It feel like a long, long time since we camped at the beach, but is actually just under two weeks ago. Perhaps it feels a long time because we don’t know when we might be able to do it again. I expect that the people around Perth who live in their vans are still doing it, they have to go somewhere. Although there are caravan parks and camping places offering longer term places for full time travellers if they are not able to lower their rates I suspect many people cannot afford to go there. Burns Beach, for example, charges about $50 per night and even their weekly or monthly rate might be prohibitive. Coogee Beach is cheaper and might be worth trying.

Of course, apart from people living in vans and cars out of necessity, this is a very first world problem only suffered by people who can afford a van. We want to go off travelling and I’m particularly upset about missing out on winter travelling for going up north. In summer we sort of hibernate, or take short trips during times of cooler weather, or go to Pinaroo Point. But going north or east just wouldn’t be a pleasure, I’m amazed at families that take off in the summer school holidays to go inland, very hardy folk is all I can say, or perhaps they always stay in caravan parks with swimming pools and full hookups.

Today we have a plan to drive to the Kent Street Weir area for our walk, leaving a bit earlier than usual because we don’t want to run out of light. Tramping the suburban streets near our house is losing it’s appeal. However, it has clarified that Victoria Park is quite a nice suburb, with lots of interesting older brick or weatherboard homes and a few really attractive new homes. As well there are derelict houses with rusted roofs and cheap and nasty modern houses and villas that shouldn’t have been built. Some streets have beautiful old trees and in the evening we notice lots of birds as well.

When we first moved here about 11 years ago we walked around the local area a lot, including walking along Albany Highway to count all of the restaurants, pubs and cafes. We lost count, of course, and there are many changes, new cafes, old ones taken over, etc. There is something of the feel of a country town here, with an interesting and very long main street. I’m glad we were eventually able to afford a house here. It’s not fancy, but has everything we need, including about three pleasant outdoor areas and our newly planted garden. I’m not sure if it is a plus to have our little campervan parked here or not, it seems to ‘hum’ to me about trips to be taken.

I’m missing Matt a lot even though we see him on Facetime. I’m even missing visits to Mum although they can be a bit challenging, both the long drive there and back and keeping pace with her mixture of confused memories, gaps and flashes of normal intelligence. I’m not concerned about her condition changing a lot by the time we next see her because her dementia has been pretty stable. Even when I’ve been away for a few weeks I don’t notice any difference in her functioning. She’s become a bit more physically frail, but mentally seems about the same.

There’s a lot of craft happening. My older sister always sews anyway, but has more time for her present difficult project, Eversley is making koalas and I am making cloth masks. I wonder if she would swap a mask for a koala? I can give her a choice of fabrics and levels of thickness. Of course, I’ve already got six teddy bears, a lion, a kitten and a Monkey Mia Dolphin, which is either enough, or perhaps we could take the view that the koala would be joining a large family.

We haven’t posted a bear outside for children because we are at the end of a long driveway. I feel I would have to be prepared to lose any bear that I set up near our letterbox. And we don’t want to encourage people to walk on our private driveway. Apart from anything else, our neighbour has security cameras covering it.

We just got a delivery of flowers and chocolate and my immediate thought was that it came from Matthew. However, there was a number to call and it turns out to be for someone across the road. We are leaving it where it is so that she can pick it up.