Portland and Deb and Pete's

Russ and I are just back from a night in Portland with friends Deb and Pete.

We arrived there yesterday and by 3pm, we were off in the car to pick boysenberries at a secret spot they've been going to for ages. So secret is it, we had to sign saying we'd tell no one, and submit to being blindfolded as we drove there.

Pete reckoned we'd missed the best fruit by about a week, but it took us no time to pick 3kgs of the lovely juicy, sweet things. We took them home and with Deb's mum Margaret's expert advice, had them turned into jam and bottled by 6.30pm. It is seriously delicious jam!

We then had a BBQ dinner and sat relaxing until just after midnight. After a late and leisurely breakfast of hot buttered toast and homemade boysenberry jam, we took a drive out to Bridgewater Bay (stopping to check out another secret blackberry location on the way). It was a gorgeous day on the bay with no wind and crystal blue water. We counted over 20 seals out sunning themselves just behind the swimmers and surfers. It was beautiful. We had lunch at the old kiosk, then drove home round 4pm stopping down in the Portland harbour to check the catches coming in in the boats. It seemed strange to see people cleaning 28cm snapper when we can't keep anything less than a 50cm one when we fish for them in WA!

I was just joking about the blindfolds!