Of note was that February the 9th was the coldest February day on record with a max of 17.4 degrees, a beautiful respite from the heat, along with 80 odd mm in the rain gauge the following day. It was actually the coolest summer in years. Suz spent most of February in Vienna catching up with people and responsibilities in that part of the world but got back in time for a swim at the beach with Bec and Mathew who were in Perth for a short visit to celebrate Bridget's 50th and mum's 80th birthday.
A state election was held on the 13th of March and we get up at 6am to staff a tiny booth at St Michael's Church in Spearwood. A gorgeous 100 year old church with nice old trees surrounded by new treeless property development as the Italian market gardens get built over. After 8 years of Liberal government, Labour gets in on a landslide, Greens make a marginal improvement on numbers. The previous government had cleared about 25% of the land for the Roe Hwy ahead of time and it backfired spectacularly on them, there was also a lot of opposition to the selling of the electricity network provider (Labour also put out the idea that the Water Corp was next), and the Libs had done a last minute deal with One Nation.
About this time of year is the Sculpture by the Sea at Cottesloe.
The most outstanding.
Suz behind the 'surfer'.
In the last week of March, both Suz and I fly over to Melbourne and stay with Tom for the annual Wind Energy Forum there. We catch up with Andrea the Enercon representative for the Asia Pacific region and enjoy quite a bit of facetime. The highlight was the ever impressive Kate Summers (ex partner of a Greens friend of Tom's, we had dinner together a couple of years ago) whose talk on Frequency Control on the NEM smashes open the whole discussion of grid stability. We also, with Tom, dine with Chris and Margaret who had visited us the previous year in Vienna.
After failing to get positive news about solar at Mt Barker, we decide to go to Europe in August where I take the opportunity to fly over to see Bec. Further details are at the bottom.
In October, we celebrate dad's 90th birthday at a local resturant and Niki and Verena fly over. We spend the second half of November with them in Tasmania. On the last day, Suz gets an sms that her aunt has died. She flys out for a fortnight to sort things out 3 days later.
The big news of the year is that we also find out that the lumps on dad's throat and jaw have been diagnosed as non-hoghkin lymphoma. His first Chemo was mid December, and while it is early days yet, prospects are looking good.
Book of the year for me is the Bush Heritage Australia by Sarah Martin, that mum gave me for my birthday. A look back at the first 25 years of an organisation that came about from Bob Brown putting a deposit on a block of trees up for logging using prize money from an award he had received at the time. For a book about conservation it is surprisingly positive and it was fascinating to read about the evolution in thinking about the best ways of conserving ecologies. I have given copies to Niki and the Glenns.
Biking
Stefan the Italian engineer came over twice this year and put so many kilometres on the old road bike the rear tyre and chain had to be replaced. In early June, we manage one ride with him around the river, catching up near the Narrows for lunch at the Kinky Lizard. However, when he left in October (after catching up with Niki and Verina who had told him about us, now over 2 years ago) it was for the last time, next time we meet, it will be in Europe.
Stefan and the old road bike waiting for us.
Earlier in the year, I went out a few times mountain biking with Tim Rosser who has installed a couple of behind the meter windfarms using second hand Enercons. No grants but a world of pain regarding cheap but old and unsupported kit - they have acquired an impressive technical capability.
We were training for a race in Collie and so rode most of the course the weekend before. I ride well enough on the day - a 5am start the day after the state election - but the 40km course clocking 48km passing the finishing line somewhat reduced the fun factor.
I also drove down to Northcliffe with him for the Karri Cup, finishing in less than 5 and 1/2 hours (running time), the first opportunity to ride the race with the new 27.5" wheeled Scott. I had missed 2016 because of my fall on the Freeway ride and 2015 had been cancelled due to bushfires. As I did so much better than I thought I would, I am signing up again this year.
Photo by George Clifford
More recently have been a few rides with my brother in law, Graham and nephew, Isaac, now that Graham has a new mountain bike from his trip to Canada. We even manage to get Niki out on the old dualie.
Visitors
Annie from Sydney and Ian (her movie director/lawyer husband - did Rake, The Principal etc) turn up and we have a bite to eat with them at Little Creatures the day after the state election.
And the big one, Niki and Verena (friend of Suz's from Vienna) come out for 2 months in October. After a few days in Perth, they borrowed the golf to go to Shark Bay for two weeks. A few days back here to recover, then another two weeks down south before a few more days to recover here and then the big trip, this time, with both of us to Tasmania.
We also had Idako stay over a few times, once departing just before Niki and Verena turned up from down south. And again for a few days over Christmas.
The house
A year after Deidre at number 1 gets her fence replaced (we all had an aging asbestos fence), we finally get ours replaced. We make a start on new windows and lifting the roof of the mezzanine of the office after finally getting permission from Fremantle Council just before winter. This fence job and the occasional issue with the ancient sewer system mean we have seen quite a bit of our neighbours from 1 and 5, sharing meals and coffees.
Awaiting the removal of the asbestos between the rafters and the battens, 27/12/2017
SkyFarming
We took the plunge and spent money on consultants (3rd party analysis of 3rd party data - cheaper than using our own - nevertheless, it is reassuring to get the same figures within a percentage or so with our data and our calculations) for solar at Mt Barker. And on Western Power. Interestingly, Western Power appear to be more cooperative these days, though they still charge money for picking up the phone . . . but do say yes more. It is Synergy who prove to be the problem and around August we get to the point of putting the idea of solar at Mt Barker aside for a long while.
Our trips down south to Mt Barker and Denmark are fewer than ever. Western Power does a lot of work early in the year and we suffer a number of scheduled outages. Hopefully, this all results in less unscheduled outages in the future. One July day, we had a little time to kill waiting for a scheduled downtime so we drove over to the Valley of the Giants, about 50km west of Denmark to visit the Tingle Trees; Red, Yellow and Rates. After the tree walk in the Kew Gardens of London, I had always been keen to take Suz. In the drizzling rain, it was gorgeous.
Check out the trip to Europe here, ../2017Europe/
and Tasmania, here, ../Tasmania2017/
All the best for 2018
Andrew