Nannup folk music festival

Im sitting at my dining room table, listening to Bianca Jade singing 'she paints lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of... dots!'(my souvenir of the weekend) and Im just savouring the weekend, despite it being Monday. This is the meaning of chillin... I want you to know how I feel, despite having a wee headache, I feel wonderful and peaceful. I have had my fill of nature and good music and I feel wonderful. Someone asked me if I would ever live in Busselton, and I said no. But if someone asked me if I would live in Nannup... phew... I would reconsider suburbia, for that beautiful town.


Now I know there wont be a music festival every week of the year there, but thats not why I would want to relocate there. It would be for the trees... being so close to nature... I thought I was a beach lover, but more and more... Im a tree lover more than anything.

And I havent even started on the music festival! So I will. It was great! Practically EVERY band we saw were awesome! Our favorites were: Bianca Jade, Natasha Bouchard, Wons Phreely, Ted Egan, Double Entendre, Paul Gioia Trio, Old Man River, but especially Genticorum.

Genticorum are a fantastic trio of guys from Quebec, who play this beautiful folksy traditional music, with guitar, fiddle, bass and flute, and also - their feet! Two of the guys alternated between the other instruments, and this guy- Pascale -stomped out this traditional beat with his feet on a plank of wood, while he played the fiddle AND sang. One of their songs is a love song, from told from a guy to a girl, while he makes a rodent stew. :) And they were funny... we were told that the bass Alex was playing ( on the right) was handed down to him from his grandmother, and it has helped him be the man he is today... :)


And the town hall... have I told you about the town hall? Its beautiful... the stage is a theatrical stage from maybe fifty years ago, with its wooden floorboards, red velvet curtains, and pressed tin framing... The chairs are from the same era... wooden foldout rows with leather studded seats.
I was delighted! :)

It was so wonderful to get away though- strolling through out the streets checking the schedule for acts around town in cooler weather than we've had in the last few weeks... Eating Deustche Bratwurst hotdogs with saurkraut and mustard, or organic bacon and egg sarnies... drinking tall mochas from the cuppacino van to stay awake for our most anticipated act at the foreshore at 11pm... meeting kevin the dog, who was really keira, while getting a breath of fresh air and a break from the music... trying to figure out true hippies from the wannabes... meeting all the wonderful people from that lovely town and the ones not from town... breakfast sitting in the car coz we didnt bring any chairs... and all the talented musicans who made their way down south to Nannup and played for us...

pure fiction

They sat shoulder to shoulder in the sand, looking out at the beautiful vista before them: dark, tumbling, forboding thunderheads rolling in from the ocean. The breeze cooling and changing with the forecast, tossing their hair about. Their mood was sombre, the desire to speak at a minimum. They had shared everything they had come to share. Now they sat both in their own private world, absorbing the state of affairs.

"We should go in..." One offered.
"Hmmm..." She got up, absentmindedly, dusting the sand off her pants. She held her hand out to the other, but did not meet their eyes. She took her hand that was offered, searching her friends face as she got to her feet. Past the layer of defence she could see grief and pain. Although she knew she was just the messenger, somehow she wished she could take back some of the words, or maybe take on some of the burden her friend bore. Maybe at a later stage, once the shock wore off.

They walked back to the car in silence, heavy drops of rain splashing down, soaking through and plastering their thin summer shirts to their backs.

(to be continued...)

change in the season...

Im sitting here in my recliner looking out my window at the peppy trees and ooh, the breeze has just come through. Its cool, can you believe it? I have sweltered through this summer in my beautiful cardboard cottage where the heat just walks through walls like it owns the place, and now finally - a change in the weather. Im sure it will heat up again for a little while, but this is so lovely.
I can begin to enjoy my home again, rather than trying to think up new ways to escape my house in the heat of the day. Ive been doing this for 10 years. Im kinda tired of it...! Its such a sweet little home, but this is a major compromise in living in a home in the middle of a bush block with tons of privacy. I want to leave, but I dont think I will find anywhere as sweet, with its wrap around verandah and jarrah (trust me its jarrah, Ive tried to put a nail in it and failed!) beams.

The peppy trees are starting to look like they did when we arrived here. A couple of years ago the landlord went a little crazy with a chainsaw and lopped the lot. Its curious behavior for someone who claims to be a tree lover. We've had stumps with sprouts for a while, but now they are getting long enough to lean over and look beautiful in the breeze again.

I didnt know what peppy trees were until I moved to the southwest. I thought they were willows, having grown up with one in my backyard in Victoria. (A mix of Jaccaranda and Red Gum).
The downside to these beautiful natives is they attract the mozzies. Especially when in blossom. So for these 10 years, as much as I love to, I havent spent much time hanging around the outside of my home, as beautiful as it is. Talking to my lovely neighbour over the fence comes with sacrifice of my precious blood to those little vampires.

So it has been a love/hate relationship with this home. I will be sad when its time to leave, I hope my next home is such a pleasure to live in...

at the end of a long day...

Well! It’s the end of the day and I have been working hard all day, and now I have to face an hour or so of church, and then a few more hours of socializing of which I need to be a part of coz I organized it and to be honest… Sitting down is a really nice thing to do right now. Not socializing, not rubbing shoulders, not grinning and baring it… I feel a little over demanded. So this is what is on my mind right now… not something poignant, or fascinating…

I can share something with you though… I'm listening to VisionFM, and Shaunti Feldman is on with her husband talking about what women need. I read the complementary book of what men need called “For Women Only”, it was challenging and real. I realize that I don’t understand guys, and I think I can be a little rough with their fragile egos the way I tease sometimes. Its kinda frustrating though, it seems to be all about the guys ego and being gentle.

So for example, they suggest that instead of nagging them to call their mother, to turn it around and say “do you want to remind you to call your mum today?” Well… Seeing it that way, I can see the respect in that. And that maybe, in the running the household, paying the bills, running the kids around, organizing dinner (not saying that all these things ‘should’ be the responsibility of the woman, but some do do it all – like me, as a single mum) THAT we sometimes just bundle the guys up into that too, and not truly treat them as our partner, rather than another thing to sort out and organize.

Seems kinda reasonable to feel for guys to feel frustrated with that…