I got my act together and actually got up early and went for walks along the beach in Guilderton.
The wind was unrelenting and when walking southwards I felt as if my legs were being sandblasted. The timing could have been better as the tide was almost completely in, but the beach was beautiful, almost deserted.
Being summer in Australia there was of course a fire hazard and a big fire did break out. This one didn't threaten our home but we were inconvenienced when travelling into the city to meet friends for a picnic in Kings Park on the Saturday evening, being diverted due to road closures.
Fortunately no-one was hurt and no homes were lost in the fire, but 7000 hectares of land was burnt out, and it burnt for 4 days, with the 'bush fire advice' alert posted for over a week due to small pockets still smouldering.
Our picnic in the city park, Kings Park was lovely. The weather was quite balmy and the get together with a few girls that I used to work with and a couple over for a return home from living on a barge in France, was lovely. There were even fireworks on the opposite shore of the river, possibly for a wedding as some of the fireworks formed hearts.
We had to detour again on our way home but otherwise the trip was uneventful.
We continued to read and potter for a few moments a day.
The next week saw the Lancelin Ocean Classic - the world's longest ocean windsurfing race. This year marks the 40th Anniversary of the event, so the celebrations were bigger and better. They were having a beach party and fireworks. It sounded too good to miss. Our friends, over from France, drove up on Saturday afternoon and after a couple of hours chatting over a platter of wine and cheese we all went up to Lancelin to check out the fun. The party was in full swing, but we were hoping for a selection of food vans but the lonely Chicken Treat option didn't appeal. We watched another glorious West Coast sunset and then went along to find a spot behind the Tavern to watch the fireworks. We stood on the footpath behind the Tavern, thinking that it might be a good spot, Boom!
We were right behind the launch area. The show was fantastic, each firework display we see seems to be better than the one before! A great show, well done everyone involved.
Standing so close to 'the action' made for some different photos, quite a few more of the ascent rather than just the 'burst' up high.
It's great fun playing with colour brightness and contrast with these photos and this time I set one to black and white - I really like the result. It makes the image look like a glass or ice sculpture, I think.
The summer heat continued unabated and the garden really needed the reticulation. The birds loved the bird bath and our little kangaroo family were grateful for the bucket of water, in the shade under the large gum tree
Then we got some summer storms - thunder, lightning and RAIN. Lots of lovely, lovely rain.
Unfortunately this weather usually brings power outages and loss of phone and internet.
This time was not different. We lost our internet on Jan 24th, the estimated restoration date was 29th.
The 29th came and we got a new message saying that the amended restoration date was Feb. 2nd. The 2nd came and we got another message - restoration date now amended to 10th !!!!!Aaargh!! Then we lost the phone connection too.!! The thunder, lightning and hail storms continued.
But surprise, surprise on 3rd we got both phone and internet back on line. Well for a couple of hours anyway, then we lost power as another storm front passed over.It was only out for a couple of hours and then we were back up with all connections functioning. fingers crossed that the storm still hovering does not cause further disruptions. The weather forecast is for the storms to dissipate over the next couple of days, here's hoping.
The weather did give us some dramatic cloud patterns and sunsets.
The next couple of weekends we are busy socialising and then at the end of the month, well on 1st March we're off on our train adventure........ watch this space.
