Purpleshade's VirtualTourist Home Page

I love to take photos of things with lots of pattern, texture and colour.
I was fascinated with these balls of sand rolled and tossed out of their tunnels by the little sand crabs.
The crabs themselves were the same colour as the sand and too small and fast for me to catch on camera.

Found some more info on these crabs.
Their full name is 'Sand Bubbler' crabs.
They live in burrows, and feed on the myo-fauna that live in the damp sand.
They don't roll the balls with their claws, but make them in their mouths while sifting the sand for food. When they've finisihed they spit out the sand in little balls.
There may be vast numbers of them and they can sift through the surface of the whole beach between each tide.

See more of my trip to Broome.
My Trip To Broome

My home is in Rockingham, on the coast 50k south of Perth. In the autumn and/or when there are cyclones in the north, there are often spectacular sunsets. I live here with my son, in the house my husband Jethro and I bought when we emigrated from Wales in 1994. Jethro passed away suddenly in June 06.

I don't actually travel much, as Jethro used to say, I'm like a fine wine and don't travel well! I get travel-sick, my ears hurt in planes, I've got a bad back and more than an hour sitting in a plane or car is really difficult for me. I'm sensitive to the heat, get upset stomach easily and am much happier in familiar surroundings.

So you might wonder what I'm doing here apart from waiting til I can afford to fly first class!
Well, I still love seeing new places and do it occasionally, (went to Broome in 05, it was wonderful even though it was so hot I had trouble eating, sleeping and moving about, and Exmouth in 07) and I have been right around the world as we emigrated from Wales UK to Australia.
I love to understand the differences between different counties and cultures and to talk to people about them (Jethro said I just love to talk....well, I did kiss the Blarney Stone in Ireland when I was 18 and haven't stoped talking yet. lol)
I'd be delighted to talk to you and discuss all sorts of stuff.
If you should happen to spot any typos, spelling errors, out of date or inaccurate information on my pages, I'd be obliged if you'd point it out to me

I like to photograph beautiful flowers, and they don't moan when you ask them to pose for ages while you take twenty shots.
WA is famous for it's (wild) spring flowers. These were growing near Lake Richmond in Rockingham.

The Perth area is lovely in the late winter/early spring.
See the album on my Perth page
What I like about Perth in Winter

Jethro and I built a beautiful garden and spent a vast amount of time in it.
There is a frog pond with a little winding path leading down to a sunken patio behind a waterfall.
See more of my frogs
My Pet Frogs
See more of our garden.
Our Garden

There is an enormous table on our back varandah, a left over from the LAN centre my son used to run. It's useful for all sorts of things.
Here's my daughter doing her fashion designer thing.
Notice my Christmas pressie on the table, a Nintendo DS. What fun thing to play with! Does anyone else play 'Animal Crossing'?

Our pool is lovely on a hot humid night, and you don't have to worry about sunburn. Here are friends visiting during the holidays. What a good use for the fit ball!
The piece of mesh by the steps is so the frogs can climb out. They jump across the pool to catch insects and then get stuck. The poor things end up going round and round in the skimmer box if there isn't a way for them to climb out.

Behind the house is 'public space" with a creek and lake that collect water run-off. The creek dries up in summer. There are lots of native trees, especially the 'Peppies" (peppermint scented eucalayptus trees) which give off a beautiful aroma after the rain.

Lanes and paths like this run all through the estate we live in. Jethro and I have walked all through them and given each section a name. We call this one 'Long Woods', it takes about 15 minutes to walk all the way along it.