What a nice surprise

 Look what we picked from our garden today.

Two dragon fruit.   What a nice surprise. 

Grrrrr

I know this is the wrong time of year to say I don't like rabbits, but I don't like rabbits.

Look what they did to our kaffir lime tree!! And this isn't a new tree. It's a mature, established tree.

Grrrrr!!

 

Fallen Trees

One thing we love about our little piece of rural idyll is that we are surrounded by beautiful trees.  Not only do they look amazing, but they help keep the house cool and stop us being blown over by the gale force winds that blast their way through here on a reasonably regular basis.  Needless to say, we're always devastated when we lose a tree.  In the first year we were living here a massive storm went through and took out a beautiful lilac tree and the hot house.  This year we've lost a peppermint tree and a silver birch to the wind.   Mind you, I think you could take out a silver birch if you sneezed too close to it.  

That's already too many trees as far as I'm concerned.  One tree is too many. So, I am very saddened to say that we've had yet another tree go down.  Or, more correctly, half a tree.  This time there was absolutely no wind at all.  

This is half of one whole tree that lines our driveway.  Normally, the ute would be parked under the tree but, luckily, R had decided to take the ute to work.  I was at home when the tree came down.  I heard an almighty crack and watched it fall, right across the hedge that I was just about to go outside to prune.  I was literally just finishing filling my water bottle, ahead of going out to do some light pruning, when it came down.   I guess it's fair to say that, while we feel devastated by the loss of our tree, we also feel a wee bit lucky.   

On the plus side, we've got a decent pile of wood for next winter.  

But I'd rather have the tree. 

Speaking of Critters

Speaking of spotting critters, apart from the emus, kangaroo, deer (true) and other wildlife we regularly see around here, we spotted an echidna.  This is the only one we've ever seen in Western Australia.  And only the second one we've ever seen. The other one was in Tasmania.  

They're very shy critters and scoot off super quickly if you try to photograph them. Hence this photo isn't the greatest (and it's not my poor camera skills for a change).

And I'm using the same excuse for these poor photos.  Emus are shy too.

Sadly, we do see deer occasionally in the nearby bush.  They're really pretty and I quite like them. But they shouldn't be running wild in our bushland.  The locals tell us there used to be a deer farm around here. When it went bust, the owners allegedly opened the gates and let all the deer free.  So, we have deer roaming about the place.  There are also feral pigs, cats and rabbits.  It's a wonder the native animals get a look in some times.  

Rare Magpie

We did a day trip to Perth yesterday with my lovely Mum.   On the way home we stopped for lunch in Pinjarra.  R found a nice picnic table under some trees near the river.  As often happens when one stops at a popular picnic spot, the local wildlife descends in the hope of getting some crumbs from your lunch.  Yesterday it was magpies, including this unusual looking one:

Turns out this beautiful magpie is very rare.  Sometimes called a piebald magpie, the colouration is caused by a rare condition called Leucism.  Basically, it's a genetic variation in the cells responsible for producing the black pigmentation commonly seen in magpies.

I love magpies. They're definitely one of my favourite Australian birds. Especially when they're singing.  This magpie is just a little more special for being so rare.  I think we have been very lucky to have seen it.  A good omen I hope. 

Caves House

Last year we decided to celebrate our wedding anniversary with an overnight stay at Caves House. It's fair to say the stay didn't go as well as planned. Our room was right over the bar, and we couldn't open the window to cool the room down because of the noise. Which would have been fine if the fan was working.  When we checked out we gave them some feedback about how disappointed we were, and they gave us a voucher for another stay.  

We took advantage of the voucher recently and headed off to Yallingup, in the middle of a heatwave, to spend a couple of days relaxing.  We were really pleased to get upgraded to the honeymoon suite which has previously hosted the likes of Bob Hawke.  Not only is this suite a long way from the bar (yay) it also has its' own verandah, replete with recliners and a cane sofa, to relax on.  We had to loaf around on those for a bit, me with a cocktail and R with a cider.  A very pleasant way to while away an hour or so for sure.  I'm pretty sure I could move into Caves House if it weren't for all of the other people who insist on staying there.

Anyway, the predicted temps of 38 to 40 didn't happen, much to our relief because Caves House is not air-conditioned.  We did hit a muggy 32 which was still unpleasant outside.  But the thick walls of Caves House kept the suite at a comfortable temperature, helped along by the ceiling fans and cool overnight temperatures.  For those of you who are interested in history, Caves House was originally built by the Government in 1903 to cater for tourists visiting the newly discovered Ngilgi Cave. It was originally a two story, timber building which was extended twice before it was extensively damaged in two fires, one in 1928 and one in 1929.  The hotel was rebuilt in 1938 and that's the building that still stands today.  To me it looks like a mix of arts and craft and art deco in style.  I love both styles and the current owners have done an amazing job of restoring the hotel.  I'm planning on winning Lotto and celebrating our 60th birthday there.  Fingers crossed.

It's worth a visit to Caves House (if you like old buildings) to see the restoration.  They do a fabulous lunch (I'm told) and high tea (the cakes in the fridge looked pretty darned good).  They've also got a lovely beer garden where you can sit and have a drink or two.  In case you don't get there, I've taken a few pics to give you an idea.  Sadly, I didn't take many inside which is where the art deco really shines.  

Our room was at the top, left of the building.  It was very spacious and comfortable with lovely views from the verandah to the garden. 

This shows the steps up from the garden to the front of the hotel.  The entry to the building is across the front verandah (which is also where we had breakfast each morning), into a beautiful art deco lobby which takes you to the stunning art deco staircase.  Seriously, I want to move in. 

