Veronika Wild

H i there everyone! Just wanted to wish you all a really jolly HO! HO! HO! kind of Christmas. There's no snow here of course - it's 39 Degrees Celsius and I can only dream about White Christmasses. No flowers now either - just dry crackling bush all around. It makes me nervous about Carols by Candelight tomorrow night. Maybe I should take the fire extinguisher - just in case. Signs of the times 1 There are any number of pampered pooches, vets, dog salons and orthodontists in this area All the other signs of Christmas are everywhere. The Christmas tree is up. Corny carols and Christmas specials in the shops, groceries going up, all that tinsel and the man in red turning up everywhere- Wonder what the children think of that? - not to mention the crowds, the queues and the noise.   Signs of the times 2 and 3 This last one is at a local nursery. They also have another one that says "Trespassers will be pruned and propagated." The Christmas Tree There are no decoration...

The last time I saw Western Australia, it was a dry and barren land with lots of bare earth and very little ground cover compared to Tasmania. This time though, it rained the whole of September, making it the wettest winter on record in 50 years and the plants have been celebrating with a riot of colour and variety unlike any I have seen, anywhere. Even a small patch of waste ground beside the visitor's information board in Augusta yielded three different types of orchids and the stoniest roadsides still produced an amazing array of plants and colours. The camera doesn't begin to do them justice - especially the flamboyant blues and reds, and the brightness of the West Australian sun tends to bleach them out, but for now you'll just have to use your imagination. Sorry, I don't know most of their names either Spider Orchid Little fringed Purple Flower Mystery Blue Flowers The strange Tassel Plant One of my first Orchids. Orchid Spotting became a bit of a passion. Have ...

    Lest the foregoing posts make it seem that everything in WA is old and or abandoned, but that is most definitely not the case. The City of Perth is compact but has all the attributes of a modern city -gleaming towers that reflect the blue of the skies, lovely river front parklands, one of the oldest universities in Australia, trendy shops and eateries, world class entertainment and a zoo, but except for its bell tower, there is little to distinguish it from anywhere else.  There are your Maccas, and Targets and all the other retail chains. All very handy when you need them, but a bit bloody boring to look at when they all look the same. I am looking for those things which make a place different. Much the same can be said for the housing.   The whole of Perth - indeed much of Western Australia, seems to be in the middle of a housing boom By far the majority of the population appears to be living in endless new subdivisions springing up north and south along the...

*Translation: A paddock is the Australian word for field. When truck drivers say they are going for a run across the paddock, they mean they are driving across the Nullabor Plain, that vast area near the bottom of Australia called the Great Australian Bight, the bit which looks like someone has taken a bite out of it. Nullarbor means ‘treeless.’ It is. I'll swear that in 2000 kms there is only one hill and one bend. The last time I did this trip, the road wasn't sealed and it was a long, death defying ordeal of dodging enormous pot holes, wild life and gigantic road trains which loomed out of clouds of red dust. You also had to carry in everything yourself – food, fuel, water and spare parts, as there wasn’t much in between other than a lonely tank or a bore, if you were lucky. This time it was a long, easy, sometimes boring drive with very few distractions. Only the wind was a bit of a problem, tossing the van around like a shoebox and making it use much more fuel that it s...