With the opening up of the regions in Western Australia  (unfortunately not enough to allow travel and  hugs with the family outside our region) Papa Bear and I have decided it is time to step out of the Resort. Baby steps at first, a venture into the coffee  shop for a take away Chai latte and coffee, a step out onto the foreshore to take a photo of ship leaving the harbour.

Then a trip to the fruit and vegetable shop to stock up on lovely fresh produce. It was so good to be able to pick what  wanted and not rely on the chain store shopper to pick for me.

We ventured further afield to Bunnings, and to our local supermarket. As Papa Bear said, we may as well do it now, our state region’s borders didn’t change, and we haven’t had any regional cases for at least a month, so it is pretty safe here at the moment.

Last week we delivered a parcel to D1 at her place of work, a mine site about 250 kms away. It was so exciting to get out into the bush.

The early morning drive was beautiful

The paddocks were all bare, ready for dry seeding

and the salt pans dry.

 

We stopped for coffee and cake along the way. The cake looked yum in the cabinet but sadly was quite stodgy and ended up in the bin!!

We left civilisation and entered the Outback!!

It was fun to see D1 at work, we admired her new hairstyle, 

had a look around the camp

 

and had lunch in the mess, making sure we followed the social distancing guidelines, two people to a table sitting diagonally opposite each other.

The trip back was easy apart from coming up behind this weird looking contraption but we were lucky enough to get an opportunity to pass it after a few minutes. The road wasn’t all that busy!!

We were amused by this sign

and wondered where this came from, maybe a wandering Jamaican! 

Next week we are going to venture north to Coral Bay, a popular swimming and snorkelling destination about 700km up the coast.

I guess you could say that we are no longer hunkered down. We are very grateful that we had such a beautiful place to spend our hunkering, for us our life didn’t really change much. I am grateful for the folks in charge who have made the difficult decisions that have kept us safe and ensured that my family have stayed healthy and fortunately employed. I am very much looking forward to those hugs with my family once the regions are open.  And a coffee in an actual coffee shop.

For the time being though we will continue to stay home most of the time, watching our football team play to empty stadiums, bingeing on Killing Eve and Mystery Road, reading, cooking, gardening. We’ll keep  in touch with family electronically, chatting online and sharing photos.

 

 

 

Our granddaughter likes to take charge of the phone when we chat but hasn’t quite mastered it yet!

So the time has come to wrap up Hunkering Down 2020. I wonder where  Baguettes and Vegemite  will come from next? Thanks so much to everyone who commented on my posts and on Facebook, I am glad I was able to bring a bit of joy into your life.

 

PS This little cutie brought a smile to mine

 

 

I don’t know where the last 8 weeks went! I’d like to say  I can now whip up a loaf of sourdough bread while chatting in perfect Spanish with my regular Spanish chat friend Mrs W ; that my vegetable garden is providing us with enough veggies to feed the entire street; that photos of said garden are amazing; and I am expecting an offer from a publisher for my novel any day now. However my mother brought me up never to tell a lie! I can make a pretty acceptable loaf of sourdough bread though!

The starter was brimming over with enthusiasm

 

I was pretty happy with the look of the finished product

and even happier with the taste, delish with a hearty bowl of vegetable soup

The beach was gorgeous, but too cold and windy  for swimming

Sometimes the trek from the water to the path is very daunting, how on earth did I do the Camino!!

I usually take the power line out of my photos from the balcony but my computer has suddenly  decided the operating system is too old to  edit photos any more, so phone lines stay! It would just be easier if the council would put the power lines underground.

The two weeks have been pretty much the same for Papa Bear and I

Reading

Cooking

 

 

Working in the garden. It’s amazing how quickly things grow in a fortnight,

from little flowers

to beans!

 

We are having to share our pak choy with night visitors

 

But all in all, the garden is looking pretty healthy

It was my birthday the day before Mother’s Day. I could get one of these t-shirts

but my birthday was actually very much the same as most birthdays, I had a chat with my my kids which makes any day special. My granddaughter tells me she still can’t hug me because of the germs. But when things open up again she will be able to!! So precious! I can’t wait for that hug.

For breakfast Papa Bear made me a home cured bacon sandwich on home made bread, and home grown tomatoes!!It sort of looks like Australia don’t you think? Torn down the middle because of regional border closures, and no Tasmania because we can’t go there either! I know, I have way too much time on my hands!

D3 joined us for my birthday lunch

Papa Bear and I made crayfish ramen, it was delicious!!

I gor a lovely book for my birthday from Mrs L which I am very much looking forward to reading, not a great surprise I have to say because  I was always full of enthusiasm when she read me passages from it, but a delightful treat anyway.

 

I also got a birthday loan, looking forward to reading this as well

It was Mother’s Day the next day. We had another yummy breakfast, bacon, black pudding and a fried egg!!

We went for a Sunday morning drive and as a special treat I got a take away Chai Latte and we drank it on the foreshore. My first take away Chai in 9 weeks!!

 

Just going back to Phosphorescence. I thought I would share with you the first paragraph of the book.

“One day recently while swimming at sunrise, I began thinking about how Oscar Wilde described the dawn as like a ‘frightened girl’ whop crept along the ‘long and silent street ….with her silver sandalled feet.’ It suddenly struck me as so timid and British.

