Winter Pursuits

In England, I always spent a Monday morning in January making marmalade. (I started work in the library at lunchtime in those days, as I had to work till 9.00 pm). There was a very short season when Seville oranges appeared in the shops. Now in Perth my fruit of choice is cumquats. This year, my normal supply from friends' gardens seemed to have dried up and you cannot buy them in the shops. Finally, in the last week of winter, I was offered some by two of the bushwalking group. My kitchen is once again filled with the delicious orange aroma and JL can look forward to his breakfast crumpet with home made marmalade.

There are even a few left over to make brandied cumquats: their liquor is like Cointreau.

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This is a cosy rug for cold nights in front of the TV. The squares were knitted by one of my cleaners. She had come to a full stop and didn't know how to join them together. I said there are plenty of instructions on YouTube. I offered to finish it for her as I like to crochet. It's very relaxing. I might make one for myself next. The squares are approx 24 centimetres, but you have to be really careful in making sure they are all the same. These could be more exact than they are.

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On one of my walks down to the river, I came across a tiny turtle. When it realised I had stopped, and was a threat, it stuck its head in and kept absolutely still. I think it was heading for a pond which had formed on the grass of the old golf course. Perth has had the wettest August in about 30 years!

Bridges Bushwalk

Bushwalkers group photo on the new footbridge

Sunday's walk was supposed to be in King's Park, where the spring flowers are just starting to come out. But it was also the day of the City to Surf Funrun, so many access roads were closed to traffic. Our walk was hastily rearranged to going round the bridges.

We started at McCallum Park, along the river past Burswood (which I do virtually every day, so I found myself as the local guide!), then to the Stadium, over the new footbridge, around Claisebrook Cove in East Perth, along the river and across to Heirisson Island and back to the start. I hadn't been on Heirisson for several years and was surprised how rural it seemed, so close to the city. There are said to be kangaroos on the island, but we didn't spot any!

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It's easy to forget, on a nice warm sunny day, that it's actually the middle of winter here.  I found this photo of snow on Bluff Knoll (WA's highest peak, which I've climbed twice).  The photo was taken early in August when an unexpected and rare snowfall attracted a lot of attention.  Some hopefuls even carried skis to the top! There are no ski slopes here!

Mundaring

We saw on the news last night that Perth's dams are now at 50% capacity after the heavy rain we've had of late. This time last year they were only at 30% capacity. JL has been in hospital this week for a prostate operation, so as a special treat he was keen to go on an outing to Mundaring, scene of his first job as a young civil engineer.

The original dam was built in 1903 to supply water to the Goldfields via a long pipeline, quite an ambitious plan at the time. (The pipeline was designed by CY O’Connor, the Government Engineer-in-Chief. Sadly O’Connor took his own life only a few weeks before the pipeline started operation; he did this by riding his horse straight into the sea).  JL worked on the raising of the dam wall around 1950, in order to increase the capacity of the dam. He and all the labourers lived in a camp in Nissen huts on site during the week. They were a motley bunch, including new migrants who were contracted to work on such manual projects as a condition of being allowed to come to Australia. Whatever their background, they had to do this work, in one case a Polish concert pianist!  They were mainly engaged in producing huge concrete blocks to raise the height of the dam.

JL sat in a chair and reminisced about those days whilst I went for a walk. The Water Corp had closed off the walk across the dam wall, why?  So to get to the other side, it was necessary to drop down into the valley and up steep steps on the other side. This must be extremely annoying to those on the Bibbulmun Track who are carrying lots of gear.

This is our lunch spot, looking towards the dam wall

Looking at the dam wall from a lower level

Bibbulmun sign at the bottom

Valve house, dated 1903: a beautiful piece of industrial architecture

Pump house, originally steam powered, pumping the water to Kalgoorlie

C.Y. O'Connor lake

Wattles in flower everywhere

Water level at 50% capacity

In 1996, water overflowed down the spillway. This was the last time and people drove from miles around to see the spectacle which looked like lace as it flowed down the wall.  Nowadays, excess water is shared between the other Perth dams, some being produced at the de-salination plant south of Perth.

Lesley Bushwalk

The main problem with this bushwalk was getting to the meeting place: Lesley Picnic Area. There is no signpost for it, not even a P. Our directions were "on the right of Brookton Highway, just after the Ashendon Rd turnoff". It's the third time I've done this walk and each time I've had trouble finding the spot.
Anyway, it was a lovely day out, sunny and warm, about 12 kms on fairly flat forestry tracks. Towards the end, the path was inundated with water from the recent heavy rains. At one point, my foot was sucked into the mud. I was wearing my Merrell walking shoes instead of boots - maybe not the best idea under the circumstances, but seasoned Camino walkers are swearing off boots because they are heavy and require too much effort on a long walk.

Pimelia suaveolens

"Blueboy" (Stirlingia latifolia)

This is the first time with the bushwalkers that we've seen the track turn into a running stream!

Lake Monger

After the coldest night of the year (below 4 degrees), it was a lovely crisp sunny morning and ideal for a walk round Lake Monger. It's exactly 3.5 kms and a favourite jogging track for the keep-fit brigade.

There were very few water birds; usually there are hundreds, especially black swans much loved by Chinese tourists.

This is approximately the spot where , years ago, a cyclist rounded a bend and crashed into JL. The cycle ended up being thrown into the lake by the angry pedestrian!