Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Rain in Dunsborough

Well, I'm enjoying my South West holiday, despite a few showers yesterday and rather more rain this afternoon. Yesterday (after transacting some business in town) I headed off about 10.40am, and on my way out of Perth stopped off to pay my devotions at the Schoenstatt Shrine at Armadale.

As Fr Rowe recommends, I had lunch at the Pinjarra Bakery, where a very good meat pie can be had, not to mention an apple turnover with fresh cream... At Harvey I was unable to visit the Internment Camp Memorial Shrine, but did pray there, and ditto at the local parish church of Our Lady of the Immigrants.

From before Harvey and all the way down since, it's been heartening to see the contented dairy cattle grazing in lush green pastures: I'm very fond of cattle, and Frisian cows especially: God bless black cattle, brown cattle, and particularly black-and-white cattle! I kept on repeating to myself that lovely line from the Psalms "beasts in their thousands on My hills... all that moves in the field belongs to Me" (cf. Ps 49:10, 11).

Continuing on my church-crawl, Our Lady of Lourdes at Dardanup was open, and I prayed None there, recalling Br Peter and the Carmelite Monks at the verse Propter te mortificamur tota die (Ps 43:22c), and for them prayed to St Therese (whose statue was there) and to the Virgin Mother of God. Apparently at Dardanup there is a "House of Prayer" run by some stray Benedictine, but no signage for it whatever! Talk about "shut thy door and pray to thy Father in private"!

Dunsborough (where I'm staying) was reached by late afternoon, after my very leisurely country drive; it was pleasant to walk around town and along the beach and back. The town is obviously very prosperous and growing rapidly: property prices are through the roof. Amusingly, one rather exclusive boutique was advertising a "Global Economic Collapse Sale".

I noticed that the local church is that of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, have driven there to see it, and hope to attend Mass there; the title reminds me of the devotions paid to that new image thereof at St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney, during WYD.

Last night I had a rather good Italian meal (at Assisi cafe ristorante, of course!), an antipasto platter, followed by excellent, light gnocchi with a blue cheese and walnut sauce, then dessert of rhubarb and apple crumble; but the bottle of 2003 Rosily shiraz I paired it all with proved a bit much for me: I was thoroughly sozzled, and managed only to stagger back to quarters! Today I haven't been in the best mood for wine tasting...

In any case, to-day has been pleasant: leisurely breakfast with the paper at a cafe, a drive over to the Indian Ocean's crashing waves at Yallingup, and then motoring down toward Margaret River, through vineyards and farms and forest. My unerring sense of the top end of the market drew me to Vasse Felix winery, for cellar door purchases and a very good lunch indeed at their gourmet restaurant: rabbit rilletes with crostini, gribiche and salad, and a side of kipfler potatoes roasted in duckfat with aioli. However, after last night's excess, only mineral water.

By the time I reached Margaret River in the early afternoon, the skies were dripping fine drizzle, which finally set in as heavy rain. Still, it was a nice town to mooch about in. And yes, I did pop by St Thomas More's Church, tho' some function going on there meant I didn't go in.

By late afternoon, back I am here in Dunsborough. Now, what to do tonight? An early meal, I think, perhaps tapas at the wine bar, then a quiet night catching up on my reading: I want to finish my last Lovecraft anthology, and continue dipping into Lord Norwich's history of Byzantium; also, I've bought at Margaret River an alarmist book all about what terrors climate change is bringing.

Tomorrow - to be continued...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What a lovely narrative. You should be a travel writer. I would love to read about some of the encounters you have with various characters along the way. Keep me posted!

Rob