8 November 2011

I finally heard a kookaburra!  What a ruckus!  Go online to YouTube and listen if you can.

I cannot believe it’s getting close to Christmastime!  There were wreaths on the lampposts and a few decorations up down on York Street yesterday, while people are walking around in their shirtsleeves and flip-flops!  It just doesn’t seem right!

We have some good friends in the Albany branch named Cowcills.  Ray Cowcill has already raised a family.  His two oldest girls are married and also live here.  Two of the three boys are active, but the other one was offended, sadly, at 17 by having to repeat the Sacrament prayer about 8 times one Sunday.  He has dyslexia, as do some of his siblings, but it was so humiliating for him, he said he would never come back to church again.  I’ve noticed that the current branch president, President Holder, is quite lenient about the sacrament prayers with his brother, Adam.  Sarah (Ray’s daughter) and Nick Cook have been especially thoughtful and sweet to us.

Anyway, Ray married one of the women in the branch, Rebecca, about 3 months before we came.  She is younger than he and has 4 young children, Hope, Caitlyn, Makayla and Zachary.  We have already had dinner with them multiple times, and FHE twice.  Their kids hug and kiss us as if we were their grandparents!

Today they took us on a fun outing for about 3 hours.  We drove along the coast about 20km to the Albany wind farm, and to “The Gap,” which is Albany’s biggest tourist draw.  It’s a place on the rocky part of the shore line where there is a natural break in the granite rocks which is about 70 feet down, and where the sea on a stormy day sprays really high.  Today was stormy; in fact, we had to wait in the car for 20 minutes for a pause in the heavy rain before we could get out.  It was very windy, and we were not disappointed at the view.  Wow, it was gorgeous. 

Natural Bridge at the Gap, Albany

Ray Cowcill and Ray Ashby

 People sometimes joke about throwing themselves off the Gap (not funny!)

Albany wind farm

One thing you can always depend on with the weather here—it will change in a matter of minutes.  Bro. Cowcill said there are only 2 or 3 days of each year where the wind isn’t stiff enough to keep all 18 of those huge wind turbines going at full speed.  They have plans to show us lots of wonderful things.  But the most amazing thing to me is always the sea.  It’s the Southern Ocean here, of which we had never even heard before we came here!  It’s beautiful and blue, and angry out there on the open sea where we were today.  We saw the huge graineries and other industries that load and unload the big ships that come into Princess Royal Harbour (Australian spelling is different for so many words!)

I’ve been wishing I had a bunch of my cookbooks down here to give to the members as thank-you gifts.  It seems like we are only takers, not able to give much back.

 I don’t know if anybody is reading this any more, because it’s too boring without photos.  I’m still going to try one more time  to add photos when we go to the church.   Maybe if it’s a day other than Sunday or Monday, the Wifi there will work for me.  Electronics for us are a study in patience.   

Today we tried to talk to our kids on Google+ but after an hour of trying to figure out what we were doing wrong, we thought they had forgotten, and came home from the church disappointed.  Then E. Ashby realized that Utah had gone to Mountain Standard Time and is now 15 hours behind us!  Australia doesn’t do Daylight Savings Time.  So I guess we’ll try again. Maybe you kids would rather do it every two weeks anyway.?  We know you are busy and that you are trying to have your FHE before bedtime.  Let us know.   Happy Birthday, Ammon.