Head in the Clouds – Feet in the Dirt
Traipsing through life in NW Tasmania
Hello!
The end of the week is almost on us again!
I enjoyed pulling some weeds out today (just in random places) as I went and fed some of the potted plants with my kelp juice. Also made another batch of pickled beetroot.
We ended the day with a brisk walk around Anniversary Bay – but we lingered on the beach so I could play about getting some rock & sand images. There were some cool patterns & colours out there today!
Time to put the camera away and get back on with the exercise!
Cheers!
Sadly I had to take my sister back to the airport this morning. We had such a fabulous week of catching up and doing things. And I was very proud of the Tasmanian Weather for being extremely nice to us for the whole time!
Unfortunately Rosemary’s flights got quite delayed this morning due to fog in Melbourne so she was really late home today.
I wasn’t going to do anything… but then felt guilty so I went into the hothouse and started ripping out dead stuff and weeds and trying to make it look happy again
There were dead tomato plants and mostly dead cucumber plants. (and did I mention weeds??)
It took ages to untangle things!
Mad
I left a few strands of cucumber vines that looked like they were reshooting at the end. There are flowers so we might be lucky to get a few more cucumbers off them now that they can breathe and all the dead manky stuff is gone.
I think the capsicum will be happier too as they were being smothered
The later self seeded tomatoes are starting to produce fruit so it will be interesting how long into the autumn and winter we get tomatoes this year!
Yesterday Rosemary motivated me to tie up the tomatoes that were taking over the back veranda. She was probably tired of falling over them!
Still.. they are better off tied up. It was just a ‘gunna’ job that I hadn’t gotten to yet.
Both of these self seeded plants have been steadily producing fruit
And more to come
Impressive really, considering we are over halfway through autumn!
The chooks are still being slack! Between two and four eggs a day from eleven chickens is a poor effort!! I threaten them with being involved in casseroles, but they give me that disbelieving chook-look then ignore me.
Anyway, I am going to attempt an earlier night – Jeff was asking before he went to work about which mountain we were going to climb next!!
Cheers!
It seemed a bit of a waste for Rosemary to bring her gardening clothes all the way to Tasmania and only use them once… so off to the beach with the trailer we went to collect a heap of seaweed!
Lots on the beach right now.
Beautiful day again today!
After loading up the trailer, we went down to Fossil Bluff for some beach time and a bit of a fossick of course!
First we walked up to the top of the bluff… it didn’t seem right to not walk up some sort of incline on Rosemary’s last day!
It was the perfect day to be down by the water
Checking out the 30 million year old shells…
So many rocks – so little time…
The tide was still low enough to get up to the other side of the beach – although Rosemary got a bit caught on a rock shelf and had to take off her shoes to wade back over to the beach! Oopsie
Fabulous seaweed on the cliff
Naturally we had to squeeze in an afternoon cuppa with Ruby and Margie!
It was so lovely sitting in the sunny front room catching up on news and having a bite to eat!
Its been a fabulous week with my sister… I will be very sad to put her on a plane tomorrow!!
Hope everyone’s week has started well and I will leave you with some more of those hairy seaweed photos!
Cheers
Hello!
I must say, despite our frequent hiking of late, I still had bits of me pretty sore today after yesterdays mammoth walk up that mountain.
We took things fairly easy today – Jeff napped a lot.
Rosemary and I did a couple of overdue kitchen things.
The beetroot got cooked (pickled)
And a lot of tomatoes got cooked (with some onion, capsicum etc) for the freezer for future use. At least the crazy amount of tomatoes is back under control for now!
We then spent a very pleasant afternoon in front of the fire watching movies!!
Rosemary made up a beautiful side salad for dinner – Rocket, feta and the new beetroot! It was sooooo goooood! I am an instant fan!
Anyway – nice to have a slow day!
Time for bed, Rose’s last day tomorrow 🙁
Got to squeeze in a few more activities before we have to say goodbye!
Cheers
Hello – another day, another mountain!
It was a fairly big day – a couple of hours drive to the start of our destination, then about six and a half hours hiking!
We got back in the (almost) dark so I didn’t get a photo of the amazing looming presence of Mt Roland from the bottom.
We did 17.71kms (to be precise) and an elevation of 820mt!!!
(Guess we will all sleep incredibly well tonight)
‘We’ consisted of Jeff, Rosemary, Fiona and myself.
It was a pretty walk up. (and up!)
(and up)
Ahhh – a stop for a bit of trail-mix. Good way to re-energise!
We finally came out onto open plains which was lovely. The sun even put in an appearance!
Still a little way to go to make it to the very top
A lucky find! Pepper berries! We stopped for a while and collected a whole heap! We knew we were going to run out of daylight so we couldn’t stay and pick for too long, but Rose and I got a good little stash each to now dry and use!
Not far to go now!
The final climb was a rock scramble -up some impressive boulders!
Then it was some showing-off time
The views were just so fabulous! As always – worth the effort!
Getting back down the boulder-scramble was slightly nerve-wracking at times!
Always some great little things in nature to admire on these hikes
On our way down – the afternoon light on the mountain was lovely.
We got back to the car just on dark! Lesson learned. Next time start earlier or bring a torch!!
I have a heap more photos – but these are all I managed to post process to at least write a little story before face-planting my bed!
