Category: Local Beach

Hello!

Wow – filthy filthy weather today! Whose grand idea was it to drag 100 students to Tasmania in winter?? haha
Lucky I planned a market/shopping day! Got a puncture on the way home (thank goodness not on the highway at 110km/hr but at a spot where I could pull over and find a place to call for help!)(What a pain!!!)
So now all is quiet, the hordes are fed and some asleep!
I am enjoying the peace before heading to bed with a book!

Yesterday afternoon we headed out to Black River Beach to see something different and do a bit of a scavenger hunt.
I collected Fiona and her dog, Alice to come along for the ride. Fiona just had her carpal tunnel done so is stuck on her property for a while so thought she would enjoy a change of scenery

Um… the reaction of the girls to Alice was a bit worrying! They completely freaked out and there was a LOT of screaming from the back of the car when they saw her! (Mind you – they are IN the car and Alice is outside!)
They are not animal people although they have warmed to Pip (Peggy especially, but not sure how Pip feels about her obsession with him. So far he is tolerating it beautifully – she keeps putting her face too close to his, but he hasn’t hissed yet, which he is apt to do to over-friendly strangers because he is frightened. I will have to remind her again about Pip’s Personal Space haha)

When we got to the car park they flatly refused to get out of the car! Oh dear!
I had to be quite firm with them and finally got them to understand that Alice would go on a leash and they were certainly not sitting in the car after I had driven all the way out there! We hadn’t brought along a Velociraptor after all!!
Fiona kept Alice at a reasonable distance and as the afternoon wore on, the girls ended up quite close to her without really noticing (unless she barked, which was a pants-wetting level offence!!)

Fiona’s husbands is a teacher at one of the local schools who has some of the students, said in his agriculture class none were brave enough to pat the little woolly lambs and were totally freaking out about the chickens! (Well… fair call on the chooks – they ARE like mini Velociraptors I reckon!) Clearly pets and exposure to animals is not more the normal like it is here.

I have worked out that the girls work and interact a lot better with set directives and instructions. Ask them to ‘choose’ something and you could be there forever. (I became quite good friends with the chocolate shop lady today as I was in there for an hour while choices of what to buy were dithered about and phone calls made back home etc etc – not kidding. It was that long!!)
SO – I wrote up a list of 25 objects for them to collect while we were on the beach. Each item has a certain number of points.
It kept them amused!
We have yet to inspect their treasures, as we were home too late to do anything with them, so will save that as an after school activity when its not hurricane weather outside.
Fiona donated a cute prize for the winner so I am looking forward to wrapping that event up!

All the beaches at the moment show signs of the wild weather with so much debris washed up! Collectors delight! Fiona found a nice bit of driftwood that we brought back for her garden.

Starfish was on the list! This one was collected by Tiffany – its going to stink so bad by the time we get to looking at their stuff haha

This is the lovely little scallop shell I found before I washed it off

It really was great to get out for the afternoon. When the weather is rough most of the time, its good to catch a break!

I can’t express how much I want to take this particular bit of wood home…

Well, all good things must come to an end – at 4pm the chill is creeping in and its time to head home!
Time for me to snug Mr Pip up into his bed (I have his hot water bottle in there warming it up because he is not spoiled too badly or anything!), put another big log on the fire and go close my eyes!
This parenting gig when you suddenly have four teenagers in the house is a bit of a shock to the system! 😀

Cheers!

Just going to post some photos from our walk the other day!
See how green-grey the water is!!

Kirrily joined us for our hike which was nice. Good for our girls to have someone younger to chat to!

A little bit of ‘caving’

Was pretty amazing we avoided most of the rain that day!

I had a bit of fun with the moody sky :

Adding a bit of drama!

Of course I can never resist a few rock photos

And a feet photo…

The sand was doing its usual art thing too

Its amazing what you can do (or overdo) in digital photo processing! It might not look natural, but it can be fun!

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!
I have a few good things planned with the girls so fingers crossed all goes mostly smoothly!!
Cheers!

Hello! I have run out of time tonight to sort all the photos from today – something about having a sudden household of 6 to manage, plus facing a very early morning to take Fiona to the hospital (don’t panic, nothing major) then back to make sure lunches are made and take the girls to school.
And its pouring out there… the rain is coming in to the back door and soaking my wood too which is a pest!
We did go for our afternoon hike and the rain held off until the end which was great. Much enjoyed by everyone
Will report tomorrow after downing a bucket of coffee…
Better go put some more bread on to bake!

Cheers!

Hi There!
Well… while it wasn’t the most inspiring day weather wise, at least it wasn’t howling a gale with sideways rain. Because lets face it – its very possible at this time of year!

The girls didn’t actually wander out of bed and downstairs until about midday!! So we didn’t go to the market. I think it was good for them to sleep in and relax. Not only is it a long tiring trip, but I am sure they were feeling unsure of themselves and nervous, as most kids would at age 14 in a strange house in a strange country!

The weather was kind enough to not really rain on us so it was lovely to fossick about and enjoy ourselves. The girls really loved the area and took a real interest in all the little things on the beach

Of course there were many photos taken – lots of selfies and fun creative weird teenage stuff! Loved it!

The recent storms and wind that blew our tree down also threw up some massively high tides and also took away all the sand on this beach! We have never seen the rock shelves on this beach before!

We picked up a piece or two of agate

A lot of seaweed was also scattered all over the beach which is also very unusual for this beach!

