Towerrinning Lake with Christine

Our life at the farm continues very pleasantly indeed. We have loved the outdoor exercise of log lugging and fire tending, clearing up the wood that can be used and would otherwise be in the way of the machinery. The tree in the picture was hundreds of years old and massive and in a pile between our little cottage, Shipton and the creek. Malcolm started the fire from the windward end. The main trunk was hollow and rotten as was the upward pointing thick branch; so a perfect natural boiler was created complete with its own chimney. You have seen the photos of this mighty tree burning but this one shows the boiler within.

The burn continued for three days and now there is nothing left to show for its long life apart from the ash that will now nourish the ground and which Malcolm has already buried with a layer of soil. His granddaughter Zoe was amazed when I mentioned the fact that trees, like most living things, are made up of over 70% water.

While we were getting ready for our picnic I had a welcome opportunity to photograph the flowers in Christine’s lovely garden around the main house on Te Opu (The Helpers). There are always numerous birds adding life, colour and song to the garden and I am still trying to get my aged head around the fact that autumn here, and not springtime, is when the trees and plants come into flower, thus avoiding the heat and drought of the summer months and that the lambing season here is also in the autumn so there is, drought allowing, fresh new grass for the in-milk ewes and the lambs when they are a little older.

From the picture of the first information board you can see that Kojonup is at the bottom on the Albany road and the lake in the middle bottom of the picture is on the Bunbury road which we shall visit in the next blog. The Re-Diversion looks to be all about the primary extraction industries, including coal mining and the generating of power for the populace doesn’t it. We literally stumbled across an open cast mine on our way to Bunbury, near Collie, which you can also see on the first map.

Towerrinning Lake was a trip down memory lane for Christine as it was a favourite haunt for them when their girls, Kylie and Tennille were growing up. A weekend away from the farm for the short drive to a world of camping and water-sports including water skiing. Christine remembered and we could only guess at the area being crowded and noisy with hundreds of folk enjoying themselves. There were a handful of other people there on our day and the caretakers made us very welcome at this beauty spot loved by many generations and which is on private land.