I just love scarves

BUT didn't know how to wear them … until today that is

If that was a bit too fast for you there are videos that concentrate on 2 or 3 styles in more depth. This channel has lots of other great videos and there's also a blog

Goomalling

Whilst Angel, the corgi cross, was left in our care her humans enjoyed themselves on a trip to Cape Town, South Africa.




Not to be outdone however, Angel made the most of HER holiday and managed to teach Levi a few useful skills like walking nicely on a lead and sitting quietly outside shops, especially if there was food in the offing.

Both doggies shared in this delicious breakfast feast of Eggs Benedict with a classic hollandaise sauce (none of this cheats version with vinegar) from the Go Cafe in Goomalling's main street.

Goomalling is a really friendly little town with a strong community spirit.  Monday lunchtime sees various groups preparing and selling lunch in the Old Railway Building in Ansley Park, a great meal for a few dollars and the profits go to the group.

The Community Resource Centre seems to be very active and whilst I was there attended a free seminar "What happened to our food" given by Gary Russell a Nutritionist from Wongan Hills which was very informative and interesting.

Goomalling is a true RV Friendly town with good parking a dump point and a freedom camp about 3km from the centre of town BUT hardly anyone bothers to use it … WHY?  Well the Goomalling Caravan Park  has some of the best rates I've found anywhere …

However, my very favourite place in Goomalling is Regal and Rustic run by Cathy Jensen (who also happened to be my neighbour across the road).

As well as being a very talented textile designer Cath is a fabulous cook — inspired by a recent trip to Tasmania she cooked a scallop pie with a light, flaky puff pastry.  There goes the diet … again

Regal and Rustic offers an eclectic mix of textiles, jewellery, china and furniture all chosen with Cathy's artistic eye and with an emphasis on quality craft.

Cathy who is a qualified craft teacher holds a wide variety of classes including felting, dying and printing, crochet, bookmaking … what can't this woman do!

Cathy doesn't have a website but has a page on Facebook

New friends for Levi

Because I'll be petsitting again at Anna & Robs later this year it was important to pay them a visit with Levi so we could see how he got on with Jett and Ruby the Flat Coated Retrievers and of course Priscilla and Sylvester the moggies.

Please sit nicely together so Anna can take your photo

Levi waiting patiently for his special treat … these three are such good, obedient dogs.

So, how did it go … excellently! Ruby and Jett are really friendly, sociable dogs as of course is Levi so they all got on really well together even though Levi is younger by far than either of them.

What about the cats? Levi had a scarey experience with a black cat at Margaret River. The cat was sleeping in a camp chair and Levi sniffed it from the back (as dogs are wont to do) which was acceptable BUT then he tried to sniff it's head and the cat jumped up spitting, growling and hissing with it's hair on end … Levi yelped and took off for his life.

I was really interested to see what his reaction to Sylvester and Priscilla would be … Priscilla was sitting in the centre of the path when we arrived and she continued to sit there when we came in the front gate. After Levi and Ruby and Jett had checked each other out and decided they were all going to be good friends it was time to go into the house BUT … we had to pass the CAT.

What did Levi do … well what any self-respecting and sensible dog would do … he took a wide detour around the CAT keeping a wary eye on it.

Later that evening Priscilla, in particular, continued to provoke Levi by coming up to him all the time, he managed to avoid her and kept his self-composure.

Stockton Lake — Swimming Lessons

Stockton Lake, near Collie is a large disused, open-cut mine now filled with water. It's a popular boating, diving and swimming recreational area. Camping used to be free but DEC are now charging $5 per person which seemed reasonable to me as it's such a beautiful location and you can camp right on the lakeside.

This is the place where Levi finally realised he can swim!

It was a very tentative little man who gingerly put one foot and then the other in the water.

At first he walked around in knee deep (for him) water, then ventured out deeper and deeper until … hooray, he finally realized he's a Spaniel and Spaniels LOVE water

Margaret River

Still searching for cooler weather we continued further south and after a lovely week at Busselton, which I'd visited in 2008 with Danni, we eventually ended up in the Margaret River region - an Australian wine and food paradise.

Even before selecting a camping spot the first stop of the day was breakfast ... the most dog friendly cafe we could find was Sails Too and it turned out to be a good find with very reasonable prices and excellent friendly wait staff.

This yummy spread of pork sausages with onion jam and perfectly cooked poached eggs really set me up for the day.
Levi approved as well.

My brother James recommended the Big Valley Farm campsite, only 7km from the town of Margaret River and it turned out to be a real find and very reasonably priced.

Kevin the owner of the working sheep farm campsite is probably the friendliest and most helpful campground host I've ever encountered. He marked the nicest spots to visit including best price for fuel (12 cents a litre less than in town) and even repaired my spare wheel carrier by welding on missing parts.

There was a real mix of guests - about 50/50 grey nomads and young folks from many different countries. The youngsters spent most of their time in the excellent camp kitchen which had every appliance you could think of, although they usually sat chatting till around 10pm, they were not at all noisy and in fact us grey nomads probably made the most noise :-)

Happy hour was a a big feature at this campsite and each evening we gathered at different vans and enjoyed an hour or two of great company and different goodies from around the region, including sheep cheese, various venison small goods and chocolates.

Bill, a retired cane grower from far North Queensland had a very successful day fishing and we enjoyed the fruits of his labour smoked with bush herbs.