Sew, sew, sew

A wedding in the garden. Not the best picture but I promise
to post more later

Yes that does say sew, sew, sew and not snow, snow, snow - that might be in about a week's time when we get back home to Latvia. We have managed a few days of sightseeing, here in Perth, Australia but the rest of the time was spent on wedding preparation including sewing. Early on in the week it was decided that the really abrupt tan line on our daughter's back was not going to even out in time for the wedding and the only option was to hide it beneath a panel insert and so on the Tuesday before the Saturday wedding we whizzed off to a local fabric store to get some net curtaining - as you do, don't all brides wear net curtains? As our daughter was having her hair highlighted and cut, I got started on the embroidery to go on the panel; at least they gave me coffee and water while I was sewing even if they must have thought it a bit odd me sitting there embroidering. Fortunately the panel wasn't huge but it did need some decoration. Unfortunately there are no pictures yet as that is a surprise for the English part of the wedding next week. I also finished sewing the shawl to keep her warm in England as there is going to be rather a huge difference in temperatures between the Australian summer wedding and an English winter wedding. I must say I am rather pleased with it, again you have to wait for pictures of that too. By way of compensation though you can see the place where the wedding was held, it looked so pretty and we had great fun decorating her friend's back garden.

One of the pretty little places in Guildford with the not so
aesthetically placed for sale sign

There were a few things that marked this out as different to an English wedding, firstly it was outside in January, the sun was definitely shining and all I had was a cheap sun hat and not a glorious wedding hat - would have looked over the top anyway for this casual wedding. Secondly it was in someone's garden, all that is needed is someone registered to carry out a marriage and that was a friend of theirs who is Australian but they met him in England when they all lived there. We also had a fly pass of big black birds, only these weren't crows or anything like that, they were a parrot type bird called red-tailed cockatoos. Thirdly the day nearly started out in disaster when the one of the hosts got bitten by a redback spider which can be fatal - fortunately not all bites are serious and usually only for little ones and this one wasn't. One other spider was spotted later and swiftly dispatched. It was a lovely day, so relaxed that even though I managed to leave my bible and glasses in my handbag (purse) in room inside the house for the reading, it didn't matter as I toddled off to get them. It does mean though, that it may be one of those stories that gets recycled and I get teased about for a few years, along with the story of how with an hour to go to the wedding I realised I hadn't any suitable shoes for the wedding, only a tatty pair of sandals. I nearly wore a pair of purple flip flops, or thongs as they are called here (stop laughing Brits), very Australian. Instead I resorted to borrowing a pair of high-heeled shoes from my daughter and managed not to kill myself in the process walking around in them - major achievement for me.

What everyone should have growing over their
garden wall in January

Our two outings this week consisted of going to see Historic Guildford, a town built in the 1800s, and a walk around the river area near the centre of Perth. The phrase "historic" makes me giggle here in Australia as it did in America's mid-West, as their idea of historic and mine are rather different, but I guess it is just a matter of perspective and the Italians would possibly find my idea of historic just as laughable. One story that made me smile on the interpretative panels they have dotted around the town of Guildford, was of a young lady, who with her aboriginal servant rode into the sea many times to save quite a few people from a shipwreck and a certain Mr. Brockman on hearing of her heroism immediately rode out to meet this remarkable young woman. They eventually fell in love and married. A bit different from your soppy romantic stories where the young lady swoons into the arms of some heroic young man.

One of the cycle paths around Perth

I am not fond of cities, I have to say, but Perth as cities goes is not bad. It has many cycle lanes which makes getting out and about reasonably easy - well it does in the rest of the year, it is a bit hot for me at this time of the year. We did go for a long walk though that meant we could stop and take photos of some of the statues which are dotted around in the parks and on the streets, as well as the parrot type birds and the scenery. Just a pity that it must take loads of water to keep it all looking so green in such a hot and dry climate. Also managed to take some pictures of the naked ghost gum trees this week, those that shed their bark in summer, which is something to do with drought resistance apparently. I find that strange as I would have thought the bark would keep the moisture in. So sorry folks, I have got quite brown for me and this is despite it being January.

Short post this week as we are packing and cleaning, or rather Ian is as I write this to head back to England rather too early in the morning tomorrow so here are some more pictures from our trip

One of those naked trees that have shed its
bark. Hope to have some more next week
as they are still on my camera and my lead
is packed somewhere.

Noisy as a galah, so the saying goes. An apt name for these
noisy parrots

Some of the many statues in Perth

Perth with the infamous or famous grounds where England
were defeated this year for the only time in Australia to regain
the Ashes. Apparently it is because it was the only pitch that
was hard, the rest have been soaked by rain which favours the
English according to one shopkeeper we got chatting too
in Guildford.

A cormorant who was not photo shy and even stretched out
for me to get a better shot of his feathers. Show off!

One for my friend Ju, a nice rusty train