Reading this month...

My top recommendations for this month!


A dark tale of guilt and retribution from WA's King of fiction!



True stories of life in East Germany

Sibling rivalry and childhood secrets


From the author of Chocolat, a story of island tension


I loved this for it's detailed descriptions of 1950's New York

Sunshine and dirty windows

Yep - really dirty windows...

Stormy day

The first storm of the winter has rolled in - typing this in our living room I can hear the waves crashing on the beach down the road. 

It would be a lot more enjoyable if our uninsulated house felt a bit more solid than a giant cardboard box! Last night we took turns running downstairs to check for leaks - think we've got them all covered now, apart from the stream coming in under the back door...

Beach Finds

The first thing I noticed about Western Australian beaches is how clean they are. There's the odd plastic bottle or can washed up or left on the beach, but looking along our local beach there is just a bare expanse of sand with a bank of seaweed.

To be honest I find it quite boring! I love beachcombing - and the UK must have the best beachcombing beaches in the world. I suppose it's because the seas around the UK are so busy and all the little coves and inlets around the coastline catch all the treasures that are washed up.

Here, we're a long way from anyway -  4885 miles due West is South Africa....that's a long way with nothing in between!

So, I've had to start looking for other treasures - no sea glass or pieces of pottery here - natural treasures are the way to go -

Demolition Depression...

I'm having one of those days when there are about fifteen things I should be doing, but I can't decide which to do first, so I'm sitting around doing nothing... 

At the weekend we knocked down the steps to the balcony, because they were pretty much rotten and just waiting for a boy to run up them one too many times and fall through...

Before Demolition

After Demolition

Isn't it depressing when the 'After' looks worse than the 'Before'??

I've finished painting the bottom storey so it does look slightly better... (Slightly..)

We've come to terms with the fact that the big renovation will be a year or more away - we need to save some money and also agree on a design!

So in the meantime, the plan is to turf the garden, finish painting the exterior, install the free log burner we found in Mark's dad's shed, and start squirrelling away some money!

A Very Long Drive and Three Amazing Things

Western Australia is big. Really big.

It's twelve times bigger than the UK, and twenty times bigger than England....

I'm starting to understand the sheer scale of the place after today.

I asked Mark to take us somewhere we hadn't been, so we looked on the map and decided to go to Wave Rock.

It was a little bit further than it looked on the map.

Four hours later we arrived at a big rock - Amazing Thing No. 1.

It is a pretty impressive big rock.

Amazing Thing No.2 - we drove a few km down the road and found a cave complete with real ancient cave paintings - 

It's the only cave I would consider living in - nice high ceiling and natural light - and these amazing wall paintings -

Amazing Thing No. 3 was a bonus - we got out of the car and Mark nearly climbed a tree when he thought he saw a snake...
It wasn't a snake - can you tell what it is?

 It's a chain of 55 furry caterpillars following the leader to a new tree -

We watched until they were all safely up in the tree.
(I just googled them and they are called Processionary Caterpillars.)

Oh - and then we drove four hours home...

Butterflies

Turning into a school holiday tradition - train to Perth, Vietnamese lunch in Northbridge with Mark, quick nose around the museum then home.