Keeping the spark

October is a busy month for us with both our birthdays, wedding anniversary, and, as Lisa likes to call it, boativersary. The latter just hanging off the edge, on the 1 November, and referring to when we first met, which if you had not got from the hint was on a boat.  That encounter being by chance when we were both heading back from Europe to England, and happen to be in same bar at the same time.  A lucky encounter considering the ferry carries approx. 1,600 people, has three bars, and Lisa was only there because she got to the cinema too late:

The film and started and doors were shut, so instead of seeing a film we have vowed never to watch, she went to the bar.  The rest, as they say, is history.  In a way it was appropriate we cheered our anniversary on the bow of the boat like structure, high atop the Marina Bay Sands, during our recent Singapore trip.  And as it was a special anniversary we decided to also do something on the actual day.  This saw us plump for a night away, not quite so far away this time, at a place we have stayed once before during the depths of winter eight years back:

Before heading there, we went for breakfast and a game at the South West Bottega, which has cracked a few mentions this year since we discovered it.  After whiling away a relaxing hour or more there, we hit the road south stopping for a walk round the Kondil Wildflower Park just outside of Nannup.  Another place that we have enjoyed heading back too since we first stumbled across it, which coincidently was on our anniversary four years back.  Still enjoying it this time even though the poodles were not lucky enough to join us:

We also enjoyed the wander through the trees despite, as the first image shows, it raining.  Not just a drop or two but the sort that soaks into, and weighs down, your clothes.  We kinda expected this would happen.  All week the forecast for where we were going suggested Friday and Saturday would be soggy.  Our wet spring continues, suggesting the Sudden Stratospheric Warming over the Antarctica is losing the battle against the negative Indian Ocean Dipole.  That may be why there are still a few fungi worth stopping to take an image of:

We came across the fungus in the second image during our trip to Walpole earlier this year.  On the walks down there we had an explosion of fungi finds.  So many in fact that I didn’t go through and try to identify them, well not for the post.  Later on I did have a crack behind the scenes, and think that I found most of them.  But not this one.  Take two, and this time I may have narrowed it down to Boletellus dissiliens.  However, without looking under the cap I can’t be certain.  Something I was not prepared to do, seeing I’d have to pick the fungus:

The next image is of course of the Blue Lady Orchid (Thelymitra crinita).  This species of sun orchid being out in the greatest numbers this year, so far, and as such having been included in previous posts.  The reason for the repeat inclusion is to show just how pretty they can be when the flowers decide to open ‘en masse’.  I have mentioned how while having seen many sun orchids this year, very few have been in bloom.  The flowers are generally known to open in the daytime on warm sunny days, closing at night and during cloudy days:

Why this plant, and it was the only one on the walk, decided to go against normal practise is unclear.  Not that I am complaining.  Back in the car we continued south into the depths of the southern forests & valleys region.  Our destination being the Karri Valley Resort, where a lakeside room awaited us.  Each time you opened the door onto the balcony the Australian Ringnecks (Barnardius zonarius subsp. semitorquatus) would swoop in, obviously being used to their charms winning people over to give them a feed:

After a cuppa or two and game (of course) in the restaurant, and bit of a slob in the room I convinced a slightly resistant Lisa to head out for a wander round the lake.  Unsurprisingly it was raining.  Despite being approx. a mere 100km south of where we live, the average annual rainfall here is 40% greater.  You may then suggest it is not surprising to hear the place is a little damp.  However, the seasonality of rainfall follows a similar pattern to our patch.  Meaning you would expect the landscape to start to dry off in spring and have little rain in summer:

Wet or not we enjoyed the walk.  To boot there were heaps of Pink Spider Orchids (Caladenia harringtoniae), my first sighting of them.  A species first described in 2001 from a specimen collected near Pemberton, so somewhere not too far from where we were.  Yet another species that due to our invasive and destructive habits, has found itself on the state and national list of vulnerable flora.  On the way back a sign warned of uneven and washed out sections of the track.  Something that would normally put Lisa on edge.  We pushed onwards:

She indulged me further, when I suggested we took the slightly longer way back to check out the walk through Karri (Eucalyptus diversicolor).  My penance being to have to give her a piggy back off the steps down, so she could avoid the puddle.  We made it back just about in time to dry off and head to the restaurant.  It was time to cheers our anniversary on the day itself, with a glass of bubbly.  The outlook from our table not surprisingly being the lake.  The ripples on the water generating the illusion of movement, added to a fitting effect of being on a boat:

As is our predictable tradition, it was a meal with a game.  In fact when we got home after the trip away, and as we looked back at the post from our visit here eight years back, there were so many similarities between that and this trip.  Chilling out, games, good food, enjoying the natural setting, and walking in the rain.  I somehow do not think we would get bored of such a routine, if we had more regular visits here.  It was a bit by chance that we ended up here, as Lisa had other activities in mind to occupy us on our special day:

We have both very much enjoyed watching The Great Pottery Throw Down, in part due to what is described as being a wholesome and soothing show.  So Lisa had looked into pottery courses, and found a hand building course we could have gone to.  When she floated the idea past me, I jokingly said I would be more interested in Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore pottery throwing course.  Needless to say this didn’t happen.  However, on returning to the room after having had our fill, and a little uncannily, that very film just started to play:

After that we just had to watch Ghost!  Eventually the TV, as did the lights across the lake that made for a pretty special outlook, were turned off.  The morning came in quiet and calm, and being Saturday Lisa had suggested yesterday that she may have a dip at 7am.  The time that back home she would usually be walking into the ocean with the Peppy Plungers.  Not being very surprised when she didn’t sound quite so keen in the morning, I popped a sippy cup of tea on the bedside next to her and left her reading and dozing:

Heading out to retraced yesterday’s tracks in the opposite direction, as the big trees were calling me.  Not to see if there was anything we may have missed, merely to enjoy the quiet peace of the forest while the early morning mist across the lake started to lift.  I am purposely endeavouring to labour a point about how wet it still is, however it was surprising to see the moisture loving Midge Orchids (Cyrtostylis huegelii) still in flower.  A month later than they are expected too.  Wandering along the quiet was intermittently broken by the sound of forest:

Frogs along the fringes of the lake, and birds in the trees and scrub.  The only one game to allow me to watch it being the above South-Western Spotted Scrubwren (Sericornis frontalis subsp. maculatus).  One of four subspecies, the adult of this one have a slightly yellowing of the mid to lower breast.  Then there was of course the sound of water, with Beedelup Falls being at the head of the trail.  With a greatly reduced flowrate coming down it, compared to when we popped in a couple of months back on our drive back from a night in Pemberton:

With every intention of making the most of our time in the area, when I got back I suggested the short drive Pemberton where there are some lovely walks.  Sadly, by the time we had to check out, it was not due to the rain coming back in that put the brakes on that idea.  Several warning lights came up on the dash of the car.  The glow plugs were playing up making the decision easy, we would have to head straight home at what was to be a pretty sluggish rate.  While the glow plugs may be playing up, after twenty five years the spark is still there: