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

Christmas Down Under

This year Mario got to experience Christmas in a very Australian way, seafood for lunch and an afternoon swim. We spent nearly two weeks in Esperance with my friends and family eating, drinking and enjoying the south coast life.

Boxing day was spent at the beach with my sister's family and their friends who luckily for us love going diving for Abalone and who also found a sea urchin! After some apprehension Mario had a little taste :)  

A jelly fish that was washed up and the Abalone we cooked up on the BBQ for lunch! YUM!

Mario enjoyed terrorising me nieces Jonte & Aisha under the sprinkler 

Enjoying the farm life, the Tiger snake my brother in law shot over the back fence. The birds had been chirping all morning alerting him it was there somewhere, it took a few hours to find it but he got it! 

A morning of paddle boarding! He's up......nope he's off :) 

Sunday morning breakfast

On weekend mornings that Mario isn't heading off climbing we have been spending time to make breakfasts that we don't have time for during the week. For Christmas I gave Mario a waffle iron, so this morning we tested it out! 

Delicious! Fresh blue berries & pomegranate. The honey is from Mario's friend Phil who keeps a hive in his backyard, being in the city means there is always flowers so they produce lots of lovely honey.
(still some perfecting to go before they are as good as Mario's Mums)

Yesterday we spent a little bit of time in the garden, Mario planted some seeds & hopefully we will soon have some Kale, capsicum, chilli and a lots of different herbs! I replanted our pallet planters with some succulents from my Mum & sister, I love that you can just snap a piece off, pop it in the soil and it grows. 

A long drive....

Driving down to Esperance to see my family never gets easier or shorter....they live a grueling 8 hour drive from Perth. We pass through around 8 towns, most of which have a population of only a few hundred people, the landscape is mostly farms, scrub and salt lakes. 

To break the trip up we stopped in Wagin to visit the Giant Ram! 

Then at Lake Dumbleyung to take a stroll around the lake.