Oh what a storm!

What I love about Perth: the one fierce storm that usually wipes away the summer and brings in the cool. If not "the one" to usher in the cool, there was one hell of a fierce storm that rushed through suburbs of Perth yesterday - and ours was one 'burb soundly hit. Thunder. Lightning. Downpour of rain and then hail. Landslides at Kings park filled apartments at the bottom of the escarpment with mud, slush and hail.

The kids were frightened, amazed and curious.

Then Russ started the clean up.

ruddle the red wine cook

And here's what Russ is doing these days -

view his "Intro red wine" video at YouTube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPQ-FWIq7BA

but we use his guidance in moderation because if we let him cook with red wine every night it's going to cause liver failure. But he's a great cook: inventive, exploratory [is that a word?], and flexible - tastes great too. Watch out for too much soy or Worcestershire ;)

heat wave after heat wave...

The heat waves in this city are making me want a bit more of the true north strong and free more than ever in the 16 years I've been 'permanently' away. Even though it's down 10 degrees C to 30 today, it's not so refreshing ...not as much as I'd like. But, poor me, I could just jump in th pool [especially a good idea now that I've spent the morning cleaning it - looks brilliant and inviting]. Kids seem alright, albeit grumpy and tenuous in nature from lack of rest at night. Evan's in air conditioned respite comfort for the day. Russ is busy as is his usual good work ethic, "take-a-concrete-pill attitude" to the heat when something needs to be done.

Day 2

And on Day 2 of my step back into the world we live in, I woke up just after the birds and checked my messages to find reason to return a tweet to my sister.
So in touch. Yet so far away.
Living [Perth, Western Australia] so far apart from my one sister [recently moved from her 2 year stay in WA to the furthest place she could get to!...Fort Myers, Florida...but done for looooove], and away from all direct family and friends grown up with at "home" [Vancouver, Canada], as well as the "other homes" I have made along the way to here...is inspiration for this blog and to keep this up and going.
But there's no sob story here having been a traveller and seeker of my own space for a long time, while still warmly recalling the people and places I have known at "home" and on the way to where I'm at now.
I've been away from "home" now closer to two decades than one, and have a little family of my own that's very near, present and direct. And yey family! Just one bed change in the night! 1 out of 3 ain't bad when the night before was all three, one after the other for one reason or another making mid-night and morning a domestic bliss.
Which reminds me: it's school run time.

Open House for Gallant Harveys!

Had to happen sometime. When one belives to the core that they've got something to say, well, it's gotta be said. And these days there are so many mediums for me to freely scribe my thoughts for natural traffic to stop and read, or for those who get easy distracted from other activities to skim and rehash later in their day. Great progress: we can all be published.

This is a start. I've gone with free and easy for a host: Blogger. But I'll play in this site and see if it serves my needs well before setting sights on LiveJournal, WordPress, TypePad or creating an OpenID.

For today, I just wanted to post a comment on someone else's blog, so this urge finally prompted me to kick-start my ageing arse into online and out of my pen to paper world.

Come again to find out more about the Gallant Harveys as the people of The House are revealed and developed into characters you can sympathise with as plain ol' or extraordinarily human.