#Thechangingseason – Travels with Ali

I’m joining “Changing Seasons” and “What’s Been on Your Calendar” for the month of October. Feature photo is from my garden.

I see from most of the posts people are enjoying the Autumn months and getting reading for winter. Here in the South Hemisphere we are coming up to our hottest months. We are still having a few cold nights here and there. So, I haven’t put away my winter clothes yet. Although I have been here too long to really appreciate what cold actually means!

It’s been a fairly quiet month, no travelling, having just returned from Bali at the end of September. The school holidays still had a week left at the beginning of September. So, I spent a day with the munchkins. In our local town they had arranged a dinosaur hunt. This entailed looking for posters of dinosaurs in and around the shopping centre, with prizes and games along the way.

We sure had a big long walk around town, which made for a quiet afternoon.

I thought my garden could do with some new flowers, so one week I took Rosie to the local garden centre. We had a lovely wander through the plants and flowers and Rosie chose a Kangaroo Paw.

I love Alstroemerias, also known as Lily of the Incas. They are always in flower and are a great ground cover adding plenty of colour to the garden.

We enjoyed a visit to one of our favourite wineries, Stringy Bark. It’s an hour’s drive, so Anthony’s car had a good run.

Iron sculptures at Stringy Bark

There are some new murals in a nearby suburb, I managed to see two on our way to dinner.

The mural below is by Wild Drawing. A Balinese artist. His work can be found around the world. WD is based in Athens.

Artist – Finton McGee

As we move into November it’s high time we sorted out the garden and patio areas. This means weeding and cleaning in preparation for a houseful of guests, arriving in late December.

There’s always time for a cocktail though.

Changing Seasons is really the correct phrase to describe Perth at the moment. We had a mini heatweave last week, like a summer’s day but it’s Spring and a few days later wind, rain and cold nights again, but another heatwave at the end of the week.

This challenge is hosted by Ju-Lyn and Brian from Bushboy’s World.

The first ten days of September I was still in the UK, where they also had a late summer heatwave. The trouble there is you can’t sleep at night as there was no breeze at all! Just can’t be happy can we? I spent those days going to visit my mum in the care home and catching up with old friends and family members.

My mum was so sad to see me go, it was heartbreaking for me. She had forgotten that it was time to say goodbye. She has made a new friend though.

I also had a quick visit back to my childhood home to clear out some more “stuff” with my brother. It will be odd not staying here again.

I popped outside to take a few photos of the garden and saw this cheeky fox, which is undoubtedly the fox I have taken many photos of before. Peeping through the fence (which ties in with Sunday Stills – Fences).

Soon after I returned to Perth we had a visit from Laurence and Maddy, which I’ve already posted about. That was a wonderful week. Rosie also turned 3!

It was also half term here in Perth and I was on duty with “Ninny Daycare” for the munchkins for two days. Exhausting but loved every minute. We made cookies, went to some parks and a cafe. They are such lovely playmates and Lachie is so patient with Rosie. I remember when my brother and I were a similar age and all we did was fight, it was always my fault though, I was a mean girl! Luckily we get on so much better now, well most of the time anyway. I’ll never lose that bossy streak.