Monday 16th February 2026

Monday 16^th February

SHE SAID:

Geoff & I got the caravan washed on the outside today; it took about an hour. I’m very glad that is done. It’s taken a couple of weeks to get the inside & outside completed. I rehung the net curtains & he is done. Well, 98%; the floor needs wiping over & the bed remaking but that will wait till just before the end of the sit.

Next job is the car!!! But not today.

I got the HD’s updated, which was a slow process with the Orchid file alone having 201,390 files!

Rocks on Lowlands Beach

Shelley Beach, West Cape Howe NP

HE SAID:

We were being very careful with our water usage this morning while we cleaned the van, and I think we used just the minimum amount to get the job done. A big surprise mid van-wash was when a car turned up. In nearly 3 weeks at this sit we have only had the owner’s son pop in for 30 seconds, and caught some religious nuts on the way out just as we returned to the house. So, this bloke gets out of his car says that he thinks the van will buff up well. OK. Nice of him to appreciate our efforts. But then Varena asked him how can help him, and he said he is really there to buff the van! That’s when I piped up with “I don’t know what you are talking about”, and he says “Is this number 89? I saw your van and assumed it was the right place.” So, we laughed and gave him directions to the proper address where is actually supposed to be working on a van. But quite a coincidence!

I gave the dash cam another workout this morning. It seems fine. Though why at least 2 previous cameras wouldn't perform anywhere near this well (normal), I don't know. So now I can post the old camera back to Fortron to do with what they will.

Sunday 15th February 2026

Sunday 15^th February

SHE SAID:

The minor storm around last night gave us around 8mm of rain, for the district; hopefully we got close to that. It was cloudy & muggy this morning.

My cleaning of Bertie continued. The inside & outside of the main door & screen door was on the ‘hit list’. I also got a small section of the outside done too. It does make a difference. It has been a good few years since the outside was done, other than with rain!

We caught up with Mum on Teams at 7pm then my brother & Kiyoka at 8pm.

Lowlands Beach

HE SAID:

With no simple way to check the house water tank level I hope that the overnight rain was a helpful amount. I helped Varena with the cleaning of the van door, pulling the vent and mesh out, and replacing the high-tech light blocking device, which is a bit of an old cardboard beer box cut to size. Without my little addition there would be a lot more light and breeze inside, which we don’t want.

Saturday 14th February 2026

Saturday 14^th February

SHE SAID:

Our hottest day for a while, 32C, but before it got too hot we had a scenic sightseeing drive around. We have pretty much been everywhere around here over the years, but it has been a while. We found some back roads to go down instead of the direct routes, finding our way to Lowlands Beach. It’s a lovely view from the 2 lookouts, & a nice, secluded beach with rocks & sand, & of course blue, blue waters.

We had morning tea at the Shelley Beach lookout in the West Cape Howe NP. The view from above the beach is where “mad” people go paragliding from; it is quite a cliff jump. No “nuts” doing it today though.

The sheet lightning & rumbling thunder in the late evening were a nice change. There was some rain, but it was light, mostly missing us.

Lowlands Beach

HE SAID:

We had a short tour around this morning, going to some very nice beaches. The rest of the day was spent mostly indoors avoiding the hot sun. The weather is very changeable around here, with a mixture of rather hot and rather cool days. Today was hot.

The evening storm lingered around for quite a while, but mostly at a distance. Barney the cat didn't seem too put out.

Friday 13th February 2026

Friday 13^th February

SHE SAID:

We headed to Albany for the post office; Geoff has a parcel waiting. We did a few other minor things.

It was nice to see the sun out after 3 or 4 days of clouds & cool weather. There is a prediction of rain at the weekend though it doesn’t look like we will get much.

There was a bit of colour in the sky, pinky & golden on the clouds

HE SAID:

The dash cam providers could not work out why I was having so many problems connecting the camera to my phone. Everything is app based, so it is essential. They decided that swapping cameras should help, so we went in to Albany to collect the new one. It only took a couple of minutes to replace both the front and the rear cameras. Getting it all working on the phone via the app took a lot longer, but I think the situation has improved somewhat. It is still a pain in the bum to connect, but it seems more reliable than previously. I will test it a few times and see what happens.

The cricket threw up a big surprise for me today. Australia lost to Zimbabwe. It is not the first time they have beaten Australia, but it is very uncommon. Bugger!

Thursday 12th February 2026

Thursday 12^th February

SHE SAID:

Yayee! I have finished the Bertie clean, happy about that.

We had another walk to the letterbox & back after lunch.

I booked a holiday house, well, a converted barn really, near Bideford in North Devon, for Geoff, myself & Mum when we are over there in May.

