Back in the land down under

I got back to Perth early October, thinking I was coming back for a rest.  How wrong could I be.  It was great to catch up with friends and to start sharing some dances with our Rosalie Circle Dance group.   We had a dance weekend away in the bush soon after I got back.  

I visited the people who bought my property at the end of last year and was delighted to see how well they are doing and how happy they are with their new lifestyle.   

I had a short house-sit too and have also been staying with friends. 

It was good to have a walk along a beautiful Aussie beach again.

I picked up my new van and started kitting it out ready for travelling.   There are solar panels on the roof, so I can camp off-grid and still have fridge and lights.  The circle dance logo on the side of the van is a little difficult to make out.  But the Happy Wanderer logo on the front has come out really well, thanks to good friends who worked on the design for me.

 

I had 10 days south of Perth in November, camping out in the van and also attending a small folk festival.  It was a great test run, learning how everything works and ironing out any minor teething troubles.  So now I am ready for my big road trip to Tasmania.  I'm heading over there for December and January.

Scarecrow Aussie style.  Once a jolly swagman....

Dancing with emus

Back in the Aussie bush

Reflections.  Dwellingup. Western Australia.

May Gibbs wattle babies.  A great artist and author of childrens' books, born in 1877.

 Wellington Dam, Collie.  Beautiful spot for camping.

View from the Sika Walk Trail near Wellington Dam.  9.5km circular track.  t took about 3.5 hours to walk.

Wildflowers in W.A.  

My last hurrah dancing The Mass For Peace

My last dance event in England was with Brenda Kelly.  We went up to Mirfield Monastery in Yorkshire to dance her suite of dances "Mass for Peace" - music by Karl Jenkins.  I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy it, as the music is very strong and powerful, depicting war and moving through to peace.  But it was a wonderful experience and I absolutely loved it.  Brenda hasn't danced it for a number of years, but has many requests to do it again next year.  So we are already considering venues.

The monastery had two churches and we danced in the smaller of the two.  It was a lovely square space, just the right size for our group of 40 dancers.  There was state of the art lighting and sound system.  (and underfloor heating)

Having been in the UK for the Spring, I was pleased to see some autumn colour before I leave.                    The colours are just starting to change and the leaves beginning to fall. 

But there is just enough warmth and sunshine left for the butterflies.  The monastery had a great orchard with laden apple trees.  I wish I could have had a few spare days to bottle them all.  Many were just fallen on the ground.  Some were SO red, the wicked witch could have tempted anyone to take a bite.

The upper church had a beautiful window, with panes of clear and green glass, with the colours from the trees shining through.

The gang of five.  Brenda, me and three of her Hassocks dancers, Cath, Beverly and Ruth.  We all travelled up from Sussex to Yorkshire together on the train.  Had lots of laughs.  And we were a good back-up crew to help Brenda with some of the many things that needed organising over the course of the dance weekend.

Beautiful fuchsia bushes in the Monastery gardens.

Sussex and house sitting

I drove back to Sussex from Cornwall.  After spending a few days with Brenda and dancing with her groups, I headed off to a nearby house sit in a converted barn.

 All I had to look after was an aviary of canaries and the tomatoes in the greenhouse, so nothing too stressful.

The lounge room was rather special

The barn where I house sat was right next door to Knepp re-wilding area, a 3,500 acres estate.  Since 2001, the land – once intensively farmed - has been devoted to a pioneering rewilding project, as a way of returning to a state of natural productivity.  Grazing animals such as pigs, deer, ponies and cattle imitate the range of animals that would have grazed this land thousands of years ago.   They help maintain the land, to stop it becoming too overgrown.  Animals are culled as necessary, providing slow-grown meat to the local market.  No extra feeding is necessary, except in heavy snow. These look like very happy, healthy little piggies, that I met while                                                                                            walking in the area.

The animals need no extra feeding and they can live outside all year round, with woodland and thickets to provide shelter.

The regeneration of the land, and re-establishment of natural water courses, now supports many rare species of birds, bats,  butterflies and other wildlife.

I walked through the wilding area to the local pub, very quaint, in a little village called 'Dial Post'  Had a lovely lunch here.  

The Vintage Car Club was having their monthly get-together at the pub, so there were lots of lovely old cars parked outside. 

I rather liked the ladybird mini.

I've been impressed by how many solar farms there are in England.  

Cornwall in the Sunshine

I went back down to Cornwall for a couple of weeks in August to catch up with more friends down there.  And the weather was more user-friendly this time, with quite a few days of sunshine, even over the August Bank Holiday weekend (unheard of).  It was very busy in Cornwall, being the last week of the school summer holidays, but still a joy to be there.   Of course, being England, the beautiful days were interspersed with miserable misty, wet days.  The price that must be paid for all the greenery.

Dinner overlooking a sandy beach on Cornwall's north coast












It was a delight to see a Red Admiral butterfly.  I remember these from my childhood.

Cliff top walks in the sunshine

yet another quaint Cornish village

Carn Euny. The remains of round stone houses. This site has been inhabited since the iron age.

Also at Carn Euny.  This is part of the fogou.  An underground tunnel with a circular round room off the corridor.  It is not known what this was used for, but it is incredibly sturdy and well built.  Perhaps it was protection against invaders.  The whole settlement was built high on a hill, with views to the coast

Iridescent lichen in a nearby sacred well

The church where Sir John Betjeman is buried, overlooking
the sea

This is one of the four round houses in Veryan, a small Cornish village.  There are a pair of these round houses at each end of the village - one on either side of the road.  They have round rooms so there are no corners for the devil to hide in.

The Merry Maidens near Penzance. They were turned to stone, as punishment for dancing on the Sabbath.  It looks like they must have been circle dancing.

As I was going to St Ives (on the train), this was the view

In St Ives for a day out with old friends

Very steep narrow streets in St Ives

Dancing at Halsway Manor

 Halsway Manor (pronounced Hallsey) is in Somerset.  It is another wonderful old house, now run as a centre for Folk Music and associated arts and dance.  Hazel Young runs a dance holiday here every year. She did mostly traditional European dances, with a smattering of new choreographies.  I met up with about 6 people I had already danced with earlier this year, which was nice.  I never did master the other 30+ names of the dancers.

We danced outside once or twice.  But one couple were out dancing by the summer house the whole time!!!.

 

White night.  Hazel Young in the foreground.  Me peeping from behind the banister post.











The grand entrance hall, and a mosaic in the garden depicting all things 'folk'.  Each panel was made by a different group of children.

View through my bedroom window