April Randoms

Can you believe it is the end of April already? I'm not sure where it has disappeared to. In the southern hemisphere we are enjoying the cooler days of autumn, while in the north you are, I hope, reveling in the spring sunshine. I've compiled a few of my April randoms, with a few links to previous posts if you care to look over there.

April is: 

Quinces - stewing delicious quinces "which they ate with a runcible spoon". Autumn is the time when the quinces ripen and are available in our local farmer's market. Have you tasted them? You can't eat them raw, but cooked they are delicious! We have just planted a quince tree, and I am so looking forward to picking my own quinces in the future! The quince is an old orchard variety that is making a comeback. 
I've blogged about them before here - The quince, the symbol of love in ancient Greece and Rome and And slices of quince which they ate with a runcible spoon

25th April - Anzac Day - when we remember them

"At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."

These words are said every Anzac Day across Australia and New Zealand, and wherever Australians and New Zealanders gather for services on 25 April. 
(The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) )

The words come from the poem For the Fallen, written by the English poet and writer Robert Laurence Binyon in mid September 1914, a few weeks after the outbreak of the First World War. It was published in London in The Times on 21 September 1914 and a couple of months later in the "Winnowing Fan; Poems of the Great War" in 1914. 

Early morning in the wheatbelt, Western Australia

Last week I took you on a camping trip at Kwolyin to the central Western Australian wheatbelt. You can click here if you missed it - Camping in the WA wheatbelt

 The first night of our trip we parked our caravan at my nephew's farm for the night. We could see lightening in the far north east where a storm was raging. We only had a few spits of rain but the power went out on Friday about 5pm and didn't come back on till Sunday evening. 
 Here is a pic I took looking across their front paddock. I didn't have a tripod so I think I did rather well to get some shots. I used a long exposure which luckily caught sheet and fork lightening in the one frame.

Camping out in the Western Australian wheatbelt - Kwolyin free camp

The Western Australian Wheatbelt has very few opportunities for bush camping, but one I can recommend is the Kwolyin campground located on the Bruce Rock-Quairading Road, only seven kilometres west of Shackleton, and 229kms (about 3 hours) east of Perth. And the added bonus is that it is FREE to camp here!

We camped at Kwolyin over the Easter weekend with our family and thoroughly enjoyed being away from the hustle and bustle of Easter in the city.  We hadn't camped here before, but it is a favourite with our son and grandsons as it is close to the rock climbs of Kokerbin Rock.

 The Kwolyin campground was created by the Shire of Bruce Rock on the site of the old Kwolyin townsite in the last few years to replace the former Kokerbin Rock campsite, nine kilometres to the north, which, as locals put it, had been “loved to death”. Since then it has become a very popular campsite particularly on long weekends and school holidays. 

Red-tailed Black Cockatoos

I am having a little break from blogging this week as we have been away camping with family in the Western Australian wheatbelt over the four-day Easter break, and I'm still catching up. But I thought I might just share these few images of red-tailed black cockatoos on my family's farm in the wheatbelt.

I have found it is rather difficult to capture a pic showing the red tail, which you can only see when they are flying, so I was reasonably happy with these pics.