I've Been to Bindoon

Today's destination probably doesn't appear on any of the tourist guides to Western Australia, except perhaps as a roadside rest on the way to someplace else (like New Norcia or someplace like that). But it was another one of those really special days on this walkabout of mine.

We went to Bindoon today to visit Julanka, "the place of the trees," 5 acres of land which belong to friends of Peggy's. We had brought along a "chook" (chicken) to share for lunch.

I had been to Bindoon a few weeks back, when we went to the monastery at New Norcia with Monty and Carolynn. On our way home, we stopped at a cafe in Bindoon for coffee and scones. But now we were spending the day there.

The original idea had been to bring the dogs with us. Chippa and Khasi (Ann & Julie's dog) are best friends and it would be fun for the three of them to romp together. But Ann called in the morning to say Julie had killed a snake that morning. Summer is rapidly approaching and the snakes will be starting to come out. As this area has some of the most poisonous snakes in the world, the thought of sending the dogs romping through the bush was not a good one, so Chippa and Keno stayed home.

Khasi was so funny when we arrived. She immediately hopped in the car and was very disappointed to find only 2-legged creatures in it. After we had settled ourselves on the porch, overlooking the kangaroo paw plants and the bush beyond them, Khasi went back out to the car, and circled it several times, seeming certain that if she just looked in the right spot, Chippa would surely be there. Eventually, she joined us on the porch and with a heavy sigh settled herself into her chair. No playmates today.

We were offered a tour of the place and readily accepted. The tour was amazing. I mentioned once before that springtime in this part of Australia is really incredible. We have seen fields carpeted in purple or yellow or blue or a combination. It's enough to make you gasp. But what is even more amazing is that if you stop the car and get out in the woods, you realize that the blaze of color is only half the story. As we walked through the bush we were surrounded by dozens of tiny orchids and other plants. The sort of thing you can't possibly see from the road, because they are too small and too close to the ground.

Julie knew the names of each plant, showed me how you could identify an orchid so incredibly small you can barely see it, and where special plants were located. Peggy got out her close up lens and got several "photos of the day."

While we were walking, Khasi was racing around the bush and under a "black boy" (or "grass tree") she unearthed a bob-tail lizard and had a wonderful time barking at it.

On the way back to the house, we passed a field of electric blue flowers. I did take a photo, but it doesn't nearly do it justice.

We had a lovely lunch--the chook we'd brought, with fresh-from-the-bakery bread, a huge salad and drinks.

When we'd finished, Julie brought out a "chocolate slice" which Ann had made for dessert. We were told this was only the second time in 8 years that she had made this, so I felt honored indeed.

The afternoon was spent discussing cameras and comparing digital photos, and looking at the photos of the renovations that had been done on the house. The time passed quickly and too soon it was time to leave.

On our trip back, we took a scenic route through beautiful countryside (again...does the beautiful countryside ever end in this country?). Julie had given us very explicit hand-written verbal directions and a very clear map with the route traced in irridescent pen on it. How we ended up taking a wrong turn halfway to the Great Northern Highway is beyond us, but we found ourselves heading back to Bindoon and after 20 km had to turn around and retrace our steps. But then...would it be one of "our" trips if we hadn't gotten lost?

It's hard to imagine that in just a short time all this lush green, flower-covered land will be dry and brown and there will be a shortage of water. I am so lucky to have come at this time of year.

We were home in time for tea, but neither of us was hungry, so after giving dog soup to the dogs, we retired to our computers to check over our photos for the day. As usual, Peggy had the best shots. I'm getting used to that (but don't tell her I admitted it, OK?)

Thar She Blows

All my life I've wanted to see a humpback whale "up close and personal."

I've always wanted to go whale watching and had only been once, a disasterous afternoon spent with Diane in Puget Sound watching the backs of killer whales bob up and down. It was decidedly anti-climactic, and Diane has never let me forget it (nor have I been able to forget the horrible boat ride, where I thought we were going to drown, and where I left my brunch behind for the whales.

I have purchased whale calendars, devour whale specials on TV, and never thought I'd get the chance to really see the big guys.

Today we were finally going to go whale watching.

We had been told in Albany that this has been a bad year for whales--very few have been showing up. When you purchase your ticket on the whale watching boat, it says plainly that they can't guarantee you'll see anything, and if you don't see any whales, your next ticket is half price (fat lot of good that would do me!)

