still boring

The bore still demands attention: it's providing lots of lovely water, enough for many showers and flushes and even enough for a dishwasher in the future renovations  but needs a house built around it for protection from the weather and possible vandalism - so even though there were boats out in the bay fishing for garfish David donned his working gear and started making foundations. The little bush flies were so bad that after he'd swallowed one he wore his fly-excluding hat which prompted neighbours driving by to stop and enquire "had he found some bees?"

 

David and the bore

It was nice to meet David and Sue who are building further around the bay in what those who live there call 'Upper Douglas'.  Which makes us 'Middle Douglas'. They've reached the lock-up stage and hope to be in by next Christmas: they're  more patient than we are.

 

When they arrived I was reading on a seat on Henrietta's hill overlooking the bay but out of the biting wind.

Andy and Di Cameron came to dinner Saturday night and we sat outside in the shelter shed for drinks, away from the lashing wind. We're fast realising life at Cape Douglas is  all about avoiding wind and the quaint shelter shed is very useful but I have plans to make it look less rustic. The crayfish plates had another outing as we celebrated our property purchases.

 

Crayfish score: 8 (that is 8 caught but quite a few have been eaten.)

 

 



boxing day trip side trip

We had to go to Adelaide for me to have a bit chopped off my nose - dreadful timing but Alison and Christopher were only too happy to look after Henrietta and the beach in our absence.


All went well: we found a Chinese restaurant open for dinner and I was very struck by my fortune cookie's message:




apposite - if a month late!

Christmas

The new bore delivers lots of water and David can have as many sprinklers as he wants all going at once.

 

Christmas Eve in Mount Gambier was bedlam: it was such a relief to get in the car and go down to Cape Douglas with my Carlton Ware lobster plates which we used to eat crayfish from for dinner.


David, Jon, Alison, Christopher

We woke early on Christmas Day - not to look at our stockings, but because the light streams into the lookout room and it's irresistible to sit up in bed and look out at the sea. It was perfect tide for a spot of early morning fishing from the beach so David fulfilled his wish of walking out his front door with a rod and catching fish, 1 mullet and 7 garfish.





First catch from the beach - 1 mullet



Crayfish score: 7


party week continues

The twenty-second Bubbles and Bagels was held this year at the beach and our friends were interested to see just what we have done - i.e. complicated our life.
They all seemed to like Beechwood in spite of the cool weather: Mary Leech in particular was very taken with the secret gardens as I took little groups on tour of all the nooks and crannies.

Daisy took photos from the lookout room of some of the guests.

back: Bernie Passauer, Peter Johnstone, Allan Grey, Jerry Leech, Mike Powell
front: Glenyse Johnstone, Rhonda Strickland, Linley Grey

 

Jon Oberer explores the bush garden

This blog hasn't mentioned so far the trouble we've had with the water supply: from the very first day when we flushed the toilet and it didn't refill we've known there is a problem. A new pump was installed and didn't improve matters - David would have to pump the pump to get any water 4 times in one evening so finally the bore specialists were called in and arrived this morning with their drilling rig.

Our bore was deemed totally inadequate so they've had to drill much deeper and replace the new pump with a heavy duty pump. Fingers crossed that we'll be able to flush and not have to return to Mount Gambier for a shower.
(Life is easier for Henrietta who can just dig a hole in the sand.)


0

what a bore!



sudden change of weather

 

After 40' on Thursday, it's 14' on Saturday!

Last night the wind howled around the lookout room and the windows shook but it was exhilarating. The morning was grey, cool and raining so tennis was cancelled and David was able to potter some more outside.

I built a fire in the shelter shed's stove which worked fine and he was able to finish off his sign for the front of the house.

He's had a piece of myrtle beech wood since our honeymoon in Tasmania 46 years ago - and here was the perfect use for it. I took it to a sign-maker where the man took one look and suggested that wood was too difficult: how about a nice piece of black vinyl with white letters. David was horrified and tried a cabinetmaker who put it through his machine and came up with just what David envisaged and now it's in place:

 

1 Cape Douglas Road

There was just time to go around the pots before returning to the Mount for the Tennis Club's dinner - and a grand score of 4 crayfish of legal size and one 'rat' which was thrown back. No, not rattus rattus but an undersized crayfish.

