WE HAVE FURNITURE!!!!

After taking the scenic route – three weeks in the Bahamas, a trip accross the Atlantic for a week in Germany, then off to France for 5 days followed by two months to Perth, our furniture finally arrived on June 9th. We certainly were not prepared for it to take over 4 months, and are thrilled to finally have winter clothes!!!

I guess since all of our belongings are here, that must mean we are residents and now live here. YIKES!!!! I now have all my kitchen supplies (paltry as they may be…) so I guess I have no more excuses about cooking! YIKES!

Dawson is up to his old tricks again – last month we dog sat a friend’s dog for 9 days and on the first morning Dawson got into her ENTIRE supply of food and ate it ALL!!! We now have a huge plastic tub for his food with a snap-on lid (which I have difficulty getting off!). Last week I could hear banging in the laundry room and came down to find he had somehow popped off the lid and was starting to chow down! He has also managed to get into his friends plastic container with a SCREW top lid. I think with the proper training and food motivation he could have had a promising career - perhaps in break and entry, taste tester, criminal tracking, drug busting, etc.

We have met friends that have an olive farm near Gin Gin, about an hour north of the city. It had already been harvested when we went but was still great to get out there and see the farm and country side. They have orange and lemon trees that I had a blast picking. I must have brought home well over 200 oranges and lemons, much to John’s chagrin. I gave away a ton and then made delicious orange juice and lemonade with friends (who says I have no talents in the kitchen?) http://picasaweb.google.com/frederick.linda/2008MayVisitAnOliveFarmEricWickhamS

Perth’s winter is very different from the winters I grew up with. A cold morning is 8C (45F). The usually sunny days are mixed with rain. It’s interesting because you can see really dark clouds rolling in and then a torrential downpour for several minutes and then stop and then the sun comes out. Only to be followed later by ominous dark clouds that release a huge burst of water, to stop several minutes later. That is a bad day in a Perth winter.

The end of May we spent a 3 day weekend in Margaret River – 3 hours southwest of Perth. It is a favourite weekend vacation spot for people from Perth (Sand Groppers) and is a wine growing region with over 120 wineries. Some of the wineries are well established – Amberly, Lehman’s, Felix Vassar, etc. and some are new small ones, Mad Fish, Knee Deep, etc. It is really pretty with big trees, rolling hills and twisty winding roads. We managed to only sample the fairs from about 4 wineries, plus a brewery, cheese factory and then the best of all, a chocolate factory (that imports the chocolate from Belgium…. Go figure???!!!) There are beautiful beaches, phenomenal surfing and great caves there, which we purposely did not go to so that we will be sure to return again. Several pounds and bottles of wine later we had a great time. http://picasaweb.google.com/frederick.linda/2008MayMargaretRiver

More later, Dawson has been far too quiet and I have to run and check the food supplies….