Wonderful last weekend to spend time (including party time) with my sister Rose in Tassie, celebrating our sister Fiona’s 60th birthday at her property “Tunapi”
We shared a walk along a nearby beach (Randall’s Bay) with Rose’s son Tim and husband Nigel😍
And the party was magic🎉
Part of Rob’s retirement plan is more sailing. As well as more day sails out of Fremantle since he retired at the end of August, we enjoyed our 1st long sail for 2 years from 31st December to 12th January.
After celebrating Jeanette’s birthday with her, Christopher and Elwyn, we loaded all our bags into the car and headed for Fremantle Sailing Club. We stowed everything on the boat and cooked dinner.
Next morning we got up at 5 to leave early to get to Mandurah. Good sail along the coast😊🐬
We had showers at the Mandurah marina, chatted with fellow sailors and stayed there for the night.
Next morning we were up at 4:15. It would be a longer day. We had a good sail to Bunbury enjoying being on the sea.
Our few days in Bunbury included catching up again with Peter who built our boat, and lunch with our fellow sailors on one of the other yachts. We sat out very strong winds and helped rescue another yacht that drifted towards the shipping channel 30 minutes before a ship was due to leave the harbour. The owner was not on board and some of our fellow sailors got on board and motored it to safety.
Once the winds settled we sailed to Quindalup. A magic anchorage near Dunsborough. We enjoyed a couple of days there then the weather forecast another spell of big winds.
Another very early morning start and we had a great sail back to Bunbury.
Next day we had an even earlier start to sail back to Fremantle. We had to motor for a long time before the sea breeze arrived. Once it did we had great fast sailing!
We arrived in Fremantle Sailing Club after 6pm. The strong wind arrived by 7pm along with low clouds, blasting through the marina!
Celebrating our lovely trip over dinner as the wind raged outside, we were very grateful. We had got back to the sea and returned safely👏🐬
She’s wrapped all Rob’s lovely calendars in Christmas wrapping paper, labelled them, packaged them for mailing and labelled the envelopes. Now it’s time for the last stage before Santa collects them for delivery.
Well done👏👏👏
Last Wednesday Rob and I packed our lunch for a day on our yacht Dusky Dolphin.
Instead, this is where we found ourselves, walking along behind our boat after an emergency liftout – the stern gland was leaking which could have sunk the boat!
This morning we were delighted to share our annual Christmas tree decorating with H and P from next door. Well our young miss T2 organised us all while she and P laid out skeins of tinsel and all the baubles, then dressed the tree. As usual her favourite soft toys as well as a little birds nest that she made all had special places in the tree.
Master T1 and H, being too old for such childish delights now, made LEGO aeroplanes and watched Star Wars in the background.
It was lovely!
Last Tuesday, while the Americans went to the polls to vote between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton for their next president, we all gathered for a family meal. It’s always a joy when our family gets together. in whatever groupings. But this time it felt extra special.
Tom and Thea had had hockey training that afternoon, and were happy to be back on the field. The winter season finished some time ago. Tristan put his wish for his Christmas gift out to all of us. Jeanette and Christopher were very happy to be almost better from the dreadful virus they’ve had for weeks. Blaine was happy to have got through a fraught work and family time. Elwyn had a busy week but was looking forward to getting her office move over the coming weekend.
It was good to break bread and share our stories together. To remind us of what really matters.
We might have had some dreadful weather this summer – endless lighting storms and bush fires – but in our garden the black cockies – both red tails and white tails – have graced us with their presence and calls once or twice every day.
In the morning they arrive in big flocks from the west where their night roosts are, landing in the taller trees and chattering to each other as they feed. Their young have higher-pitched calls, and I love to hear them because it means that, despite the continued plundering of their meagre land plots of trees where they can live, they have successfully made babies anyway!
The white-tailed cockies and the red-tailed cockies compete fiercely for the remaining feeding trees. However they have worked out timetables which allow each sub species to arrive, feed as much as they wish, and fly off before the other arrives to do the same. Generally the red tails arrive first, but not always.
In the evenings they arrive from the east, where they have spent the day resting and feeding in the trees in and around Kings Park.
My heart leaps with joy every time I hear their calls, always hearing them before I see them.
Enjoy these videos of these majestic birds, one from summer (white tails) and one from last spring (red tails)!
We sailed to Rockingham with Elwyn last Sunday. A magic sail including a short sojourn on the ocean!
Last night we had a quiet night in board in the anchorage. Quite lovely.
Sailed back to Freo today ahead of the thunderstorms.
This is why I’d like to come back as an albatross:-)
A much-loved read in our home, for our children and grandchildren, is Miffy’s adventures.
Now she’s turned 60!
The Campbell Family 