Still I was hopeful. It was a glorious day. The waters were calm, the breeze was just perfect, and there weren't too many kids on the boat. As we left the harbor and headed in the direction of Rottnest Island, Peggy was glowing. "I don't care if we don't even see whales," she said. "I'm just loving being on the boat."

I was too, but I was really hoping to finally have that whale experience.

My hopes were fading after an hour of our two hour cruise when the captain announced that they'd been searching for whales for the past 30 minutes and for everyone to keep their eyes open for signs of activity.

We were on the starboard side of the boat, on the open sea side. Rottnest was on the port side. Suddenly there was a gasp from the other side of the boat and excited questions..."Did you see them?"

We were going to see whales after all.

Of course, having had the perfect viewing spot for an hour, we were now about 3 back from the crowd that had rushed the rail to see the whales. I was standing on tip-toe looking over the head of a group of Japanese tourists and not able to see a thing. This was starting to be very disappointing.

Then a spot opened up right at the back, where I could hang over the side of the boat and aim my camera, hoping for something.

I managed to take a photo or two, but I could tell my photos were crap. Peggy was standing next to me, trying to fit her camera over the heads of the tourists, so I decided to give her my spot, knowing she had the better camera, and I contented myself with sitting by a window to look.

"They are all at the front of the boat," a crew member told us, and there was a rush to the top deck.

Miraculously, I found myself standing by the rail, trying to look over the head of some retired women who was standing on the railing, totally blocking my view. It was very frustrating. But suddenly everything cleared, the woman stepped down, and there they were: a pod of 3 whales. I took a few pictures. They weren't very active, but I was getting something.

Then I remembered something important. When Jeri was in the first grade, she started ballet lessons. At the end of the school year, they had teir first ballet recital and we all went to it. I, naturally, had my camera at the ready. I was so intent on capturing her first recital on film (and did in so-so photos) that when it was over, I realized I'd missed the entire thing.

How many things in my life I have experienced through the lens of the camera rather than as a participant in what was going on?

Here I was having the experience I'd dreamed of all my life and I decided to put the camera away and just experience it. (In truth, I knew Peggy was clicking away anyway and would have better photos than I could get, so I knew I wouldn't be missing anything!)

Once I took time out to just watch, it was glorious. To be close enough to hear them blow air out of the blow hole, to hear the sound of them diving, to watch the fluke as it slowly slid under the water.

All too soon, the captain was saying we would have to turn around and go back to shore. We watched the pod surface and dive one more time, and then we were headed back.

It was Peggy who spied the young whale cavorting off starboard as we sped back past Rottnest. I don't know how many other people saw him. It was almost like he was our own private whale. She got the photo of the day of this young whale who seemed to be having....a whale of a time...diving over and over again.

I named him "Indy," because s/he reminded me of the fun that the puppy Indy had when we were on the farm.

All too soon, the experience was over, but it was just glorious. We stopped back at Hillary's Marina to get a drink and a muffin, and then came home. As we pulled into the driveway, Chippa was there to greet us.

Peggy settled in to watch cricket while I started "tea." This is a sports night, so I was in charge of food. I finally cooked the cute little roast that we bought the other day and we've just finished eating it while watching the opening ceremonies of the World Rugby Championships (which may just rival the opening ceremonies for the Olympics, in fact!).

It's not often that you live to be 60 years old and finally get the chance to experience something you've dreamed about all your life, but today I did it. It was a red letter day.

If the Shoe Fits, Buy It

Three years ago, in October 2000, Peggy was in the States and we spent a lot of time shopping. Specifically shoe shopping. I gave her a hard time, then, for all the time she spent trying on shoes and all the money she spent on shoes.

It is with some chagrin that I admit that while in Australia I have purchased four pairs of shoes and a pair of slippers. That's more than I owned when she was in the States.

Today we returned to Freo (Fremantle). On our first trip, our goal had been the maritime museum and I learned a lot about Australia II, which took the Americas cup from the US. But I learned nothing about the ship Batavia, about which I'd prepared by reading on the Internet. So this trip to Freo was to serve two purposes: We would walk the shops (it's a great shopping town), and we would visit the Batavia.

Fremantle is a modern town with an old feel. Many of the historic buildings underwent rennovation in the 1980s, under the direction of Alan Bond and his promotion for the Americas Cup. The old town hall, prison, and hotels are now museums, cafes, and tacky souvenir shops. It's an interesting blend of old and new and I was glad to have the chance to get back--and to finally see The Batavia.

