Sunshine and Rainbows for Paper Players #684
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Packed for Perth....

Happy Wednesday and greetings from off the coast of South Africa where the winds are gale force and the seas have swells around 25 feet!  It's been a rocky night and morning, but no where near as bad as the TransAtlantic crossing in January!  After the incredibly calm and flat seas we have had, I suppose we had to have this sort of weather at some point.  As I write this I am watching the swells rising outside of my cabin and, even though it is really hard to see just how big they are, you can tell from the white tops and the movement of the ship just how strong the winds are. 

So, I promised a where have I been catchup.  I waited to do this piece on Perth as I was sure my photos were hiding somewhere.... but I have absolutely NO idea what happened to any of the photos that I took in Perth.  Poof.  Gone!  I've never had that happen before, so I am still scratching my head.

So, let's talk about Perth.  Perth is on the western side of Australia and really does feel like the end of the world!  Lou had to travel from Minnesota to Vancouver, Vancouver to Sydney and Sydney to Perth to meet up with me.  It's a heck of a journey I can tell you.  It doesn't matter which way you go - it's a long way!  Perth is important to us as it is Lou's birth town and the home to the new grand-daughter!  Oh... of course she has a Mom and Dad who live their, too:-). So, it was wonderful to catch up with Lou as we hadn't seen each other since we separated on the deck of the Queen Mary on January 3 some six weeks earlier.  It was also amazing to meet little Baby E for the first time.  Oh man, I'd forgotten how much fun babies are and she was just at that age where everything was interesting.  Mom has turned out to be an amazingly relaxed mother (not what we expected! :-)...) and consequently little Baby E is equally relaxed.  Her little smile lights up the room and we all enjoyed her antics.  Mom and Dad waited until some of the grands were together to share baby's first solid food!  Oh, man.... it was Broccoli-geddon.  I swear Baby E had broccoli in her hair, ears, up her nose and all over Mom.  BUT... she kept coming back for more.  It was tough saying goodbye to them all, I can tell you:-)

So... a little about Perth and why I named this post Packed for Perth.  Perth was founded in 1829 and is very proud of the fact that it was the first free-settler Colony established by private capital and was originally known as the Swan River Colony.   However, we should never forget that Aboriginal people have lived in the south-western part of Western Australia for at least 47,000 years. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, between 6,000 and 10,000 Noongar people were living in the area.   There is a pavement marker in Perth that shows exactly where Perth was founded:

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Another marker a little further down the street marks this occasion:

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Perth is a beautiful, modern city and it is blessed with a beautiful river and the Darling range which parallels the south west coast for around 200 miles.  The river runs through many parts of Perth and provides the perfect place for water based activities.  One afternoon Lou and I along with Mom and Baby E took a leisurely sail down the river to Freemantle and I was amazed by how much bushland had been left along the edge of the river oh, and I cannot forget some of the most amazing houses built along the river!   So sad I lost those photos!!!  So, I had to borrow some.

Here's a fabulous photo of Perth CBD with the Swan River in front:

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Before they moved into a house after having Baby E - Mom and Dad owned an apartment on the Swan River with views of both the CBD and the river.  The views were absolutely gorgeous from their apartment and I swear I would NEVER get tired of those views - here's a partial view from their balcony:

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Gorgeous, or what?  They did give up the view but got some wonderful birdlife in their garden to make up for it!  That's another great thing about Perth (well, the whole of Australia really!).... the amazing wildlife!  I put together a little montage of some of my favorite birds native to Australia and resident in this part of Australia.  Some of them are amazingly noisy - black cockatoos, galahs and kookaburra while others are quiet and rarely seen like the purple backed fairy wren!

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Seriously, the most amazing birds and we were lucky to see some of them on our trip - including listening to the black cockatoos while playing with Baby E in the garden!  So Mom and Dad might have given up the views of the Swan River, but they did get some fabulous wildlife as a replacement!

So, why is this post called Packed for Perth - other than that is what Lou did to get there?  Ah... Back in the days of apartheid in South Africa there was a progressive political party called the .... well... Progressive Federal Party.  It's rise came about through those of us who opposed the idea of an apartheid regime.  However, when things were getting really bad in the 80s, a lot of supporters got frustrated and decided to emigrate.  Australia, being so close to South Africa in weather became a hot migration country.  A lot of those went to Perth as the transition was very easy.  Those members or supporters of the Progressive Federal Party became known as PFPs... Packed for Perthers! :-). So, everytime I think of Perth I think of the PFPers :-)

I'm sorry I didn't have any other photos for you!  I'll be back on Friday with my Festive Friday card for you.  In the meantime, warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

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