Crayfish score: 4!

 

treasures of the deep

2 days of 36' in Mount Gambier and we are wilting with the suddenness.
It was 26' at Cape Douglas - noticeable as soon as you opened the car door -  and Daisy and boyfriend Chris couldn't wait to get into the water and cool down. We had to lure them out for dinner.

 

Chris and Daisy off for a swim

 

David was out diving with Rory McE and here we see the superiority of diving over pots - no octopus to eat these.
crayfish score: zero!

 

David with two beautiful crayfish



party week

seedEnergy's Christmas dinner was at Beechwood last night: the weather forecast of 37' convinced everyone that the beach was the place to be.
Early arrivals were Di and Andy with Peter who is over from Tasmania for work, followed by Mandy & Mick, Jill & Garry and Kelly & Liam.

Early birds Di & Andy Cameron, Helen, Mick & Mandy Rudd, David.
Peter Gore took the photo

We ate outside in perfect weather, sitting at the rickety old picnic table on the site of the future deck. 


A beautiful sunset set the seal on a great evening.




Liam capturing the sunset (he's a better photographer than me...)

David and Peter checked the craypots this morning and found a lovely big crayfish - unfortunately killed and part-eaten by an octopus.
Crayfish score: still minus 2

 



beach deck

David worked on the beach deck at various times during the week because it's our favourite place to sit and look at the sea - except when the wind is southerly which is quite often.  He removed the unsafe stairs and simplified access to it so now hardy souls can sit there with a glass of wine and enjoy the view. I've bought solid chip bowls so the nibbles don't blow away.
 

At the crucial moment a pelican swam by.
 

He bought another freezer as last week's purchase was too big for the boat to fit into the garage, so now we own 8 freezers: excessive for the amount of fish caught so far. Though I have every faith things are about to change...

He swam in the bay on Sunday morning and caught one crayfish, not quite enough for family plus our guests Jenny and Rory so Rory McE loaned him two for the occasion.
Crayfish score - minus 2!

It was lovely to see our friends Jenny and Rory Hume en route from Adelaide to Mount Buller and Sydney before they return to Qatar where Rory will work for another 6 months. We've been friends since our children were small and Rory was in Mount Gambier as the school dentist.

They were impressed with the rock platforms that you can see in the sea from the tip of Cape Douglas and so was I as it was my first visit there.

 

Rory and Jenny H

second weekend

David put his pots out on Friday afternoon but no success so far - however no-one else got anything legal either. It will happen eventually.

This weekend was the attack of the secateurs and the angle-grinder. All the daisy bushes which looked so pretty when we first looked at the place have dried off and revealed themselves as long leggy stems on gnarly stumps which haven't been cut back in 10 years so they have to go. The railings around the roof of the beach deck and the ladder leading up all looked so unsafe we shuddered but they too are gone. The huge crumbling jaw of a whale has been returned to the dunes along the beach and already the place looks neater.

It was hard for David to leave and go to tennis but Alison came down and we went for a walk along the beach to the tip of Cape Douglas.



Our house, Beechwood, is the cream dot on the far horizon about one-quarter from the left.

Henrietta is not happy about becoming an inside cat when outside is so interesting even if she does have to be on a lead.

Why have you brought me to this place?

We went round to Rory and Di's for happy hour which turned into happy 4 hours and a nice way to meet some of our new neighbours.
David has been advised to get couta heads for crayfish bait which are guaranteed to turn his luck around.

first weekend

There we were all ready to go down for our first night and no Henrietta so she had to stay behind. Silly cat! Next morning she was most contrite and came on the return journey with a trailer load of furniture including a frig. She has a bolt hole in a kitchen cupboard but consented to emerge to sleep on our bed which is in the Lookout Room until the renovations are done.

Christopher's parents Betty and Les came with scones and we celebrated moving in and explored the property. Les has always lived at Port Mac so he is nearly a local and knows the area well.

