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Our 2005 Year of fire and ice… What follows is a wrap up of the year with some of our best photos of the year. The year started hot and exciting - Susanna's first live experience of a bushfire at Mount Quarry, no danger but an impressive display of destructive power unleashed by arson. Lots of helicopters flying around and every now and then, confused firemen roared up and asked if we knew there was a fire. Well, apart from the noise, the flames and the smell, well yes we did. We were the ones that told you about it . . . Toc, Richard 'it's just a grass fire, we had them all the time in Africa' and Marianna, some of the climbing regulars.
One of the advantages of living in Palmyra is being so close to Blackwall Reach which is a 8m limestone cliff on the Swan River overlooking the deepest water in the river. There is a particular roof section which Andrew is only now getting used, and yes he has fallen in here . . .
Ben McDougal who finished working with SkyFarming in February ended up leaving Perth and is now working for the Australian Greenhouse Office in Canberra, way to go Ben! Paul's decision to run for parliament and being successful meant he had to divest his interest in SkyFarming - a difficult decision, because we miss him in our daily work, but we are also happy to have a voice speaking out as MLC for issues close to our hearts. While the Denmark Community Windfarm Project got delayed by waiting for a decision by the Planning Department, objectors and supporters voiced their anger or content - Denmark not being a community known for unanimous decisions, this was to be expected. Work for the project feasibility undertaken by SkyFarming was completed to a large part, and preliminary work started on the next project in Mt. Barker. Also, SkyFarming won the Manjimup SEDO grant tender to explore energy efficiency and renewable energy options for the Shire of Manjimup. We are nearly half way through this work, and hope to finish the second half in faster stride... For a semester Susanna was teaching "Wind Energy Engineering" at Murdoch Uni, an experience she appreciates, but does not have an immediate desire to repeat - not by fault of the students, who were attentive and well behaved, some even brilliant, but rather the fact of all too frequently being reminded of Socrates': " I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance" … For more or less the same period, Hubert, a young French national, worked with SkyFarming as an intern and helped out on the wind data processing for both the Denmark and Mt Barker projects. He was very diligent, flexible and fun to have around before disappearing into the Western Australia outback with his girlfriend and a van in search of kangaroos . . we had a phone call a month later from Brisbane saying he was sick of them . . . . Come end of semester, Susanna was off to China for a month and then flew to Austria end of July, where Andrew joined in the European summer experience (the ice !) Getting fit for the "big one" we cycled and walked and hiked in the surroundings of Salzburg,
Susanna and a rather large mushroom we picked just outside Gastein. climbed Untersberg (1853m above sea level and 1500m above Salzburg) and then finally set out for the highlight - a go at conquering the Grossvenediger, at 3674 m Austria's third highest mountain. We started out before daybreak at - 4° C, and it got colder as we made our way up. The weather was not too bad, but we had to abort due to lack of visibility and icy conditions just 200m below the summit, but then - with the peak all in clouds, we would not have seen far anyway! To be continued: we'll just have to try again some other time!
Above,
a group just behind us, this is as much as a view as we got on the way
up.
Did see Enzian and Edelweiss and a Murmeltier, too. We ended our vacation travelling to the UK to visit Andrew's sister, Beck and her family including the new born Luke, as well as Paul, an old friend of Andrew's, working in London.
That would be, from the left, Paul, Andie and Beck. A maze in maise near Market Harborough.
Closeup of Abigail, the eldest.
Andrew and Mathew, the middle one at the longboat docks near Market Harborough. After returning to Perth we started seriously looking and finally we found a place: 7 Samson Street, Fremantle 6010 WA. Note the new phone number +61 08 9430 7371 We'll move in there in the first week of January and hope to stay there for a long time! Andrew put more energy into the Climbing Association Western Australian and attended all but one committee meeting. No major trips this year except for Willabrup near Maragaret River over the ANZAC long weekend in March with Susanna.
However, we did make it to a number of local crags on Sunday afternoons. Susanna finally got her own climbing shoes - they even have seen real rock already!
Andrew leading something or rather, good shot of the kind of rock there is at Churchman Brook. Between two China trips of Susanna, she got a new road bike, complete with clipless pedals and road shoes. Initially, a toy but we are actually getting some serious mileage of it being used to go places, visiting friends, light but distant shopping etc. Just recently the State government has rubber stamped the site selected for the Denmark Community Windfarm! There are a number of planning hurdles still to be tackled but it was very encouraging. Two photos of spring in the back garden of 17B Hammad St.
Three willywag chicks grew up in the almond tree above our office, never found the nest which they have now well and truly flown.
Susanna planted some Kangaroo Paws, and they seem to have taken. Christmas will be down in Busselton and both of my sisters, their husbands and all their children will be there along with my mother and father and wife - that'll be Susanna. It will be the first time in a long while that all the Woodroffe Clan will be together . By the end of the year, SkyFarming's licence for the monitoring mast in Denmark is coming to an end and it will be dismounted in the week after Christmas - leaving us with a rich harvest of 2 and a half years wind data for Denmark and 6 months correlation with Mt. Barker, plenty of data to work with now. cheers |