And Cat Day...3. They always look so relaxed!

HE SAID:

Of course there was T20 World Cup cricket to watch, but I managed a few other minor things too.

Wednesday 11th February 2026

Wednesday 11^th February

SHE SAID:

We had a short walk to the letterbox, only just over 1km return, but it was a leg stretch, which we haven’t had much of recently.

I continued with the Bertie cleaning, getting to the end for the inside; hopefully tomorrow.

Cat Days... 2

HE SAID:

Little things around the house and the van kept me going until the cricket came on after lunch. I wouldn't have minded cleaning up some of the leaves that are blowing around near the house, but as Gary took the batteries for all the tools I will have to do it manually. Therefore, it can wait!

Tuesday 10th February 2026

Tuesday 10^th February

SHE SAID:

We had a ½ hour drive into Albany today, with a few things needed; it got us out for a couple of hours.

I sorted out flights to the UK for when we leave here in early May. Mum is keen for us to return, though it will be a shorter than normal visit this time as we have house-sits lined up till December.

Then I did the ironing, lunch, & finally finished uploading the 2025 photos onto Facebook, for my emergency back-up.

Cat days...1

HE SAID:

Varena and I headed in to Albany for a beer resupply, and we got other things while we there, too. We are now confirmed to be going to the UK again, this time in May. Jan was so happy when Varena told her that the flights were booked.

Monday 9th February 2026

Monday 9^th February

SHE SAID:

I spent the morning in the van again, sorting & cleaning kitchen cupboards & the stove/oven. I stopped around 11am, in time for a cuppa, of course.

No more action for the rest of the day, other than washing, computing, & reading till dinner time. Beef Stroganoff, Broccolini, & rice was on tonight’s menu.

Beach 'art'

HE SAID:

A few things got done while Varena was in the van this morning, but nothing exciting, unless you call standing on a ladder next to the van and cleaning the hatch over the shower to be exciting. It was quite a warm day so taking it easy was the plan.

Sunday 8th February 2026

Sunday 8^th February

SHE SAID:

Cleaning morning; firstly through the house, then I continued with the van. I am making slow progress as it is a “Spring” clean.

Geoff was also doing stuff on the outside of the van today.

It was a double Teams session in the late afternoon with me chatting with Mum at 6pm, then later with Julian & Kiyoka.

In the garden

HE SAID:

With a cool morning, the van in a flat position, and plenty of room to open up the van’s awning, I finally got around to installing the new anti-flap kit and roof rafters. These are meant to drastically reduce the awning flapping in the wind, but in big winds it is still best to put the awning away. We shall see how it goes, I guess.

I managed, eventually, after a few IT issues that always seem to occur, to join a video session with Eileen, Meg, Carmel, and Steph just before lunch. They were at Woden Cemetery to commemorate Bernie's death, 22 years ago. Not forgotten. Still missed.

With Varena having a busy day, both in the van and then with her mum and brother online, I made my simple spaghetti pesto for dinner. It is always good.

Saturday 7th February 2026

Saturday 7^th February

SHE SAID:

We had a country drive today, visiting several of the wheatbelt towns for a look around. We took morning tea with us but got a pie at a “Deli”/ takeaway in Wagin, which was only just average; the pastry was nice!

Back at the house in the late afternoon Geoff had cricket to watch; he was happy.

The clouds in the Wheatbelt

HE SAID:

Our Wheatbelt tour ended up being about 600km. We covered a lot of ground, looking around some of the towns, just to see what’s what.

Friday 6th February 2026

Friday 6^th February

SHE SAID:

Geoff wanted the van re-positioned so he can work on the awning, so that was the first task of the day. Next, I got some more of the cupboards cleaned inside the van; I’m slowly getting it done.

I finished uploading my October Orchid photos onto Facebook as my emergency back-up.

We had a chicken & sweet potato Biryani, with Dahl & yoghurt Raita from the little General Store at Young’s Siding, for dinner. It was OK without being awesome. Good to support the local businesses, we feel.

Young Lake

Anvil Beach

HE SAID:

Where we had initially parked the van did not allow the awning to be fully opened. I hadn’t thought of that until a couple of days ago. And, as I wanted to work on the awning we had to move the van. It wasn’t a big deal, just a bit of a pain. Now I don’t have an excuse to avoid my jobs.

I collected the Biryani around 6:30 and zoomed back to the house. It made a nice change, in an amateur way, rather than being restaurant standard. But that was all we needed, so we scoffed it pronto, surprised that the theoretical meal for one did us both.

