A Week in Paradise: Windy Harbour - Part 3

Windy Harbour has a range of styles of cottages these days...


Firstly I want to show you the original forestry workers cottages that date from around the 1930s...


They are all quite neat, and pretty basic.  They're usually painted in mission brown with some sort of contrasting trim.  


Mostly, they are the size of a one car garage, with a little porch added...  


Here are some that are great examples of those type of cottages - they are all still in use at Windy...

Then we have the more modern ones...


The blue one below was originally the size of a one car garage, but now is quite big.  


The original owner, Mr Carney, was an avid fisherman who woke everyday before dawn.  He revelled in talking loudly from the minute he got up.  I know this because my room was nearest to his place. 


Grrrr....


The current owners of Carney's Corner are one of the few that live in Windy... and they are tired of people driving too fast, hence the "speed camera" on the side of the road. 


I've written about this over on one of my other blogs if you are interested...

There are some very inventive and colourful cottages these days...


Firsly, my favourite cottage...  It has a very European style, and most everything around and in the cottage is yellow, blue or white...

And this one - still a sort of mission brown but with purple trims...

and it has the old 70s mustard lounges out the front....

This one is quite plain, but has a flaming red fire hutch of the rust proofing paint...

Then the creative....

which carries over to the garden...

Beautiful cool shades of green...

And then our place...

Part 4 is to follow, and in that post I want to show you all the creative things people have done to beautify and personalise their cottages and environment...

A Week in Paradise: Windy Harbour - Part 2

I wanted to show you my favourite cottage in Windy Harbour.

It is on our road, to the right....

The yellow one...

Here's another view....

And the front itself...

I love this hut.

It epitomizes everything about Windy Harbour.

It's rustic and basic.

And it makes those things as beautiful as possible, through ingenuity and an artistic eye...

Exhibit 1:  Beach glass... twisted and displayed with flair...  he colour scheme of yellow, blue and white that started with the cottage itself, continues here....

2:  Privacy glass with a difference...

3:  Painted porch "mat"...

4:  A sense of humour...

5:  Cute windows...

6:  Pots, vases and decor with "pop"...

8: And then there's the garden...  Lots of "fancies"...

What a great cottage...

At night the lady that owns it lights candles in the windows, and it looks so cosy, warm and inviting...

I hope my description and photos did it justice...

Part 3 of "The Windy Harbour Series" is to follow...

In that post I will show you some of the original Windy Harbour cottages, along with the colours and cheerfulness of some of the more modern/renovated ones...

A week in paradise - Windy Harbour- Part 1...

I wanted to show you the meeting of form and function that happens in a place like Windy Harbour...


The next few posts will explore Windy and show you my favourite places and discoveries.


Windy (as we call it) is a place in a suspended time zone- a sort of time warp... 


If you are interested in finding out a little more, I have written about it over on my Wright Family Story Blog here, here and here...


As I have mentioned, the settlement is not on any power or phone grid, and every cottage is self sufficient with water and power.


It was created at the turn of last century by local forestry workers wanting a place to holiday with their families.  The cottages have been added to or rebuilt, but the essence is largely still there.  Hence, all the cottages are timber (with a few fibro ones that have sprung up in the past decades).  


Most people used the upcycling techniques we see being used a lot these days, but then it was out of necessity rather than trend.


Larry... my boy...

and I wandered around the settlement, camera in hand, recording some of these attempts by the locals to beautify their surroundings...


With some it was the use of paint, others a bit of humour, and others used items at hand that were plentiful...


You'll get the picture...


This first instalment looks at the locals' naming conventions...

Here's a hut from the newer side of town...  titled "One Foot"...

And last but certainly not least...

There are so many huts and so many names...


These are just a few...


Part 2 of my Windy Harbour posts is to follow, and in that one I want to show you my favourite cottage...  it's sort of like a slice of Scandinavia..

Pieceworked quilt finished at long last...

My quilt has been on the go for a while, and one of the things I wanted to finish while on my week away from reality.


I decided to make it into one of those bed runners for the foot of the bed, and that way actually get it finished!


So... finish it I did, and I took the opportunity to photograph it on my holiday bed with my holiday bedspread...


It is basically an upcycled venture, constructed with various felted scarves, pullovers, hand dyed doilies and old brooches and trinkets...


It is backed with a really old blanket that has been blanket stitched onto the quilt itself.


Here 'tis!

A week in paradise...

That would be one whole week spent with myself... and my dog...


Seven whole days...


Not a soul to talk to...


Now that is my idea of heaven...


My family has a holiday cottage deep in the south west of Western Australia, surrounded by an A Class National Park.  

On the map below it is marked as Point D'Entrecasteaux, 

which is actually the cliff below...

The settlement is not on the power or the phone grid.  Because there is no phone, I am cut off from the world unless I go looking for it...  which I choose not to do...

The cottage has has a single solitary solar panel that equates to a few hours of power per night if there has been sunshine... I use it to power up my ipod so that I can sing and dance whenever and however, because there is actually no-one to watch!


Larry and I walked the tracks of the park, the beach, and lay on the front porch soaking up the sunshine. 

At night the Milky Way is luminous in its glow... something you never see in the city.  It's then that the kangaroos take over the settlement, and you can often hear the thudding and thumping of their paws as they move in between the cottages.


And in between walking, resting, singing and dancing... I created...


But that's for the next post....