Western Australia pt. 1 (Dec. 20-25, 2006)

Hello again my dear friends & family,

Here is the first part of my update on the great visits & explorations I have been having over in Western Australia with some of my Seed Mates in & around Perth.

Dec. 20, 2006 - A highlight of my flight to Perth was the dessert we were served on the airplane by Qantas ... ice cream bars!!! Not just any plain, non-descript kind of ice cream bars, but a yummy creamsicle type that was covered in a mango/passion fruit layer ... & apparently made with real fruit juices :)

Phoebe, one of my lively & very excellent Seed Mates picked me up at the airport & we proceeded to Jo Vallentine's home ...

Jo is a real treasure and she welcomed us wonderfully into her home where we visited into the early hours of the morning before Pheebs finally headed off to Gaia House where she is currently living (& where I am staying now) and I stayed over at Jo’s.

Dec. 21, 2006 - The next morning, after “brekky” ... a walk around Jo’s splendid labyrinth ...



... & meeting up with the always spunky kt for lunch (rescuing her from an office Christmas party where they ran out of the veggie selections near the start of the party ...

kt, Sherpa Dog (on her knee), & me (Dec. 21, 2006)
fun with kt & Sherpa Dog in a park near the Wilderness Society office where kt works

Jo & I (in the same park as above, which is also near her old Senate office) (Dec. 21, 2006)

... we headed north with Shanti, Jo’s most excellent little black dog


... up to Jo’s family’s beach house/cottage at Guilderton ...

Western Australia's Christmas trees, aka " "

the cottage is called “Rangimarie” (a Maori word that means peace, & is pronounced ‘rang i mar ee eh’).

Jo at Rangimarie (Dec. 23 2006)

Rangimarie sign near the front door at Jo’s cottage ... a sign that the people who lived in the cottage before Jo’s family bought it had left intact on the door frame. This is quite telling given Jo Vallentine’s commitment to PEACE and our dear Gaia :)

Dec. 22, 2006 - Jo, Shanti, & I went out for a morning swim in the Indian Ocean, to catch the more gently rolling waves at the beginning of the day. It’s amazing how what seems to be very cold water, turns into quite a comfortable temperature after you hang out in it for a little while.
As I was in the process of acclimatizing to the water temperature & Jo had already dove into the small waves to “get the cold shock over with”, .. all of a sudden, something grabbed the outside of my right foot, I called out to Jo that something bit/grabbed me and after the initial excitement & my success in swiping at whatever was attached to my foot below the water, I concluded that I was “grabbed by a crab”. Not long after that, I finally got myself immersed fully in the ocean & then proceeded to enjoy bouncing & floating about in the waves :)

Our time at Rangimarie was very peaceful, relaxing, and rich with the visits & explorations I enjoyed with Jo & Shanti throughout our time at the beach house. After a tasty lunch & an all important ‘nap time’ ... something I enjoyed at Glenda’s as well (Glenda calls them her granny naps :) Jo, Shanti, & I headed out to their canoe to enjoy time out on the Moore River as the sun was setting.


What a peaceful and glorious time it was to enjoy the river, as we were passing quietly through the unique and magnificent malaluka (paperbark) forests that we came to know & love down at The Cove for our Seeds for the Future 30 day intensive in SW Australia (almost 2 years ago now!)
We then mustered up our paddling chops and headed across the river to the big sand dune to watch the sun set on this Summer Solstice evening ... no problem :)

We could see a little piece of the Indian Ocean through some of the trees on the dunes and the sun going down & disappearing below the horizon ...

After that, Jo showed me some of the special places out on this big sand dune ... where she & her daughters camped out the night that welcomed the year 2000 into being ...

& the circle of rocks that Jo made that night, which are still in place ...

Jo also showed me a number of the Tuit trees that are starting to make a comeback on this property that was slated for housing development but has been halted due to the most excellent citizen actions on behalf of the fragile dune ecosystem :)

kangaroo tracks & rabbit 'poo'/droppings out on the dunes

Then we hopped back into the canoe & headed back to the other shore of the Moore River ... passing along the trees filled with various marine/shore birds known as 'darters' & 'shags" ...

The next day, Jo, Shanti, & I enjoyed another morning swim, a little later, around 10:30 a.m. or so ... I managed to get do swimming ‘laps’/strokes in an attempt to get my body more in tune with water activities, which I will be doing much more of with the Outward Bound ‘mob’. No crab grabbing my feet this time ... and the Indian Ocean welcomed us again with its never-ending cycle of tidal rhythms and waves.

bob-tailed goanna below the verandah at Rangimarie

After Jo & I enjoyed a late breakfast of fresh fruit (mango, strawberries, ‘banahnahs’, pineapple, kiwi fruit, grapes, apricots, and nectarines), yoghurt, & mueslie/granola, ... Phoebe arrived ... & after visiting to catch up with Pheebs, the only sensible thing to do, was have lunch! So we did :) After that, we headed off to catch the setting sun again, this time we also got to see the small sliver of sun reflecting off the new moon ... what a treat, these wonderous sights the universe shares with us ... as long as we are out there to happen upon them or seek them out :)

sunset over the Indian Ocean with Phoebe & Jo ... the day after Summer Solstice (Dec. 22, 2006).

'breakie' the next morning with Phoebe & Jo (Dec. 23, 2006)

Wishing everyone a Happy Solstice, Merry Christmas, & a Happy New Year ... as the shortest day turns toward the light back in the northern hemisphere & the longest dat turns toward the dark down here in the southern hemisphere ...

I wish all of you great peace & joy through this holiday season & throughout ALL of 2007!

Hugs ‘n’ Bugs, love,
Teresa

p.s. I will now try to get out to a phone booth soon to make a few calls to catch folks gathering on Christmas Day :)