Thursday 5th February 2026

Thursday 5^th February

SHE SAID:

An exciting trip to Albany this morning; we went to the dump, oops, sorry the Transfer Station, then the OP Shop, got fuel, & the post office for the wine Geoff had ordered, & finally to Aldi. As you can read, not really an exciting outing.

I made some cauliflower & bacon soup for lunch too, it’s all go here!!!

Our current 'home' for the next 3 months

HE SAID:

Our morning outing was about 2 hours or so. It is 30km to Albany so some of that was travelling time. A lot of our drive was very familiar to us as we’ve been here plenty of times, but we managed to take a new road back to the house. Before getting to the house we called in at the Young’s Siding General Store. Varena had found out that they were having a take away special tomorrow night; Biriyani. So we placed our order and will see how it goes. I’m happy to support local business as long as it is good. Strangely, as we returned to the house a car was just pulling out of our driveway. We hadn't even seen or heard a car near the house for the last week so we were very surprised. It turns out that they were Jehova's Witnesses, coming along to pester people. I had told them that we were house-sitting, as I initially thought that they may be friends of the house owners, and that seemed to be enough for them as they made no attempt to return to the house and try to badger us for money, or whatever they think they are doing.

After our tasty lunch I happened to spot a bird coming in to land on a tree near the house. My eyes told me that it wasn’t one of the usual varieties, and our guess is that it was a Boobook.

Wednesday 4th February 2026

Wednesday 4^th February

SHE SAID:

The random shaking of the house that Geoff commented on whilst we were having breakfast in bed turned out to be the washing machine, NOT mini earthquakes! LOL!

I got the “under bed” cupboard in the van emptied, cleaned & repacked. I also asked Geoff to help me move the 15 Blog Books to the house so I could get a group photo.

Years 1 to 15 

HE SAID:

The day was rather cool, and cloudy for most of it. I managed several minor tasks while Varena was blitzing the van. I still have not worked out how to check the water level in the concrete house tank, with no hatches visible on top. It may just be a case of poking around the inlet pipes; I’ll work it out eventually.

As it our friend Evan's 67th birthday I had an hour and a bit on Teams with him, chatting away. He is now entitled to an aged pension, but as a bit of a conspiracy theorist he doesn't want to provide all the required information, despite me telling him many times that the government already has all the relevant information about him - he just needs to fill in the form, then he will get a regular payment. We'll see...

Tuesday 3rd February 2026

Tuesday 3^rd February

SHE SAID:

From 37C yesterday to 21C today; brrr! And the power went out; not us tripping it, a power company issue. It was off for around 50 minutes.

I did warm up once I started back in the van cleaning through. It is surprising how much you can cull from a caravan!

We got an unwelcome “gift” from Barney the cat around 10pm, he brought in a semi-dead mouse! Not good, cat!

Our latest 'charge' - Barney

Pinky glow after a light rain shower at sunset

HE SAID:

It was a good day for uggs and trackies. Quite a change from yesterday. The power cut occurred when I was boiling the kettle for breakfast, so I wondered whether something in the house had tripped. But nothing had, and we found online later that the whole area was out. So, I grabbed our generator and got the WiFi and kettle back on. I was going to hook up the water pump but the mains power came back on in under an hour. All good. Varena's tasty kedgeree went down very well, as it always does.

We were in bed late in the evening when we heard Barney come in through the cat door yowling his head off. As this was an unusual sound I dashed out to the lounge only to find Barney standing over a partly chewed, but still alive, small furry creature. Whether native or not it was near death, so I finished it off. Unpleasant. But as he has always been permitted outside it is not up to us to retrain the cat, despite preferring that all cats remain inside at all times. Hmmm.

Monday 2nd February 2026

Monday 2^nd February

SHE SAID:

Time to start the sort out, cull, & clean of Bertie Caravan. I usually do an annual clean & cull in January, but the previous house-sit had the van on too much of a slope for my liking, so I decided to wait till we arrived here.

I did a couple of hours before the temperature rose too much. It is going to be our warmest day here, with 36C predicted, though back down to the low 20C’s tomorrow!

After lunch we headed for Denmark for beer & supplies. The rest of the day was quiet.

Young's Siding & the whale shark letterbox with regular letterboxes!

HE SAID:

The un-insulated house got to 35C inside in the afternoon. Having lived here for over 30 years I’d have though that the owners may have found the time to get it installed, but apparently not.

I left Varena in peace as she did her thing in the van, just doing some to-ing and fro-ing as needed. In the afternoon we had a short trip to Denmark for supplies. Apart from beer we managed to get some fruit and veg from a farm gate stall, meats from the butcher, and had a little look around, though not much had changed that we could see. Varena made yummy homemade burgers for dinner. Always good!