The girls finally had a proper meal tonight.
They are hilariously slow at doing everything! Each bite was measured, the shower/hair washing/hair drying and goodness knows what took about 2 hours tonight and watching them do the dishes nearly killed me! haha
Will put a bit of a rocket behind them during the week.
We were meant to play UNO tonight but by the time they came to the living room with the cards it was after 10.30pm, so I postponed the event 🙂
They are upstairs at the moment ‘going to bed’ but by the noise I am pretty sure they are still wired and wide awake!
At least last night they were warm and cosy, something I was worried about because they are so unused to the cold.

Talking of bed and cosy… that might be my cue to go as well!
We have flexible morning plans  – waiting to see what the weather is doing, but plan to go for a short hike even if its raining. At least while we are moving we will be keeping warm.

Have a great day!
Cheers

 

 

 

 

Hello there! Steadily marching towards another weekend!
Late this afternoon Jeff and I got out for a bit of a hike. We stopped before getting to Sisters Beach where part of the ‘Postman’s Track’ goes from the road, across the hills and down to the beach. We hadn’t gotten around to checking it out before! Its a really nice walk!

It was actually a beautiful warm sunny day – just clouded over a bit in the late afternoon.

Once we got up over the hill, we started catching glimpses of the ocean through the trees

So many beautiful gnarly old Banksia trees grow along this track!

Also plenty of Xanthorrhoea

 

Eventually we got down to one of the little beach areas

As always, love the lichen

We didn’t wander down to the main stretch of beach as there was a significant amount of ‘up’ to tackle before getting back to the car. Sun is setting so much earlier now, best not to be walking in the dark!

On the road side of the hill the vegetation is quite different from the other side. More man ferns, mosses etc.

Quite pleased we have finally tried this stretch of track. Not a bad one to take visitors on – a few ups and downs, but gorgeous views and trees, so it will go on our ever expanding list!

Hope your day was great too
Cheers!

 

It was hard to resist the weather today. Pulled on the hiking boots rather than the gumboots and went for a lap around Anniversary Bay!
The Strait was pretty flat today

Was nice to see this view again… seems like its been a while!

The tide was coming in so we had to walk over the rocks in places rather than across the sand.

The beach offered up some more sand art of course.

The last stretch of beach before heading inland to walk up those mean hills.

The first (almost) straight up hill was a bit testing but overall not as bad as I expected since its been a while since we did proper regular hikes.

A fabulous way to spend Sunday afternoon!
Hope everyone else has a wonderful day too!
Cheers

Hello there!!
Wow. I think I am ready. Still can’t decide on taking the extra camera lens, but that seems to be my one remaining dilemma!

We put our friends on a plane this afternoon after a morning of kayaking and afternoon of beach walking!!

And since Moe loved the pickled beetroot so much we made some of that too (as you do)

So, we got up and braved the overcast day to get onto the water
This is me looking extremely stylish as usual 😀

It was the first time Kayaking for them both, Moe took to it well with confidence, Ryo was a lot more tentative but still did well.

Still, they both had a great time and once they got the hang of it I let them paddle off together up the river

Home for a cooked lunch/late breakfast before squeezing in a visit to Sisters Beach.

The weather was not bad – no rain or wind, just overcast and cool.

The recent winds seem to have thrown up some excellent sponges and seaweed!

Right now, the wind has kicked up out there and its raining heavily!!
I think I should have packed a snorkel!
Early start tomorrow – so I am ready to get to bed!
Will be back to annoy you with photos and stories in a week or so!
Have a great weekend and hope you remain drier than what we are going to be!!

Cheers!

Hello!! Midweek already!
We lucked out today with some beautiful sunshine! Time to hit the beaches!
First stop… Fossil Bluff to collect rocks, check out fossils and enjoy the sunshine!

The tide was low so we could check out the rock pools too.

Then it was home for lunch then back out to Boat Harbour Beach

It was even warm enough to dip our toes in!

(I’d like to point out that my feet are clean but suntanned in patches)

Then we got hugely lucky as a pod of dolphins were frollicking about right in front of us!!
(let me zoom in on my shot…)

What a treat!!
Next on the list was a walk over to Anniversary Bay Beach. The day clouded over but remained warm. Perfect for walking.

Stones kept getting in our shoes! The shoes came off once we were on sand though.

The sand art got a bit weirder and cooler today. The dark tannin that makes the cool patterns had dried out to a black tar! Felt like melted chocolate to the touch!

Was a lovely day out!
Right now the wind has picked up again and it keeps raining in fits and spurts. LOTS of rain forecast for Saturday up at Cradle.
Of course!! 😀 😀
Cheers!

Hi!
Unrelated, but I think this year is the year to treat Lisa to a new computer.
This one is so slow its almost making me cry tonight!
You know… all you want to do is write an email, respond to a couple of facebook messages, post process a few photos to blog, and 30 minutes of work (if that) takes 2 hours.
Its an old computer and its chock full of photos so its really no wonder its choking on simple tasks.
But when I am busy and trying to fit in so much its insanely frustrating just sitting here while the system thinks for five minutes about every single task you ask it to do!!
Will have to look at the budget I think.

Aaaanyway, enough whinging about my First World Problem.
Had a lovely day out with Moe and Ryo

Just a few photos I managed to post process before being in danger of throwing the hard drive into the paddock!! 😀

We visited Dip Falls and the Big Tree

We went up to Stanley and climbed The Nut
This photo will give you an idea of the wind today! haha – at least no rain!

We finished the days sightseeing down at Black River Beach… mega windy there too but really beautiful and wild looking today.
Will work on photos (you know – adding them to the insane backlog I now possess) another time.

I am giving up and heading to bed – more beach trips tomorrow!

Cheers