(I tell ya – I am nearly ready for the Grand Canyon with all this walking!)
Have a lovely day!!
Cheers
There was a list of options of ‘What To Do’ for today… beautiful weather made the beach win out!
We picked up our cousin, Fiona and her dog, Alice and went down to Black River Beach, as it had been a while since we were there.
Beautiful sunshine and warm sand
So nice to squiggle your toes in it!
Despite sternly telling myself I had enough shells… I still managed to stuff both side pockets of my backpack with a ‘few’ special ones.
It was easy to just keep on walking (Not least because there were no mountains ahead or heavy packs…)
Then I had a poetic moment…
“If I had a single wish
It’d not to be a puffer fish
Washed up on the shore alone
Upside down and dry as bone”
Always such interesting things on this beach!
As usual I get a bit behind the group!
I tested the water – brrrr
I used the fisheye lens again today – just for fun and weirdness
We really enjoyed ourselves out there today!
We came back home and indulged in a platter of bits and pieces for a very late lunch!
Hope everyone’s weekend is just as beautiful!
Cheers!
Such a lovely sunny day! Perfect to get back into the garden.
Love it that my sister brought her gardening clothes in case of such emergencies! haha
So much to do everywhere!! Just tried to make a start in the old potato patch – hopefully get some winter veggies into the ground soon
Weeds making seeds everywhere
I think Rosemary did most of the work 🙂 Looks amazing now!
Time for the fun part – picking and digging stuff!
Lunch was nice – home grown tomato, beetroot and home made relish – all enjoyed in the sunshine on the back veranda
Hope your day was lovely too!
Cheers!
Another day, another day my garden has been neglected. The good news is, Rosemary brought along her gardening clothes! (evil laugh – can’t wait to put her to work!!)
However – we were totally keen to drag her on our latest favourite hike. The weather was forecast was good, and also being a smidge before the Easter madness – we decided to go today.
So… have I convinced everyone to come see us and go hiking yet?
I am so tired right now! That’s three days hiking in a row and today was about 5 hours or so. The weather was gorgeous – the clouds dramatic and it was so great to have Rosemary with us to catch up and show off the places we have found.
I love this cushion moss – it looks so spongy and soft – but its hard as a rock! It does my head in! Its hard to resist touching it just to make sure! And its so pretty.
As usual we had a lot of up and down scrambling.
Before we got to this point we caught up with a young family who were heading along this track – they had two toddlers with them! The youngest may not have been 2 years old yet. We talked to them and told them that the track was not really safe for the children and suggested they go back via Horse Track where we came up – more gradual. It would have been a real danger for them. They walked along a little further then we saw them turn back. At the least – it would have taken them until midnight to guide the kids off the mountain! Toddlers don’t hike very fast – and you wouldn’t want them to up there!
We avoided the Twisted Lakes Track that we did last time due to time constraints. We had to take the shuttle bus back to the visitors centre as the car park was too full to drive up this time. Last bus at 5pm.
This new track had a whole new level of ‘going down’
Pretty glad the family turned back – they would have had to have lowered the kids down on ropes!! This was a lot of ‘straight down’
Anyway… just a few snaps as I am about to fall off my chair!
Hope everyone who is celebrating Easter has a really nice looooong weekend!
Cheers!
So awesome to have one of my sisters back in Tasmania for a visit! I picked Rosemary up this morning and we started in style with a late cooked brekkie – with thanks to the chooks!
Totally hit the spot!
Jeff was sleeping off another night shift, so it was just the two of us for the afternoon. After a tour around the very neglected garden, we set off to do a walk. It was an overcast day, but pretty nice out there!
At some point I will have to get a greater collection of rock photos from down here… I love the colours & textures.
Back home we picked the first of the pumpkin and the last of the corn! Rosemary got the honour of eating the corn! 😀 I was glad there was one left to share!
We made a pumpkin soup and fresh salad
Pumpkin soup is best if you roast the pumpkin first!
I have probably blogged it down somewhere before, but anyway – its a really simple soup.
I frizzle up some onion and garlic, then add in a litre of chicken stock. A couple of medium sized potatoes and the baked pumpkin. Boil then simmer.
When the potatoes are cooked I blend the lot then add a can of coconut milk.
Done. Easy. Tasty!
Cheers!
Hello – slightly tardy with this post – my internet connection dropped out last night and I was too tired to sit up waiting to see when it would drop back in again!
Not that I had anything momentous to share. I did a lot of housework mostly… Then as a reward I took myself off on a hike as I hadn’t been for a number of days and was feeling a bit slack. (Jeff was sleeping off a nightshift)
It was a beautiful day – too nice to be inside all day with a vacuum cleaner!
I put the gaiters on – bit safer since I was hiking alone… emphasised by coming across another tiger snake – only a baby.
Mind you they reckon its worse to get bitten by a baby tiger snake than an adult – no venom release control
Nice looking little fellow and it did the right thing and slithered off out of my way without getting cranky at my presence
There you go – something cute and furry, not scaly and deadly. A young wallaby.
And there is a wallaby-bottom!
Anyway, got to go get dressed and toodle over to Devonport to collect my sister who is planning to arrive soon and stay with us over Easter! Yay! Can’t wait to drag her all over the mountains with us to show here in real life where we have been lately!
Cheers!
