Friday 22nd to Sunday 24th March, 2024

The aims for the weekend were to go to a Wildflower Society talk in Glen Forest, see an opera film in Leederville (didn’t happen), stay overnight outside E’s apartment and be in place for the walking group at 8.30 a.m. Sunday morning, go to the Jackadders Folk Music Club in the afternoon and call in to see Matt on the way home.

To begin, we drove up to Darlington to have lunch at the Little Nook Cafe. It’s not in the town, but fairly close to Glen Forest and the photos on Google Maps were lovely. It was even better in person and we had hamburgers, one each, because it was about 1.30 and we were quite hungry.

Then we drove to Glen Forest and drove around a bit looking for a place to stay that was near the Octagonal Hall where the Wildflower Society has their meetings. In the end we settled on a paved car park next to the children’s playground. We had leftover food to heat up for our tea and then walked about 400m to the hall for the talk.

Although the speaker was actually on Zoom from Albany it still felt like we were in the room with him, though his speech sounded slightly muffled. We couldn’t follow all of the technical stuff, but still found it very interesting. The speaker and our picture were on one side, with the slides showing on most of the very large screen.

The speaker was Steve Hopper of the Albany campus of UWA and the talk was on the genus Haemordorum. We recognised many of the plants on the screen although we didn’t know the all of the names of them.

We wondered about the safety of leaving the Sherwood parked by itself, but when we came back there were emergency vehicles nearby working on a mains water leak, with lots of flashing lights. We went to sleep with all of that happening just across the road!

The weather can be quite warm during the day, but usually cools down overnight, and was very good for sleeping. In the morning there was a breeze and the cool, sunny morning made a walk more appealing than heading down to Leederville for the film. The Heritage Trail runs through the town and we walked towards Darlington and could have made it back to the Little Nook Cafe, but decided instead to return to Glen Forest as they have a little cafe as well.

Eventually, we felt like moving on. We drove up to Great Eastern Highway and I called in at the IGA to pick up some food for our lunch. We drove to E’s and found a good parking space opposite her place. We exchanged texts as she was busy in the afternoon, but set up when we would meet for tea.

At about 5.00 p.m. we went to her place, taking some wine and nibbles. I ordered a pizza as well, it was disappointingly soggy and very salty, but tasty. My review was honest on this, I’m not sure what they can do, but have to say that we definitely wouldn’t order a pizza from them again. We had a good catchup with E and left to go back to the Sherwood at about 9.00 p.m.

In the morning we took our time getting up and ready and were only just on time to the corner of the street where we met up with E and the other folk. We walked around the lake, then over to a nearby shopping centre with a lovely cafe. Stephen and I left a bit later than the others, but he was not feeling totally fit and we walked back to the Sherwood soon after.

Gwelup Lake looks completely dry, but could have water in it around the edges. The water authority manages the flow between the lakes and at present keeps Lake Monger full to use for a water source for fire fighting. They need to keep it deep enough, so don’t let the water flow through to Lake Gwelup.

At the cafe we had shared a muffin for breakfast, and then had our breakfast cereals for lunch. The folk concert was at 2.30 p.m. and we went early enough to enjoy a cup of tea sitting in the park next door before the concert.

The concert was patchy in terms of the performances, but the excellent ones made up for the others and the goodwill was perhaps the best part. The person who organises the folk club has decided to retire, but there are other folk clubs around Perth that people can attend. This one has been running for about 20 years, so that’s a pretty good innings.

Then it was time to head off to see Matt. He had just finished tea, and we went to his room for a bit. I had a shirt to give him, part of his birthday present, but I had to go over to get it from Belmont Forum, so it hadn’t made it into his birthday gift bag. Plus he has a shirt that needs a new button, so I picked that up. Then we sat outside for a little while with Seona and Matt before heading home for tea.

When we arrive home from a trip Stephen now brings in food from the fridge and cupboards and puts it away, so I don’t find it quite so much to sort out when we get home. We reverse into the parking bay, which makes it easier for accessing when we are packing/unpacking and also driving out.