An Englishman abroad

We recently were visited by our lovely 'Englishman abroad' - Rupert Chetwynd. I managed to entice him up to our corner of the world just before he departed for India where his wife Luciana was working on a film with Roland Joffe. 

Arriving in typical style with akubra, riding boots and a small backpack, Rupert delighted us with his wonderful stories, experiences and views on all things.  I managed to harness his extraordinary mind and organise afternoon-tea with some of the Cooktown ladies so he could impart his thoughts on the local museum, ideas for the Re-enactment Association and other tourism ideas for the area.

 Other than that he delighted in walking the town and we showed him as much as we could even when the weather was less than desirable.  He was there when we first saw the birdwing butterfly in the garden of our new house and then again at Finch Bay and again and again. Whenever I see a birdwing now I always think of Rupert.


After a trip to Trevethan Falls we spied some boxing wallabies which was so funny to watch.  We also managed to find a glorious day north of Cooktown and Elim Beach, Cape Bedford and shared a picnic lunch on the beach, a scavenge for drift wood, shells and other detritus to be found on our wild beaches.

Rupert is married to my mother's cousin but I have spent many a dinner round his table over the last 30 years, either in London, Suffolk, Italy or Malaysia. It was lovely to show him our new corner of the world and introduce him to our kids and cook a couple of meals for him. 

A new view on Life

 

They say a change is as good as a holiday and I feel like I can vouch for that.  We recently moved house after 21 mths in our tiny rather old tree house to a much larger house with the most amazing view over Cooktown.  I reckoned for the same price in rent, that to have 4 bedrooms and a large living area was better than the two tiny rooms we had been living in with no flat space for the kids to run around in.
Mind you this is no salubrious pad - rather what I have referred to as a blank canvas - a standard rectangular house but with room to move. And we managed to furnish it with help from our friends here her lent us beds, sofa, someone donated a dining room table, various eclectic chairs and some plastic chairs for the outdoors. 

Birdwing Butterfly

The amusing thing is that for the first time in their lives Toby and Phoebe have their own rooms and space and are now in full swing of the no-girls/no-boys allowed in each but I guess that's a novelty for them having shared the smallest space for the last 6 years.

We had a our first BBQ here with about 12 people for dinner on Sat night which was lovely - room to move and when it rained we just moved under the carport for the rest of the evening. Lovely.

Our garden here is also filled with lovely birds and butterflies including the amazing Birdwing butterfly that only appears at this time of year. There are also limes and soursop, custard apples and frangipani's dotted around - the previous owner was an avid gardener. Just no mango's to drop on my head........