and yet another beach

This time it was Indented Head on Victoria's Bellarine Peninsula below Geelong. The occasion was seedEnergy's AGM and it was my turn to find the accommodation for 4 couples. I researched Bellarine Peninsula and something about the name Starhaven Retreat triggered a memory of seeing it being built on Grand Designs Australia - one of our favourite programmes.

 

Sure enough, it was, just as amazing as it looked in the TV show and we had a wonderful weekend there with the help of our genial hosts Ian and Robert.



Starhaven Retreat - every luxury in a b&b

 

 

Ian and Robert are perfect hosts

 

While the men had their meeting the women went shopping and lunching in Geelong.

 

 

Lunch in Geelong with our new boyfriends

 

 

boomsmas at another beach

It was t-shirt weather at Alexandra Headland / Mooloolaba QLD and we soaked up the sun with glee.
I'll skip over the trouble we had escaping Mount Gambier where fog delayed our plane by two hours so we finally made it to to our apartment in the dark.

Next morning we woke to The View!

Looking across to Maroochydore



There are always surfers in the water and we spent a lot of time watching them - to the extent of getting sunburnt while Mount Gambier suffered extreme cold, wind, rain and hail. We certainly chose the right week.

 

David went fishing and caught a nice snapper which we shared with my sister Jennifer and her husband Peter. They often go to the Sunshine Coast and encouraged us to give it a try.

 

 

 

We did the usual tourist things, ate some excellent meals and luxuriated in being warm.
David and Peter went fishing: Peter caught a grassy sweetlips - what a great name!   Jennifer and I did had massages and attended a champagne fashion show at Blue Illusion where we indulged in a little gentle shopping.

 

 

Only a week - but well worth it!

more building

We're finally getting our carports built.

They had a good start but wild weather halted progress.


One on the western end for my car

One in front of the garage for David's car and one for the boat

fish for lunch

 

 

David offered the pelicans a fish.

There was some competition from the seagulls...

but size won out.

fire!

 

It started on Sunday night at midnight in a shack about 1½ kms around the beach from us. The owner, who lives in Queensland but was here for a holiday, awoke to a houseful of smoke and managed to get out a window before everything burst into flames.

 

 

photo by Justin Dennert on Friends of Cape Douglas Facebook

 

 

There were three fire engines, a water tanker, two police cars and an ambulance in attendance and we slept through the lot.
 Next day I read about it on Facebook and went along for a look.

 

The site looks miserable in the light of day



3 weeks later and asbestos clean-up is underway

It cost $9000 and three men working in biohazard suits for half a day to have suspected asbestos removed 



sentinels on the beach

 

 

We've had two days of fierce hot north winds so it was lovely to hear rain on the roof during the night and wake up to a clear bright day with raindrops hanging on the bushes and no wind.


On the beach the blue herons are on guard and the seagulls can barely fly, having gorged on leftover coconut sago.
(Don't think I'll make it again: it was stodge.)

 

 

Blue herons fossicking for food



Daisy's graduation

After three years study and hard work, granddaughter Daisy has graduated from the University of SA with her Bachelor of Nursing.
The ceremony was held at Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre in Mount Gambier with full honours.

 

Daisy with proud grandparents David and Helen

Daisy on the left - what a gorgeous group of girls!

cats settle in

 

 

The cats have become best buddies - in fact two are easier than one.

But we have to make an appointment to see them in their kitty caves on top of the cupboard...
 

kitty-cave du jour is red

 

 

 

 

 



a fleeting visitor

 

 

Di McEwen found a fairy penguin stranded on the reef at Cape Douglas where it was being hassled by a hawk and protected by two seagulls. She picked it up and found it seemingly unharmed and quite plump - probably full of tommy ruffs.
 

We rang Natural Resources South East and were advised to return it to where it was found as it may have a burrow near there that no-one knows about.

So Di did this and reports that it was last seen swimming strongly out to sea in the direct of Port Mac.

 

Fairy penguin left Di a memento on her shirt!

 



the fisherman returns

 

 

David had an extremely successful fishing trip to Coffin Bay with Roger. They caught their possession limit in whiting - 72 fish each and some were thumpers of 51 cm. Plenty of garfish but David left them for Roger as he can catch them at home.

 

 

David arrived back with Burmese kitten #2 - Jazz.

Mallory wasn't keen on this interloper to start with but now they are best friends.

 

 

Jazz (front) is blue, Mallory is brown



carnage on the beach

The beach was littered yesterday with remnants of sea urchins.

I reckon the culprits were standing on the reef - a large flock of ibis, looking for all the world like a gathering of church elders standing there in black and white, fossicking around and honking dismally.
They look lovely flying over but on the ground those beaks can inflict some damage.

 

 

Meanwhile the fisherman is off on annual his fishing holiday in Coffin Bay with Roger.

 

Before he left he constructed more cat walks and crows nest boxes for the cat enclosure.

 

Mallory can walk high up 270' around with more construction coming - still plenty of recycled timber to be used up. 

 

 

boomsmas at birdwood

We spent last weekend at Birdwood for the occasion of Helen's reunion of the 1961 Leaving Class.

 

 

I thought I would recognise everyone, having studied the 1961 school magazine - but when I met the group, panic! The 17 year-old faces in memory didn't match the 71 year-old faces until later in the day when we'd been together for a while.

 

 



25 students with class teacher Mr Hansberry

21 students sitting in the same positions.
(1 dead, 1 got the day wrong, 2 are interstate.
Our beloved Mr Hansberry dead.)

The Headmaster's house where we lived has gone, swallowed up by a modern Resource Centre. Strange to stand at a computer and think this is where my bedroom was -never heard of computers then. As we stood where our kitchen used to be I was asked to describe the house: 

Chris Barry, Diane Bannon, me, Jim Porter

 

At least my name in still on the honour boards:



It was a great weekend and we have vowed to meet again in 2026!

fernication at Beechwood

 

It's amazing what a difference a load of topsoil can make!
Thanks to Di Cameron for the treeferns and birdsnest, Mary Anderson for the maidenhair and the Garden Club for two crinkly birdsnest ferns called "Lasagne" there was something to be planted in the new cat enclosure:



Mallory thinks: "they've turned desert into a jungle"

catification of Beechwood continues

The main ingredient has arrived - a cat!

We collected Mallory, a brown Burmese kitten, from Adelaide last week and she is proving to be an immaculately-mannered little darling. She's a stomach-on-legs at this tender age of 11 weeks, eating prodigiously without the competition of 4 brothers, using the litter tray, playing fiercely and sleeping just as intensely.

The cat gym was a doddle - ignoring the dinky ladder and straight to the top by the end of day 3:

 

tentative day 2

top of the tower day 3

 

triumphant day 8

 

 

Meanwhile, builders Geoff and Nathan were hard at work creating the outdoor cat enclosure. Plans were fluid, plenty of room for their input, which we welcomed - it's now more of a cat Taj Mahal than we envisaged and it's great!

 

They hauled old planks encrusted with ants and huntsman spiders out of the timber shed and converted them into a stunningly funky mismatched wall of palings which Alison ensures me is "right on trend" , in our case a matter of using what is already on the property. There look to be enough cat walks around the top and steps up to them, makes you want to be a cat and try it out yourself.

 

 

funky wall with cat steps
there will a fernery here when we get some decent soil

 

cat cathedral?

ferns waiting for their new home



crayfish at last

January yielded only one crayfish in David's pots so this month he and Rory have been diving off the back of Rory's boat using a hooka.

With some success:



 

Then today there was one in the craypot - so perhaps his luck has changed.

 

 

catification of Beechwood begins

Willow has not returned so we are adopting two Burmese kittens.
They are both females from the same breeder but different litters born a month apart and we can't collect the first for another 5 weeks.
We're going to make sure they don't roam freely: they'll have interesting things to do inside and a large enclosed run outside, centring on the shelter shed with trees to climb and cosy spots for a nap.

Alison came for a sleepover and erected stage 1 of making a cat-friendly house - the cat gym - which will connect to a runway over the windows leading to the top of a high cupboard.

 

It's all done with an allan key