ANZAC Day 2016

A total break in tradition this year as Dad did not march with the veterans to the local memorial for the Fallen Servicemen and Women.
When I went to visit at around 11am he mentioned that Gordon, Bree and Jess and Liv were coming to take him out for fish and chips...his favourite food! Of course I was invited and as I knew everything was neat and tidy at home I said "YES!" We had to take 2 cars and set off for Kailis Bros in Fremantle by the fishing boat harbour. It was a grey, windy day but not cold and we had a lovely afternoon 'blowing away the cobwebs'.

My photos can take over now...Lovely Livvie waiting for lunch...

 The view from our table...

the view of our table...note the mushy peas!

local sardines are crumbed and fried and utterly delicious...

some people had room for ice-cream but not Bree...Charlie is due in 11 days...

the old Maritime Museum, much of early Fremantle was built by convicts and they used the local sandstone...

 trees can grow through the sandstone cliffs...

the view from the steps leading to the Roundhouse steps ...

crowds of people fishing on one of the groynes...

decorative bathing huts on Bather's Beach...

  the view directly up High St to the Town Hall...

Inside the 1831 prison is a sobering experience...

the Curfew Bell was rung at 9.45 pm and any-one caught out after that would find themselves in the Roundhouse cells...

  or the stocks as modelled by Jess...

the view back to the fishing boat harbour...

It was wonderful to get out for a scenic walk with much loved family...I hope your weekend went well

Love from Sue
xxx

Fremantle With Mum

I drove Mum back to Fremantle for an 8.45am appointment to have yet another skin cancer type thing removed, this one from behind her ear, it was only the size of a grain of rice but had to go. Afterwards we went along by the wharf to have a look at Voyager of The Seas, one of the largest cruise ships ever to visit Fremantle...you may remember it's only 3 days since Mum and Dad disembarked from their latest cruise, both of them very unwell but that hasn't deterred Margo Polo one bit! Mum is already champing at the bit to go again lol

We couldn't get any closer because of all the traffic...

The sail training ship, Leeuwin was bobbing in the wind

Near the hospital are some rather old houses with alleyways running behind them. These occupants have made garden beds and grow vegies and flowers... Swiss chard and pansies look lovely together...

  Look at the beautiful bougainvillea climbing over the walls...

And the very uplifting wall of thank you cards beside one of the busy clinics in the hospital...

What wild and windy weather we've had this weekend and it was cold enough for jackets today!

That's all for now, enjoy your week where-ever you are,
Love from Sue
xx

Picture Quilt in Fremantle Hospital

Almost 3 yrs ago Baby David was in the Children's Ward of Fremantle Hospital and I visited him with his Mummy and brothers several times. They have a large and well-stocked playroom there for the children who can get out of bed and for the siblings of patients. There are dolls' houses, puzzles, work-sheets, manipulative toys for littlies and a splendid puppet theatre to play in!

The sewer in me was most interested in the hand-made quilt hanging on the wall...these old photos don't do it justice but they do set my mind a-thinking...

I really don't have the flair for such works so I stick to rather safe patch working, just table toppers and book covers etc these days....that's still very enjoyable though.

It's 4C outside this morning but clear and sunny..Twitch approves of that! When it's wet outdoors he's continually trying to flick the rain off his fore-paws which is rather pointless lol
Cody, Caleb and David all have really bad colds and chest infections and Kyra is unwell too...get well soon my Loves,
xoxo

I'm going to make some meat and potato pasties for the freezer today as well as nip into town,
Enjoy your day too,
Love from Sue,
xx

Back Again

I've been sort of overwhelmed here at home, mostly by my concerns about others I must admit. Still deep in thought about Auntie Joan now that Uncle Bob has been buried, our next-door neighbour's nephew(18) was accidently shot dead 8 days ago, Dad has been unwell, our little home is on the market and then perhaps most distressing of all can be found here http://pearlzjourney.blogspot.com.au/

So rather than blog with a heavy heart I stayed silent....Mum 'complained' yesterday and said she missed reading it so here at least of some of the photos I took in Fremantle 2 weeks ago.....Gordie paid for Ma and Pa, Joe and I to go out for a huge Fish and Chip lunch at Kailis's Restaurant in the Fishing Boat Harbour...it was really good, we also had tea, icecream and cakes!

Some of the local fishing boats, isn't the sky a brilliant blue?

Joe snapped re-arranging his shirt and trousers after his biiiiiggg lunch....

Mum waiting for a fishy for her supper....the vertical posts have the names of many of the local fishermen through the time the harbour has been in use. The area is also adorned with wonderful bronze sculptures such as the fisherman with the basket on his shoulder and the large snapper in his hand.....

I thought this fisherman was the image of Dad...

We wandered into Cicerello's Chippy too, they have a huge salt-water aquarium there and here is some sort of basking shark...