In Australia, the dawn is an arsonist who pours petrol along the horizon, throws a match on it and watches it burn.”

I read that and thought I’d share some photos I had taken at dawn recently.

 

Take care everyone.
I hope each dawn brings a happy and healthy day for you all.

Before  I get started I’d just like to give you a little tip about taking selfies. When you are positioning yourself and the camera, just make sure that you tip your face up a little. This does two things. First of all it smooths out your double chin (from emotional eating) and some of your creepy neck. (I have tried three times to put a different word in there, but Word Press is determined to make my neck creepy!! So I’m just leaving it now.)

and secondly it hides this!

I recall just a few months ago saying that I wish I knew what the original colour of my hair was. All I can say now is be careful what you wish for…….

And just another tip for  you – I really urge you to watch this, it’s not long. I thought it was really helpful and I’m sure you will get a lot out of it too.

So, Week 6! My boss is still not talking to me and to be honest I am finding it a lot easier without her around. My working hours have been a lot more flexible. Papa Bear has been getting up at 5:00am to walk and I have set up another workspace in my bedroom. It’s amazing how much I can done sitting in bed with my cup of black coffee. Level 812 Candy Crush Saga and level 5 of Synergy Spanish just to name a couple. I can now say things like ” Voy a ir a mi casa esta noche para comer con mi family”which means “I am going to my house tonight in order to eat with my family” I’m very pleased with myself.

I can’t say I have been devoted to my daily walk this week but I did manage a couple of walks along the street. The sunrises are still gorgeous

I don’t think you can see this, but some-one drew a hopscotch with other fun activities, like twirl around, walk backwards. And yes, I did do it, making sure there was no-one around to see me.

 

The beach is slowly clearing of seaweed, and I had a couple of swims, but I think that time is  fast fading. I’m not good at running into the water and diving under the waves. I always mean to, but I’m more of your every day beach masochist. I  tiptoe in taking deep breaths as the water creeps closer to my belly button. That is the magic trigger to immerse myself slowly in the water, breathing air out in quick little gusts.

 

Here’s view of our house from the beach, you can see the white sand path going up to our house.

D1 came over for evening drinks on her last night. It will be so weird when we can actually sit next to each other!! And she doesn’t wear gloves!!

She is going to be spending the next few breaks with D2 and D3 in Perth. It will be lovely for them to spend sisterly time together but Papa Bear and I are going to miss her! The police btw are taking the closure of regional borders very seriously. She was supposed to have been given documentation from work to show she had permission to travel from Geraldton to Perth by plane, but it hadn’t arrived by the time she got to the airport. The police were there checking everyone so she had to make a last call to work and they managed to something through to her just in time. It’s good to see the authorities  are on the ball!!

Talking of which, did you download the app?

 

I know you’ve been dying to know how my bread went!

Here is the first prove

and the second prove

The final product!! Wow!! How good is that even if  I do say so myself?

And finally, the  sandwiches. I mean it is like real shop bought bread!!

I have to say thanks to the gorgeous Mike from Pro Home cooks whose video I followed step by step to make amazing sourdough bread . If you are interested in making sourdough bread, click on that link.

Staying with sourdough for a tick, when I had to rescusitate my starter I ended up with a lot of it! Jars in fact.Thanks to Google I have found lots of ways of using the starter. Who’d have thought? Some of them are so delicious and very simple, maybe when this is all over  I may go back to buying sourdough bread (because it is a lot  of faffing round)  and just using my starter for goodies like these – sourdough yoghurt flat bread. I wish I could roll them out more evenly,  I start off with a lovely circle of dough and end up with a very rustic looking flatbread.

It is yummy though and delish served with lentil and vegetable soup!

I’ve been exercising. D3 sent me a link to a workout website Body Project which is fab, they have low-impact 30 minutes workouts, which means it’s all done standing up, no getting up and down from the floor! I love it!  And they use real-life people to help show how to do the ‘easy’ option. Google it!

 

I’ve also found some of these workouts. Hands up if you remember this lady and the name of her class. I loved it when I was a young Mum. And yes I wore the pink leotards and tights, leg warmers and head band. I’ll give you some time to think about it and remind you at the end of this post!

The garden is doing well. We swapped seedlings with the back neighbour

 

picked fresh crunchy, peppery radishes ,

and Papa Bear got the garden ready for some romanescu broccoli seedlings which are almost ready to be planted out. They are the pointy ornamental-looking type of broccoli, and  were the only seeds available when we did our last trip to Bunnings pre -SI

Papa Bear smoked bacon, everyone should get the chance to try his bacon, it’s phenomenal!

On Sunday we went for a drive, just to make sure we don’t forget what Geraldton looks like,

drove past the Beached Barrel doughnut hut on the foreshore …..AND THERE WAS NO-ONE WAITING TO BE SERVED!! Such excitement to buy something , I’d almost forgotten how to use my credit card….no that’s lie!! A very yummy lemon – meringue doughnut!!

 

We had drinks on the balcony, this is Papa bear’s favourite position I think!

All in all, a satisfying week. Keep safe y’all!

Oh yes, her name is Judi Sheppard Missett and she is the creator of Jazzercise.  She is still alive and she is still Jazzercising!! And there’s no crepey neck for her (whispering, I think she’s had some work done)

I just had to add one photo because they are so cringeworthy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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