Drawers primed

And here are the bedside drawers primed and ready for greening….



And after the first coat…



And finished!

2 coats of enamel later…

So here’s the wardrobe after 2 coats of white gloss enamel paint.  And I’m definitely getting that feeling of too much white.


I thought I might start by adding green just to those 2 little runners in the centre and see how that looks.

In the mean time I’ve brought these little old Ikea drawers in as bedside tables.  Here’s how they look before they get any attention…
























And here’s how Molly looks in the middle of proceedings….

Wardrobe ... Second Coat

I decided to go with 2 coats of primer.  I'm using the BIN Zinsser water based primer, which is supposedly a pretty good stain blocker, but it's a big ask of any primer to cover that very dark stained wood with one coat.  Especially when I'm using foam rollers which only apply the paint very thinly.

So here it is after the second coat of primer.  Getting better, I think.  White gloss next, but I still haven't decided how to incorporate the green.  Hmm....

Labour Day Long Weekend

This long weekend we headed south.  It’s been so hot and humid in Perth for ages now and the forecast for the south coast was cold and drizzly – no brainer!  We were headed for colder climes.

Saturday morning I had a mad dash to finish my candles (I personalise candles for special occasions) and do my final delivery for the week.  Then I went straight on to J’s and together we packed Gertie ready to go.

It took us about 4.5 hours to reach Mt Barker, making a couple of stops along the way for fuel and snacks, and we had lunch there before heading on to Albany.  We headed straight for the main road, had a quick look at the new entertainment centre thingy then started looking for a place to camp for the night.

Our plan was to head east, looking at the campsites that we had listed on a map.  First was Mutton Bird Island, but there was no camping allowed – I think the campsite might be further away along the Bibbulmun Track.  
 

Shelter Island (at Muttonbird Beach)

Next was Cosy Corner which was so crowded I don’t think we could have physically fit our tent in anywhere, and I can’t say we felt the inclination to try.

So it was on to Shelley Beach.  What a beautiful place that is!  And a lovely little pocket of karris on the way.  But sadly, very crowded and exposed to the wind, so on we went.

Shelley Beach

Next stop, Lowlands Beach.  I’m not sure what we expected here, but it was a lookout with a long climb down to the beach .. no camping there. 

By this time it was about 4.30pm and we knew we had to find somewhere soon and set up camp.  The choice was to either head east again and try to find Perkins Beach or keep heading west to Denmark and stay in a caravan park. 

The latter choice won and we rang ahead as soon as we had a signal to make sure they had a spot at Ocean Beach Holiday Park.  They did and we made it there just as they were closing the office.  My goodness, that place is not what I remembered – it’s now reminiscent of some kind of American lakeside tourist town and as we drove through to the back where the unpowered sites were, it was like passing through a shanty town – J said it reminded him of a kibbutz where he once stayed in Israel.   

But the unpowered site area was huge and treed and lovely and we found a nice secluded spot to set up camp.  We’re getting faster at that now and I think it took us about 40 minutes to complete – we’re going to whittle that down even further, I’m sure.

So once we were set up and had a little breather, we headed back into Denmark for dinner.

The only places we could find open were an Indian Restaurant, a fish and chip shop and the pub.  J said that he didn’t think curry and camping really went together and we weren’t too keen on fish and chips.  So by default, we ended up at the pub.

As we were getting out of the car a German lady came over to us and asked us if we knew the place and if it was nice?  We told her that we were visiting too so we went off together to check it out.  There were three of them and they made it through the door just ahead of us, but we heard the waitress telling them that there were no tables left, only one that seated 6 people and seeing as they were only three, they would have to take a table out the back in the function room.

I’m not sure what the perils of the function room were, but it seemed like a pretty dire suggestion, so the German lady asked us if we would like to share a table with them so we could take the table for six, which we were happy to agree to.

As it turned out, they were a lady called Annetta, with her parents, Gutrune and Hannel, who were visiting from Germany.  Annetta had been living in Australia for about 18 months after having come here on holiday and meeting her partner.  Her parents had come over for a visit and she was showing them around the southwest.

They came from East Germany and it blew my mind to think that they had lived for 40 years under Russian socialism.  They were very sweet and it was so much fun talking to them – they struggled with English a little, but we got by just fine, sharing lots of laughs. 

I especially loved their approach to food, it was all so well appreciated and relished; they were very excited about the marron that J and I had ordered, offering to take photos of me and J with our dinner plates and very happy to try some.  It was wonderful to watch Hannel savouring it, picking through the shell and the claws with happy gusto.