The hotel has several different public rooms which most definitely art deco.  This parrot lamp is in one of the dining rooms.   The figurine is on the mantle, to one side of a huge art deco mirror (wish I had photographed that) with another matching figurine to the other side.  I think I'm going to have to visit again to take some more photos for you. It's okay, I'm prepared to make the sacrifice. 

Caves House has beautiful gardens and you can walk through them down to the beach.  Some of their plants are heritage listed, so says a sign on the edge of the gardens.  Sadly, they don't say which ones.  There are plenty that could be.   We did do the walk, despite the heat, although not all the way to the beach.  Allegedly people have encountered ghosts along the walk.  I'm happy to say we didn't see any.  Just lovely gardens and some speccy cliffs.

  

 

While we were down that way, we decided go to Hamlin bay to see if we could see some stingrays. They come in close to shore on a regular basis.  We stopped in at Boranup on our way though.  I'm always amazed at how beautiful Boranup is.  When the weather's cooled down we're going to head back and do some of the walks through there. 

Neither of us have ever been to Hamlin bay. While we didn't see any stingrays we were not disappointed by our visit.  The beach is glorious.  Lovely calm, crystal clear water and plenty of beach to spread out on.  It is very popular. We had to drive around and around the car park for a bit until someone left so we could park.  I guess it's not surprising it's so popular.  

Since we were almost there anyway, we decided to stop in at the Flying Wardrobe to see if they had any vintage must haves for us.  They've got lots of lovely vintage items as usual but none that we desperately had to have.  We left empty handed which is good for our wallets and meant we had some money to spend on a Devonshire tea at the Berry Farm instead.  Yum!!

Overall, we had a lovely stay beside the seaside.  It was a great way to spend a few days away from work.  Anyone for high tea?

Holly Hocks and More

Happy New Year everyone and welcome to 2024.  Halfway through the first month at that.  Time flies as they say.  And that's my poor excuse for the very long time between blogs.  Which, be warned, means I've lots of photos to share with you.  So, if you've half a mind to wade through my ramblings, grab a cuppa, sit back and read on. 

Last year I planted some holly hocks in a pot.  I nurtured them carefully, giving them plenty of water and a feed every now and then.  Between a range of bugs and rampaging rabbits (okay, I'm exaggerating, they weren't exactly rampaging) they barely managed to keep their leaves on.  This year I moved them under the shade of a tree and lo and behold, flowers.  And what beautiful flowers they are. 

I'm keen to put some out in the garden and to share the love.  To this end, I gathered the seeds from the seed pods. Which are almost as beautiful as the flowers and very interesting to boot. 

I like the way they seeds grow in a neat spiral around the centre.  Kind of like slides in a carousel (if anyone remembers those!!). Granted the phots aren't great. They're my first attempt at using the macro option on my mobile phone. But hopefully they're good enough for you to see what I mean.  Come Autumn I'm going to plant the seeds in pots. I'm hoping to have as much success as S did with his Hoyas.  Then there will be holly hocks for all.  Wouldn't that be grand. 

The holly hocks weren't the first of our plants to flower for the first time.  This is a native that we planted out two winters ago.  I'm not sure what it is exactly but it is nice to have a white flower.   Most of our natives are yellows and reds. 

The next photo is of a lilium.  What a lovely, cheerful welcome to Spring it made. It's a bit of a showoff huh.

The previous owners of our lovely patch of paradise planted lots of bulbs, including jonquils which flower prolifically and reliably.  The flowers are beautiful all by themselves. But this year, we got the added bonus of watching a butterfly supping on their nectar.  Needless to say we wasted a goodly amount of time watching it. Our plans to get work done in the garden are frequently undone by the wildlife around here I have to say. 

Luckily we did manage to drag ourselves away from the wildlife to do some work in the garden. It seemd like an awful lot of hard work at the time, but somehow that memory just faded away when we started picking and enjoying the fruits (literally) of our labour. 

The nectarines were amazing (by all accounts), packed full of flavour and lovely and juicy. We've an early and a late nectarine so we got to enjoy those for a long time.  We didn't harvest as many apricots as last year but enjoyed the dozen or so that we did.  R was most excited to pick the first of our Satsuma plums. They're his absolute favourite. We also harvested a small amount of cherries, one prune, some mulberries and kilos of blackberries. The strawberries have also been plentiful and the raspberries are just starting to come in.  Yay.  Vegetable wise we've had more lebanese and bush cucumbers than we know what to do with, an abundance of zuchini and lettuce and we're now picking tomatoes and egg plants.  We were getting quite a lot of beans until something munched through the stems of all the plants.  We've been busy with things away from home so we haven't had time to plant replacements yet.  Oh....and we had some heritage beetroot. Little golden ones, pink stripey ones and an almost black one.  We've mostly enjoyed those just sliced thinly in salads. Delicious. 

It does look like we spend most of our time in the garden and not doing much else.  But we have fired up the woodfired oven a few times. We've mostly baked pizzas and bread in it but we did experiment with a slow roasted pork.  Everything has been delicious but it's fair to say we're still getting the hang of making the most of it when we do fire it up. 

The oven has to get up to between 500 and 600 degrees celcius to make the best pizzas. It takes a surprisingly small amount of wood to get there and, if the wood is good and dry, only a couple of hours. And as you know, I love a good wood fire (a safe one of course) and cooking in the oven has been a joy. 

The dough was made using R's sourdough starter, which is now seven or eight years old.  All of the toppings, except the cheese and salami, are from our garden.  Which somehow made it taste better. 

I will sign off now with a picture of our newly planted, apricot day lillies. The colour hasn't come out all that well in the photo. In real life it's a lovely, deep apricot.  The pot is just outside the door, so we see the flowers whenever we go outside and, on our way back in.  Lovely. 

I will try and post another blog soon once I download some more pics.