Balconies and Boats

It suddenly feels like summer here - I'm sat in my favourite spot - on my balcony. 

Cane chairs - secondhand shop $50 for three.

Table - op-shop $30 for the table and two chairs.

Kicking back with a glass of wine and a breeze in the trees - priceless.

We picked up our big impulse purchase at the weekend....

Yep - we bought a boat.
It started with that fatal phrase, 'Let's just go and have a look at it...'
I should know better - last time I fell for that one we came home with a puppy... (I got suspicious after we drove for three hours to look at said puppy...)

This time however, I quite fancied looking at the boat as the sun was shining and the seller said he'd take us out for a sail.

Yep, it's a sailing boat.

And no, we can't sail.

But we've got a book so we should be OK...

Some exciting stuff..

My new job is really my dream job - I work for an organisation called Community First, who run an amazing programme called Ability Arts, for people with disabilities in the local area. 

They can take part in photography and film workshops, create incredible drama productions and produce stunning ceramic and art pieces.

Our annual exhibition opened this morning at Falcon Library - if you're in the Mandurah area you really have to pop down and have a look at the wonderful things they've produced this year.

Oh, and I designed the invitations!

And on this Friday and next Friday I'm running a free felting workshop at the library - should be fun!

I'm also getting very excited about the Smart Street Parties! 

A series of Twilight Markets in Smart Street in Mandurah - craft and vintage stalls, live music, food... We're away for the first one which I'm really sad about, but I'm having a suitcase stall at the next ones selling some new cards and prints - have a look on their Facebook page for all the details and dates.



Smart Street Markets are a From Little Things initiative - oh, and I designed their logo!

Sunshine Day

Sun shining...

Tomatoes growing...

New Frangipanis sprouting...

Flowers blooming...

And a new book I'm attempting not to read until we go on holiday in two weeks - I might need to hide it!

Around here...

This week.... I went to see one of my collages in the Mandjar 9x5 exhibition at Mandurah Performing Arts Centre - all the artworks will be up for auction on the 9th November.

We bought something quite huge and unexpected yesterday, but I haven't got any photos to show you yet so you'll have to wait until next weekend! Exciting!
After our impulse buy we went for a walk around Point Peron - the boys loved climbing all over the old gun emplacements.

And on Wednesday Mark came home from work with a bobtail goanna he rescued from a building site in the city - meet Joanna the Goanna who is now living in our garden...

I'm not a huge reptile fan but she's very sweet and amazingly tame.

Feels like home to me...

Yesterday was our First Year Oziversary (took me a while to think of that word, and then to work out how to spell it)
I can't quite believe it's been a whole year - I feel completely at home here, although because my mum just flew home on Sunday I'm currently prone to crying at random songs while driving along... (I mean really random songs..)

I haven't really written a blog post about emigrating - I always meant to but then we just got busy doing it - building our new life. All I really need to say is it really isn't that hard to do. 
A little over a year ago it seemed like the biggest, hardest thing to do - I couldn't imagine leaving my family and friends. I do miss them every day.

What has surprised me though is how much I miss England, the green - really green - countryside, proper trees, Autumn leaves, windy beaches, drivers who know how to merge properly and give way to you at junctions. (And say thankyou when you give way to them.)
Being able to walk through fields of long grass without worrying about being bitten by a snake - decent television, marshmallows that don't taste like soap, real genuine liquorice allsorts. 
You know - the important things in life. The things you take for granted whilst sitting on a radiator moaning about the weather..

But really, there's nothing to complain about here. Apart from the right wing politics and downright racist attitudes of a certain section of Australian society, apart from this town's loyalty to the mullet and belly button length beard combo, apart from a certain newsreader who yesterday pronounced Zurich with a 'ch' sound on the end... Apart from all of this I love living here.
We can hear the surf while lying in bed, our neighbours are lovely (and they seem to like us although our house looks worse by the day). The school run is now fun, compared to living in a tiny village in Gloucestershire where all the other mums were related to each other...
It was a really little village.

So what I'm saying is I'm happy! The boys are happy, Mark is really happy - even Molly is happy!

Just one thing that still niggles - we still haven't found a decent curry. We've found some incredibly awful ones... But tonight we're acting on a tip from Mark's sister in law - fingers crossed for a proper Prawn Balti....

A Walk in the Woods

Most places in WA seem to be named after explorers, ships, members of the Royal Family or 19th century British aristocracy, so it was nice to find a place that was named after.....a cow.

Yes, Kitty's Gorge is named after a runaway cow.

It's also quite a lovely place for a walk.

What I read in September

My favourite book this month was The Vale Girl by Nelika McDonald - small town prejudice with a twist.

I also enjoyed Colin McLaren's telling of his Grandfather's experience in Gallipoli and the trenches of First World War France

I picked up The Handmaid's Tale in the Salvos book section and it was as chilling as the first time I read it in high school.

Blow on a Dead Man's Embers was a story of a family in a small Welsh village struggling to carry on in spite of wartime betrayals and secrets.

The (Very) Long Weekend

It was a long weekend here in WA - we went to King's Park Festival on Sunday and The Royal Show on Monday - and in between we fitted in an engagement party which left me with the worst hangover I've had for ten years... 

Here are some of the brighter moments of the weekend!