We stayed at Avon Ascent until Friday when we packed up and went to York. Apart from the warmth during the day (30C) we found it a lovely and peaceful place to be. We arrived at York at about lunchtime and went straight to the services, water and dump point, before a bit of shopping at the IGA. We found a shady spot to park up and had lunch and a rest, then walked around town for a bit and had coffee at the Settler’s Rest before heading to Cherry’s ‘homestead’.

It’s not just a house, she has confined her chickens to a well maintained run in the yard and enclosed a verandah to accommodate her 3 cats. The third cat was unexpected, a stray, and she and the cats had to learn to live with her. There was a flat area away from trees for us to park and we had access to her spare bathroom and toilet during our stay.

On the first night we had a shared meal. I cooked the mushroom curry that is my favourite at the moment and Cherry had a variety of other dishes which went well, along with steamed rice. The first evening was a chance to do some catching up. We realised that we hadn’t been to stay since just before COVID.

In the morning Cherry gave us a ride into town to the markets. I bought a dragon for Matt, it’s really a holder for mosquito coils, but beautifully done. I also bought a fat ??? for making cushions for Stephen. We booked into a hotel for our evening meal and went and had coffee at the other end of town.

We walked into town in the evening for our meal. It was very busy, but we were sitting in the outdoor area and they lit a fire and it was interesting to watch the other guests. The meal was very enjoyable as we sampled the vegetarian options, then had deserts. By then the live music had started and we enjoyed that for a while before walking home. By not driving in we didn’t have to worry about drinking, but are all quite modest in our requirements having one drink each.

Today was a motorcyle festival in town. Walking through the crowds we opted for masks as it was difficult to social distance. The motorcycles were varied and very interesting, as are the people who ride them. As we were walking back we came across a jumping exhibition and marvelled at the two riders doing different things as they flew through the air. I have a bit of video of this which needs editing before adding to this blog.

Once home Stephen and I had our cereal for lunch. Cherry had cooked us ‘coddled eggs’ for breakfast, along with sourdough bread and home made jams, with coffee and tea of our choice. The coddled eggs are cooked in a little container and stay warm whilst you are eating them. She was able to time mine to have a runny yoke and Stephen’s to be firm.

We’ve had the external solar panel out yesterday and today and it performs extremely well. My Victron app reported that we had a maximum draw of 277w from the solar panels which must have happened whilst we were away. The total possible is is 330w and given that they will never perform to the maximum I would guess that around 277 will be the most we will ever see from the combined panels.

After a rest we packed up everything and said our goodbyes, feeling a little sad to be parting of course, but we felt it had been a very good visit and catchup. Greenhills is about 16 kms from York, a very small town with a lovely old pub. As it’s COVID we decided to have an early drink of hard ginger beer and beer sitting in the beer garden. We were entertained by a film crew who were interviewing the publican, a woman, with a family recruited as the background to the filming.

Stephen has opted to have a shower for $5, which has given me time to get down to this update. He also had a shower when we were at Cherry’s place, otherwise he just has washes in the van. I am happy with my basin ‘pour over’ washes in the van, which leave me feeling as clean as if I have had a shower.

It’s been cloudy and sometimes seemed like it would rain, but nothing happened until about 5.00 p.m. tonight. We are having quite heavy rain at the moment, but as we plan to stay in for the evening we are just happy and hope it will also rain at Cherry’s.