What motivated us to pack up the van and go to Pinaroo Point for an overnight on Saturday is that Eversley’s Gwelup Walking Group were coming on Sunday morning for a walk or a swim (in the end, both). It took a bit of energy and whilst Stephen went to an opera film I felt I needed to concentrate on doing some shopping and getting the van ready. When I was ready I drove over to Leederville and had lunch and a rest whilst waiting for Stephen. How comfortable that was!
During the week we had some paving and bricklaying done, then the gardener came to put plants all along the back fence. She was working in 41 heat and we couldn’t put the air conditioner on without it having a fairly major impact as she was constantly walking past it. Anyway, we felt it showed solidarity with her as she shoveled stuff, put in the reticulation and then the plants. We brought out cold drinks, for which she was most grateful.
We hope the plants survive as there is still quite a lot of hot weather to come. The retic will come on twice a day for the first week or so to help the plants settle in.
I’m sorry the photos are so dark, I need to redo them in better lighting, but I felt I couldn’t talk about it here without giving some idea of what it looks like.
We’ve had some paving done outside of the window of Stephen’s study. This area is shady in summer and sunny in winter and makes a perfect little outdoor setting. The other paving is at the front of the house. We’ve had all the bushes taken out at the side of the house and now have our van parking bay fully paved. With our new smaller van fitting perfectly into the space, with lots of room to access the inside through the sliding door, we feel very happy with this setup.
The van itself is currently at GeorgeDay Caravans having the grey water release handle looked at. We are also getting a quote on putting in a storage area so that we can have an extra battery and maybe even have a diesel heater fitted. I’m thinking of taking the quote to Ken Peachy Caravans to see if they can match it. We have great faith in their work and if they can do it for the same price I would prefer them to do it.
Back to the weekend. Of course, on Saturday and Sunday the heat spell was over and it was quite cloudy. We enjoyed walking down the path to the south in the evening, taking in the beautiful cloud scapes.
In the morning, with the group, we walked all the way south to Whitford Nodes where there was a market day in progress. After looking around we walked back and took over a picnic table sheltered area for morning tea. We actually shared the table with the nice woman who is living at Pinaroo Point in her car, so it was an opportunity to connect with her a little. She appears to like her privacy, but was friendly in a quiet way. She said that she had driven across Australia and into the Northern Territory before her car finally gave out nearby. She manages to live in the car without looking like a hobo, in fact she looks as clean and neat as if she is living the lifestyle as a choice. Stephen and I have seen her a couple of times before and are glad we have actually met so that we can at least exchange nods and smiles. She does yoga outside her car and uses one of the shelters as her ‘office’ during the day.
After coffee, bickies and pastries, the clouds were clearing and most of us (not Stephen), went for a swim.
Stephen and sat outside until we felt hungry again and then had lunch. Soon afterwards we packed up and went home. We wanted time to rest a bit before Matt arrived. We had a nice evening with him and Tin picked him up at 7.30 as usual.