The beautiful Bather's Beach nearby....still looks very inviting despite the fact that it is almost Winter..in the background you can see the domed roof of the new Maritime Museum on Victoria Quay in the main harbour..

This is the Perth "Eye in The Sky" which has been moved to the Esplanade Park in Fremantle..

It was really good to get out and shake off our cares and cobwebs...thanks to Gordie and Kris
xox

Hope you enjoyed coming along,
Bye bye for now,
Love, Sue
xx

My Weekend

I was out and about this weekend. On Saturday Joe had a specialist appt in Fremantle so we had a nice walk around the town after that. I needed more bokashi powder and on the way to the Planet Ark shop we popped into Le Forum, a lovely shop selling French literature etc...I spied some Santons on the top shelf and asked their price...oooooo I knew I had a little Christmas money left so treated myself to the beautiful lavender seller below. The two smaller santons came from Paris several years ago and I love the story behind them. Here is another nice link http://www.simplytreasures.com/t-santons-on-display.aspx. I also have 5 tiny ones that Olivia likes to put to bed in a matchbox! The new one wears a padded skirt which was an authentic way the Provencal women kept warm in winter.

 On Sunday morning I went to Burswood for lunch for Mum and Dad and took a few photos of plants and leaves while waiting for the bus on Gilmore Avenue, not sure where this leaf came from but when I held it up the light Maureen exclaimed that the veins looked like gold thread...

I thought this was a large mushroom but Mum felt it was a toadstool because it lacked a thread growing around the stem. We agreed it was a funghi just like Dad(fun guy)!

It's still raining heavily  but Joe managed to get a nice photo of the perigee moon of the last two nights, it's the biggest moon of the year, gorgeous isn't it?

The bread-maker is on and the bread is almost ready, we love our home-made bread. In the slow cooker is a large duck breast, bacon, chorizo and pork sausage casserole that will have white beans added to it later this afternoon, a wonderful fragrant dish based roughly on the French Cassoulet recipes.
I do hope you have a wonderful week, do you have plans or are you going with the flow like me?
Love from Sue
xx

My Bokashi Bin

As often happens when Deb says, "shall we just drive to so and so and straight back?" we ended going on a lovely jaunt. Firstly we collected Deb's car from Nedlands where it had had a full service. Deb drove slowly through the surrounding streets so that we could admire the beautiful old houses and gardens in the area, I saw rainbow lorikeets in a tall palm tree and such huge bougainvillea plants that they seemed like solid walls of colour.

Then Deb says "shall we drive home through Fremantle?" and it's "oh yes please" from me! As we got to Cottesloe I ask if she's been to the Boatshed Markets which is my idea of paradise in a shop. We entered through the adjoining fish mongers where a nice young Scotsman was frying snapper fillets in coconut breadcrumbs for shoppers to sample. "They'll be ready in 5minutes" he assured us so we admired the huge range of fish, shellfish and condiments and then went downstairs to the French Bakery. They had at least 30 different types of bread, unctuous cakes/gateaux, pies and genuine macaroons. Next we drifted past the deli counter and admired such works of art as a Moroccan Chickpea Salad and 4inch high slabs of lasagne. On to the cheeses next $100 a kilo for imported cheese was a bit much so we walked around the beautiful fresh fruit and vegies section....the variety here is remarkable and it's all so very fresh. So we went back to the fishmonger's to see if the snapper was ready and it had all been eaten already lol We waited patiently for the next batch and dunked our generous serves into a pot of delicious aioli, it was perfect.

Back in the car Deb says, "shall we see if the Planet Ark store is open this time?" So she drives into Freo and we park right at the door and wander in...I was looking for a safe paint or varnish for Twitch's cabin in January but the owners were away in India at a retreat. Now that Twitch lives indoors I don't need the paint but it was very interesting to look around the shop and chat to David, the owner. Deb was especially looking for a filter to put on the outside of house to filter all the water coming in. Then she spotted the great lighting systems and LED globes and spent the next 30 minutes asking questions about them!!

In the meantime I'd been looking at the Bokashi composting units for indoors and I still had some money from 2 Christmases ago so I bought one. Narelle has blogged about how to make one from two plastic bins and a tap etc but it was really beyond me so I am happy to have bitten the bullet and bought one at last. Narelle also shows how to make the material that breaks everything down. The beauty of this system is that it takes all kitchen scraps, even meat/citrus etc that you wouldn't add to a compost pile and you get the rich "tea" or liquid compost on tap with very little fuss. Each evening I press the waste down firmly, it's sitting on a colander type basket, and apply 1/3 of a cup of the bokashi powder. The lid is very firm so there is no smell and cockroaches etc can't get into it~~teabags, coffee grinds, banana peels and strawberry hulls are visible in this pic..

