Hello! Here we are at the end of the week (again)! We woke up to rain. Not just normal pitter patter rain. We woke to bucketing rain. (of course)
Blah – and two teenagers in the house to amuse! haha
We managed to sloth our way through breakfast, then sorted out getting all the berries bagged up and into the freezer.
Had to put out a couple of containers and towels for the leak that reappeared upstairs before driving into Burnie for a little shopping.
Bad Aunty (that’s me) had completely neglected to sort out a Christmas present for her niece!! Not that Emma was at all devastated, but she thought one of my crocheted shawls would be cool!! (See?? In my 40’s and I do cool stuff according to a 16 year old!! I’m good with that!!) So we went to Spotlight so she could choose what wool took her fancy.
On to Ruby’s for afternoon tea, then we drove up to the nearby abandoned school to see how the blackberries were getting on this season.
Last season there were none. The total lack of rain made for very poor blackberry foraging.
But this season with all the rain?? The tangle of blackberries are incredible with lots and lots of fruit coming along.
We are hoping to keep an eye on their progress and return at the right time with buckets to help ourselves.
I am thinking blackberry jam and of course, trying out making blackberry ice cream!
The land & school are for sale – but it has been empty for years. Of course its par for the course to see smashed windows and graffiti.
Blackberries are a major pest plant and these ones will be no fun to remove. The canes are formidable!
If we see the start of a blackberry on our place, it gets pulled out straight away. They are really hard to manage.
We often thought it a shame the building has gone to waste. Would have made a fantastic indoor market. While the foreshore market is great fun, being at the mercy of the weather in Tasmania is tiresome. An indoor venue that lacks the wind and sideways rain is a most attractive proposition!
It was great to see the blackberries going so well this season… (From a purely selfish viewpoint) – with luck we will time our return correctly and get a bit of free food.
By this time it had stopped raining so we swung by Fossil Bluff to go for a walk, check out the fossils on the cliff face and look for agate.
An excellent afternoon – fingers crossed for less water from the sky tomorrow!
Cheers
What a great idea about using the un-used school for a market & probably a variety of other great community events!
Hint, hint, nudge, nudge….to any locals reading!
lol – It does seem like a waste of good space!