Ancient Lands

The weather has turned cold and miserable, it has been raining for a few days and looks like it's sticking around for a while. It has prompted me to look back on our trip to Kalbarri a few weeks ago....Mmmmm sunshine & warmth.

I haven't been to Kalbarri since I was little so for me it was really my first time there. Land like this really humbles me and makes me remember how ancient this land is we live on. I am not sure I can put it into worlds but it fills me with awe and great respect. It reminds me a lot of the Kimberley's, the red earth that stretches as far as the eye can see, the smell in the air is clean and filled with the scent of native plants and flowers and the sky is so clear and huge! 

This is probably the most gorgeous place I have been with Mario for climbing, I think it's due to the landscape and just how different is to what I am used to. This is the beauty of Western Australia, we have coast, forest and rugged landscape! It is just so diverse, unfortunately that diversity is also great distances apart. 

Mario's birthday in Pemberton

The extreme chocolate mouse cake I made for Mario's birthday. Delicious! Nothing like chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate to make a Belgian happy.

My gift to Mario was a weekend away to lush, green & mossy Pemberton, staying in a gorgeous little place called Foragers. Pemberton is around 400km's south of Perth, surrounded by national parks and surviving on the wood milling industry.

Foragers is close to one of the national parks so that was our morning walk, down through the huge karri forest to look at the little waterfalls and photograph the many mushrooms! The prefect way to work up an appetite for a pile of waffles & a freshly made coffee. Mmmm. 

Saturday we had the most gorgeous weather so we spent the day visiting wineries and looking at a few more of the national park areas. The lady that owns Foragers is also a chef, so most Saturday nights she cooks a long table dinner for guests and locals. Her food is very homestyle modern Australia (she learnt from one of Australia's most loved cooks) sourcing her produce from local suppliers and foraging when possible. Needless to say we had dinner there and loved every minute of it! 

Sunday the weather turned bad and we weren't quite so inspired to leave our little room with the fire blazing. Home we went, driving the long way back to stop at another pretty spot in the forrest and to get some sheep cheese from a local producer.

& how old is Mario again???

Summer update....sorry for the time lapse!

Clearly I am a terrible blogger! I am sure there are rules about adding things on a regular basis...fail! From now on I will make more effort. Having six weeks off over summer gave me the chance to relax and add things as I had nothing else to do all day...then I went back to work. Excuses, excuses! 

So here is a quick rundown on what we have been up to for the last few months (Wow I am really terrible aren't I).

We enjoyed the amazing weather this year, though it did get a bit hot and last for a little too long....Perth really comes alive during the summer months with music, art, festivals and the ability to do this all outside without fear of rain. 

We went to the outdoor cinema's , the highlight was seeing 'The Broken Circle Breakdown' at the University of W.A. as part of the film festival. UWA offers such an amazing venue to have your picnic and watch a film, it was just gorgeous.

My favorite event in summer is the annual Sculpture's by the Sea exhibition held at Cottesloe Beach. It is such a stunning backdrop for these pieces of art. Love love love.

Mario went over to Melbourne for a work conference and then managed to add on 7 extra days to go climbing at Mt Arapiles, this was his 3rd attempt to get there so I was glad this trip finally happened for him.

Easter was spent in Esperance with my family, Mario learnt a new skill...fishing! He was the only one who didn't catch anything all day :( Not the best introduction but fun all the same. He was also exposed to the very Australian sport of Campdrafting that my Dad competes in, basically it involved chasing a cow around an arena on a horse....much more skill and such involved but a bit hard to explain. 

I promise there will be a new post soon :)

Bald Head walk

The Bald Head walk is a 16 km return walk in Albany along the Flinders Peninsula & it has been on Mario's list of 'to do's' for awhile. We set out early Sunday morning with our packed lunch and plenty of water.

Over the first hill....all that way to go!

Not the most impressive view at the end but it was good to get there.

After seeing some fat snake tracks I said I'd love to see a python, hoping thats what they belonged to! Then we came across this gorgeous one! Though he wasn't too keen to get off the track and we spent 5 minutes waiting for him to move. Before and after this we did see some quite large Tiger Snakes which I wasn't quite so happy to see & nor was Mario.

Three and a half hours later we washed the sweat and dirt off with an amazing swim at Misery Beach. 

Mulberry Glory

My Dad is away in Darwin for a week, so I offered to go out to the farm for the weekend and feed the dogs and make sure everything was ok. His Mulberry tree is also in full fruit so I took full advantage of that! I have been waiting weeks for this fruit to be ripe and was glad to have a weekend to myself to quietly pick away...an extra pair of hands would have been good though. Alas Mario was in the Porongurup's climbing with Ange so it was just me and the dog's. 

The start of my picking, I ended up with around 5 kg's of berries! It's time to get cooking & preserving.

The aftermath, there is no pretending you haven't been raiding a Mulberry tree.

Mulberry Jam, I need to make some scones to test it out.

Peach & Mulberry cake Mmmmmmm

My favorite time of day on the farm is late afternoon, everything takes on the most gorgeous golden colour & the air is so still....perfection!

My helpers Donna and Bonnie, any excuse to go for a ride on the motorbike! These two are full of life & mischief. Off we headed to catch some Yabbies to pickle.

Not a huge catch but after collecting six pots I didn't do too badly. 

A well earned glass of bubbles with freshly picked Mulberries! Lovely.

Escape to the Ferguson Valley

This weekend we had a little 'mini break' to the Ferguson Valley, about a 2 hour drive south of Perth. 

We did a little trip to visit Gnomesville!

The amazing & HUGE King Tree

An early morning paddle

The gorgeous view from a local winery

A stop at the Thrombolites in Mandurah before heading back to Perth