On Briny Pond

"I spent uncounted hours sitting at the bow looking at the water and the sky, studying each wave, different from the last, seeing how it caught the light, the air, the wind; watching patterns, the sweep of it all, and letting it take me." 

Gary Paulsen

We spent a few hours on the sea near Port Arthur, looking at the amazing scenery and the local wildlife. Magic! Thanks Tasmania and thank you to Jackson, Mitchell and Chelsea for sponsoring the tour!

Late harvest

"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant."

Robert Louis Stevenson

With our "Indian Summer" in full swing, the garden is still throwing food at us and so we have two freezers full of produce. It was so nice arcing up the whizzing device yesterday for a berry smoothie made possible by earlier squirreling away of raspberries in anticipation of this day.

Here is a typical haul from the garden - amazing:

Bountiful

Of course you need to be aware of passengers when you harvest, this little fellow snuck in on the celery.

Objects may appear larger when trapped in the glass

We are crying foul as the fowls have gone off laying and are looking miserable in their shedding season. Whose idea was it to discard a good proportion of warming feathers coming into cold winter nights? Meanwhile, there is a very real possibility that we will have to buy eggs soon [indignant spluttering sounds].

We also caught up with Anthony's colleague "Cousin Dave" at the local pub this week. Dave (far left on the piano accordion) is a McNamara originally from Finley in NSW - what are the chances!

Happy Easter and enjoy your few days off - it's such a nice time of the year.

Winter is coming?

"I loved autumn, the one season of the year that God seemed to have put there just for the beauty of it."

Lee Maynard

Normally at this time of the year we'd be rugged up and huddled around the fire (indeed it has been ignited on one or two occasions recently), but weirdness upon weirdness the temperature has suddenly increased over the last couple of days to fire inducing levels!

The temperature is going up?

So with GOTS8 in full swing and every daggy dad out there glued to the screen, is winter really coming? We'll prepare as usual by using the Easter "holidays" to make our world famous eucalyptus and honey candles to help warm the winter months (and make the house smell nice).

Six of the best lined up and cooling

The leaves are definitely turning so despite the strange weather we will assume that we will return to cool temperatures soon and that we can leave the stinking heat of summer behind us and wrap ourselves up in the glory of a Tasmanian winter.

Leave us alone, we're changing

It has been interesting to hear people this year complain that Tassie is too warm in summer and too cold in winter. Really Goldilocks, don't you know that it is always just right!

The big G paints well

"I find it incredibly amazing how at every sunset, the sky is a different shade. No cloud is ever in the same place. Each day is a new masterpiece. A new wonder. A new memory."

Sanober Khan

Sure it's cooling at night, but the days have been magnificent, and even at 7:30am when it is 9 degrees outside the puppies are still keen for a morning dip at Franklin. Meanwhile we're quite keen on the landscape whilst they splash about, and the morning sun sets the whole scene off nicely.

Nice work big guy

When we get home to dry out, the fire might be on and the puppies might be slumbering next to it, soaking up the warmth. We like to monitor both the fire and the puppies via a web interface which has featured on the blog before.

If we pay attention to the video feed then we can anticipate Kelly coming up to the bedroom and leaping all over us. Gee we hate that.

What a ball of disgrace

When it pours we reign

"Being soaked alone is cold. Being soaked with your best friend is an adventure."

Emily Wing Smith

The rain has started again, which is great as we had received no decent rain since around November last year. The tanks have been amazing in keeping us all showered and thirst quenched over summer despite record numbers of visitors for a record amount of time. Last night we were drenched in beautiful rain - the local BOM station says 7.4 mm in the last 12 hours - which will do us just fine. We also had a nice thunderstorm around 2am which was a snuggling bonanza - but not sure that the dogs, safe as they were up in their wood lined shed, enjoyed it as much as us.

The great corn disaster of 2018 haunted us as we lovingly took care of our corn in the 2019 season. It seemed like the crop grew very well last year, but in the end it was left too long on the plant, and the chooks ended up doing very well (nothing wasted - the eggs are delicious!).

So this year we monitored and stressed and discussed and checked and finally harvested all the corn in one efficient swoop. Then, just to make us crazy, the harvested corn went mouldy in a few days underneath the house. Holy noobs, we did it again!

Meanwhile the chooks are once again quite happy to be chewing on sub-par corn, and we collect eggs and look forward to 2020 when we will definitely get it right (maybe). Note to next year's corn growers, harvest on time and then also process straight away.

Another crop we have failed to get exactly right (much to the chook's delight) has been the sunflowers. Just a couple of days ago they were safely drying on the stems, and then a couple of sulphur-crested cockatoos decided that lunch was on us - followed by a display of dancing on the balcony which we suppose was in thanks? Kelly enjoyed it, us not so much. We have grabbed the remainder of the crop and hopefully will be able to harvest and use the seeds this year.

Chewed to perfection

Hey if I dance will you bring back the sunflowers?