The unit hold 20 litres of waste and the juice comes from the tap you can see here

It takes a week for there to be enough 'tea' ready and you dilute it 1-1 with water and apply to plants.

I'm excited!
Love from Sue
xx

The Big 'Uns

Good Morning every-one...thank you for your comments about Twitch...newsflash, I suspect(after closer observation) that she may be a HE but it won't make any difference to us! I  had to laugh when I read Joy's comment on her Sunday morning kayaking!

I've had 2 busy driving days...On Tuesday Joe had his appt in Fremantle...come back in 6 months...and while waiting for doctor I spotted a former classmate, a Russian Bride and a long-time friend, Kaye with whom to share a few jokes.

Yesterday I left home at 1.50pm, 36C, to drive my DIL, Kristie to the Domestic Airport. Plan A was for her to fly to Adelaide to meet up with Gordie who flew to Port Macquarie to collect a new car and drive it home. He loves long drives but really needed a co-pilot to share the driving and/or keep him awake. It's just over 4,000kms and Gordie does enjoy these driving adventures! Anyway when I got to Kristie's she was struggling to keep the pet rabbits cool and 3 baby Lops had just died...it was just awful and made us late to leave. I dropped her off 10minutes before the flight and then drove through the pick-up zone for the next 25minutes and when she didn't come back out I assumed she'd caught her flight! Wrong. Very wrong.

Now then, when we were in Fremantle on Tuesday we walked over to Wray Ave to Galati and Son's Vegie shop and the first thing we saw was this enormous cheese...I have never seen one this size or shape, not even on TV or on-line...it smells delicious and is going to be cut up on January 21st in the shop. We bought some fresh fruits, coffee, grated pecorino cheese and cold meats and then went next door to the Italian Butcher. Wow! What a variety he has in store...30 different sausages at least, duck, goose, quail, chicken, lamb, beef, buffalo, kangaroo, crocodile and rabbit from memory.

Here is Joe next to The Big Cheese... 

 ....and that reminded me of this photo of myself, 12 years in London outside the Teddy Shop with what must be the Biggest Teddy ever...my hands must have been very cold!

Today 36C is forecast again but we don't have to go out(hurray). I'm going to make moussaka for our main meal with the huge, glossy eggplant I bought in Fremantle, I love the yogurt and beaten egg topping on it :D

Hope you have a Tremendous Thursday, lots of sun-screen Mum if you're playing golf! Dad was unwell yesterday so I hope you're much better today(it didn't stop him cracking jokes, mind you)

Love from Sue
xxx

Some Holiday Snaps

The reason for my absence last week is that Joe and I were treated to a cruise from Fremantle to Melbourne by Ma and Pa! This seems an ideal holiday for people like me with mobility problems but in truth I walked miles on-board and still gained 2 kilos weight! We flew back from Melbourne and Mum and Dad have gone on to sail right around New Zealand via Hobart and then finish off in Sydney next week.

Mum and I in the dining room doorway...peas in a pod?

It was a real eye-opener in other ways too. The staff are mainly from the world's poorest nations, an amazing blend of cultures. languages, and beautiful faces. This fact when considering the luxury of the surroundings and the amount of wasted food made a very vivid contrast. Our steward, Wilson, is from Haiti, our head waitress, Cecilia, from Colombia and Haynes, our waiter, hails from India. We met passengers from all over the world too, including a couple from the next suburb!

I think I'll simply post a photo from each of the seven days and let them do the talking. The inside pics will be Joe's as my camera is too primitive to take good indoor shots. Enjoy. We did!

As we left Fremantle we passed the replica of Captain Cook's barque The Endeavour...it looked like a rowing boat compared to the cruise ship.

Joe took to sailing like a duck to water!

First stop was the historic town of Albany where horse-drawn carriage rides were on offer as well as a busy craft market. We met my sister-in-law, Wendy and 2 of our 3 nephews,  Pete and Dave. Jack was doing an exam at school.

Then followed 2 full days at sea where we had a little camera fun! Hi Dad and Joe in the background!

Saturday found us docking in Adelaide with the weather forecast of 32C and a 45minute train trip to the city. I knew that if we didn't go early we wouldn't go at all so we had an early breakfast and caught the very busy 8.55am train. We lasted 70minutes before deciding that every city looks the same and we caught the next train back to the ship. There were trams and sparrows there which are two things that Perth doesn't have but all the shop etc were the same and I was too tired to walk far. However these four bronze pigs made my day!

The amazing sea and sky as we left Adelaide

This is our lovely cabin(bathroom on left behind the door) and the ship itself, The Radiance of The Seas...

So a week in a nutshell...too much wonderful food to eat, lots of laughs and interesting conversations, late nights and karaoke for Joe, Quiz Shows, whales in Cockburn Sound and beautiful islands off Albany and then later in the week relaxing properly with a good novel from the on-board library.

Have a terrific Thursday,
xxx