Saturday

We've had a lazy day. Got up late, had breakfast and then relaxed with a book and some stitching on the fairy shoes. Roused myself enough to throw some lunch together



We ate on the verandah of our cottage, it was a bit overcast but not cold.



I just sat and looked at the view and didn't do much of anything at all for hours.


We've had a walk and are cooking a vegie soup for tea as we can't be bothered going out anywhere. Off to Huonville tomorrow and then Monday back to the ferry and Melbourne on Tuesday Morning.

Hamilton - Curringa Farm Cottages

We are at Hamilton for 3 nights. Google was not our friend in our trip from Launceston to Hamilton. Google recommended we turn right just past Ross and take the Interlaken Bothwell Road. This turned out to be over 50 km's of dirt tracks that had been laid out by people chasing a goat up hill and down. But we arrived safely (there were a few close calls but oh well). Here's a photo of the outside of our Cottage overlooking Meadowlark Lake and the view from the verandah.




We went back to Russell Falls today, here we are at the Falls.


The temperate rain forest receives 3000 to 4000 mm of rain a year the swamp gums are huge and it was green and wet.



It was raining when we got there but the rain stopped and we had a lovely walk (2 hours) through the rain forest. It was much warmer than the other day. We have been to the Salmon Ponds as well and saw salmon and lots of different types of trout. Very interesting. Tomorrow we are having an easy day no driving around just relaxing.

Cradle Mountain and Launceston

We started our day at Cradle Mountain. Beautiful, we have my cousin with us so we didn't do any of the long walks. We are going to save that for another time. We went on from there to Sheffield and stopped at a little wood shop on the side of the road. Greg as you can see was like a little kid in a lolly shop I thought I was going to be sitting on wood but I reminded him we still have to go to Huonville. From Sheffield we drove to Deloraine and stopped to see the four beautiful textile murals they have there. Just incredible. Then on to Launceston. We are in Paterson St at another great apartment. There is a needlework shop just around the corner and a really nice looking jumper shop right next door with a wool shop just across the road. Tommorrow I will shop. I didn't get enough of the variegated wool and so I think I might buy some black wool felt and use that with it. Somehow, I have a plan. I just need some black wool felt or fabric and a crochet hook.
Lauren is flying home tomorrow and Greg and I are off to Curringa Farm Cottages for 3 nights then the Huon valley for one night and then back to Devonport to the ferry. We had hoped to catch up with another friend Susie but couldn't get in touch with her. Oh well next time. We are already thinking we will be back next year, November for the Deloraine Craft Fair has been discussed.

Tasmania

I really love Tasmania. Strahan is beautiful. We had a fantastic trip with World Heritage Cruises up the Gordon River. The scenery was incredible I took about 220 photos. This is my favorite. There was a line of sea mist with the mountains behind. Tonight we are at Cradle Mountain and we are on a tour tomorrow of the Park and then off to Launceston. I wouldn't be surprised if it snows it is bloody freezing we were going to take the torch and go and see if we could spot some of the wildlife but it is raining and cold.

Sunset at Strahan

We've had another great day, I can't tell you any bad holiday stories in Tasmania yet...Hopefully never.
We left our lovely apartment in Hobart and headed for Russell Falls. When we arrived it was freezing Literally. We were going to walk to the Falls and the staff at the Visitor Centre said they weren't running as they were frozen. We changed our minds.
My eyes are shut so they don't freeze.



We had to stop at Derwent Bridge and see the carved huon pine wall called "The Wall" then lunch at The Hungry Wombat Cafe then down the scariest road in Tasmania and then we saw the only ugly town in Tasmania which is not really it's fault as it is a mining town, Queenstown.

Now we are at Strahan, above is a photo of the sunset complete with clouds.

More Tasmania Stuff - Some fibre stuff at last.

