Category: Uncategorized

Hello hello!!!
Miss me?? 🙂
I had a really lovely time away – so great to catch up with family and a few close friends!
I am up to my eyeballs in photos… I’ve the last Overland ones to do, 1000 wedding shots to sort through and a bunch from my time away as well!!

I came home to beautiful ripe corn and a bazillion zucchinis!!
We are fanging through the corn nightly and its SO GOOD!!

I am experimenting with dehydrating the zukes with the aim to grind into flour. Apparently its a thing! Has anyone tried it before?

Jeff has been walking around the country roads as his hiking thing lately. We’re talking 20 plus km hikes. I really want to join in but my heel says… best not. (I am booked in to see a podiatrist next month so fingers crossed) So I am sticking to the 1-2 hour modest 8km hikes.
Anyways, Jeff has been grazing on blackberries and found a good spot along one of the roads so we drove over and picked 3kgs!!
Gotta love free food (you know, because at this time of year I don’t have enough veggies to sort out!!)
Anyway, these beauties are cooked and moolied (sieved) and I chucked them in the freezer to make jam when I’ve not got quite as much on my plate (so to speak…)

Time to dig up the remaining potatoes!!
This year the harvest was distinctly underwhelming compared to other seasons!
Not sure if its the seed potato, the weather or my soil.

Still plenty to keep us going for a while…

Will add some good stuff to this plot – maybe even some green manure if I get my act together, then will later top with straw to keep those pesty weeds low.

Pumpkins!! Green yellow and orange… hmmmm – and I have no idea what they are but they look fabulous!

Hey! How’s the price of fuel in your neighbourhood these days? Is it positively frightening??
Our car broke just before the wedding and in the week it was in the garage, fuel jumped about 20 cents a litre … we were sitting at about $1.92/lt before I left to the mainland.
In town yesterday it was $2.13.
Thats just regular unleaded petrol
The premium is now at $2.28 and diesel is $2.30!!!

We’ve got some serious thinking to do re our vehicle… its old and thirsty. So either changing it totally or getting a small run about car to do shopping and for Jeff to go to work in.
Ugh.
Or a pony and cart.
Or an electric bike.
Its especially rough on people in rural areas – Tasmania sucks when it comes to public transport. A car is a must really.

I ate part of that carrot in the photo!! So yes… carrots are getting to the nice picking point.
We’ve also had a lot of pears and I am looking to make a spiced pear paste (Tomorrows goal)

Colourful pickings!
While we are getting tomatoes, we are getting nothing like previous seasons either! Summer arrived too late.

Got the wheelbarrow of garlic and made a good start on cleaning them all up to store. We needed the wheelbarrow back.

I had back to back markets on the weekend… Elliot – which was pretty slow going. And unfortunately due to some insurance issues, they are closing it down until further notice which is a real shame.
The hall committee don’t want to put any effort into support of the market so… thats that!
I also went down to Sisters Beach where they were running an excellent little market at the back of the local shop.
An excellent array of stalls and lots of people coming through
Great atmosphere and I sold well.

I have some friends booked to come down to Tassie on their motorbikes in about a week… so have to get everything ship shape before they arrive!! So between that, the garden, the cooking and the 7 squillion photos to post process, I am going to be kept firmly out of mischief over the coming weeks!!

I hope you are all well, despite the world still being upside down and throwing up crazy challenges, parts of Australia being washed away in floods and Russia trying for WW3. (Its heartbreaking and horrifying seeing what Ukraine is being subjected to)
I guess its too much to ask for some smooth sailing for a while?

Drop by in the comments section and let me know how you are faring! Would love to hear from you
Cheers and Hugs

Hello!
All things going to plan I will be away for a couple of weeks
I am booked to fly out to my home town today

My Dad turns 80 on the weekend and I want to be there to offer support and walking sticks and whatnot haha

Sadly Jeff and Pip have to stay home, but I am looking forward to catching up with the family and a few friends while I am there

Hope everyone is doing well!
Cheers xx

Hi!
Busy busy here.
Had a wedding to shoot yesterday. Was a lovely day – of course a long long one on my feet.
I officially slothed today

Above is where I left off with the chook yard.
Last week Jeff and I got to and pulled the rest down

This little shelter was never convenient. Especially if the chooks decided to lay eggs in there. No easy way to reach the back corner

And gone

The duck yard is sorely neglected. The blackberry was a pest to sort out

That stuff has grabby thorns EVERYWHERE!
Pliers and snippers helped as the thorns went straight through my gloves.

Time to bring out the parang

The structure I put up intending to grow things up on it… Sigh.
At least the blackberry got a bit of use out of it

Time for the whippersnipper

We didn’t actually set out to clear the duck yard but… with everything out of the way and cleared it will make rebuilding anything a lot less crowded and irritating

Meanwhile… Flossie found a zucchini leaf to snooze under…

Better

More manageable.

I am still keen to save the wisteria!

Oh… I found an excellent hollow log in the duck yard from one of the failed gardens and repurposed it for the new white geranium that I bought at the last market

Found a spot…

And filled with potting mix! So far its looking quite happy there!

The next Overland set of photos isn’t far away… then I have my eye on about a thousand images from yesterday to sort and post process.
That’ll keep me out of mischief!!
Cheers!