On the way we visited all the op shops (second hand stores) and shoe shops.

At the op shop, we found cheap stuffed toys and Peggy picked up a handful for Chippa. I took a picture of her grinning like a happy grandmother with all these toys for "her girl" but she broke my camera and the photo didn't come out. Trust me. It was truly the "photo of the day" and you missed it. Peggy was also looking for sandals and we went in several stores, unsuccessfully. We did hit pay dirt at a "wide sizes" store, where she didn't find anything she liked, but I found some very comfortable walking shoes (so difficult for me with my wide foot and foot problems) and despite the prices, I decided to buy them.

Finally, we ran out of shops and it was time for the museum.

After seeing so much of Australia's rocky coast and its extensive reef, it's amazing to me that the country ever got settled by anybody who wasn't indiginous to the region. So many shipwrecks have occurred off the shore of Australia that an entire museum is devoted to shipwrecks. The sign on this building (formerly a prison) reads "Maritime Museum Shipwreck Galleries."

Here is a piece of the Batavia, recovered between 1972 and 1979. A piece of the hull of the boat is erected and I was amazed at how huge it was...and even more amazed when I discovered that this huge piece, significantly taller than my head and requiring a second story balcony to see the top, represented only one teeny corner of the bottom of the hull of the huge ship.

Peggy insists that I include information about the skeleton which is on display here. I argued that I didn't want to use it, but again, I'm an ever gracious guest and will do anything to keep my hostess happy, so here are her photos:

When I had thoroughly examined the Batavia and some of the contents rescued, we went into the other galleries and I began to get a feeling for how difficult it was to get to this land, let alone survive the rigors of life on the often unforgiving continent.

I chuckled to read about the "Success," which ran aground at Carnac Island...and its successor, also named "Success" which ran aground 20 years later. Perhaps someone should have re-thought that name!

Eventually, we'd run out of shipwrecks and decided that our time in Freo was about over. We took the scenic route home, via....another shoe shop, where Peggy hit pay dirt and not only found two pairs of sandals she liked, but was able to get her current sandals (purchased 3 yrs ago in the US) sent in for repair. An all around very positive stop.

The plan had been to come home and cook that cute little roast lamb for dinner, but instead we went down to Hillary's Marina again, booked a whale watching tour for tomorrow, and had a chicken salad while we sat and watched families cavort in the water off the bay. It truly is Paradise here.

While I was eating, we were visited by a very persistent seagull. I took his photo and while I was taking it, he snatched a piece of chicken off my plate as Peggy shooed him away. The photo I took was great, but the camera screwed up. Peggy tried using some sort of repair program to retrieve the photo, but we were only able to get half of it. We tried fixing it with Photo Shop, but could not come up with anything which really did the trick, so I've put in what we did come up with just because I love the look on the bird.

After dinner we had a terribly wicked ice cream cone (I had boysenberry and cheesecake ice cream mixed with raspberries and a TimTam; Peggy had chocolate and Nutella ice cream, with a spoon full of Nutella and a Tim Tam...both were then piled high in a waffle cone). We came home "stuffed" by all definitions of the word (Australian "stuffed" is exhausted; we were also "stuffed" with food).

There was a full moon rising when we left Hillary's and tomorrow we will be back again to catch the ferry and hopefully see a whale or two.

My time here is growing short. It will be difficult to leave.

"I wonder what the inner brotherhood recommends for cramp"

(It's a quote from Gilbert & Sullivan)

