25 May 2012

We're having November weather, you know!  Don't gloat about your 80s.  (We're having 20s.)  Everywhere, in the country anyway, there are rubbish piles on fire.  None of them are big fires.  They all just sort of smolder, making the air acrid, and making the throat burn.  It's finally starting to look like autumn (although not colorful), but not winter.  The ice and snow are missing.  Bridgetown does get frost, however.  It's colder here than Albany.  The mornings are beautiful with the mists lying low in all the valleys.  Even in winter, this is a beautiful part of the state.  The rains have brought a brilliant green to the landscapes, accented by the dark brown of the soil, where the farmers have harrowed, and always the tall, tall gum trees around the edges.  The many wine vineyards stand bare now, and everywhere there are black cattle, and thousands of sheep, some with new little lambs.

We had a teaching appointment out in Manjimup, which was disappointing because we have been visiting this lady for some time, every time we come here.  She's been very nice to us, and we like her a lot.  Today, though, we told her goodbye, essentially.  She just won't make time for anything but her business.

We had to get back on the road for BT before night fell because it's almost a new moon, and with the new moon, the roos come out on the roads after dark.  Nobody in the country drives at night for any distance.  Speaking of the moon, it seems to be about 3 times the size of the Tooele moon, magnified by all the smoke in the atmosphere, and hangs low in the sky, sort of upside, down.  It looks like a giant golden smile, as if there is a comical cheshire cat smiling at us in the dark.

We got serious with another couple today too.  We asked lots of questions and tried to get to the bottom of things.  We have been visiting this couple for a long time, but today we really got a commitment out of them.  We're going back on Monday before we go home that day to see how they felt about the reading we asked them to do.  We'll see if they follow through or not.  If not, I think we will have to drop them too.

As a side note, we don't have many young people in Albany or BT, so perhaps we are out of touch, but one doesn't seem to hear much about going to the uni (university).  There are lots of skilled workers, and many who do apprenticeships here.  I think it's a good way to do it, actually.  There are occupational colleges too, something like where Liz taught.