Heavenly Beverley : Beginnings

Sunday 3 April 2016

Beginnings

April heralds in the burning period in and around Beverley. With the heat of summer fading, farmers and townies alike are setting fire to paddocks, rubbish piles and downed trees. Many of the surrounding properties still burn their fields prior to seeding. I'm not sure if the reason is to remove weeds or make the ground easier to plough or add the ash to the earth. Whatever the rationale behind the fires, there is often a spectacular nightly glow around Beverley, a reflection of all the clearing.

Those in town take to burning with a vengeance as well. For example, Lorna, who lives next door at Freedom Hollow had three or four fires on the go yesterday, the smoke rising slowly into the air all around.

Which is when we sometimes have problems. Unless there is a breeze of sorts, the smoke hangs in a pall over town, making life miserable for those like Michael who have respiratory issues. Tonight we have had to close up the house to keep the smoke out. As the day had been hot, we turned on the air conditioning. The cool air reacted with Michael's airways, causing him to cough and splutter. So, no air conditioning. We would have loved to have thrown open the house, but the smoke had not yet dissipated.

Fortunately, this situation is always only temporary. Within the next few days, all the burning will have been carried out and brisk breezes will blow the remnant smoke away.

Just in time for our latest HelpXers to join us. Basile and Pascaline, a young French couple will land in Perth from Abu Dhabi in the early afternoon. We are unsure about their level of English. Some of Basile's emails have taken a bit of guesswork. We are sure, as with Madlen and Simon, that their English will gallop away as they become more familiar with the language.

We expect very little from them on the first day. We imagine they will be quite exhausted, so I am planning to slow cook a rabbit (thanks to the Moads) whilst we are in Perth. Then they can unpack a bit, learn about the house, eat and probably retire pretty early.

Their primary purpose is to assist Michael. His workshop at the Gallery needs clearing sorting and reorganising. Then twenty years of steel, tools, bits and bots and found metal objects have to be moved from the home sheds to the Gallery workshop. Then the home sheds will need clearing and sorting.There is no way Michael could handle this on his own. This means when we finally sell the house, part of the move will have already been accomplished.

We are unsure how long Basile and Pascaline will stay with us. We just hope they have a really positive experience with us at the beginning of their Working Holiday Visa stay in Australia.