The cramp hit sudden and hard and I couldn't get past it. We were standing by the water's edge at Trigg Beach, having walked down from the parking lot, when suddenly I got this horrendous Charleyhorse--not in my calf, where I'm used to having them, but in the back of my thigh. No matter what I did I couldn't reduce it and everyone had to stand there while I bent over trying to move the leg into some sort of comfortable position.
We had come to the Trigg Beach Cafe with Monty and Carolynn for lunch. I'm not sure what I was expecting...something similar to where we stopped for coffee a couple of weeks ago, I guess. I was not prepared for the absolutely gorgeous setting of this beachside cafe.
Earlier in the morning, the glass man finally came and fixed the shower door. While he was working, I was outside digging weeds out of the front lawn. By the time the glass man left, I had put in my weed digging stint. It seems to have been good exercise for my arm, as by the time I'd finished, I was feeling a little more strength in the muscle, though it still hurts like hell to use much pressure on that arm.
It's also difficult to weed when you can't kneel and have difficulty getting up and down. Gawd, it's hell to get old!!
Earlier in the day, I had finally managed to upload the web page for Settler's Run which I'd finished designing the previous day. (I was waiting for some additional information from the server so I could FTP it to the web). I'm pleased with how it came out and I hope everyone checks it out so you can see where we spent last week.
But Monty and Carolynn came around. Monty was going to install a new CD burner in Peggy's computer, but first we were going to lunch. My god, what a meal. Carolynn and I had Thai prawns while Peggy and Monty had a surf 'n' turf platter of ribs and calamari. Portions were huge and all was delicious. I tasted a bit of the wine Monty ordered, just to say I'd had a bit of Australian wine in Australia, but mostly I stuck with my newly discovered drink: lemon lime with bitters. We splurged on dessert, an enormous meringue with ice cream, whipped cream and strawberries. (I offered to split one with Peggy, but she insisted on her own, so, gracious guest that I am, I agreed to have a whole one myself--the sacrifices one makes to keep your hostess happy. But I suffer in silence.)
Then it was time to walk off at least one or two of the calories.
We were going to walk down the path near the beach, but Monty felt I needed to be able to say I actually walked on a beach in Australia, so we headed down to the sand. That's when the cramp struck. Fortunately, Monty is a paramedic, so I figured if I needed medical attention, I was in good hands, but the cramp eventually worked itself out without my having to dive into the ocean to get cold water on the muscle.
We all took photos of each other to prove I was actually there.
Trigg Beach is a popular surfing beach and we watched a lot of guys riding the waves. I had earlier marveled at how these guys hop on their bikes, still dressed in wet suits, bare footed, with surfboards attached to the back of the bikes, and pedal on home.
After walking on the beach for awhile, we moved back up to the path, which doubles as a walking/jogging path and bike path (Marn, please take note). Monty and Carolynn have bikes and made a passing suggestion that we go for a ride together, since Peggy has a bike she hasn't used in a very long time. So I may actually get out on a bike next week. Peggy has offered to drive me to a starting point and pick me up at an ending point. I suspect my arm (and knee) are recovered enough that I can actually ride again, but I'm going to ride around the block here first just to get the lay of the land and see how really rusty I am after not riding since June.
Back to the house, eventually, and Monty put in the new drive. Chris stopped by and she and I sat outside chatting while all the computer work was going on inside. Finally all the visitors left, and the little girl from next door stopped by. She had caught me earlier in the day and I thought Peggy had caught on--the new camera she "won" at the Perth Show is a water camera and she got me good when she asked if she could take my picture. I never mentioned that to Peggy, figuring she'd actually looked at the camera, but she ended up getting splashed too, so we made a child's day very happy today (even if the two of us got wet doing it).
We are both too full from our huge lunch to even think of eating again, so the evening will probably be spent with Peggy trying to explain the rules of cricket to me, or as much as she can explain before she falls asleep. I figure that should take about 3 minutes, the way her eyes are already drooping. As for me, I expect to be awake all night, thinking about returning home to Governor Schwarzenegger. The very idea is enough to give one nightmares.

The Glass Man Commeth

I had never seen one quite like this before. It's a mini (micro, really) rolled boneless leg of lamb. Cute, I thought. Peggy wasn't sure it would feed two of us, once it cooked down, but I convinced her to buy it anyway.

The Big Deal of the day was picking up food at the local grocery store. (Such an exciting life I am living!) Actually, we expected the glass man to come to replace the glass door on the shower, which broke the week before we left for our trip up north. They first scheduled to be here the day of the football championships, and never showed up. Then they rescheduled for today at 8:30.

Peggy woke me up by yelling "Are you awake yet?" I had a bad night and was awake from 1:30 until after 4:30, so I hadn't had much sleep. But within minutes--less than 5, I'm sure--I was in the car getting the dogs out for their morning walk. We had to be back in time to meet the glass man.

It was just the four of us this morning--Peggy, me and the two dogs. Janne is on early shift, so didn't meet us. We got them run in record time and were home in plenty of time to put out the first load of wash on the line, get some breakfast, and be ready for the glass man.

Who, of course, never showed up.

After an hour, Peggy called her insurance company and got permission to take care of it herself, find her own glass company and bill the insurance. The new place was very accommodating, were not surprised at the unprofessional behavior of the first place, and promised to have someone out here by 3:30. As it was now getting late in the day, that narrowed our options. Besides, we still had washing and ironing to do (yes, I ironed...stop chortling. You know who you are.)