Continuing with my theme of clouds. The photo above is of The Isle of the Dead at Port Arthur. There are between 1100 and 1700 bodies there. The number depends on who you talk too.
There were killer whales in the bay but we didn't see them.
Well Tasmania is great..I love it. Yesterday we went to the Salamanca Markets. Today we went to the Botanical Gardens to see Pete's Patch. The gardens are beautiful, then we went to Richmond to see the bridge and then to ZooDoo - The Zoo at Richmond to see the white lions,


they also had tigers and lots of other stuff. At Richmond I had to go into Ewenique and got this lovely Tassie wool.



We are staying at a Quest Apartment just outside the CBD here is the lounge room of the apartment.

Tasmania

We are still having fun... Very important for a holiday. I have a bit of a theme going now with photos with clouds. So here is another one. This is yesterday morning just after sunrise at Diamond Island Resort at Bicheno.

Yesterday we went on the Wineglass Bay Cruise. These are Shags on a Rock.



The most important member of the crew was Rastus the dog.



He got a bit upset when he wasn't allowed to sit on Greg's lap. So he had to settle for getting as close as he could every chance he got.



For a little while I thought we might have to bring him home with us but he was fickle and chose to stay with the boat.

Last night we went on the ghost tour at Port Arthur. The Parsonage is the second most haunted house in Australia. I believe it too. I went into the front room with everybody else but there was no way I would have gone in there alone and I wouldn't have gone into any of the other rooms. I felt like there was someone right behind me. We also went into the Separate Prison which was the solitary confinement area. That wasn't too bad until I distinctly heard a door shut and no one else heard it. We sat down in there and I kept turning around because I could feel someone looking at me and there wasn't anybody there... Yes definitely creepy and great fun.
Today we went back to Port Arthur, we went on a cruise around the harbour. Isle of the Dead and Point Puer. I took 262 photos but I shall not be showing them all to you right now.
We drove over to Hobart after Port Arthur for 3 nights. Tomorrow to the Salamanca Markets for some serious shopping. Caitlin told me that we need to buy holiday presents for everybody. Four years old and already it is all about presents that's my girl.

Grey Stuff and Green Stuff

For those in South Australia the grey stuff 'Clouds' Green Stuff "Grass. It rains here!!! The locals were really worried, it hadn't rained for a week.
We had a great trip on the ferry it was calm practically flat.
The photos were taken while we were around Stanley. We went there and had lunch... Fresh scallops and flake(Shark) it was beautiful.
Greg found a really nice piece of wood but it was attached to the wall at the Raspberry Farm.

I had raspberry and chocolate french toast and raspberry latte. Greg had pancakes.
My cousin from Sydney is with us now and we are at Bicheno, Wineglass bay tour tomorrow. The resort we are at has a fairy penguin colony and there was one just outside our cottage but I couldn't get the camera in time but I did get a photo of this one when we were at Penguin.

On the Road

We set off yesterday from Adelaide before dawn. No 1 daughter is house-sitting so we left about 5.30 am.
The sky after dawn was beautiful.


Greg drove yesterday I was cheif navigator. We did have a mystery tour of Williamstown, Newport and the back of the petrol refinery near Altona.... Sounds much nicer than 'bloody lost because the map was in the back of the car and Greg doesn't always know his right from his left'. I was pointing to the right and saying go right here and he went left...
We stayed at a really nice B&B Stephanies
Had dinner last night with Greg's niece and her family.
today Greg's niece took us for a drive around Melbourne and then we had a nice lunch and we are getting ready to go and get on the ferry tonight.
Tasmania here we come.

Dolls

I get together once a month with some friends and we do lots of talking and a bit of stitching. I am the doll maker of the group. Some of the others have made a doll in the past and after they saw my Lady Dances with Dragonflies and saw Ray Slaters book they decided they all needed the book and that they would like to make a doll. So I made some faces out of paper clay for them and we did the faces 'A La Susie McMahon' Here are the final results - Well Sandy's belly dancer is still a WIP but she will be done. I have started another doll as well that isn't finished yet. Work and Study keep getting in the way.
We are also leaving soon on the Tasmania Trip and the final plans are being finalised. Not long to go yay for holidays