Ok – so we go to Black River Beach – full of amazing shells and driftwood and check out my souvenir!!
Seriously?? Do you know how useful this size polypipe is and how expensive?? It was mostly buried in the sand, so I rescued it! (Not to mention saved the ocean from more human rubbish!!)
Jeff had only a small amount of that long-suffering husband look on his face and only expressed a few (justifiable) doubts about fitting it into the car (Love my husband)
Totally taking that home!
The look on the rest of the families faces was quite entertaining as I dragged it up to the picnic area that we had set up.
Mother: “Whats that?”
Me: “Mine!!”
Dad on one end encouraging the sand filled pipe to bendHusband feeding it around on the other side
Luckily Mum and Dad had brought along their car, so we kicked out Rosemary and Emma of our car and into theirs for the drive home!
Its going to be really useful in the garden – stay tuned! 🙂
On a MUCH sadder and less weird note… I lost all my photos of Black River Beach today that I had planned to post here. I was mucking about trying to remember the buttons for the self timer to get a whole family photo and cleverly reformatted the memory card!!!!  I am totally miffed at myself, and went through some agony trying to download a card recovery program or two that were not playing the game. So before a full-blown tanty ensued, I have given up, told you about my polypipe (Thank-you to Rosemary for those photos) and tried to move on. 🙂
Anyway – the important thing was I didn’t kill the family photos so here we all are on the beach together having a simply splendid day!
After spending the morning at the Penguin Markets (Undercover when it poured rain quite hard) we went down to our rock beach of choice just outside the town.
Happily all my family are just as excited about collecting rocks and sea glass as we are and a number of excellent hours were spent – with only a brief period huddled under some sheltering trees while it rained.
We brought along a picnic, so we could wander about with a sandwich in hand and check out the beach treasures
Georgia – any chance for a paddle!Dad and Georgia making their collections
The rock walls in the water were fish traps made by the local Aboriginal people long before Europeans got to Tasmania
Sea glass is plentiful here!
Even some good sized rare blue pieces!
Another day out and about – everyone in bed before 10pm – lol – except for me!
Wow  – dead on my feet and its not even 10.30pm!!
All have gone to bed – cat asleep up under my windcheater and I am speed blogging before falling into bed myself!
Today’s weather was insanely gorgeous considering yesterdays misery!!
So before heading to the hall for the party, we took an opportunity to get down to Sisters Beach
Of course – Sisters on Sisters Beach – its necessary!!
Shoes off and paddle even!
The kids had a great time in the sunshine and running about like mad things!
Riley and Georgia in the waves!Finding treasuresMichelle and Tony enjoying long awaited holidays!The mad teenager taking a dip!!! (Georgia’s comment to her older cousin “You’ll go numb!!” lol )
We had a fabulous afternoon at Ruby’s party (more on that another day) and we even squeezed in doing a second beach before the sun went down!!
Hanging out with my sisters! (Michelle on left and Rosemary on right)
Pip has been pretty much hiding under the doona in our bed all day, clearly not as thrilled as I am with ALL my family here together for the first time.
And oh what a feral day weather wise!! haha – typical!!
Michelle and her family drove off the ferry this morning early, and Mum and Dad went to pick up Rosemary and Emma off the plane at Devonport.
Just so fabulous to have them all here! The kids are excited (They have collected the eggs already) and are keen to go everywhere and collect rocks (sensible kids!)
Dodgy photo – I just stuck my camera in the air and hoped!! (Left from Michelle in red, clockwise, her husband Tony, Jeff, Mum, Georgia, Riley, Dad, Emma and Rosemary.)
Big bacon & egg brunch with fresh baked bread and home made sauces!!
We ducked down to the beach despite the weather just to get a bit of a taste as all my family come from landlocked areas. They need as much beach time as possible before leaving!
Then it was on to Ruby’s for a quick hello – she was home alone “Minding her own business” as everyone else was down setting up the hall.
Naturally the smartest thing to do is to drag her out in the rain to give her a birthday present.
Unconventional presents!
Rosemary & Emma didn’t have time to hand-make anything but I suggested we pick up a trailer-load of super dooper compost – a mix of a special one and mushroom and she could give her that… we even put a ribbon on the trailer!!
Ruby was pretty thrilled and Rosemary took glee in telling Ruby it would now be up to me to dig it all into her garden!! 🙂
Inspecting her present!Spots on the lens… rain won’t let up!
Michelle & family have made an amazing guest book for people to sign at the party tomorrow. I will get some photos soon!
And Ruby loved her shawl!! She wasn’t fazed at all by the flowers and presents coming in (haha – after all that fuss)
All the wrapping paper i had was newspaper or Disney Princesses
People have made a truck-load of food that she now can have on hand for the constant stream of people dropping in!
Beautiful biscuits & savories
The new extra fridge stocked up as well!
A whole fridge has been loaned by some of my wonderful cousins who own a second hand shop – Ruby was going to buy a small fridge for the extra food she needed – but they have delivered it and will pick it up when she is done with it!! So sweet!Ruby’s home is looking like a florist at the moment!
The nurses having a confab
Ruby directing Jeff who was putting up a whole new line to hang cards on, while more people turn up out the front!
Anyway – The big party day tomorrow! I best be off to bed! Crazy busy over here, but its totally fabulous!
Thank-you for all the lovely messages you have sent to Ruby. I will look forward to a quiet afternoon with her to read out every single one!
I told her there was a bunch of messages coming from all over, and mentioned a few of you and how we were going to sit down in a week or so and have fun reading them out! She chuckled a lot and is looking forward to that!
But wow – people coming and going, tea, coffee, cake & PRESENTS and she is lapping it all up like a queen!!! It was wonderful! I am still grinning!
Ruby looked so beautiful in her suit and she doesn’t seem worn out in the slightest!!
I don’t have time to do proper blogging – still got a wee bit more to attend to in the kitchen before bed and then an early morning to greet my sisters and their families!! Yay!
Just thought you would like to see the birthday photo in case you miss it on facebook!
Mum and Dad are a bit behind on their daily walk on a beach – due to sniffles and snuffles, but happy to report everyone is on the mend and so far, Nurse Jeff is the only one that avoided coming down with anything (so far – fingers crossed)
We managed to slip back down to Fossil Bluff while the sun was shining yesterday
Not a bad spring day!Being touristsOh look! More rocks! (agate)
I really love this yellow protea that is out now – I think I need some at our place. Â A lot was growing around the Fossil Bluff area!
Protea
While pretty much everyone was having a Nanna-Nap in the afternoon (cat included) I managed to squeeze in a little gardening. There is a barrel of a raised garden bed in the main vegie patch that was horribly neglected!
I had lettuce in this last season – seems like among all the weeds there were some little seedlings doing their thing!Getting thereHopefully I didn’t disturb them too much!Added some of the self seeded silverbeet in as wellIf all goes well, this fellow will be the first salad of the season!Still got acres of parsley!
The carrots have been in the ground for ever! Seems the best way to store them long term!! They are starting to throw out white whiskers and a few are being munched on by some bugs. Since I am not precious, I have no drama peeling off the white roots and cutting out the bug damage and putting them on the plate… not that I tell Jeff the details! haha  They still taste really good too!
These were on our plate tonight
An exciting moment – I have my seed potatoes! I can’t wait to get them in the ground and going… fast running out of potatoes!!
And finally… all over the place, more Daffodils are popping out and making it very cheerful around here!
Hope you have had – or going to have – a fabulous day
Fathers Day here in Australia – so despite various sniffles, we got out, and drove up to Stanley, which is about a 45 minute drive, west of home.
We enjoyed a really lovely lunch in the town, but the main idea of going out to Stanley was to take the baptism font that my parents bought from the Rocky Cape Presbyterian Church, to donate it to the property at Highfield House.
Font originally donated by my Grandfather (Pop), Barnett Bauchop in memory of his parents, Jane and John.
Someone had bought the church where the font originally was given to and converted into a home. Families who had donated items to that church, had the chance to buy them back. A lot of the church furniture was purchased by Highfield, my mother discovered later.
We believe that the first baby baptised in the Highfield House church was my Great Great Grandmother, so it seemed fitting that the font my Pop had donated all those years ago was moved to another place where we had strong family ties.
School room above the chapel. The family at Highfield had 15 children, and along with workers children – plenty of kids to fill the classroom on this estate!View of chapel from outsideView from schoolroom window
The lady, Sue, that met us at Highfield was really lovely and was really happy to receive the font. She showed us around a bit and let us go all over the house without charging us an entry fee! (yay)
Highfield was built around 1832-35 as a residence for Edward Curr, chief agent of the Van Diemen’s Land Company.
For those of you that don’t realise, Tasmania was first known as Van Dieman’s Land. The name was changed to Tasmania in 1856.
The Van Diemen’s Land Company had been formed by a group of London-based businessmen. Their proposal was to establish a successful wool growing venture on the island to supply the needs of the British textile industry.
Unfortunately the venture into growing fine merino wool in the area wasn’t a success… it was a tough and unforgiving land, and the sheep never thrived.
Dining room
The house is quite grand – although built by convicts (pretty much slave labour) much has gone into restoring and upkeep of the property and is open to the public to wander through and experience it.
The sign on the kitchen door made me chuckle tho
Please close the door (Otherwise the chooks come in)
Sue pointed out the rounded bricks by the doorway that was created simply by over a hundred years of people brushing by!
The bricks were only rounded off up to ‘people height’Kitchen ceiling!Different layers of wallpaper left showing on the walls down the stairwell
What’s a main bedroom without an ensuite??
Our kind of people – digging in the foundations and keeping all the broken crockery!
CellarsThe views outside all the windows were beautifulViews of the front garden
Scattered though out the house are remnants of times gone by and amazing furniture, maps and photos.
Sign says ‘no bottoms please’This may have been the front – I like the other side better!
Can you see tiny rainbow remains?
It was great to finally get out and do something with my parents today!
I have never tried to use Jeffs tablet before to do anything fancy like post a blog when I am not sitting at home in front of my PC. Â I tried to log on several times and it kept telling me ‘wrong password’. Then I searched more then somehow got to my admin page?? I tell you – totally clueless!!
Quirky B&B
The trip started in our usual fashion – awkwardly…
I am usually the one that does all booking & sorting of trips but because this was Jeffs conference, he organised it all. We reached fancy b&b and nobody was there. Happily we had Mums mobile and called number and dragged some lady out to let us in…. although just before she arrived I noted that we were at Highview House not Hillview House where we were meant to be!!
Not too embarrassing!! I totally blamed the Canadian. Lol.
Mind you, she probably took one look at my farm boots that I forgot to clean and thought “How the hell did they mistake my fancy B&B for the local grungy backpackers??”
We drove off as fast as dignity allowed!
Jeff is enjoying his conference- getting lots of new information in that nursing brain of his! I am enjoying some nice weather – yay – and walking a lot.
Cataract Gorge is the big tourist destination. I totally enjoyed my walk around it yesterday – for 3 hours! Even managed a few snaps on this tablet so I had something to show you!
This part of the walk was a lot less slogging uphill than the first bit I did. I am sure I lost an inch off my bottom – haha- wishful thinking!
During the recent flood – the waters reached the underside of the suspension bridge!
I found a nice place to sit and met a few friendly peacocks
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Anyway – Jeff kindly told me about the existence of a  massive Spotlight shop yarn) so I am off to check it out!
It was another quiet day – the weather wasn’t very inspiring. I did get up rather early to scrape up the last embers of the fire and get it going again so when Jeff got home and my folk got up, the place would be nice and warm. (I need to tally up my wife points I reckon)
Poor Mum managed to get the flu and is a bit miserable! And disappointed she hasn’t been able to see Ruby of course! She doesn’t want to risk passing on her bug! She was a little better today, and it was probably a good thing to sit in the warmth of the fire and relax.
It was lovely just chatting and catching up – and in a historical moment – I started teaching her how to crochet those shawls I have been making!!! (My sisters are going to die laughing when they hear about this!)(The Tree-Climbing, Horse Riding, Tomboy teaching crochet) 😀
I got out to water the seedlings and seeds – the lettuce is looking so happy, but nothing else is poking its head through the soil yet, so I am a bit disappointed!
There are a number of really healthy looking little self seeded silverbeet seedlings that have popped up in the raised garden bed (Chard)
Soon they must be transplanted to a suitable place. I want this whole raised garden bed for basil – I have plan to learn to make pesto this upcoming season!
I have started a couple of trays of wheat to grow for the chickens. I did a small amount of this before the weather turned into winter and they were thrilled with their wheat sprouts!
I guess they will be a bit slow while the weather is cold, but hoping they will be ready in about a week to feed out to the chooks!
Accacia Cognata – little fluffy blooms out!
I have several patches of iris – I have high hopes to see a lot of colour in a few weeks!
And its lovely to bring a little bit of almost-spring inside
Jeff and I are off to Launceston tomorrow – he has a conference via the hospital that he was interested in going to. We so rarely get away, I thought I would go too and spend some time wandering around! (its about 2 hours from here)
So – until Saturday I suspect you will just have to chat among yourselves as I have no idea if I am going to be able to work Jeff’s tablet to blog while we are away!
Yes – I am technologically challenged. (we don’t own a mobile (cell) phone of any sorts either) Â Generally when we go away we totally unplug. Its nice!
I am feeling a bit bad we are abandoning my parents so soon after they arrive – although my Mum insists its better we are not near her while she recovers!!
I don’t think Pip is going to be pleased. I am hoping he will try to behave himself, eat, not sulk and NOT HISS at parents! He has been pretty good so far… But it is so embarrassing when he behaves like a spoiled brat!! (Lucky we didn’t have kids huh?? haha)
Me roughing up the kitty!! Love the ‘mad cat’ look – although I am after the sweet cat look while we are away… hmmmm
And I haven’t even got a photo of my parents today to share!! They were a bit travel worn so it was a lovely lazy catching up day as we haven’t seen them for a year and a half!!
It was fun giving them the updated tour in real life of what has been happening around the place.
I am pleased to report that my Mum was very impressed with how nice the house looked!! (She failed to pass off her tidy organisational skills to me, so its nice to impress when it comes to the house!! 🙂 )
It was even superbly sunny today!! Go figure!
Early in the day
I vied for some extra ‘wife points’ by going out in the frosty morning to let the chickens out. Usually thats Jeff’s job as he comes in off night shift.
brrrr – crunchy morning!
I must admit to getting very few hours sleep last night (totally my own fault so no sympathy needed)
So – I am going to tuck Pip up into his bed (he woke me 5 times through my minimal sleep time last night – precious!!) and go hit the hay!
