Wednesday August 27th to Saturday August 30th, 2025
We are still getting adjusted to the time change and we are now exactly 12 hours ahead of home. We wake up early, or at least for us, and are hungry since our stomachs think it is dinnertime. Then at night, when it is dinnertime we are sleepy because at home it is early in the morning. I guess this is another one of those things that as you age it gets harder to adjust. Probably by the time we adjust it will be time to go home.
We spent Wednesday walking around the farm, doing some laundry and we visited the local grocery store. The farm has tons of plant variety on it. It is not just the flowers but also the filler that florists use for the flower arrangements. They have big “sheds” in the back, more like warehouses, where the cutting and boxing take place for all the flowers. They ship out but they also have a shop where you can buy cut flowers or arrangements that a florist puts together.
These are King Protea flowers and on the right is when the bud opens. They have tons of King Protea in different colors.
Some of the “filler” flowers on the left and more King Protea on the right.
Merv & Michells’s son and daughter-in-law and 2 grandchildren live on the farm and their son now manages the farm. They recently got an adorable new puppy that we went and visited.
Roxy is 10 weeks old.
We spent a lot of time visiting.
Thursday we did a walk around the farm in the morning with Merv. He walks most mornings for exercise and since the weather is so cool it is nice to walk. There are adjacent farms with sheep out grazing that you walk by. The country side is very green, they have had tons of rain this year, and is mostly farm land for cows and sheep. and vineyards everywhere. Lots of wineries and breweries in the area. Most of the cows are Black Angus cows raised for meat.
We went out to lunch at one of the local breweries, Eagle Bay Brewing. Kathy loves a good beer and I am very much enjoying the ciders they have in Australia and gotten very fond of the apple cider in particular.
The can for my cider. I loved the logo and thought if they had a sweatshirt with the logo it would be great but apparently they don’t have merchandise with the logo on it, just the can.
We drove down to the beach and tried to visit a light house but lots of construction and we could not get close. We did see one of Michelle’s favorite birds and I tried to get some pictures. Of course the male is very colorful and the female is mostly brown.
The male Splendid Fairy Wren.
We had dinner at home, Michelle is a wonderful cook and likes to cook so we have been well fed.
Friday we got up at 8am and did another walk around the farm with Merv. The loop he walks is about 2km and very flat. He usually walks it 2 or 3 times but we don’t get up early enough for that. Michelle’s sister Karen came for lunch so Michelle had lots of preparation for the meal. We had lunch with Karen and then sat around talking until 4pm and then we had more meal preparation for dinner with Jade (their son), Laura (their daughter-in-law) and their grandkids Jasper and Joni who are 11 & 8. They also brought the puppy for us to play with. The family was wonderful to meet since we had heard so much about them for the last few years.
Saturday we went out to Kmart early to get me a sweatshirt (I only packed one jacket) and it is a bit chilly. Since it is the end of winter we found one for 9 dollars Australian which is $6 US. What a bargain. The sweatshirt will be staying in Australia.
We went to Cheeky Monkey brewery for lunch. We then went back to the farm and got a 4 wheel drive vehicle to take to Jade’s property (117 acres) close to the water. They plan to build a house there in the near future. The property has tons of kangaroos on it and I wanted to get some pictures so off we went.
There were tons of kangaroos of all different sizes all over the property. They all perked up when we drove us and most would “hop” away of we got to close.
As I said before the kangaroos are protected and there is no control of them. You would pass fields that have 100s of them and then the next field would have just as many. Without natural predators they are free to multiply.
We also saw grass trees which are all over Jade’s property and they are really cool looking trees.
The grass trees. Apparently if you burn the trunk it has a very pleasant smell.
After our visit to the farm we went to the beach to take a “hike” to a waterfall. Not sure how far the walk was but it was aong the water and very muddy in spots and then it was very sandy, like walking on a sand dune. The falls were beautiful and much more robust than normal due to all the rain.
The Quininup Falls.
On the hike back Michelle got a little ahead of us so she stopped on the trail to rest for a minute and a kangaroo came bouncing out right next to her and scared both the Roo and Michelle.
Merv, Kathy and Michelle on the beach hike and the surprise kangaroo.
We saw tons of kangaroos on the ride back to the farm and took another drive through their farm to see more of the flower varieties. Jade is a keen study of seeds and different types of things to grow on the farm.
We are here on the farm until Thursday Sept 4th and then heading off on a 10 day road trip that Merv& Michelle have planned for us before returning to the farm for a week before flying to Bali. We will post every 3 to 4 days if able with a summary of our adventures.