Land of Apples

Yesterday, we took the road to Manjimup via Dardenup and Marrylup and arrived in Balingup. I now know that what I thought was one town called "blah-blah-something-up" is at least three or four different towns. This is the region to the south-east of us, where apples are grown.

The trees are all bare now, and silverly eerily beautiful.

And the empty crates stack up to make an interesting temporary wall for the packing shed.

When we first visited Bunbury in May, it was the end of summer and we bought a couple of apples from a farmer's market. They were so crunchy fresh and sweet that they made it into the 'pro' column when we were making up our minds about moving here. It's nice to know that the apples were super-local. And I'm definitely coming back for more, straight from the source.

Study

This is my study. The light was coming into it so nicely this morning (it's our first proper sunny day in ages), that I wanted to take a snap. I thought my desk looked a bit like a still-life - complete with a piece of fruit, my morning mandarine. You might need to click on the image to see what I'm talking about.

Those white shelves in the sunlight are part of the set that I got on our Ikea trip. I know they look a bit bare, but my idea is that I'll fill them up with little objects that inspire me. Standing behind the desk are two more Ikea bookcases, waiting to become my reference library.

Curtains

Sometimes I wonder, as I think other educated creative and crafty bloggers do, whether our foremothers really fought for liberation in the 1960s just so I could stay home day after day and worry about curtains?

When we rented this house, we were promised curtains for the front living room. Today, after days and days of nagging phonecalls, they were finally delivered and I was so relieved that I nearly skipped out the door to my yoga class. During the class - I know you're only meant to think about yoga during yoga class, but anyway - I thought about how sometimes when a tiny issue gets stuck or snagged, I really let it get to me out of all proportion.

Does that ever happen to you?

Not Nearly Enough

Outside today it's wet and windy and the water in the river is being whipped into little whitecaps. 

I wish it were warmer. I'm stiff and tired today after a long day yesterday shopping in Perth (I know, tough for some).  I'm wishing for some easy work, like washing all the sheets and towels and putting them out to dry in the sun. Such an easy, simple, satisfying job.

But I don't have nearly enough sunlight.  All I've got is this tiny square: the lemons I picked from the backyard tree a couple of days ago.

Time, do you think?

Something about this blog seems wrong. Is it the name up there in the header? And maybe the image too? Think maybe it's time for an update?

Drue asked me a while ago if I would change the name A Town and a Half now that I've left Townsville. I agree it makes sense ... but what to change it to? Nothing's jumping out at me. To be blunt, nothing in the whole of Bunbury is jumping out at me. Compared to Townsville it seems safe and quiet. We've left the North's outlandish edge. It's nice here. It's nearly sedate.

And the colours are different - have you noticed in the photos? Where Townsville is a clashing kaleidoscope: blue sky, aqua sea, red rock, and a jungle of overgrowing plantlife, the landscape around Bunbury is muted. It's flat browns and dull greens. It's beautiful too - in a slow, more restful way. In Townsville I was overwhelmed with excess colour. Here I love our wide brown river, with no crocs, and the endless view of eucalypts out into the distance. It's quieter, gentler.

I think I will make up a new name. It will mean the end of A Town and a Half - I'll close it off, and start again somewhere else. I'll leave it all still sitting here though, so I can look back through the highs and lows of our time in North Queensland. It was quite a rollercoaster in the end.

Big Weekend

Have you ever wanted to get to Ikea so badly that you got up early - in the dark - on a Saturday morning; drove two hours to the nearest big city; got lost on an unfamiliar freeway; drove around in circles for a bit; found yourself again, found Ikea, found a parking space and still arrived in time for it to open?

No?

I don't think Hayden has ever wanted to do all that either.  But he's so good to me that he did it anyway. 

Afterwards we got him a beer at the Little Creatures Brewery in Fremantle.  So it wasn't a completely wasted trip.

. . . to this

Forgive me.  

It's so wonderful to have a big wide house with different rooms for everything.  A guest room that's just a guest room and not also a storeroom, sewing room and study.  A place for our four bicycles that isn't in the lounge room.

I can't help showing off our new place.  

But the best best part is the bit across the road.

The River.  

(I'm pretty sure I secretly think of it as Our River.)