Dec 2017 Waroona, New Norcia

Almost the end of another year - how time flies :) I have spent much of the year around Waroona house-sitting again and spending time with the lovely friends I have in the area. Three months on one property - almost like having my own home!!!! I spent an extra 12 days there looking after some dogs and beautiful pups.

Spent 2 weeks back in New Norcia in November working Monday-Thursday scanning hundreds of letters from 1858 – 68. Firstly from Fr Martelli to Salvado (the founding monk) in English for Dr Kinder [a Kiwi!] to work on,  then from Salvado’s brother Santos – all in Spanish which will now be translated into English. There have been summaries done on all these letters and what interesting reading they are.

‘ thank you for the ton of tobacco. It was good to smoke but too mild to use as a sheep dip!’ (yes I Googled it – was used for lice etc)

‘it seems the Liberals over East are determined to get rid the savages to make a place for the white savages who will be far more ruthless’

‘she heard that the laundry lady used washing blue to whiten the clothes so she tried it on her face – and was quickly cured of her vanity’

‘… has been elected Foreign Minister (in Spain?). He is a convicted fraudster and married to a whore’.

‘We have found a cure for cholera. Juice of half a lemon, 2 teaspoons of sugar, 2 teaspoons of rum. We have cured 3 people so far. Also a decoction of mercury is excellent for purging the stomach of impurities’

And a beautifully written letter from the local aborigines asking the monks to please stop shooting their dogs even though the dogs were trying to ‘eat the little sheeps’!

I could have spent the whole time just reading these letters! The monks leased huge areas of land and looked after the local aborigines, who helped put the road through to Bindoon. They also traded many horses and set them by boat to India.  If anyone wanted to do history from 1847 I would recommend these archives as a goldmine of information. The monks were well informed of events in Europe as well as Australia.

I didn’t have access to the library which is in the monastery but they have books there that are very rare. Some of these are the only ones left in the world I gather! The priceless ones are all in a fireproof vault. A good thing too – lightning struck the copper pipes to the gas hotwater at the old police station while I was there and started a fire. Put out quickly before too much damage done.

I have decided to go back next March for a couple more weeks and whenever I can during the year. There are 30,000 photos that have been numbered but need to be put in order so they are easier to access as well as thousands of documents to be scanned. In exchange for help, volunteers are given free accommodation and 3 meals a day, but are only allowed to stay for 2 weeks at a time.  Wine is available at both lunch and with the 2 course evening meal, and of course their wonderful bread is always in abundance!!! Too tempting!!!!

I have had a month in the van again and wandered down to Greenbushes and Manjimup. It is still a lifestyle that I really enjoy but I am running out of 'new' roads to travel. Off to Perth for Xmas with family then back to Waroona to do it all again - have several places booked already  so looking forward to that.

April - October 2017 Waroona, Esperance farm sit, New Norcia retreat

From Lake King I wandered up to Gingin for my cousins 70th. Lovely weekend. I was rather surprised at how much stubble is being burned off - very smokey. I thought that practice was discouraged. 

Spent Easter with friends at Seabird, then back to Waroona via 'back' roads to avoid the school holiday traffic. Lovely drive via Gingin, Bindoon Hill, Toodyay to Katrine camp beside the river. Bit tricky to get in to but flush toilets - always a big plus. Then to York intending to fill up with water - but my fancy anti-vandal tap fitting doesn't work on those tap. Got water at Beverley instead. On down to Pingelly and across to Pumphreys Bridge. Lovely big area down by the river, up behind the hall and on an oval out the back. Thought I was the only one there and a bit nervous about all the traffic stopping at the hall during the late evening. seems to be a meeting place - or maybe they just stop to use the loos. Anyway -  I see a van tucked away on the oval next morning.


 Enjoyed the drive via Crossman and Boddington. Thought about stopping there but went in to Waroona via Lane Pool. I had forgotten how narrow the north end of that road is - and with weekend traffic it was a slow cautious trip!

Farm sitting again - a couple of dogs and 600 acres. Enjoying being back amongst old friends in Waroona.

From there I went via Mt Barker (laid up a few days with a nasty cold) and on to Esperance where I had another farmsit for 6 weeks. Lovely old renovated house, 4 farm dogs, a cat, a bird and chooks. Did a trip to Lucky Bay, hellfire Bay, Stonehenge, Cape Arid (almost - road too wet and slippery).
Found the amazing Hakea Victoria in Helms Arboretum. Pity it is such a spiky plant - certainly has stunning colours.
Stood beside a snake at Hellfire Bay - thank goodness it seemed to be asleep. Not sure if a Tiger or  what but not getting too close whatever it was.
Stonehenge was amazing and the tidiest Tourist destination I have seen in Aus. The farm & business is for sale!
Big flock of black cockatoos flew past a couple of times - migrating I am told.

I made my way back to the next farmsit out of Waroona. Will be here 3 months so looking forward to catching up with all my friends in the area. The weather has certainly changed - wet and wintery but at least everyone has grass again.
October:

New Norcia Benedictine Retreat – 29/9 – 2/10

My birthday present from the family was a weekend retreat at New Norcia. Lovely group of 9 people I was with. All good Catholics…..and heathen me. Dom Chris looked after us and ran sessions where he told us about being a monk, how New Norcia runs and the Benedictine Philosophy which was all very interesting. I did feel though that I had heard so much of that from ‘life coaches’ and motivational speakers – just not with the concept of God being the giver of this inner strength! We were shown very old material maps of the 1 Million acres they used to own & lease – down to 20,000 acres now which they have decided to lease out as that will make them more money.

Had silent 3 course meal with the monks one day – complete with our own '2.5 glass' bottle of wine. Coffee with another monk after lunch – and a glass of port! We were served by the Abbot and another monk while we listened to readings. Self-help cereal and toast breakfast and 2 course dinner with wine also!

They built 8 bedrooms against the monastery wall when they decided to expand the guest house. All twin ensuite rooms – with aircons donated by an Irish man who decided they were too hot! A suggested donation of $80 including meals is the going rate. Lots of people booked this week.

Went to Vespers a couple of times where the monks chant the psalms unaccompanied, and a beautiful Mass on Sunday in the chapel with the huge old organ. One of the new  monks is a musicologist and plays magnificently. He played Tchaikovsky’s Barcarolle on a piano during communion. Stunning acoustics in there. Maybe 30 locals there as well, and morning tea afterwards.

The monks pray 7 times a day for half hour (except Sundays ) starting at 5.15 am and last one at 8.15pm. Means they cannot ever get too involved in their other work and forget about their ‘mission’ to become a better holy person! They all commit to the monastery for life – some have been there 60 years!!!! The 3 we spent time with were delightful  - very well educated and lovely humour.

Anyway – I stayed an extra night so I could meet the Archivist who has been there for 10 years. I will go up for the 10 days soon to make a start on scanning letters from 1847 – 1860 from the original monk to people in Europe asking for money……and who knows what else. The Spanish ones have been translated and are on computer – they just need the originals copied now. There are thousands of documents to digitise all kept in temp controlled room. Huge interest from around the world for this stuff apparently.  I plan on going up there in March for however long I don’t know - 😊 Just waiting to hear where I can camp etc and what cost if any ….. 

Unlike priests, the monks do not administer to a congregation – although some monks are priests as well and do Mass etc. Father Anscar has spent 28 years at Kalumburu working with the bush aborigines and built a museum there. Full of funny stories and has written a couple of books about an abbey cat. He is feeling very sad though – since he left 5 years ago, 30 of them have died through drugs, suicide etc.

Interesting that anyone can go to Mass – I always understood it was absolutely not done if not Catholic. But the history of the place I find quite compelling. 

Decided to do a 'Morphography' picture for the Waroona show!

Jan - March 2017 - 70th, BlazeAid

Had a great family Christmas around Perth, with a surprise visit from family in Mackay. Lovely to have 2 granddaughters together also. 

Picked up the van from my friend at Waroona and headed to Herron Point. So many people crabbing out in this shallow estuary. Did have a good spot to camp - but went off today to do laundry etc and camp back to find a young couple with 3 little kids right up hard against the back of me. Is plenty of room for them to have moved over further. Bugger! Very hot so I don't want to have to shut windows so I cannot hear everything over there!!!!
Back to a farm I stayed at last year for a while then the big 70th party at Logue Brook Dam near Harvey. Wonderful to have friends and family from NZ and many lovely Australian friends help celebrate over the weekend. Managed to stay dry luckily. shocking heavy rain earlier in the week.
More farm sitting then the call from BlazeAid again to help set up camp at Lake King to work on flood damage. The old set-up crew there again so that is fun and a few others that had worked with us at Waroona also turned up.
Very small community here - just a Tavern and a small general store/PO but already we have fresh meat in the freezer, and lots of farm eggs etc. The flood seems to have take fences and dumped them out in the paddock - mainly through pressure of stubble building up on the netting I guess. Luckily farmers have machines that can pick up the fence and drag it back into place so it is mostly a matter of putting in new pickets and reattaching the wires.
We had a huge feed of yabbies thanks to one of the farmers also.

Managed to get the ute's weird noise sorted in Kondinin with great young mechanic who found a hole in the manifold exhaust pipe. Bit expensive to fix but I now have power back and fuel consumption is back to normal. What a relief!