End of the Holiday

Our chalet, Tree Change, is only 16 minutes walk from Happs Pottery, announced C in the afternoon. I was inclined to laze on the sofa with my new book but I got myself into gear for some exercise. We had to walk along the road because there was no pavement and a few cars kept whizzing past. Rocky stayed at home: he would not have liked this.

Happs is full of tempting pots. I already have two at home, purchased on previous visits. C has a big red painting by an artist-in-residence.

You can now take pottery lessons in this area, but all was quiet this afternoon. Only a glass-blower was at work in his studio:

He was making little glass beads which had a tiny mushroom inside. I’m not sure what you could do with these.

Another visit was to a silversmiths, John Miller Designs. The man himself was in Broome for an exhibition weekend. Silver is not my thing, but C had bought a ring there in the past and thought about buying a matching bracelet. She couldn’t find something that was an exact match, but we talked for a while to the lady behind the counter and found out lots about silver cuffs.

A lot of his creations are inspired by marine life. I really liked the gold nautilus, but I’m not in the market for expensive jewellery. 

When we arrived back at Tree Change, it was time to light the fire. We have made big inroads into the wood supply:

Some of these logs are simply too big, but there was no hatchet anywhere so we couldn’t split them.

On our final day, we decided to go out for breakfast. Just across the road was Goanna Cafe, a one-time gallery but now a popular restaurant. (There is obviously more profit in food than in art!). We had perused the menu beforehand. C enjoyed a large Indonesian breakfast, whilst I ordered a more modest poached eggs on sourdough toast w. bacon:

Yallingup Beach

This is one of the hotspots for surfing and people come from all over the world to experience the huge waves. As we were watching the action, C got chatting to a young man from Spain who was working as a waiter in Margaret River. He was from Malaga in the south of Spain and was surprised to hear I had just been there and could say a few words to him in Spanish. Some other fellow surfers were there, discussing the pros and cons of the waves. Between themselves, they speak a language that nobody else except surfers can understand.

After watching the waves, we went for a walk around Caves House and gardens. This one of the oldest hotels in W.A. (If not the oldest).

Stormy Night

Rain showers were forecast to come through the region last night and we knew that it would drum on the roof of our chalet. The rain was preceded by strong winds that kept setting off the sensor lights by the front door and shining into my bedroom. I couldn’t help thinking about potential natural disasters that appear daily on the news. What if there was a forest fire and we were in the middle of it? What if there was a landslide and my car slid down and crashed into our chalet?

All night long, it seemed as if I could hear water gushing along the gutters and gurgling down the downpipe. But this morning when I checked the rain gauge there was only a total of 3 mm in it:

Before breakfast I was keen to walk down to the previously dry creek bed at the bottom of the property, to see how much water was flowing down. Absolutely nothing! Maybe it’s been such a dry summer and autumn that all the rain had just soaked straight into the ground:

These 3 photos show the creek bed in both directions.

Droplets.

Our plan for the day was to drive to Margaret River to locate a recommended fishmongers. I bought a nice piece of snapper and C was tempted by a tray of oysters. We had a gourmet lunch (no champagne though!):

Crossing the busy road in Margaret River.

Bread and Olives

Yallingup’s wood fired bread oven is another favourite, not to be missed when you are in the area. It is especially famous for its fruit loaves which are available straight out of the oven in the late afternoon. They must be the last to be cooked when the oven is cooling down slightly. We had to wait till nearly 4.00 pm so we had time to walk around the place. At the back we noticed huge piles of wood, off cuts from a timber yard, destined for the big oven in the middle of the forest.

I also noticed a few kangaroos in the field next door:

There were some black cockatoos nesting in a tree: the babies were crying out for food, which the parents were not bringing fast enough:

We have just visited Olio Bello olive farm and bought a few gourmet items to spice up our meals back at the chalet. There were many flavours of oil to taste, as well as various chutneys, relishes and marinated olives. One room had lots of beauty products, soaps, scented candles etc. Everything was quite pricey.

Here I am checking out the ingredients of their zucchini chutney, with a view to making some when I get back home:

Caves Road

First on our agenda was a trip to the Deer Farm on Caves Road: always a favourite place to stock up with unusual eats. I like to pick up some venison chorizo. Since I was last here, they have hugely expanded their range.

They even sell these bones for dogs. Rocky enjoyed one for lunch and crunched it up in no time!

I also bought two venison pies, one made with dark ale and one with mushroom and truffle: frozen, so they are on our menu for tomorrow. C treated herself to a pale green hoodie, with a deer logo on the back.

Then we drove to Gracetown to get some sea air. Dogs aren’t allowed on the beach at this point, so we found an alternative path alongside. Rocky was full of beans, marching along with his ears in the air.

There was a heavy shower of rain in the night, so the locals will be pleased. We heard it drumming on the roof of our chalet.

Yallingup Escape

E has gone to Melbourne. C and I are in Yallingup at a chalet in the woods, in the middle of nowhere. We traveled down in my Prius and Rocky seemed to like his spot in the boot because he could see out from a lying down position, even though there was not as much headroom as he is used to.

This is our chalet. It’s called Tree Change.

We had a picnic on the way near Bunbury.

On arrival, we had to make up the beds with our own sheets, not the normal holiday experience. Then we had to think about lighting the fire in the wood burning stove. 

This took a while, as most of the wood stored outside is a bit damp. I gathered lots of kindling from the drive way which was reasonably dry and C made good use of the fire lighters provided. The owner had suggested buying a bag of dry kindling logs from a service station on the way down. We might have to do that later in the week as rain is forecast on Wednesday. 

These Cowaramup cows are everywhere down here!

Wind chimes on the balcony.

Flowers just outside the chalet.

Inside the chalet, everything is well appointed and there is a surprisingly generous pantry cupboard. There was even a welcome bottle of red:

C had brought a frozen curry (Delia’s recipe) which we heated in the microwave and enjoyed with rice: