Local Beach – Page 3 – Head in the Clouds

Windy

Hello all!
Crazy windy day out there! Hasn’t let up tonight either. Thinking of Jeff out there in the wilderness!! As long as he managed to get to the hut and is snugged up warm in his sleeping bag!

I went and stocked up on seaweed and was lucky enough to find lots of kelp too!

I noticed a lot of it as we drove past the other day – I had to hunt for it today as most had been covered by the seaweed grass. Still – I got three bags full (great – now I have a nursery rhyme running about in my head)
One I gave to Ruby and the others went into a barrel of water to make kelp juice

I filled a good number of bags with the seaweed grass – a painful job today with the wind. I had planned to put it out on the area that David and Ruth weeded for me with a newspaper underlay, but with the howling gale I could only imagine that ending badly.

Since I wasn’t spreading seaweed around I thought I might prep an area for the cabbage seedlings I have that are more than ready to go out.

And no matter how many people you have digging potatoes – you never get them all!! I think I managed to stab half of these! Most annoying.

I put a generous amount of mushroom compost on top of the area and put the arches in ready for the netting to go over.

I use the fine mesh netting on brassicas while the weather is still warm to stop the cabbage moths getting to the plants.

I uncovered a lot of massive worms today! Clearly the soil is doing well

With no help from me this patch has started to produce a nice amount of tomatoes. Yay for the self seeded plants!

I picked a few cucumbers, but left some of the really big ones which I will collect some seed from

Now that I have a little time, I figured I should pick the chillies as I can probably squeeze in some chopping/deseeding time!

And a stroll throughout the whole garden got me another swag full of tomatoes. I did make the new batch of relish today but too lazy to go back and snap the final result! I am just happy I am restocked!

Midweek done!
Cheers!

Walking, Cooking and Catching Up!

Hello!

I hope everyone’s weekend has started splendidly!
We are having a lovely time catching up with friends, David and Ruth who are staying with us this week!

David was my business partner in Canberra when we had the shop and it has been great finally seeing them in Tassie, showing them around and generally catching up on stories and events.
David has been teaching me a few things in the kitchen which is awesome (now I know what to do with rhubarb!!! 😀 😀 )

The weather has been a bit off and on but mostly we have been lucky when wanting to walk or be outside.
Right now its storming away out there with bursts of extremely heavy rain.

It was a beautiful afternoon so we got to do a lap of Anniversary Bay.

I really have to get back out there into some regular hiking. Struggled a bit on the hills today!! (too many hamburgers?) I have a month before being due to start out on my Overland Trek. (Jeff is due to start Monday!!! )

That little stretch of track!! Feels like its straight up!!

Back home Ruth and David got into an area in the garden and did a sensational weeding job! Ruth stayed on out there until dusk while David came back in to make a bread and butter pudding – I did some side dishes and Jeff BBQed up the steaks on our new BBQ that we put together this morning! (Slacking on photos of all garden & BBQ stuff… maybe tomorrow?)

Time for me to toddle off to bed – everyone else is well and truly snoozing!
Have a great day!
Cheers!

Disappearing Hamburgers!

Well… it was the last day for the boys here at Norwich House. I managed to get a snap of them with our new boarder Kirrily – they have all had a lot of fun and laughs together. Its going to be a bit quiet around here for a while after tomorrow!

While I didn’t get to drag them around the complete Anniversary Bay loop today (Daisuke hurt his ankle with some enthusiastic trampolining the other day so we didn’t push it) but we went up to the Wet Cave and up to see the view over the beach

It was a really sunny warm day which was nice of Tasmania to behave for their last day!

Smack in the middle of the day is not ideal for photos… but I can never help snapping a few

I left the boys at the beach and came home to make the rissoles (hamburgers) up for dinner later.
Cousin Jeff appeared with a rather large load of firewood!

And I was like ‘Awesome – thanks so much because I had totally run out of things to do and I was getting bored’
No, wait…
I think it was more like “Don’t you think I have enough to do?” (I might have said a mild emphatic swear word in there too)
Cousin Jeff said with my bad attitude the price just went up
I love family! haha
Anyway, he figured while I had three strong lads staying I should be able to get this lot stacked in a jiffy!

And for city boys they did a pretty great job… sure the wheelbarrow might have crashed once or three times but once they sorted the balance thing out we were on our way!
Certainly a lot quicker than what I can do on my own that was for sure!

So I cooked up a stack of rissoles and we all made up our own burgers at the table – Quite something to see 18 hamburgers devoured in one sitting!
Something gratifying about seeing your home cooked meals enjoyed so much!

Well… I have to get up at 4am (which is closer to my normal going to bed time) so I need to scoot.
Not promising a story tomorrow as I reckon I will be like a zombie tomorrow evening!

Cheers!

Beaches

Hi!
Meet (left to right) Daisuke, Shonosuke & Taishin!
We had a nice relaxed start to the day – breakfast and a tour of the garden. The boys were pretty happy to pick tomatoes and eat them!

We managed to get to three different beaches today as well as a short driving tour locally so they could get a feel for our immediate area.

I have known Taishin since he was a baby! I have been good friends with his parents and grandparents for a long time. I am so glad he has been able to come and visit us now that he is a young man!

They are all pretty shy and quiet, but they make a real effort to communicate and get involved.

I forgot how cool the rocks were up the other end of Sisters Beach. Jeff keeps wanting to climb mountains and walking along beaches is a bit tame for him these days!! So its been a while!

There were so many little rock pools and interesting things to see and happily this is something that really interested the boys. They were quite happy poking about the rocks and just sitting to soak up the views. All of them live inland so not many trips to the beach!

Of course I was just as happy wandering about with my camera and enjoying not doing housework.

My vegetarian lasagne was a huge hit with everyone. Our boarder Kirrily informed me that in light of the almost daily fresh baked bread, the garlic herb bread from tonight, the lasagne and the home made ice cream… she is never leaving. Made me laugh.

Tomorrow we will be duplicating last weeks outing to Stanley, the Nut and Black River Beach… well… thats the plan anyway.

SO… since I went to bed at Oh-My-Goodness O’clock last night, I need to shuffle off this seat and get some shut eye!

Have a great day!
Cheers

Extra Photos

Hello!
Well… yesterday we were so lucky weather wise. Today was the polar opposite with heavy continual rain and dark skies. Bet the garden is loving it.
I made some laundry liquid and started some new ice cream – oh, and cleaned out the mealworm boxes and very excited to find I was mother to two bugs!! Yay!

Just going to share the rest of the photos from yesterdays jaunt

Black River Beach. I really love the wild feel of this particular place.

We paddled a lot. The water was warm and it just felt good to be splashing about

Chris and Manami seemed to enjoy the stroll through the water just as much as I did!

On the way home I did a quick detour into Rocky Cape NP to check out the coastline view up at the lighthouse

Not a bad days adventuring!

Hope your weekends go along fantastically!
Cheers!

Not Sure What I Did Today

“Alas poor Yorick, I knew him well”

Tomorrows subject in the photo challenge is ‘Bones’ Thought I would make use of this cat skull that our chickens managed to dig up a while back!!
And of course there is the star performer, Pip. Who was not at all interested in skulls until Jeff put a few bikkies up there!!

I did this and that today. Not blog-worthy.
A bit of sorting/organising (not a lot really) as in less than three weeks we have three Japanese fellows coming to stay for a few weeks.
(It’s ok… I have a list haha)

I called Fiona and we went for an afternoon hike – Beau came along too.
Boy, was it ever hot out there tackling those hills! And the flies were dead annoying.
Still… I am sure it took care of some of the excessive potatoes I have been scoffing!

The Banksia are out and look so good!

Was a bit of fun mucking about on the beach… Fiona has a new camera and is off to New Zealand in a few days so have given a few (hopefully useful) tips on using it.

Tomorrow going to have to knuckle down again and get some more things crossed off my list. (A list that sadly seems to get longer not shorter!!!??)

Cheers!

Jam & a Few Veggies

Hello!
I thought it was Tuesday. Apparently it was Wednesday. hmmm.
So I cooked plums…
Then I made some jam – a plum/raspberry combo

I just taste tested some on some fresh bread – not bad! May be a little tart for some tastes but I like it. The batch was bigger than the usual and I just guessed with the lemon juice… 😀

Meanwhile, Pip was ~~blocking~~ guarding the exits.
Helpful

I need to eat cucumbers faster or give them to someone else to help eat them!
I wish my zucchinis were a bit keener… but happy to find another one today.

Whipped up another beret… because I could 😛

I started a yellow one too, but I would love to get back to the shop and get some pretty yarn and make some colourful ones. (you know, with the graduating colours)

We made a small escape this evening down to Fossil Bluff. The weather was beautiful and it was lovely strolling about.

Of course we were keeping an eye out for agate. I was also keeping an eye out for examples of pareidolia. (Seeing patterns in random data is the explanation, but perhaps illustrated by seeing faces in rocks?)

This one has quite the defined nose!!
Why? You ask… Running another photo challenge soon and I put pareidolia in as a subject. I thought people might come up with some fun stuff.

This rock slab I found interesting with all the markings on it and the indents highlighted with water!

Bedtime for me. Tomorrow I can wake with confidence knowing I am in Thursday!

Cheers!

More Plums (Surprised??)

Hello! Lovely sunny day today – so different from the dark rainy day yesterday!
Well… we currently have 14 litres (thats 3.7 gallons to the metric-challenged people 🙂 ) of plum pulp in our freezers.
There is another large pot of cooked plums on the stovetop waiting for depipping and pulping.
So the smartest thing to do today was to go out and pick another 18kg! (40lb)
I am set for jam forever!!

Our resident babies are developing fast! Real feathers now and they are pretty squashed up in the nest too!

I did a bit of bandicooting for potatoes! Most of these were scoffed down at dinner. Oh we are loving the new potatoes!!

I spent a few minutes on the back veranda shelling my snow pea seeds. It was lovely and peaceful.

But today I really needed to get out! I feel like I have been welded to the kitchen and essential tasks… So we did a lap around Anniversary Bay

The water was such a rich colour today!

Somebody got creative!!

I love random beach art!

Anyway, it was really refreshing to get out and do some exercise and enjoy the fresh air!
Hope your weekends have started well!

Cheers

A Peaceful Day

Hello!
Is it lame blogging on Christmas Day?? Oh well. We have had a lovely quiet sort of day so thought I would swing past here for a minute or two.
Jeff has just gone off to bed, Pip is curled up and I am trying not to eat chocolates!

After a whole bunch of Christmas phone calls with various family members across the country and around the world, we buzzed on down to join Ruby and Margie for Christmas Lunch.

Ruby cooked an amazing turkey!

Margie did the beautiful vegetables (including new potatoes & the peas from the garden)

And Macca kept his ears open for scraps!!

We took a little break between mains and dessert, swapped presents & I made up some fresh custard.
Then there was the turning out of the pudding… would it work?

Absolute perfection!

After the dishes were done everyone seemed ready for Nanna-Naps so we went home to relax for the afternoon. Jeff napped, so did Pip.
I don’t nap. I hate waking up in the morning so I am not keen to have to wake up for a second time in one day!
Jeff and I did go for an excellent walk this evening to walk off some of those desserts! The weather was just perfect and rounded off a pretty lovely day!

Cheers!

Plant Progress

Its nice to do a round of the garden and see some food progress.
We had a great meal tonight… I fished out the last steaks that were lurking in the freezer, Jeff bbq-ed them and I steamed some new potatoes and made a fresh salad – including a couple of fresh laid boiled eggs just because I could.
Topped off with some home made strawberry ice cream I made today.
Nice and full and happy 🙂

Anyway, plants…

Some more garlic

The basil is looking amazing – it might be time to make up a batch of garlic pesto?

Definite capsicum growth this week!

Lovely tomatoes everywhere, but no hint of red yet!

My patch of watermelons really do NOT look happy. I am just hoping for the best… if they all die I’ll just have to plant something else there. Hoping they will eventually perk up and do watermelon-like things.

In better news, the passionfruit is an extremely happy plant. I would go as far as to say ‘ecstatic’

Since it was a really beautiful day, we took off late this afternoon to do a circuit around Anniversary Bay.
We saw a few wallabies on our way.

Peeking through the scrub until I got too close.

Lovely view today!

I forgot to have lunch today, so without the energy reserves I found those hills a bit tougher! Still, it took us less than two hours and it was gorgeous out there.

Hope your weekend was great too!

Cheers