The Sun Sets on Grubsabout

Since we are not so much ‘about’ these days I think it’s time, reluctantly, and sadly, to put the blog to rest.  As much as I enjoy it, it’s been a struggle to keep it up, hence the five or six posts in one week while I’m on a semester break from uni!!

We are approaching the ‘one year at home’ mark and it’s flown.  And the more it flies the further away our memories of that fabulous time travelling Europe and living in Austria fall.  Keeping this blog is a fantastic reminder of that time and we’ve loved sharing with all of you, some of whom are still hanging on till the bitter end!  And we thank you with all our hearts for being with us on that journey of a lifetime.

We’re moving on with life in Oz now.  We miss the mountains and the great outdoors and travelling to new places, and have booked a very exciting trip to New Zealand next April, for two weeks touring the south island in a camper van!

We’re always trying to scratch our itchy feet…so it wouldn’t be surprising if we return with a sequel sometime in the future.

Grubsabout Again…we live in hope!

With lots of love from The Grubs - Mel, Maciek, Amelia and Noah

X

Seasons and Art on The Beach

Memorial art at Cottesloe Beach

We've got SIX!!

Here I am again banging on about seasons and how lovely they are in the Northern Hemisphere.  Oh how we miss the colours of Autumn, the silence of snow fall, and the darling buds of May!  I’ve been ‘tree spotting’ this Autumn.  I’ve noticed there are very few and far between trees dotted around whose leaves actually do turn orange and fall off, and I want one, in my garden.  So every July I can gaze outside and pretend I’m in a forest.  A proper one.  Sad isn’t it?  They’re called London Planes, a species of Sycamore, if you’re interested. 

But I’ve also noticed other goings on.  Subtle changes, but they’re there if you’re looking for it.  Or if you’re a native Australian still living traditional ways and it’s what you live by.  I speak only for Western Australia, as I have no idea what goes on in the rest of the country because it’s too far away, but we not only have four seasons, we’ve six!!  You’re jealous, I can tell.  The photo explains things a bit further.  These posts are dotted around Kings Park giving information on various native Australian goings-on.  The six season are: June-July, we have Makura or the First Rains, and this is the Fertility Season; August-September is Djilba or Second Rains, the Season of Conception; October-November is Kambarang, Wildflower Season and Season of Birth; December-January is Birok, First Summer and Season of the Young; Bunuru or Second Summer, Season of Adolescence is February-March; and Djeran is Autumn Season, April-May, and is the Season of Adulthood.  I bet that’s something you’ve ALWAYS wanted to know!

 

On day we took in some art at Cottesloe Beach, another ‘must visit’ if you’re ever in these parts.  One exhibition was a memorial to each Australian life lost in the Bali bombings, and consisted of a bamboo tower, one for each life, fashioned into a windmill/whistle and altogether they made a lovely calming sound when the breeze blew.

 

 

 

Saturday morning Yoga

Mounted Police in the city

February brought the beginning of the school year and Noah’s first day (a bit of tear spiller for me, not him!) and my first semester at university.  By March the sweltering 40 degree days were left behind making way for flannelette pyjamas and Easter egg hunts and camping in the beautiful south-west.  Then came Maciek’s birthday for which he received a BRILLIANT present which was a slackline (thanks to me!), now erected in the back garden, yoga mornings, and a day out to Fremantle Prison, built by the convicts in the 1850’s.



Fremantle Prison

Slacklining

Easter Bunnies

We are now into winter, enjoying some rain, but reluctant to turn the heater off in the lounge room at bedtime because the bedrooms are freezing (we’ve got none of that central heating rubbish!).  And according to the Aborigines, this is the Fertility Season.  Hmmm, I wonder if that’s got something to do with ‘warming up activities’ that might be helpful on these chilly wintery nights? 

Info about the Boab Tree

Fountain, Kings Park

Boab Tree in Kings Park

Paddling on the Swan River

Giant slide in the city

First day at school

Cottesloe Beach

For the Love of Trees

Tent set up in Pemberton

Austria had us falling in love with all things nature (excluding spiders, and snakes, and going naked in public saunas!), and in particular, trees.  Now we’re not your typical tree huggers.  We don’t sport dreadlocks, we don’t get involved in the business of Greenpeace, we don’t even grow our own vegetables (not that we don’t want to!), we like beef, but even though we don’t have one yet, I do have ‘Compost’ on my list of things to get for the garden!  I’ve got some ‘leaf’ earrings.  And my favourite shop is called The Tree of Life.  There’s a t-shirt in there with ‘Hug a Tree’ on the front.  It’s been there a long time.  I haven’t bought it yet.

Tree train!

 

We just like being around trees, alright?  So we’ve made an effort to get to the ‘trees’ at every opportunity we get, including camping weekends.



Ye Olde train station

After Christmas, for the Australia Day weekend at the end of January, we drove five hours south to Denmark.  It’s a much cooler climate down there.  Between here and there there’s nothing.  Lots of ‘flat orange’.  And then about half hour from Denmark you can start to see the trees, and some hills in the distance called the ‘Stirling Ranges’ (haven’t been there yet).  A ‘cool’ weekend with friends Peta (you might remember her from Stinky Pete and the Cow Dung) and Al.  It was the first time putting up the tent for years.  Six years in fact.  Not a long trip, only two night, but a little taster with some bush walking (bush a bit friendlier than that of Dunsborough), market wandering, take away coffee from the hip (ee) little town, climbing on rocks at the beach and starfish spotting. 

Karri tree forest

At Easter we ventured away a bit longer, for three nights, four hours south in a different direction (does that make any sense?) to Pemberton.  Much more tree-ie.  And cooler still, it being April.   It even rained – woohoo!  Nothing like a walk in a damp forest!  (I appreciate it may not be everyone’s cup of tea!)  We took a train ride throught the Karri forest (some of the tallest trees in the world you know!), went looking for blueberries but found none, a bit of biking, Maciek took a dip in the freezing cold lake, and the kids enjoyed just being outside to play and feed the ‘Twenty-Eights’ – green parrots.

 

Feeding the '28's'

We’ve been on day trips to Dwellingup for a tree fix.  And Maciek gets his tree fix every weekend with his ‘mountain’ biking.  He’s discovered four tracks, within easy reach after a one hour drive from home.  He’s bought me a bike too.   And a new helmet.  He went out at 9pm to buy it, and then demanded I sit on it, and asked me how it felt.  I just wanted to drink my tea and finish my book.  He’s obsessed with all things bike.  He loves it though.  But it’s only a winter sport.  In summer he’d get a face full of spiders, hanging between trees.  In summer he goes Paddling.  No, not like frolicking about in the shallows with his skirt tucked into his knickers.  Like in a kayak.  The only thing to worry about then is the sharks.

Aussie Day party boat

Me n Pete in Denmark

 

 

Someone swallowed Noah at Elephant Rocks in Denmark

Cheeky flag bearers

Starfish spotting

Hug a tree!!

Hiking aussie style in Dwellingup

Picnic at the lake in Dwellingup

Pemberton

Riding round the lake in Pemberton

Christmas in Australia and a Trip Down South

 



Our adventkranz

 

Austrian inspired xmas decs

 


Summer was sweltering this year.  A lovely ‘welcome back’ – Not!  With air conditioning on full blast and a ‘fat lady’ dress on, I sat still as I could most days during the school holidays in the shape of a starfish and still sweated buckets!  Poor Maciek tiling away getting through three litres of water every day, the kids in undies taking turns under the hose and sitting in the paddling pool, and down to the beach in the evenings to cool off.



Santa looks familiar? 

