Cows and Donkeys

We went for an outing last week, driving down Frenchman's Bay Road to have a look at The Gap, then we stopped at Stony Hill and went for a bit of a walk.  There were some lovely flowers out that I photographed, then identified when we got home.  This one is a Cowslip Orchid, a tiny little thing only a couple of inches off the ground.

 Isn't this a cool little flower, another tiny one, about six inches off the ground.  It's a Donkey Orchid.

This one, I believe, is a Dryandra.  The plant is very Banksia-like and the flower is gorgeous.  I think I'd like to try and grow a couple of these in my garden.  Will have to investigate how not to kill one before I buy it.  :-)

Stony Hill.  You stand on the top and turn around 360 degrees and see great views all round.

Steve took this terrific photo on misty morning on the road.  I love the bird flying across the misty background.

Mum and Dad drove down from Perth along with my Aunty Gill and Uncle Tony from UK for a visit.  We sat around under a big tree eating freshly picked peas, homemade beetroot dip and home pickled olives.  It was the one single hot day out of the blue, about 32 degrees.  I spent the day with a beetroot red face, being a person that prefers arctic weather.  :-)  Today we are back to stormy, windy, rain and cool, so I am blissfully cool again.  Anyway, here's a photo of  Dad, Steve, Gill, Mum and Tony atop the Lookout at Shelley Beach.  It was lovely to see you all.

We discovered that when one goes out to dinner and leaves the light on in one's shed so one can see the keyhole on their return, one finds the entire moth population of Torbay enjoying said shed.  They were everywhere!!

 

Work continues at a cracking pace on the house.  The plumbers unpacked the stove to connect the gas line.  I can't believe how wide it is, 900 mm!  I think my previous wall oven was not much more than half that.  This oven has all sorts of scary looking settings that are going to require much study to understand.  Looking forward to using it, cooking on a BBQ in the shed has its limits.

The plumbers have also installed the taps.  I like the arched outlet, will be easier to get my mouth under the stream to get a mouthful of water to spit out my toothpaste!

 We have toilets!  No water in them or anything useful like that, but the visual impact is there.  Very exciting!

The electrician was here over the weekend and he has started putting up the light fittings for us.  We decided to pay him extra and provide the light fittings for him to install, rather than him putting up bayonets for bare globes that we would have to change later.  And knowing us, those bare globes would have still been there when we died of old age, so we thought we'd get them all done right now!  Very plain and simple, but nice.

Tomorrow we will have plumbers here starting on the septic system, the electrician will be continuing installing light fittings and the ceiling fans, Pete will be here installing cupboard shelves, and a guy is coming to measure up for our floor coverings.  Phew, crowded!  But great, I think by the end of this week huge amounts of the final things will be finished.  Getting closer!.....