The East side

Just back from a lovely few days in melbourne. Same country but a 3 1/2 hour flight and a 3 hour time difference... this country sure is big! I had a couple of days to myself to explore the city whilst R worked hard. One thing i really noticed was how hectic it felt compared to Perth... busy,busy, busy with a helluva lot of people. As i was telling people this today at the gallery, we decided to google population figures and discovered melbourne has about 4 million people and the whole of WA only has just over 2 million! I really hadn't realised how few people there actually are this side of the country. Anyway, so back to Melbourne. Had a great time checking out the street art. There are lots of laneways to discover with graffiti and cool secret bars... i don't think we even saw half of them.

sunsets

the sunsets in Western Australia are so amazing. As we're on the west coast we get clear views over the Indian Ocean and if you head down to one of the beautiful beaches we have on offer in perth at sunset time, you'll see lots of people there to watch the show, some with a few beers or a bottle of wine, and if you're in cottesloe, then fish and chips whilst watching the sunset is a bit of an institution. We've only caught a couple of sunsets so far this summer but i'm sure there'll be many more. Sunset is currently about 6.30pm. WA doesn't have daylight saving so no altering the clocks for us. Apparently there was a 3 year trial which started in 2006. in 2009 there was a referendum and the outcome was no to daylight saving! So I think sunset won't go later then 7.30pm at the height of summer. The second photo is R trying to capture the reflection of the sunset in our sunglasses!

things i found in the garden

i was v. lazy today and didn't really leave the house (except to return to ikea to collect my phone which i'd lost and they found - yay!). I mostly enjoying lying in the hammock reading, and i kept hearing this noise which was ridiculously loud. It was obviously an insect. it sounded like a cricket or something so i kinda went to investigate. Turns out (i think) it's a cicada. The first photo shows the shell it leaves behind (there were about 4 or 5 on the wall) and the second photo is of the noisy little critter. Like, seriously, you would not believe how loud they are. I got used to the noise but then when there was lull i really appreciated the quiet. On my search for the cicadas I thought i'd take a picture of our mulberry tree! how cool is that. Mulberries can be used like other berries apparently so i'm thinking i should pick some and make a pie! I also saw a cute little lizard. I don't think you can gauge from the photo how small he was but he was only about as long as a finger. V. sweet. And that's our garden for today.

Now baking

The Bakery recently reopened. I say this as if i went before it shut down. i didn't. So, i can't compare, but we went on sat and sun nite and it's a pretty cool venue. It's red with old sofas. I like sofas... particularly at gigs. Sitting down gigs are my favourite. Not that we sat down for Sun Araw, because we didn't. But we did for Grouper on Sunday nite. Sun Araw was great. Not sure if it was the psychedelic music or the fact that R makes me watch too many crime shows on tv, but i was pretty sure that the drops of rain on the front porch when we came home were blood and not rain. We'd bought joint tix for Sun Araw on the sat nite and then Grouper on the sunday. However, by the time sunday evening came round, after a late nite and a free rainy day out in the Valley at a winery watching the Basement Birds, we were quite tempted to not head out for Grouper. It was a dark, rainy and windy evening, x factor was on and i was cooking up some hard boiled eggs... Luckily however sixthousand's post on facebook to get up and push on thru the hangover inspired us to pause xfactor (ohmigod, i love pausing live tv) and drive down to the bakery. We sat on a sofa, drank fizzy pop and nearly fell asleep to the sounds of Grouper. To be honest i didn't really dig Grouper. I liked her vocals and there was a nice haunting sound to it but, as anyone who knows me will know, i have a time problem, so one song that goes on for a whole set and lasts about 30 mins is my idea of hell. Like, if it hasn't stopped after 3 minutes, will it ever stop? And that thought scares me. But the sunday vibe and the sofas and the ambient table lamps made it v. cosy and mellow so i was pleased we made the effort. We then drove home, unpaused x factor and carried on with our vegging out. P.s. the photo's taken at the winery.... best caption wins a prize.

The Monk versus Xwray

last weekend felt pretty hectic as there was lots going on. Out in Freo with my friend, Lex on friday. We went to the Monk. The Monk is a pub on the main strip of Freo. I've walked past it a few times in the day and it's always been heaving as it's a great sunny spot for watching the world go by. We thought we'd check it out as I hadn't actually been there (and i had a 25% off voucher!) So, in short, i think we did it all wrong. As i said, it's a sunny spot, so i think it's best appreciated on say, a sunny sunday afternoon, and not a friday nite, when the atmosphere wasn't up to much. Like, it was busy, but i dunno, it felt a bit generic pub maybe. It's also a brewery so they brew their own beer. We however opted for a couple of glasses of wine. The reviews of this place on Urbanspoon pretty much say the tapas is awesome, well... we went for the pizza, which wasn't. Just had a couple of veggie pizzas which were, well, ok, i guess, nowt spesh at all. So, all in all, i can't say too much about it but probably would suggest trying a couple of beers on a sunny arvo and leave it at that. Afterwards we went round to Xwray (no website to link you to and i always forget to take my camera with me so no pics either - i'm such a rubbish blogger). Anyhoo, much cooler and a real lovely cute place to hang out. R and I stumbled across Xwray on our first trip to Freo. It's tucked away on Essex St opposite the Luna and is definitely worth checking out. And in a contest between the Monk versus Xwray, Xwray would win every time.