By about 2, Peggy suggested we take a quick run to the shop and pick up bread and something for tea, to add to the leftover take-away Chinese dinner we had from last night.

Peggy shops in a little strip mall at a place called Dewson's. I thought Dewson's was a tiny little local mom and pop store. From the look of it--the tiny size, the cramped aisles, the foods crammed into every nook and cranny--you'd think this is the case.

But we seem to be running into a Dewson's nearly everywhere we go. Peggy says she thinks they may have been taken over by some larger corporation because she sees them popping up more and more.

Each location has its own unique feel. The Dewson's in Mount Barker, where we shopped with Claire and Penny, was huge--easily as large as a small supermarket in the States. But it was cavernous and half of it almost echoed with space that might have been used better for food displays (though in a town that is 3 blocks long at best, why??) A piece of the cavernous half was filled with a display of toys and holiday items (Christmas--already?), but it had more the feel of a garage sale, rather than the flashy displays one might expect.

In contrast, the Dewson's in Margaret River was a neat and tidy little boutique of a supermarket, with freshly made locally produced delicacies (like the package of beef satay we bought for our tea the first night), great looking produce, and a wonderful deli counter.

I love looking through markets of any sort in another country. You always find such interesting things. Like kangaroo bones. And the aforementioned boutique lamb roast. We were standing at the deli counter today and I saw something labeled "pumpkin pie." I pointed to it and said "I'll bet that's not a sweet." And no, it's a "savory," the vegetable use of pumpkin rather than the dessert use of the plant.

I've been surprised to discover that Weight Watchers Australia has a whole line of products that I have never seen in the States. Boxes of cereal, for example, with some unidentifiable bits in it, but which is 97% fat free and loaded with fiber. There are great Weight Watcher cookies and pudding mixes and other things. I don't know if there are Weight Watchers frozen meals--haven't seen those, so perhaps in this country the "make it yourself" option wins out over the "thaw-it-yourself" option!

Peggy also buys soft light butter, which may exist in the States, but which I haven't seen. It looks like, spreads like, and tastes like real butter, but with only 50% the fat. (I'm starting to sound like a commercial.)

We returned from Dewson's in plenty of time to meet the new glass man at 3:30 and I was getting concerned when it was approaching 4:30 and he still hadn't arrived. But he did eventually show up, measured the door, went back to the shop to see if they had glass to fit it, they did, and he is now scheduled to come and fix it at 9 tomorrow. Let's hope.

In the meantime, I hear that tomorrow is the day we discover whether California has "total recall" or not. I groan when I think of returning home to a state governed by The Terminator. That may give me nightmares to keep me awake tonight as well.

(My time here must be growing short--it's the first time I've thought seriously about any political issue since I left.)

The New Navigator

It was a new record. We got lost going out of the driveway today.

