BED & BREAKFAST & BLUES

My favourite colour  – blue. The sky is blue, the bay is blue, the house is blue – well, blue and cream. And blue is the shining vivid colour of the little bird swaying on the yellow electric cord. I don’t know the name of the bird, I only know how beautiful it is when it sways in the sunlight, the white of its breast almost blinding. In my native country there are no birds like this.

This is my house and my husband’s house – our home.  And I am sitting on the balcony watching the little blue bird sway. One morning, after we had settled in our new home, my husband and I were sitting on the balcony. Birds were singing, galahs  were screaming and a lizard of about 70cm came slowly from the mangroves and climbed casually a tall gum tree looking for food.  And that’s when the idea of sharing this island experience came to us. Why not have a home which is also a B&B? And that is exactly what happened. We got the permits, the council put up the B&B signs and so it started. I confess, it is more like a hobby than a business. A hobby we enjoy. We have had some lovely guests from different countries, we have shared ideas and had interesting conversations with people of different cultures.  We are semi-retired and go away from time to time travelling around in our camper-trailer, but when we are at home on Russell we welcome guests. It is such an interesting life and you meet such interesting people.

So that is my wonderful life now: Bed & Breakfast & Blues.

I think I will never tire of watching the different birds and I am especially proud because last year a pair of Curlews decided to make their home under our veranda and we – and our guests -had a month of tiptoeing around the house to avoid one angry parent bird shooing us away from any corner we rounded to make sure we didn’t go near the parent sitting on the eggs. And when the little ones hatched the whole family seemed to prefer to stay in front of our garage doors which made life very interesting indeed. We hope they will be back this year.

That is Russell Island: many little things that you have to notice, many little things that make you happy, many people who make you feel you want to stay or at least to come again.

You wake up early – well, relatively early – go down to the shops, to the bakery and buy a cup of coffee and a tasty all Australian meat pie or a slice of naughtily sweet cake, sit down at an outside table under a big umbrella and watch the morning unfold. And If you took your bathers with you, there is nothing better than to visit the swimming pool for a cooling plunge.

And if you are interested in fishing, just throw in your line from the jetty, like many locals do, and while you are waiting for that hungry nibble, you can watch the ferries and their passengers come and go.