Denmark & WWOOFing part 1

We arrived cold and wet, and went to meet our host, curious and excited, as we have chosen to come here because Mia Mia is a community, and we're curious as to what goes on. Basil seems really nice and his partner is away, on an art residency in America at the moment. He had the wood fire going (bonus) and we met the shy house cat Chachi. Basil invited us to a community meeting, and we took up the offer, hoping to gain a better understanding on what community life is like. Was really just a general kind of meeting, but we were warmly welcomed, and we did gain a slightly better understanding. Later on at Dinner we were pleased to hear that Basil may be able to get some free tickets for the Festival of Voice, held in Denmark, over the upcoming June long weekend (30th-1st)!!

We had a lovely meal prepared by Basil,( meeting all or tricky dietary requirements), then planned out the next day (we declined the sunrise 14km rtn walk to the beach) and set 7:20 as breakfast time (??) It was lovely falling asleep to the moaning frogs that fill up the garden here.

We did plenty the next day, and it was great as we could have the dogs with us. The work involved splitting wood, pruning grapevines and mulching the chicken coop. Basil had some friends over for lunch, and the couple (Anne-marie and Tim) invited us to stay and kinda WWOOF with them when we near Perth, as they are located in the centre, so will be a convenient stop over for a few days. Bit blah but we got it done and were rewarded to find out Basil had landed us some tickets. YEAH!! Thought we should take the girlies for a big walk, so they are worn out while we are at the concert, Basil recommended the rail trail, which was a lovely walk, and we were all gone for nearly 2 hours.

We had a great night and were spoilt with the different talent that played at the opening concert, "heart and soul voice". After an amazing welcome to country, we were blown away by the talent of the Naya Chorale, particularly with the opening Gaelic song, were drawn to Kavisha by her captivating stage presence and magical song explanations, we both loved the young blues and roots local fella from Bunbury called JR Bowles (watch that name), spell-bound by the stories that the Kerrianne Cox band, wove into songs about culture, land and country, and were glued to our seats watching the young and talented Burindi Peace Band who came all the way from Tanzia. We arrived home at around 10:30 and were exhausted. Needless to say we slept well, but were quite cold, so I attached toe warmers to various places around my body, with Nicks laughter ringing in my ears, but who was warm all night??....

We were excited to WWOOF at the Greenskills wetlands the next day, and very happy to have the girlies with us, running around and enjoying the space also. The Wetlands had only recently filled up with water, and we had a stroll on the boardwalk. I went to take some pictures and then heard a little "plonk" and wondered what that was... the I heard I large "kur-plonk"  and realized that Sahara had followed Delta into the water. Delta must have thought that it was grass, as the surface was covered with duck weed. I had to laugh when I saw Delta trying to swim ( she rarely gets into the water when we are at the beach, except with Pa ) and quickly tried to get her out, then called out for Nick to help get Sahara in.

All sorts of Jobs to be done when WWOOFing. Nick was priming the pump here

This was the amazing wetlands and boardwalk, you can see the duckweed in the distance.

When taking this photo I heard the first "plonk"

This picture is after I had rescued Delta, and Nick's getting Sahara out of the water.

 

We all checked out the  bird watching platform, with duck's and cute ducklings wading around. 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent the rest of the morning pruning storm damaged trees, pulling out seedlings and some general maintenance. We both had a really good time. We then rushed back so we could take part in the Ukulele workshop.

 

Well what a laugh, we had a great time. Around 30 people came for this free workshop, held as part of the festival. After an interesting "warm up & meet and greet" we all chose groups. We went in the 2 chord or less group. Our group was to make up a song to the tune of Drunken sailor, as well as master the tune on the Ukulele for Drunken sailor. Well, for most in our group that wasn't such a challenge, but for a couple (me included) we found this hard. In the end I managed to be able to miss a beat between to change from D minor to C.

 

 

 

Our learning guide

Once we had preformed in front of the group a few times, we all got told that we would now flash mob preform at the local bakery...  well I was a little nervous, only really knowing how to play one cord properly, but down we went.
After lots of laughs from our Ukulele group and the customers at the Bakery we preformed last.  We had a blast.

Here is a group shot of all the participants