Albany

Will, Lily and I spent the past few days at Albany, making a Christmassy visit to all my family down there.

Sunday was hot and sunny, so we headed for Gull Rock (above). The metal hulk in the water is the remains of an old ship's boiler — if you click on it, you'll see Will and Lily.

And that's Albany you can see in the background. Beautiful. That pic is looking almost directly south — the next landfall way over that distant line of hills is Antarctica.

I stayed with Mum and Dad while the kids stayed with my brother, who now owns our parents' old house — and with it its beautiful, rambling garden that Mum created out of the sand, with years of hard work and hundreds of trailer-loads of very good soil.

There are dozens of mature rose bushes, many of them David Austins.

All of them are perfumed.

Can you smell this philadelphus (mock orange)?

There's even a pond full of frogs — Will scored this great shot.

Back in Perth now to await the arrival of Nick's parents from Seattle ... and Christmas, of course.