Sunday 1st February 2026

Sunday 1^st February

SHE SAID:

February begins… The year is already zooming by.

My day was not arduous; ha ha, is it ever now? 

We had a morning drive to the Young’s Siding ‘Shop’, then Young Lake & Anvil Beach. 

We realised as we got to the gated entry to the beach that we had been here before. I looked it up in the Blog, it was June 2011 we brought Lucy the Labrador here for a walk when we were doing a house sit in Denmark. The beach looked quite different this time in the sun & much lower tide!

HE SAID:

A short outing was called for so we had a bit of a drive around. It took us a while but eventually we realised that we had been to Anvil Beach before. It is a very nice area, and there were just a few other people spread out over the whole expanse, so definitely not crowded! I even got a toe wet in the ocean.

Saturday 31st January 2026

Saturday 31^st January

SHE SAID:

A relaxed day, adjusting to our new 3-month home.

I woke around 7am; we didn’t hear Barney meowing at the door or trying to come in through the night. He is a big, gentle, chilled out “bear” of a cat; gorgeous & so unlike the last 2 at Quinn’s Rocks, who were into everything & charged around ½ the day. Chalk & cheese.

It is a surprisingly cool day, with a high of 22c, so I dressed in jumper & trackies first up, hoping to stay warm!!!

 More of the old Kojonup railway siding

HE SAID:

This our first full day solo at the 25 acre property in Young’s Siding. There was no hurry to get up, so after a cuppa in bed I emerged a little after 9 to tackle the day. My jobs list was very short, and nothing strenuous, so I did my few little tasks and spent most of the day in front of a screen. It was also the first time that I had worn a jumper of any sort for a few months!

Friday 30th January 2026

Friday 30^th January

SHE SAID:

A very excited Tracey & a relaxed Gary hit the road around 9.30am. They are driving to Victoria for 3 months.

We did our “grand move” from Bertie to the house, which took about 90 minutes, then the sort out in the house, where everything is to go. We haven’t sighted Barney the huge cat for a while, but he has free reign inside & out, so could be anywhere. He’ll no doubt turn up when he is hungry.

Yep, he came to say hello after our lunch.

The rest of the day was quiet, ending with a 2-hour Teams session with my brother in Japan.

HE SAID:

For some reason the moving of our things from the van to the house seemed quicker than usual today. No idea why. Anyway, we are mostly sorted and took it easy around the house as we got a little bit used to it.

We had a brief afternoon chat with Jacqui, in The Blue Mountains, as we set up a proper meeting, including Mick, for Sunday, and a 2 hour gab-fest with Julian, in Japan, after our tasty Bolognese dinner.

Thursday 29th January 2026

Thursday 29^th January

SHE SAID:

Geoff said he had no clue about the banging on the door of the van; he sleeps like the dead!!!

I messaged Tracey with an ETA of 12-noon, & we headed south for the final 175km to Young’s Siding. We got there a bit later than I expected as we had a 15 minute stop chatting with a friend over a drama they are having.

Tracey was super excited at our arrival. She is very friendly & chatty & put on a huge feed for dinner. Her husband Gary, & Barney the cat, are way more chilled out!

Kojonup sculpture

The remains of the old railway & station

HE SAID:

Our drive south was fairly short, even including our stop for elevenses. We refreshed our memories of what the house-sit entails, enjoyed a huge chicken dinner, and had a couple of adult beverages to wash it all down.

Wednesday 28th January 2026

Wednesday 28^th January

SHE SAID:

With the house, cats, & guinea pig sorted out we waved them goodbye just before 10am.

It was about 350km drive to Kojonup & the free camp in town. I took us the back roads, less busy & avoided the closed section of the Albany Highway, due to a fire.

We had a morning tea & fuel stop along the way arriving around 3pm. The free camp was empty! Though it turned out not to be free; you need a permit from the visitor centre & it is $5 P/N.

I jumped out of my skin around 11.15pm. I was playing on my phone when there was a loud rap on the door then nothing. Geoff was already asleep & heard nothing. I peered out the window but couldn’t see anyone. I decided it was some random idiot! I didn’t sleep well, worrying if something else would happen!

Kojonup wool wagon (full-size replica) at the free camp

HE SAID:

There were only a few minor things to do before we rolled out from Quinn’s Rocks, so there was no rush. We left everything clean and the animals in good condition, taking a few photos before we left. Unusually for us, we are leaving before the owners return, as it will be about 2am when they arrive, but hopefully all is well when they get in.