Christmas as usual on the 24^th at Maciek’s oldies for ‘Wigilia’, traditional Polish Christmas dinner, and at my Dad’s place on the 25^th for a not so traditional English Christmas (some Mediterranean inspiration there I think?).  Had a go at a gingerbread house, took hours, then it collapsed seconds after I took a photo!  We were chuffed with our little Austrian inspired decorations although they didn’t seem to have the same feel in 40 degrees heat.



The 27^th saw us off on a trip down to Dunsborough, 3 hours drive south from Perth with our friends the Szijarto’s.  We hired a holiday house come beach shack 2 minutes walk from the beach which was lucky as the house had no air conditioning and it was like living in a sauna for a week!  It was a nice place, and towards the end of the week it had cooled off allowing us to actually sleep at night.  We spent LOADS of time swimming, visited one or two wineries and just chilled out (in a sweaty kind of way!)  New Years Eve (and little Paul’s 8^th birthday!) was spent on the beach watching the moon rise (I know! We’d never seen it before either! It’s quite spectacular – bright orange like a sunrise in a pitch black sky) and twirling glow sticks!



We tried a hike, Aussie style.  With open minds off we trudged.  There’s something slightly foreboding about the plants and trees, just not very welcoming.  They prick you and scratch you and fling back into your face and you’re always on the lookout for spiders hanging in the middle of webs waiting to grab onto your face like a giant hand as you walk into them!  So we made a decision there and then not to do that again.  At least not in Summer anyway!

Here’s a little Australian version of Jingle Bells:

Jingle Bells Jingle Bells Jingle all the way

Look out for the meat eating plants!

A hot new years eve!

Christmas in Australia on a scorching summers day, hey!

Jingle Bells Jingle Bells Christmas time is beaut

Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty holden ute!

The crew at the lighthouse 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 







 


Canal Rocks



 



 

Hunting for Pine Cones

Kangaroo Paw??

Grass trees??

We spent the months leading up to Christmas venturing out, trying to discover new places in the great outdoors (apart from the beach), and attempting to re-create ‘Austria’ here in Perth.  From family bike rides around our local lake (or is it more of a swamp?) to picnics in Kings Park (a lovely great big place overlooking the city and the Swan River - a must visit if you visit!).  Within Kings Park are botanical gardens, endless grassed areas with fountains to gaze at, several playgrounds for the kids and picnic areas, and new since we left in 2011 – Naturescape – which is a ‘natural garden’ for kids to wander and paddle and climb and just get down and dirty really!  Bearing similarity to environments we spent most of our time in in Austria, we spent a morning there paddling in the ‘creek’ and climbing the rocks, building a ‘cubby’ (den), climbing trees and rope mazes, and mixing ‘magic potions’ in the bush, amongst some strange and wonderful Australian fauna (I’ll put the pics in but have no idea what they’re called!).

One little speckled frog...

Mixing a 'cheer up' potion for Daddy

Our local pine forest - in Summer

Charmed by all things wooden such as Christmas ornaments and dorky things to hang on your front door as can be found everywhere in Austria we went in search of ‘materials’, albeit Australian style.  The school is situated near the house in a lovely ‘leafy’ area and so on our little walks to and from school we collected sticks and gum nuts (which are locally known as ‘honkey nuts’ and are a health hazard if you’re running along and accidentally step on one = sprained ankle!).  We ventured out to our local ‘pine forest’ in search of pine cones, and although we did find a couple of promising Christmas tree decorations, we also found a Huntsman spider, hiding under a piece of bark I thought might make a nice candle holder (I didn’t stick around to take a photo of it!) and a gang of Kangaroo’s graced us with their presence! 

Building a 'cubby'

A creeky paddle

Not quite the woodsy explorations we had fallen in love with, but at least we were trying!  And we did manage to glue and stick together some quite nice looking bits and pieces ready for Christmas!

Collection of cones

Spot the spider(ssss)!

Bouncy visitors

Biking round the lake

A summer tree in full bloom