Bonfires and firetrucks

I started writing again today.  Ahhhh, that feels better.  Gives my ratty brain something productive to latch on to. Heroic Plans will be my tenth novel, if you count Dog Slobber!, which at 30 000 words is more of a novella.  It will be fun to get back into the horse world, even if only in my head, while I write this one.  Amazing how the characters come back to life for me as soon as I begin thinking about them again.  I've got some new characters to bring in as well and a new mystery for them to solve.  Fun!

First reports on Bunyip Dreaming from my brave pioneer readers are that they are loving it!  Yayyyy!

We took the firetruck out into Wandoo country on Saturday with our intrepid First Lieutenant and his dog, Harley. 
 

It rained on the way up the highway but had stopped by the time we hit the dirt tracks.  Everything was still nice and wet though!

You can see some Wandoo trees on the side of the road there, and that's Harley's backside as he stands on my lap to get his head out of the window better. Luckily he doesn't stay there for long and was soon sitting beside me having a cuddle again instead.

 
Wandoo is a locally native ghost gum. For some reason, just ten minutes up the road, you can find areas in the forest where it is the main tree.  Lovely.  In some areas the trees are nearly white, and in some other areas they all shade to apricot and pink.  Evolution in action!

This is very like what we were driving through.  Photo linked from here.

The pinker areas looked more like this.  Photo link from here.
  

The country is more open than the Jarrah/Marri areas, with many grass trees and plenty of kangaroos.  We stopped in the middle of nowhere and had a go at locating ourselves on the map using the GPS.  Must admit I wish I'd noticed the set of reading glasses on the dash a bit sooner.  I'm getting to that age where you need to start carrying your reading glasses about with you!  :)

It was lovely to be back out there.  More than twenty years ago (Could it be nearly thirty years ago?  Yegods!) I lived very near this area and used to ride my Sherry out there with my dogs beside me.  I loved it then too.

They use 1080 baits out there now to fight foxes and feral cats and 1080 is lethal for dogs, so I no longer go out there for walks.  We were very careful to keep Harley in the truck. It was nice to have a reason to be out there once again.

It was a frosty walk we had up the block the other morning.  Droplets weighed down all the webs in the paddock and silvered the ground.

The sun was only just poking up his head.

And lady moon was yet to go to bed.

It was good to see that the Wavy-leafed Hakeas were in full flower, smelling mildly and sweetly of honey and waiting for the bees to get up to come sip at them.

 

I'm very pleased with how well the Hakeas we've planted over the last five years or so are going up there. 

The Flinders Ranges wattles have been flowering for a while now.  They were early this year.

It's bonfire season here now, and we've had our first one.

Will it go?

Yes it will!

Cyrano loves it when we do outside things at night. 

 

But Rosie felt that it was time to inside and get dinner.  She was right!

We had a lovely meetup yesterday with some fellow Druids from Perth in a delightful cafe, The Bodhi Tree Cafe. Andyroo and I shared a piece of raw chocolate and beetroot cake that was particularly delicious and that I would definitely recommend trying if you go there! The atmosphere was great too, and it was the perfect place to meet a bunch of new and interesting people and do a lot of talking and laughing.  I love Druidy people.  They are so open, friendly and intelligent! 

It was good to be meeting new people and very good to be feeling well enough to manage it.  Take that Lyme Disease!  I'm getting my life back!  Rarrrr!