Peggy Guggenheim

This week i started volunteering at the Art Gallery of Western Australia on the Peggy Guggenheim exhibition. And I get to wear a snazzy blue t-shirt, which.... wait for it.... i get to keep! Alright! Funny actually because yesterday 2 people came in looking to buy the t-shirts, which aren't actually on sale, so i'm thinking.... end of the exhibition... ebay... highest bidder wins. (not really, obviously). Anyways, so it was a lot of fun and it's very exciting for Australia, and for Perth, (because the exhibition isn't going anywhere else) for so much great art to be here. I haven't managed to check out the exhibition yet (me bad) but i plan to next week. The exhibition is on for the whole summer and it's expected to get v. busy.

a hike in the woods

Due to a puncture our sunday cycling plans became walking plans. After a quick coffee at The Wine Tree, (and some morning cider tasting!) we drove to Lane Pool Reserve to walk one of the trails. R. a.k.a. 'My Hero' managed to get a fire going from the embers of a previous someone's fire so we got to cook sausages and have hotdogs for lunch. yay! He's so cool. We then went for a short walk along the river, R got attacked by a large red ant and we took a picture of Bob, because he looked so pretty with the sunlight falling on him through the trees. We then went home and had take out Stones pizza (for some reason we thought the pizza of the week - blue cheese and pear was a good choice). Yay for weekends!

an evening in dwellingup

Saturday night we were completely beat after a day of fresh air and cycling but we thought we'd go check out the dwellingup community hotel. I was slightly apprehensive after the lady in the tourist info had actually said they didn't like visitors (!) but how bad can it be. Oh, i should also point out that it was cup final day (Again. They don't do extra time so a draw the previous weekend meant we had two cup final weekends!) so the drinking for some had started early. Well, we stayed for one (quick) pint, tried not to catch the eyes of any of the crazily drunk people, and then headed to the safety of the Millhouse Coffee and Chocolate Co. which was serving dinner 5.30 - 9.30pm. I love the fact that there was only one place to go for dinner because it meant we had no decisions to make or pondering over what type of food we fancied. We got tipsy on wine, ate some food, shared a slice of mars bar cheesecake (made by the waitress's sister-in-law!), bought some chocolate and wandered home ready for a cup of tea and bed at 9pm! And on our short walk back to the cottage, we got to check out the starry night, and oh my goodness, i've never seen a sky like it. It was amazing! It was like being in the planetarium. I seriously have never seen so many stars in such a clear sky. it was beautiful.

escape to the country

this weekend we left the city behind to spend the weekend in Dwellingup. Dwellingup is just over an hour south and a little bit east of perth. It's inland near the murray river and it was very green. We packed the bikes in Bob (our fantastic station wagon) and set off on friday evening. R wanted to camp. I wanted to stay in a boutique b&b so we met somewhere in the middle (although definitely more at my end of the spectrum) and I booked Dwell Cottage, which was lovely and the garden was amazingly pretty. And we got some free lemons! Saturday we went mountain biking which was awesome. We cycled some of the Munda Biddi trail to get to the Marrinup trail which is an 8km single track loop. Now, i'm sure to experienced mountain bikers, this is but a walk in the park, but as a novice, i loved it. It was so much fun cycling on such a narrow track through the trees and over logs. And we saw kangaroos! And I so wanna cycle the munda biddi now. At the moment only the first part is completed (approx 500 kms) but the aim is for it to continue all the way from perth to albany. I'm thinking we should aim to do it sooner, whilst it's still short, rather than later!

homegrown

i'm so excited! After weeks of tending to my beloved plants (well, kinda cos i had to be reminded often by R to water them), we are now reaping the joys. Today we picked some lettuce and rocket for our dinner. Yum! homegrown salad and spanish omelette. I can't wait for the zucchinis to be ready.

Like a verge'ing

The last couple of weeks have been pretty darn exciting around West Leederville, let me tell ya.... and the reason... verge collection time! Basically, it was our turn to put all our crap out on the kerb to be collected by the council... which meant that every time i left the house to go anywhere i got to check out everything that our neighbours were chucking out and pick up some treasures. It's so much fun and people throw out stuff that there's absolutely nothing wrong with. It was also good to get rid of our junk and I loved the fact that you'd see other fellow verge collectors rummaging for stuff too. Best finds were a black metal and glass dressing table and some 60s style plastic round side tables. i'm so excited! It was also pretty cool when the 'incredible bulk' came and picked up all the rubbish (but i didn't get a photo of that).