For a change, it was not the navigator's fault. The driver, having given up on her navigator, took matters into her own hands. "Turn right at the end of the driveway," Penny said, giving the driver a shortcut from Settler's Run to catch the Albany highway. The driver took a left turn at the end of the driveway, interpreting the term "driveway" to mean the end of the road which connects with the driveway. The driver had gone about 10 km when she began to get angry with this huge 4 wheel drive riding her tail, with high beams glaring in her eyes. Then the 4WD cut the beams, and then flashed them. "That's Penny," the driver said, and pulled over. Penny had been chasing us at significantly over the speed limit to let the driver know she was already lost. The driver asked if she could just keep going in the direction we were headed, but Penny said it would be quicker to turn round and head back to the house again (if we had kept going, I swear we would have ended up on that damn Margaret River-Busselton highway again!) Once we were pointed in the right direction, it was pretty impossible for either the driver or the former navigator to get lost, since it was a straight shot from the road to Perth. We did stop in Kojonup for lunch. The sign "coffee shop" seemed promising, but it was anything but. It looked like a nice efficient place, but the people running it appeared to be on loan from the local old folks' home and there was much confusion about orders, and it took forever to slap some chicken salad onto a piece of toasted bread (which was only toasted on one side). While we were waiting for our food, I bought a CD. It was 5 songs recorded by a local group of 3 kids, aged 14, 15 and 17, who have been singing together for 3 yrs and who had obviously put out this home-grown CD on which they thank their parents for all the miles they have driven them to gigs. How could I not buy it? (We played it in the car and it probably won't get played again, but I feel good for having contributed.) We took our sandwiches and went off looking for someplace to eat them. We were right near the cemetery (which is across the street from the hospital, an arrangement that would make me uncomfortable on hospital admission!), so we parked under a tree overlooking the graves and ate lunch. Peggy pointed out that we seem to be visiting all the local cemeteries--I think this is the third one we've been to. We did not, however, get out of the car, owing to the fact that we appeared to have parked near the home of some of the largest ants I'd ever seen and I was afraid they'd bite my ankles if I tried to step on the ground. After lunch, it was just get on the road, follow countless huge trucks over hills on the 2-lane highway, and eventually spy Perth in the distance, hitting it just about the time rush hour traffic was starting. We pulled into the driveway at about 4:10, 10 minutes later than Peggy predicted when we left the farm (coincidentally about the length of time we drove down the wrong road...ahem) and the dogs seemed happy to have "Mum" home again. I suggested we have Chinese take-away for tea tonight, so I walked down to the shopping center and picked it up. As I walked back, I realized that except for pictures of the lambs this morning before we left the farm, I hadn't taken a single photo all day. Fortunately at about that time, I spied a 28 and a pink and gray walking together in front of the veterinary office and I took a picture of them, so that's all you get for photos of the day. It's good to be home, but it sure was a wonderful week. Tomorrow we have washing and re-settling and organizing of photos to do and I suspect won't be leaving the house much. I have to admit that as we get back into the routine here, I'm already missing our little farmstay cottage...

The Ashes Are Blowing in the Wind

It was sunset. The water was calm and the boat barely rocked. Celine was singing in the background. Penny stepped to the side of the boat, opened the box, and sent their friend Hillary to her final resting place. The other passengers on the boat tossed flower petals. The ashes rested for a moment on top of the water, and then sank into the bay.

It was the end of our day. We had come to Albany to join Penny, Claire and their friends in the scattering of the ashes of their friend Hillary, who had died one year previous. They had rented Albany's premiere whale watching boat and figured that it might be a good way for us to see some whales as well (though this has been a very bad year for whale watching, and no, we didn't see any).

But the tribute to Hillary was very nice. The weather had been fairly good, a bit nippy, but not unbearable. Peggy and I spent most of our time on the top deck of the boat, since we didn't really know anybody who was there to honor Hillary anyway.

The day started with a misty morning sunrise that allowed me to get some lovely photos of the horses in the field.

We futzed around the farm for the morning. I worked on the web page. We did the usual stuff. At noon, we left to drive to Albany (the "al" is pronounced as in "Albert"), where we spent a couple of hours at the whale watching center.

Most of what we did at the center was sit by a gorgeous picture window and eat lunch. Then I did made some more contributions to Australia's economy (no wonder the Australian dollar is getting stronger), and then we started through the museum.

The museum covers many buildings in what was once a whale processing facility, and there are signs everywhere warning that this is NOT necessarily 100% safe for tourists, since it was designed for production, so if you hurt yourself, don't sue us. (I can just see something like that going over in the states!)

I didn't get to see a lot here because we got split up, and since we were on a tight timetable, it seemed that most of my time was spent in trying to find the others. But I did see the platform where they stripped the blubber off the whale, and the huge saw which they used to cut up the jaw, which is too tough to be cut by human hand alone. Then I spent the last 20 minutes trying to hook up with Peggy, Claire and Penny. Missed the whale carcases, and especially the preserved whale penis. I guess I will have to live the rest of my life without seeing that.

On our way to the boat, we had to pass by Dog Rock, which Char had told me before I left home that I had to see. I have now seen it:

And then onto the boat for Hillary's last trip.

It was late when we returned to shore and had an hour's drive back to the farm. We stopped in to Penny's for coffee, but as her cold had left her with virtually no voice whatsoever, we decided it was best to call it a somewhat early night.

We leave in the morning to return to Perth. Peggy asked me last night what had been my favorite part of my trip thus far (with only 2 weeks go go). I thought about it for a bit and decided that these few days here at Settler's Run has been the highlight. I don't know what there has been about it, but the time to relax, to get to know Penny and Claire, to get away from everything has just been lovely. Perth isn't exactly hustle and bustle, compared to the life I lead in the states, but it's going to seem a lot more hectic compared to the few days we've just been through.

Thanks for a wonderful vacation, Penny and Claire!