 

Sunday night there was a glorious sunset after a thunderstorm and big fat cold raindrops - and now I see why we're doing this difficult thing. We sat on the beach deck and enjoyed the view until dark, David lamenting that he hasn't yet brought down his diving gear to take advantage of the glassy calm sea.



arrived

We're in - and with the bare basics of 12 assorted chairs and 1 small round table we had a housewarming with the pizza and pinot group. It meets monthly, this time at Cape Douglas.

Everyone is impressed with the setting and blown away by the view from the upstairs room - think I'll call it the lookout room. Two pelicans were perched on the reef and flocks of seabirds wheeled over the bay, creating an idyllic scene. I was thrilled to discover we have a resident blue wren and mate: another reason to convert Henrietta into an inside cat.

Yesterday as soon as David got the keys we rushed down to meet the builder who, we hope, will be doing the renovations. The good news: it's only "a little job", the bad news: he doesn't want to start till after Christmas. So we will have to spend a while without a bathroom - which quickly rose up the list of priorities.
New kitchen comes second: the only word for the hotplates is disgusting and the cupboards are inadequate to put it kindly. What fun to choose new everything and I'll get Christopher's sister Karen who is an interior decorator to help. David doesn't care as long as we don't have one of those hand basins that looks like a salad bowl.

waiting

It has been a long wait until settlement goes through but tomorrow is The Day!

Fortunately the weather has been cold and misty and is just starting to look like summer now so we haven't missed too much.
I've spent the time collecting duplicates of the gear we already have and David has been planning what he'll plant on the dune.
Alison produced an informative booklet about what should be planted at the seaside (not seaside daisy to my surprise) and David has researched information about the plants and species endemic to Cape Douglas.

 

David feeling weak at the knees thinking about all the work needed...

 

 

the beginning

Nothing was further from my mind than buying a house at the beach.

It came about because we went down to Cape Douglas (W by NW from Port MacDonnell)  to have a crayfish dinner with Rory and Di McEwen who have retired there as their permanent home and love it. As we drove away David said: “That’s how I’d like to live, just pottering about in a boat at my front door.” So I said: “Let’s do it then.”

The next weekend we drove around the coast from Port MacDonnell to Carpenter Rocks and found this one at Cape Douglas had just come on the market. On Monday we rang the agent and arranged a viewing. The road in has only just been bituminised and what was a collection of shacks is rapidly being yuppified. It's a 30 minute drive from Mount Gambier and 10 minutes from Port MacDonnell.

 Straight away David saw the potential, loved the huge long block along the dunes bounded on either side by reserve, absolute seafront and a wonderful view from the second storey.

 

I was not so impressed especially when in the darkened house (agent couldn’t find the power box so no lights) I hit my leg on a wooden bed base sticking out and tore my shin, blood dripping into my shoe and me swearing loudly. Anyway I found it easy to play bad cop: “The furniture is shit” and “there’s no bathroom – a shower in the laundry is not a bathroom.” Which helped get the price down. Everything is brown. They built in 1991 and obviously furnished it with rejects from a 70s house. I plan to move walls and doors – Christopher (Alison’s partner)  eager to do plastering – first job: get a chainsaw and cut a door to the beach instead of trekking through the garage, and build a deck out from the living room; second job new bathroom, walls painted white,  new kitchen all white drawers,  minimal nice furniture and splashes of bright colour.  It all has to happen quickly because we don’t have the luxury of time.

David went down yesterday and met the past owner, who was removing his truckloads of possessions and mourning the loss of his home, and discovered some of the ins-and-outs especially that there is good crayfishing by diving under the reef out front. So he can’t wait and Daisy is equipping herself to learn skin-diving. I need the deck for sitting on and drinking wine at sunset.


This afternoon we’re going down to measure up as there is no house plan; so we can line up a builder to get cracking immediately on the bathroom and kitchen. Rory McE loves building decks and has offered to help – has to be dune-friendly and sensitive to the environment etc.


Settlement date is 28th November 2013.