What do Gerald Durrell and Nannup in Western Australia, have in common?

Do you ever have those "moments" when you have been talking or reading about or seen something or been somewhere and then something happens out of the blue that relates to it? I am not sure what you call those moments. 
Not really serendipity .... though the moment can prove truly delightful ...

I've just read that "analytical psychologist Carl Jung referred to it as "synchronicity" - the convergence of events. The universe's way of telling us that everything happens for a reason and there is self-awareness on a cosmic scale". You can read more here -   Wikipedia-Synchronicity

This "synchronicity" happened to me last week - which is why I say that Gerald Durrell and Nannup in Western Australia's beautiful south west have something in common. 

But first the back story.....


 
We visited the annual Nannup Flower and Garden Festival last Friday. It was a four day event running from Thursday to Sunday. We normally go on the weekend, but this year decided to go on Friday as we had a free day and the weather reports pointed to Saturday and Sunday being wet. Well the weather gods decided to let it rain on and off on us all day while we were at the Garden Festival. I felt so sorry for the organisers and the stall holders who I am sure were looking heavenwards and wishing the rain would go and the sun would come out. 

The theme for the festival this year was "saving the planet one bee at a time", and as we were travelling down to Nannup we heard a third general bee keeper talking about bees on the radio from the festival.

An annual feature of the Nannup Flower and Garden Festival are the beautiful tubs and beds of tulips and daffodils flowering around the town, hence the tulip photo up above here that I managed to snap between rain showers. Silly us hadn't brought an umbrella with us, but thankfully we had our raincoats. Unfortunately without adequate shelter I didn't take as many photos as I had hoped to. To escape the rain we ended up spending a pleasant hour or so sitting on the elevated sheltered verandah of the Nannup Bridge Cafe with our coffee and delicious muffins and looking out at the rain pattering on the garden and river beyond.  

When the rain eased off a little we donned our raincoats and wandered up the street, along where the stalls were setting up selling all manner of delights, and to my surprise arrived on the doorstep of Wild Eyed Press.  I already knew the work of Leanne White as I had attended her introduction to watercolour workshop at the Stirling Street Arts Centre in January this year. But for some reason I didn't realise, or had forgotten, that she was actually based in Nannup.

Anyway, I was in raptures when I entered her studio and I purchased two books. The fellow at the counter (her husband?) asked if I would like Leanne to sign them for me, and to just go through to the back where she was working. Which of course I did. Leanne signed the books, and we had a lovely conversation with Leanne about her work, she showed us some work she was currently working on, we talked about the value of books to children, and she told us some things to highlight in the books we had brought when we read them to the children we were giving them to. Leanne was so generous with her time and I really enjoyed meeting up with her again. I am hoping she will do another workshop next summer school.

I bought two books,William the Wild Goes Camping, and William the Wild Plays at the Beach.

So what has all this to do with Gerald Durrell?  Ok, I am now getting to the part where I explain what Gerald Durrell and Nannup have in common..... 

Below is one of Leanne's paintings from her book William the Wild Plays at the Beach..... "a giant rock pool with sea life galore clinging to the rocks and on the sea floor"... Aren't the paintings glorious - such a richness of colour. 

 Leanne told us when they were in Denmark, on the south coast of Western Australia, her children had gone night snorkelling with lights at Green's Pool at William Bay. Certainly one of the most beautiful places to swim at Denmark as it is protected from the open ocean by large outcrops of rock. Using lights had lit up all the amazing sea creatures on the reef that you might not ordinarily see during the day. And hence her book came to life. 
Here is a photo of Green's Pool. 

And now, finally to Gerald Durrell. Do you know "The Corfu Trilogy" - My Family and Other Animals, Birds, Beast and Relatives, and The Garden of the Gods - relating Gerald's early life with his family on Corfu? At present I am reading Birds, Beasts and Relatives.  (ps - the TV series "The Durrells" was fabulous). 

The night before we went to Nannup I read this....

"we had been returning late from town, and standing on the road by the little path that led up to the villa, we had seen a boat passing before us, being rowed very slowly, with a large carbon lamp fixed to the bows. As the fisherman maneuvered the boat slowly through the dark, shallow waters, the pool of light cast by his lamp had illuminated great patches of sea-bed with the utmost vividness, reefs smouldering citron green, pink, yellow, and brown as the boat moved slowly along." 

A short time later Gerald met the owner of the boat, Taki, a fisherman, and asked if he could go out in his boat with him one night, which he did....

"Very slowly we edged our way round the biggest of the reefs, the light illuminating the strange submarine cliffs covered with pink and purple seaweeds that looked like fluffy oak trees. Peering down in the the water, one felt as though one were a kestrel, floating smoothly on outstretched wings over a multi-coloured autumn forest....there were blood-red starfish and purple, brittle starfish, their long slender, spiky arms forever coiling and uncoiling...."

So there you have it - what Gerald Durrell and Nannup have in common - well more precisely, Leanne White and her book - William the Wild Plays at the Beach.
...... and my 'synchronicity' moment. 

Here are some pics from our visit a previous year to the Nannup Flower and Garden Festival when we had been blessed with a glorious sunny day

This year there had been so much rain that even the walk trail along the river was flooded - no walking here today - 

but there were some wildflowers to enjoy near the bridge - these are some of the pea family

And some more tulips -

 I hope you have enjoyed my 'synchronicity' moment, and my little look at the
Nannup Flower and Garden Festival and meeting Leanne White.

Have you ever had a 'synchronicity' moment? Perhaps you would like to tell us about it in your comments. 

If you would like to see more of Leanne's work and the work of other artists at Wild Eyed Press, please click here, and also to go to their online store  -  Wild Eyed Press

You might also like -
The Old Timberline Trail, Nannup 
A weekend of lunch, gardens, music and dance


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