Giant Turbines Capture The Wind

When we lived in Perth, I used to use a WiiFit, a gaming console, to do an exercise regime.  With the use of a special board to stand on, it monitored the workout I did, keeping track of the time I spent on it, how much I weighed etc.  It's been packed away since we've been down here, with me choosing to exercise in the great Albany outdoors instead, but as you know I have fattyboomba tendencies, so I decided that I would try to do some WiiFit exercising as well.  This was the opening screen that presented itself to me, it amused me no end....

We are making a point of taking ourselves off to beautiful places to do some invigorating walks, both to get fitter and to see more of the south coast, there are loads of areas we have given no more than a passing glance, so we pore through our book of Albany walk trails, and choose what we are going to do.  And winter is the most glorious time to walk down here, the snakes are hibernating and there is no problem about sweating or sunburn.  Everything is green and lovely.

First stop was my favourite place, the Albany Windfarm, with 18 magnificent turbines solemnly and majestically turning, gathering the power that Albany needs.  The signs in the photos below say it all.

As well as the actual walk around the Windfarm, which is meticulously looked after, with easy walking paths and well tended plants, once you get to the coast you can choose to walk a longer journey by hopping onto the Bibbulmun track, that cuts along this area of coastline.  Just look at that magnificent view!  I think we walked about 4km on this day.

This area of coastline is great for spotting whales.  Now I know it looks very insignificant and boring in the photo, but trust me, this is the back of a Southern Right Whale, who chose to meander along gently rather than spectacularly breaching out of the water.  I was thrilled to see it!

 A pod of dolphins enjoyed themselves surfing.

A few days later we headed to Emu Point for the 6km return walk to Middleton Beach and back.  Another well looked after path with shrubs and trees cut away to make the walk really pleasant and pretty.  Except we aren't very fit and 6km nearly killed us.  We had to have a wee nap when we got home! :-)

 It was rather rainy but that didn't stop us!

When we got to Middleton Beach I was really excited to see yarn bombing on the trunks of the enormous pine trees.  I love the concept of yarn bombing, the surprise of seeing some brightly coloured knitting or crochet where you don't expect it to be, whereas  Steve just shook his head.  :-)

Today we took ourselves down to Frenchman Bay for a short 2km walk along a well maintained path.

The photo doesn't do the view justice, being overcast.  It is magnificent looking out over huge rocks and islands at the entrance to King George Sound, with the sentinels of Breaksea and Michaelmas Islands in the distance guarding the entrance to the sound.

 And there's nothing like returning home on a cold, grey day, to build a warm, inviting fire.

 

Meanwhile his lordship has been enjoying moments of afternoon sunshine streaming in through the front windows.  He tucks himself between the curtain and the window and gets utterly toasted.

I am very pleased with myself.  I've mentioned a few times that I suck at growing sweet potatoes, but I have diligently tried year after year.  This year I planted the runners in a completely different area, up behind the house this time, in dark, nutritious soil in an area that gets afternoon winter sun, in the hope of keeping the ground warm enough just that little bit longer in order to help them grow.  I had the first tentative dig with a garden fork a couple of days ago, and look what I found!  They are not huge but they taste great.  Wonderful!  I think I need to fork the rest of the bed and get them all out of the ground though, I noticed a couple of them had soft spots, like the beginnings of rot, due to the ground being very damp.  I think I'll get them all out and store them in a box in the pantry.  Here's hoping I actually find a few more in the garden bed!

Another bit of joy for today, our very first Washington Navel orange.  It is sweet and delicious!  The rind is a little thick, apparently I might have caused that by overdoing a dose of urea - a nitrogen fertiliser that I heaped on a while back when a lot of the citrus trees' leaves went a bit yellow.  Thick rind is apparently a symptom of excess nitrogen.  Anyway, point taken for future fertisiling, but we are rapt at how good the orange tasted.  Yay!

Bits and Bobs
Water status - small tank full at 23000 litres, big tank at about 75000 litres.
What we are eating from the garden - broccolini, English spinach, King Edward and Dutch Cream potatoes, sweet potatoes, bell chillies, herbs, citrus (lime, lemon and orange) and passionfruit.
Egg status - zilch
What I'm reading - Book 1 of the Earthsea series by Ursula K Le Guin (fantasy).  Just finished reading the Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson (fantasy) - enjoyed it a lot.