My birthday today… spent it in style by creating a nice big fire. My little pyromaniac heart was happy!
We are in ISO so no other trips or outings Jeff has covid, so I am stuck here as well. At the moment Jeff has what amounts to a bad cold.. sore throat, congested and not much energy. No temperatures. Me? Sailing on through so far. Will do another RAT on Sunday to see if I might have it and be asymptomatic, otherwise… I think I’m all good.
Anyways, I have more photos of the yard stuff but being sooooo lazy about putting anything together tonight, so I am going to leave you with a link to a 20 minute youtube video done by a friend of ours (Brod) who just cycled his way around Tassie!! (I met Brod and Kim when we all did the Overland Track together when I went with Fiona and we had that diabolical start with the weather!!)(We all bonded haha)
Hi! How is everyone? Its been a busy week. Childhood/neighbourhood friends came over to Tassie to ride their bikes around the state… starting at our place! (L – R Roger, Lisa, Brandt and Clinton)
And yes… I did get to go for a ride… and 8 hour ride… through the wild west coast weather to Strahan and back!!
I loved it – very exciting way to travel! Disappointed for the guys not being able to see the amazing views down that way. We were sodden and fairly chilled, so we called up Jeff and left instructions to have the fire roaring for us. It was bliss walking into the house! The fire had its work cut out drying all the gear!
(Photos courtesy of the guys)
I was relieved to see sunshine the next morning!
It was just fabulous seeing them all again. I was in the same year as Clinton – mortal enemies until about year 8. His older brother Brandt I was best buds with for a number of years. Roger was part of the group of kids that we hung out with in our area (his parents owned the corner shop) They (never me) used to get into so many scrapes as kids and general mischief along with dodginess haha They all grew up to be pretty amazing humans 🙂
Happily they got some great weather for the rest of their week here.
Fishing was high on the ‘to do’ list
As well as test driving all the pubs and eating places possible
There were some exciting moments on the road of course…
(No-one hurt but because of the impeccable vehicle placing over the culvert, no one could get past for an hour or so!)
The brothers doing a fair hike up to see Wineglass Bay… in motorbike boots!! Erk!!
Brant got back to our place early so I took him on a drive along the NW Coast to see the sights… Then did the same with Clinton when he arrived back… but on the back of his bike (Roger went back a day earlier than the others)
So bright the light!! Clinton was the best windbreak to ride pillion behind! After a while of not seeing him I forget how solid he is!!!
It was so enjoyable seeing them all again and showing off our bit of Tassie (actually having visitors again!) Seems all quiet at Norwich House now!!
I know you’ve seen some pic’s of my sister Rosemary’s ceramics here and there when I’ve been lucky enough to be a recipient… but thought I’d pop up a link to an online shop she created in case anyone wanted to take a peek at the cool things she is making.
I bought a lovely big salad bowl to give to the young couple who I just did wedding photos for as their wedding present. (Something unique AND useful)
Now I have a lovely lot of bowls in various sizes which are in constant use for this and that.
Check out what Rosemary has here if you like looking at that kind of thing.
We’re quite attached to ceramics so at least one of us in the family is making them! We’d LOVE to do a trip back to Japan to collect some more… (On my future To Do list)
Hi! The butterflies and bees are going nuts over my sunflowers! I am so pleased with them – considering how late I threw the seeds into the ground!
I’ve got some friends due to arrive Monday night so have been trying to sort out rooms and clean up in among photo processing and garden stuff
I’ve done a few more photos today but now need to write a list and get off my butt.
Pip helpfully snuggled down in the guest bed while I was trying to make it
Mum got me this sign… haha. Time to let go of worrying about constant cat hair. (yes yes, we have vacuumed)
Cousin Jeff popped by the other day with a load of firewood
Idiotically I went with Jeff on one of his longer hikes (17km) yesterday THEN decided I better stack this. Jeff mowed down the back then helped me finish off here
My body hates me.
It still hates me this morning, so sitting and post processing photos was the only sensible start to the day!
Anyway – thanks to everyone that popped by the comments section and had a chat! Was lovely to hear news from around the world! Cheers
Hello hello!!! Miss me?? 🙂 I had a really lovely time away – so great to catch up with family and a few close friends! I am up to my eyeballs in photos… I’ve the last Overland ones to do, 1000 wedding shots to sort through and a bunch from my time away as well!!
I came home to beautiful ripe corn and a bazillion zucchinis!! We are fanging through the corn nightly and its SO GOOD!!
I am experimenting with dehydrating the zukes with the aim to grind into flour. Apparently its a thing! Has anyone tried it before?
Jeff has been walking around the country roads as his hiking thing lately. We’re talking 20 plus km hikes. I really want to join in but my heel says… best not. (I am booked in to see a podiatrist next month so fingers crossed) So I am sticking to the 1-2 hour modest 8km hikes. Anyways, Jeff has been grazing on blackberries and found a good spot along one of the roads so we drove over and picked 3kgs!! Gotta love free food (you know, because at this time of year I don’t have enough veggies to sort out!!) Anyway, these beauties are cooked and moolied (sieved) and I chucked them in the freezer to make jam when I’ve not got quite as much on my plate (so to speak…)
Time to dig up the remaining potatoes!! This year the harvest was distinctly underwhelming compared to other seasons! Not sure if its the seed potato, the weather or my soil.
Still plenty to keep us going for a while…
Will add some good stuff to this plot – maybe even some green manure if I get my act together, then will later top with straw to keep those pesty weeds low.
Pumpkins!! Green yellow and orange… hmmmm – and I have no idea what they are but they look fabulous!
Hey! How’s the price of fuel in your neighbourhood these days? Is it positively frightening?? Our car broke just before the wedding and in the week it was in the garage, fuel jumped about 20 cents a litre … we were sitting at about $1.92/lt before I left to the mainland. In town yesterday it was $2.13. Thats just regular unleaded petrol The premium is now at $2.28 and diesel is $2.30!!!
We’ve got some serious thinking to do re our vehicle… its old and thirsty. So either changing it totally or getting a small run about car to do shopping and for Jeff to go to work in. Ugh. Or a pony and cart. Or an electric bike. Its especially rough on people in rural areas – Tasmania sucks when it comes to public transport. A car is a must really.
I ate part of that carrot in the photo!! So yes… carrots are getting to the nice picking point. We’ve also had a lot of pears and I am looking to make a spiced pear paste (Tomorrows goal)
Colourful pickings! While we are getting tomatoes, we are getting nothing like previous seasons either! Summer arrived too late.
Got the wheelbarrow of garlic and made a good start on cleaning them all up to store. We needed the wheelbarrow back.
I had back to back markets on the weekend… Elliot – which was pretty slow going. And unfortunately due to some insurance issues, they are closing it down until further notice which is a real shame. The hall committee don’t want to put any effort into support of the market so… thats that! I also went down to Sisters Beach where they were running an excellent little market at the back of the local shop. An excellent array of stalls and lots of people coming through Great atmosphere and I sold well.
I have some friends booked to come down to Tassie on their motorbikes in about a week… so have to get everything ship shape before they arrive!! So between that, the garden, the cooking and the 7 squillion photos to post process, I am going to be kept firmly out of mischief over the coming weeks!!
I hope you are all well, despite the world still being upside down and throwing up crazy challenges, parts of Australia being washed away in floods and Russia trying for WW3. (Its heartbreaking and horrifying seeing what Ukraine is being subjected to) I guess its too much to ask for some smooth sailing for a while?
Drop by in the comments section and let me know how you are faring! Would love to hear from you Cheers and Hugs
