Saturday - Wednesday, June 1 - 5 2013 (diary)

Coming home fro bridge this Monday evening I found that none of the taps in my cabin were running water. Checking outside, the garden hose tap was OK and next morning all other water connections were working properly too.
After some consideration it was considered most likely that there was a blockage at or above the T-junction where the cabin's water line connects up with the main water supply line that connects all the farm's water outlets.

And so it was. Rod (our handyman on the farm) unscrewed the connection underneath my cabin and this is what he found.
A small frog had been pushed into the T-junction, effectively blocking the water pipe. He was very firmly stuck too as it took some effort to pull the dead body out. How the frog got into the water system in the first place remains a mystery.

About a week ago results from a recent OECD survey were published, which shows that Australia now is the best place to live in the world, having overtaken Norway (or Sweden ?) which was previously in first place.
And I am not surprised. We have excellent social and medical provisions, a wide range of wonderful living environments, a variety of climates for every taste, and all on a relatively safe continent. We have a varied multi-cultural society with diverse cultural communities living relatively peacefully together.
If our two children are grateful to us parents for just one thing, then it surely is bringing them to this wonderful country.

I personally have lived in all but one (Victoria) of the mainland States and have enjoyed living everywhere.
Now living in the hinterland of tropical Darwin feels like the culmination of my wanderings around this continent.
If, as I believe, the colour blue inspires happiness and green induces tranquility, then I have found both here in abundance around my cabin.
When I step outside in the morning I am surrounded by green grass, green plants, green trees, with a sparkling blue high overhead in the sky. The air is fresh and unpolluted. There is no noise from traffic, only nature's sounds of bird calls, rustling leaves or the occasional dog can be heard.
As long as I manage to remain in good health and keep busy with things to do (right now my new bridge venture) I feel more contented and at peace with myself than I have ever felt in my life before.

Thursday - Monday, June 6 - 10 2013 (diary)

I just received an email from "young Paul" last night (Sunday). Both Pauls had just arrived in Santiago de Compostela at the end of one of their Camino walk ventures (my photos) and were sure they had spotted me there in town in my usual shorts and umbrella. I wish I wish, but I have a feeling I may get back there again, perhaps in 2016.

Anyway young Paul told me that their planned Costa Brava walk in 2014 will be from Sunday October 5 to Sunday October 12.
I have immediately signed up for that event and have now started planning for the rest of my trip to Europe next year.

A few days prior to the Costa Brava walk I hope to catch up with Yosune (from Felechas), who promised to show me around Barcelona.
I will travel again by train to Spain and, while looking for a good place to stop my journey overnight in the Lonely Planet Guide I stumbled on Collioure. It is a small coastal village on the Côte Vermeille (Vermilion Coast) in the far South of France on the Mediterranean, very close to the Spanish border.

Collioure was a favourite spot for the fauvist painters Henri Matisse and André Derain, who both spent much time there attracted by the intense blue sky and splendid natural light there.
Collioure is also famous for its anchovies (like those in Cadaqués I would think) and there is a special Chemin du Fauvism (Fauvism Trail) connecting some 20 of the locations where those two famous fauvists painted.
So I will check out the accommodation in that place and the train connection from Freiburg to it in the next few days.