Snow in September....

We've just gotten home from a overnight trip to Hobart.

As you can see from the piccies below... it's been a wee chilly down here in September!!

These shots are taken north of Bothwell (home to the Australian Golf Museum!) and on the way to the Great Lakes.

I put my first foot print in snow.... I threw my first snowball (deliberately missing hubby I'll have you know!)... and saw my first snow man/penguin! Very, very groovy!

Tassie... you just keep surprising me.These shots are from the Steppes Sculptures on the same road about 90 mins from Hobart. The Steppes Sculptures are a gift to all who help protect and maintain the Forests and Ecosystems of the Midlands, from Artist Stephen Walker. You need to keep an eye out as they are only marked by simple roadside signs and you can only just see them from the road.What a wonderful way to celebrate this amazing country and remind us to care for it as we should.

Morning Tea anyone?

Just wanted to show a rather lovely little spot we have found here in Launceston called 'Tranquility Gardens'. It's a bed and breakfast as well as a tea room. Gemma (of Loz & Dinny fame) put us onto it as we would never have driven in otherwise. Five minutes outside of the city, it is a beautiful place for morning tea or lunch. It's history is as a private residence for a Japanese businessman who created his own japanese style garden. Complete with fountains, a lake and stone sculptures throughout a garden just made for wandering around in. Well worth a drop in if you're in this neck of the woods. As I am writing this, we have a lovely gentleman installing a hand made Blackwood Timber screen door on our house. Now, seeing as it was something like minus 3 degrees this morning, I can't see it getting a whole lot of use until next summer! But this was the earliest that Michael had available to make and install for us. We didn't want to go the aluminium route, and were very pleased to stumble across Michael at the Deloraine Craft Fair last year.

We are really happy with it and are hoping the cats won't use it for climbing practice or claw sharpening! Michaels details are: Michael Thomson Design & Sculptural Furniture (03) 6369 5170 if anyone would like more information.

More touring...

This is becoming a bit of a tradition with anyone coming to visit with us down here - a trip to Penguin on the north coast and a photo with the big penguin (complete with halloween pumpkin on his head!?).

Aren't my folks cute?

Today we hit the Deloraine Craft Fair - it's HUGE! A bit tricky for us to get around to everything but we managed to see maybe half of what was on offer. Looking forward to next year - may even organise a stall for red bamboo.... hmmm.

I got to chat to Maya from Hideyo and she said the four days had been very busy and successful - they sold out of their beautiful origami flowers each day and spent the night and next day making more! Wé'll see them again at Niche in November.

We also managed to stumble apon the Pearns Steam World annual 'Steam Up' weekend. A rather (surprisingly for me) interesting family business centered around the preservation and restoration of old engines and machinery.

As you can see, plenty of rides for the 'kiddies'.....

Back to work tomorrow for hubby and me, then we'll be plotting the next trip....

It's been a little while....

It's been a little while since I blogged....

The folks are here for a holiday (their first to Tassie) and so our time has been well spent playing proud tour guide.

We have managed to cover some miles since they arrived and with the beautiful weather we have been having down here, it's been nice to get to know all of these wonderful places again and see it through their fresh eyes as well.

Unfortunately my Dad cannot walk as far as he used to, but fortunately, there are plenty of great places to drive to.

One of the places we've been to is Beaconsfield. Most will know of this town because of the Anzac Day 2006 Beaconsfield Mine Disaster. We went through the Beaconsfield Mine & Heritage Centre and were really impressed with both the size of the place and the effort that has gone into it all. Worth a look if you are in the area. What the two men went through is documented really well and I definitely have more of a sense of their survival in extreme circumstances. Scary stuff...

The Centre is also on the sight of the original mine in the area and so you get to walk through ruins of the old pump house - I think it contrasts nicely with the current operating mine.

This abandoned shed lies just back from the main street in the town. Hubby and I had seen it on a previous visit and were pleased to get back again so we could photograph it.
These Californian Poppies are in the garden at a Lavender Farm in Rowella - what brilliant colour! Tassie is putting on her best face for my folks visit - I am totally grateful!
Another driving trip today through the North West of Tassie and tomorrow we are hitting the Deloraine Craft Fair - apparently the largest of its kind in the southern hemisphere! Yay!

Driveby Deloraine

Finally!.... a weekend without rain!

We took this opportunity by the horns and went for a long overdue 'Sunday Drive'. We were headed for the Honey Farm at Chudleigh, only to find that the one Sunday the place was closed was today!

Slightly ruffled but not defeated we decided to hit the road again and see where we ended up.

Deloraine sits on the Meander River and is about 50kms west of Launceston. We found a lovely spot for a quiet lunch by the river at the Deloraine Train Park. That's where we spotted this little guy - what a cutie! I'd never seen a duck this colour before (all tan body and very orange feet!) and was quite taken with him. I've called him 'Desmond'.

This appears to be perhaps an old mill - certainly the trains would have passed beside the building and it looks like some renovations are being done. So our Sunday was capped off by sitting on the banks of the Meander River, eating a very good vegie pastie, drinking ginger beer and watching the ducks (and local families) play. Not a bad life really......

Stormy weather..

Just to pop a few pictures of the recent floods at Cataract Gorge here in Lonnie. We didn't get to see it in full 'bloom' but there was still an amazing amount of water coming through. This was a week or so ago, but we have had heaps of rain since, so there may well be more shots coming soon! The suspension bridge (pictured) had 'Keep Off' signs posted as there were so many folks on it trying to get a better view!

Bay of Fires

A few weeks ago hubby and I were lucky enough to be offered a holiday cottage at the Bay of Fires (north east Tassie owned by a good friend. The contra deal was that we were checking out a local cafe that is up for sale for the same friend.
A glorious weekend, hampered only by the fact that I had a severe nerve pinch in my neck that made moving (or anything really) painful. But I persevered.... why wouldn't you when the place looked like this....?!

Holiday Snaps

These are a few shots from a friend (Hi Shan!) from her week long visit to Tas. We did a lot of driving, we ate way too much and I am happy to say that she had a very good time!

Ninth Island Winery

Joseph Chromy Winery

Annie & Shan at Joseph Chromy (we are looking awefully happy!)

Squeaking Point (we stumbled across this slice of paradise simply by falling in love with the name)

Sunday Drives in Tassie....

Thought would put a few words down to go with some photos hubby has taken on one of our Sunday Drives. We like to pick a direction and just see where we end up. Kind of hard to find an 'ugly spot' down here.

I will apologise now, as I probably won't be able to tell you where they are all from. They are just some great buildings and structures.

We are very much enjoying our time here as you can see.

The bridge here is in a lovely little town called Ross. The whole town is very quaint with the obvious tourism ramifications that go with it. An old Police colleague of hubby's dad owns the post office (below), so we took a photo to send to him - complete with crocheted lap rugs for sale out the front!

This beautiful church is on the highway between Launceston and the turn off to Ross - a very cute spot called Campbelltown. We're not sure if it is still in use, but it is such a glorious building anyway.