and the food was delicious. That evening we all stayed at their friends house, ate more, laughed and celebrated Jean's milestone birthday... 

 My old workplace had closed while we were away but I went and had a peak through the windows. It was a sad and sorry sight being totally empty. So many good times over the 15 years I worked there...

We took Mum and Dad J for a drive down to Margaret River and had a lovely afternoon tea with the little birdies...

Spotted this unusual but clever display on the way back...



Caravan Trip 2015 week 8

After taking the dogs for a quick walk we packed up and left Broken Hill. Last year we just saw this clothes line out in the middle of nowhere when we were coming from the other direction. This time I was able to get a better pic of it. The things you see!...   

 

We had always been careful when crossing borders and the quarantine check points as to limit our fruit and veg we had so we wouldn't have to hand too much over. We were also aware of the 2 big quarantine manned stations at the WA/SA borders and most of the others around the country were just bins with a bit of an honesty system. As we got closer to the NSW/SA border we realised this was a big manned quarantine checkpoint and we had just done a nice big shop at Broken Hill before we left! So we parked in a bay 200metres from the station and assessed what we had and what we could eat. It was hilarious as we tried to eat as much fruit and veg as we could so as not to waste it...

The nice man at the checkpoint who searched our caravan and car thoroughly let us keep a few things.  We then stopped at Peterborough to restock...

And the dogs revisited Bob the Railway dog...

We continued on through the little towns...

And through the Flinders Ranges...

Before driving through the not so appealing town of Port Augusta...

 

We stopped for the night at Nutt Bush Retreat which is a working farm with a popular small caravan park. It is 40km out of Augusta... 

Only downside for us was there was limited places to walk the dogs but we managed to find a bit of a bush track alongside the highway and watch the sunset...

Thanks to Bella we were up again early to watch the sunrise...

We continued on past Iron Knob (decided against calling in again)...

And negotiating some heavy haulage on the highway...

For some reason there was a huge police set up at Kimba and Peter was breath tested early on in the morning. Guess they were after truckies...

We stopped at Kimba for a break and the mandatory "Half way across Australia" photo with the big Galah...

We stopped at Wudinna for a visit to the bakery and about 5kms down the road we realised Peter had left my phone on the rear bumper of the car. Miraculously it was still sitting there and hadn't fallen off!  We arrived at Streaky Bay mid afternoon and set up. Bella was very excited to be on the coast again and at her favourite place...

 

It was a beautiful evening and lovely sunset down by the jetty...

Next morning was another glorious day and perfect for walkies...

We left Streaky Bay and drove to Ceduna and went for another walk on the jetty...

Jetty shadows in the water

Then it was out on the Eyre Highway and off across the Nullarbor...

 

We stopped for the night at Nullarbor Roadhouse and took the dogs for a walk along the track alongside the highway and watched the sunset. Felt a bit on edge as the man at the roadhouse had warned us to watch out for dingoes...

Next morning we got to watch the sunrise over the Nullarbor...

And off for another walk. This barron place really is so beautiful and unique in its own way...

As usual we were almost the last ones to leave...

We called in to look at the cliffs again...

And stopped at Border Village to eat more fruit and veg before going through the SA/WA quarantine checkpoint...

 

 We got the very strict lady and she searched the car and caravan everywhere, we even had to take the dogs out...

We stopped at Eucla and walked down to the beach. It was very sea weedy but the dogs enjoyed their run...

Drove onto Madura Pass where there were heaps of trucks parked with all the drivers having their mandatory break in their shift and were sleeping in their cabs...

We camped at Caiguna that night and made an early start the next morning traveling nearly 600km's and made it all the way to Esperance. Set up in Dad's yard and then took the dogs for a well earned run on West Beach. It was so nice not to have to tie the dogs up and have a yard for them to run in! Next day we spent relaxing, went for a walk out on the jetty...

 

 

 

Had a cuppa in what was our old Commonwealth Bank where we met and worked together all those years ago and is now a Dome coffee shop...

 

Did a few touristy things like look at the Stonehenge replica (exact dimensions as the original in England)... 

Strolled along the revamped foreshore which looks fantastic now...

Walked out on the jetty again...

Took a drive out to Twilight Beach and wondered how I swam out to the hole in the rock as a teenager...

Walked up to Observatory Lookout...

 

And did a few walks along our favourite West Beach... 

 

We packed up while Dad did some woodwork in his tidy shed... 

We left Esperance and drove to Lake Grace to spend the night before making it back home the next day.

The back yard grass had grown heaps...

But it was great to be home and curl up by the fire instead of our little fan heater in the caravan.  It was a fantastic couple of months and we saw and learnt so much again about this fantastic country of ours!...