<< pic of Denmark pub dinner >>

We finally left them and went back to our camp and pretty much went straight to bed.  (When we camp we tend to rise and sleep with the sun.  It makes for some long sleep times, but it’s wonderful.) 

It was a pretty crappy night though for both of us.  I was really uncomfortable on my mattress and pillows and my neck and shoulders were throbbing.  And J got a puncture in his air bed and slept on his bones for most of the night.

So next morning I loaded up on painkillers and after breakfast we packed up and headed back into Albany to visit a BCF and get a new mattress for J.  We found one for $25, which we figured was ok for probably only one use, but decided that we’re going to invest in a big thick chunk of foam to cover the whole tent floor that we can both use as a mattress.  I can’t wait!  It will take up a fair bit of room in the car, but we reckon it’s worth it for a good night’s sleep. 

After that, we went down to Frenchman’s Bay and visited the Blowholes (they were actually blowing..yay!), Jimmy Newells, Stony Hill and a random beach.  But the road to the Gap and Natural Bridge was closed!  Bummer.

J on Stony Hill

View from Stony Hill

Howe Point

Blowholes

Blowholes boulders

Path to Blowholes

Queen Me

 

Jimmy Newells

I had brought with us a lot of my Mum’s shells that she had collected over the years and J and I spent some time at the random beach standing on a rock and pitching them all back into the sea.  It made my heart hurt a lot, but I really wanted to do it and it was so much easier to face having J there with me.

We decided after that to make our way up to the Stirling Ranges.  The weather was really cloudy and cold and it rained a little on the way up.  But we got in to the Stirling Range Retreat and found a sheltered spot to pitch the tent.

That's Bluff Knoll under there somewhere

J had a quick nap and I had a read and then we headed over to the Bluff Knoll Cafe for dinner.  The only other people there were a group of four teenage girls sitting at one of the tables who the owner said would be “entertaining us“ for the evening.  Really they were just mucking about with guitars...it was pretty sweet.

At some point when we were ordering the owner asked me if I played and I answered that I played a little guitar.  He got very excited and said that if I liked I could come out and see his banjo out the back later on.  I said I’d like to, but while we were waiting for our meals he brought it over to our table.  I admired it greatly, but he hadn’t yet learned how to play.

So he got another guitar out, played a song with the girls then handed it to me, asking me to play something.  Bloody hell, I hadn’t held a guitar for years!  But the girls all gathered round and one who was holding a ukulele asked if I knew “Let it Be”?  (what else?)  So I resigned myself to the fact that I wasn’t getting out of there without playing something and asked her for the chords, got ready.. and then..right on cue, our dinners came out!  Oh dear, what a shame!  Dinnertime put a stop to all of our happy plans.  Thank the Lord.

The girls left while we were eating, so I was spared any reprise of musical humiliation.

Bluff Knoll Cafe

It was a much better night for both of us too.  J had his new airbed and I set my pillows up a little better.  We had been warned that it was going to be a very cold night, but we were both pretty toasty – I have to say the RV4 tent is pretty good in cold weather, even without the fly.

The next morning we took advantage of the luxurious shower block and had a leisurely and enormous breakfast using the camp bbq.  Then it was time to pack up and head into the Stirlings. 

We did the scenic drive right through the guts of the range and stopped to take heaps of pics.  It was colder than even we had bargained for, but it was delicious – an icy wind and chilling light rainfall was a wonderful change to the seemingly endless hot Perth summer.  And who can resist the sensual delight of standing and looking out over the beautiful Stirlings, having your hair blown into curly oblivion and all your senses tingling and awake with the freshness and chill?  It has to be one of the greatest delights of life.

(I’m not a Sylvia Plath fan, but I remembered that quote from The Bell Jar .. “I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, "This is what it is to be happy.””)

"the onrush of scenery"

J & Gertie, equally excited to be here

Somewhere in the Stirlings

 

Gertie & Me

Once we were through the Stirlings, we meandered down back roads to the Porongorups because J wanted to visit a vineyard called Jingalla that he remembered there and pick up some wine.  We found it and he bought a case of their lovely Rosé.  (I assume it’s lovely – I haven’t actually tried it, but their Muscat was heavenly.)

After Jingalla, we had a quick look at the Tree-in-the-Rock and then drove the short scenic drive through the range, afterwards stopping for lunch at the nearby tearooms. 

And then sadly it was time to hit the road and start out on the 4 hour trip home, happily listening to BBC radio plays of Dr Who on the way. 

It’s always bittersweet to be home, but never mind – only 5 weeks until Easter!