We were delighted to be able to attend a small music festival in Dwellingup. Although they said they had a COVID-safe plan there was no social distancing and it’s the last time I can be with a group of people indoors feeling that there is little to no risk for us.
We started out on Thursday as we had a plan for Thursday evening. Stephen wanted to attend a Wildlower society meeting in Armadale and checked to see if we could stay in the car park overnight after the meeting. Being assured that it wasn’t specifically prohibited, we packed for the weekend and set out late on Thursday afternoon. Although the meeting room (on the edge of Settlers’ Common in Bedforddale) is just off Albany Highway we found it was a large gravel carpark with enough bush around to make it a pleasant environment.
The meeting included a presentation by a speaker who muffled his words, about orchid propagation. It was actually interesting so we were prepared to persevere with listening hard. The local Wildflower Society was made up of mostly older people and they had a sort of ‘show and tell’ of their latest finds in the bush.
There was also a supper and Stephen became so immersed in talking with someone that he forgot to get his warm jacket when he was leaving. I had left a few minutes earlier to walk the short distance ‘home’. Our host, the chairman of the group, told us that homeless people often stayed nearby. Throughout the meeting a radio was blaring across the carpark from what appeared to be a camping set up near some picnic tables.
I put in my ear plugs and turned on the fan to block out the noise to sleep. Pretty much straight away the radio was turned off and they weren’t needed. We actually had a very good night’s sleep and as we had plenty to time to get to Dwellingup we enjoyed a leisurely morning enjoying being in the setting and waiting for our host to come and open up so that Stephen could get his warm coat.
Apparently last year at the Folk in the Forest festival it was 45 degrees during the day. The rain started on Friday night and continued off and on for the rest of the weekend. Although we got quite muddy in the carpark Friday morning at Bedfordale, we were able to camp on leaves at Banksiadale which meant we only brought in lots of leaf matter, no so much mud. It wasn’t really cold, but cool enough that it was a good thing that Stephen had his warm jacket to wear.
There were about 14 current and former Working Voices Choir members at the festival and we got together to Bernard and Eleanor to sing a couple of Bernard’s songs during the blackboard session on Saturday afternoon. I found it a very emotional experience and feel very glad we were able to sing together again. Apart from that, there were other people we knew amongst the 120 people attending so it was a very comfortable experience in that sense.
There was a food truck and a bar, but we also ate our own food to keep costs down. We enjoyed spending a good deal of the time with Eversley who was staying in a backpacker’s room at the caravan park about 1.4 kilometres away. The gems of the concerts and presentations were not always what we expected. There was only one concert venue and we didn’t get a chance to look around much as we attended everything, including the bonfire Friday evening which blazed wonderfully despite the rain.
On Sunday we left late morning as Stephen had a dress rehearsal in the evening for the Gilbert and Sullivan Society Concert. We stopped for lunch at the North Dandalup Dam and were home in good time for him to get ready. We still hadn’t quite worked out how to fit the collar on his sailor suit, hence looking a bit odd in the photo.
I had a short Facetime session with Matt Sunday evening where we arranged to have a longer session with Dad tonight (Monday night).