Heavenly Beverley : Always Expect The Unexpected!

We are recovering after another busy weekend in the East End Gallery. Each day in the Gallery is a surprise. Each day in the Gallery brings special rewards. We never know what we happen when we open the doors over four days in our usual routine.

Being passionate about artists and their artworks is a fickle business. There is no way the East End Gallery would have survived without our purchase of the Forbes Building. Back in 2012, everybody who saw the building thought we were mad to take on such a decrepit and crumbling ruin.

Over the past six years, we have followed our dream. Renovating the site was certainly causative in Michael's multiple hospital admissions. He was like a punching dummy that couldn't be knocked down. Time after time, Michael returned to the job at hand. And so, we were able to fulfil the goal of opening a Wheatbelt gallery promoting Wheatbelt artists.

Presently, Michael is ploughing his way through the last of our brick collections. The leftovers of the underground water storage tank have been cleaned and sorted. Now, he has turned his hand to the one-hundred-year-old bricks from York that we sourced for our internal walls within the Gallery. These were handmade and air-dried so some have disintegrated. Michael's quest is to clean and sort the rest, placing them on pallets and getting them under cover before our winter rain begins. So far, he has over a thousand bricks ready to go. Given their age and beauty, we hope to sell them in the coming months.

Over the weekend, he was constantly amused at interruptions. For the past four years, he has been reunited with old friends, girlfriends from his youth and dozens of other reminders of his life in the Perth Hills. Sunday was no exception.

A couple arrived in the Gallery for a return visit. I spent an amiable half an hour chatting with the lady, plying her with Beverley propaganda whilst she explored the current state of the Gallery. Michael wandered up from the back and began chatting with the fellow outside on the footpath.

Slowly, they realised their connection. Back in the early 1980s, Michael was in steel fabrication, with his friend Bevan Kipps. K&S Fabrications gained quite a following over six years. However, their different interests eventually led to the sale of their business. Michael wanted to follow artistic metal work - gates and fences and other creative ventures - whilst Bevan was more interested in larger industrial contracts. Greg, who was talking with Michael outside the East End Gallery in Beverley, had bought K&S Fabrications.

His wife and I dissolved into giggles. They had so many similarities. Both Virgos, the boys were perfectionists, collected found metal objects and both had worked extensively in the mining industry. In fact, Greg was still employed in this profession, being somewhat younger than Michael. Serendipity had struck again.

Another lady and friend also came into the Gallery. Kerrie Di Cataldo had left some of her photographs in the Gallery whilst we were absent. I had never met her nor could I find a photograph of her online. She revealed her Secret Identity and I immediately took her photo to add to her biography.

Yesterday, we set off for a short trip to the tip. Enroute home, we stopped to see our previous neighbours, Shane and Marci, at their home, Mount Beverley on Brooking Street. Over tea and biscuits, we caught up on all their news. Plus we picked up some of their hobby ceramics for the Gallery. Shane and Marci have been missing as artists in the Gallery, whilst they pursued markets on weekends. Now that Marci cares for three grandchildren during the week, they were happy to entrust us with their pieces again. We also caught up with mother and son Jack Russells Spooky and Tramp, who had been bitten by a dugite late in 2018. Tramp had nearly died and was still recovering from his ordeal. Three hours later, we finally returned to Station House.

Tomorrow, we are travelling to the Big Smoke. I spent most of today in bed, not feeling particularly well. I slept for a couple of hours and eventually tottered out at three o'clock this afternoon, much improved. Eventually, I caught up on the housework and sorted out dinner for us.

Our bed is beckoning. We are off to Stretch with Janet in the morning and then down the hill. Time for my beauty sleep.