Hello!
Continuing on through the damp countryside on our way to Pelion Hut

It was the right time of year to see the Myrtle orange fungi (Or beech orange)
(Cyttaria gunnii) It grows specifically on myrtle beech trees.
Apparently its edible but I’ve not tried it.

From what I understand, the fungi emerges from the galls.

Pretty sure I’ve photographed that stick before…

Jeff would disappear every now and again

Everything looked rather spooky – so no sweeping views but also not so hot!

Still lots of interesting things to look at

Jeff gone.

Back into the forests

A steady trudge upwards – picking our way carefully over the rocky trail

Lots of moss covering everything!

And still we go up…
I think its one of our favourite stretches of track

Twisty trees

We were on the lookout for Jeff’s favourite boulder

There!

Bob the Boulder??

From big things, to the small things

Moss and lichens

Onward!

A slight stretch of downhill is nice.

And just when one has had enough of stepping over rockys and roots,

We come back out into the ‘open’

The views got a bit limited

But they had artistic scope,

back into the forests…

This river is usually rushing – that day it was a mere dribble

This part of the trek does seem to go on for a good long while

How beautiful are the tree trunk colours?

They are a bright spot in a predominately green world

Your head needs to be pointed down a lot on these tracks.

Having the camera makes me stop and look up a lot more

I think the colours are richer in the rain too

Nothing much has been done to this part of the track where it nearly washed away a couple of years back

At least with the trees blocking the way, if you lost your footing you wouldn’t go too far down

We stopped by the Forth River for a bite to eat.
I was appreciating the fresh apples!

Fresh fruit like this is heavy to carry but I think worth the effort

From this point we had a long ascent up before going down into Pelion so I put the camera away. By that point I needed to remove the weight from around my neck.

Welcome to the tracks most stinkiest dunny.

They were diabolical! Usually they aren’t the most fragrant places but this time they must have been five minutes from being due from an industrial clean out.
The aroma floated quite away from the structure too!!
We camped a fair way up and away and were grateful we had masks with us!
Ahhh… the joys!

Oh! Of course I didn’t have my camera out on the last part of my hike in when I saw a big fat Tasmanian Devil hightailing it down the path in front of me!!!
Doh!

I’ll leave you with the non-view from the hut at Pelion
Shame… one of the nicest views from the huts on the track!
Cheers!

Hi!!
Just a quick garden update while I fiddle-faddle around with the next lot of Overland photos!
I think the corn doubled in size in the week we were gone. Just noticed some fluffy tops showing and tiny cobs forming!

We are also drowning in apple cucumbers and zucchinis.
And YUM on the new potatoes.

Ahem… well, the garden and lawns were a bit feral… so we had to put some effort into bringing them back under control

Jeff on the mower and whippersnipper and me pulling out stuff left right and centre

New lettuce patch! I left one in there going to seed to collect them.

Yikes on the main garden. It didn’t get mowed last time Jeff did the yard and now we are paying for it!

I filled three or four barrow loads while Jeff went mad on the whippersnipper

Now I can see where my veggies are!

The carrots are healthy looking but again… a number are trying to race to seed before any are ready to pick!!

The back veranda garden needed an overhaul… the feverfew was a bit… tired

I pulled one up and replaced it with a young one (they self seed everywhere) but the one on the right was still quite sturdy… just needed a haircut

I also moved a couple of self seeded cape gooseberries up to the side garden that I cleared a while ago. They look SO SAD

But they’re tough and will probably bounce back

I want them to hide that corner and the unused hot water cylinder

This side was also looking a wee bit out of control. So I got brutal and sorted it out.
Now I need to throw in some more rocket seeds. I am missing the rocket already in our salads

Still not oodles of tomatoes – and there is a rat or mice in the hothouse nibbling on the ones I do have… Not pleased about that!
Have to pop some live traps in there to try to remove them!

I’ve been sharing out the zucchinis and cucumbers – just too many for two people!
I’ve been enjoying making zucchini fritters – we had some tonight! Makes a lovely side to the dinner.
I’ve also eaten through my latest batch of pickled beetroot so I am going to have to get cooking again soon! There are some big ones in the garden totally ready for action!

Hope everyone is enjoying February so far!

Cheers!

Hello!!
Hmmmm perhaps I should have tilted that photo a wee bit.
Never mind.
So… we were up before 5am last Monday to drive down to Lake St Claire to drop off our car at the finish point, then drive back up to Cradle.
One of my lovely cousins leant us her car so we could do a car shuffle (they were travelling down to Cradle later to collect it)
In itself that’s a big day as you’re looking at about 8 hours on the road driving.

This was actually the day before our official start date on the Overland.
The plan was to collect our passes then hike up to Scott-Kilvert hut for the first night, which is part way down the track, then start officially the next day.

It was HOT! We aren’t used to hot anymore.
We’d booked at this time of year to accompany friends on the journey… but they bailed out and we didn’t really think to postpone. Just stuck with the dates we took.
March/April is our preferred time.

I struggled right from the start. (Can you tell? My photos are STILL crooked haha) The heat was a killer, the early start, a nice dose of anxiety and of course with my foot – not quite as fit as I would have liked to have been.

In the end I just felt awful. I pushed on for a while (because I am stubborn) but we rounded a bend and I saw where I had to go really steeply up and my face must have etched out this picture… Jeff said he hadn’t ever seen that look before and took it upon himself to bail out and go back before heat stroke became a ‘thing’

Very luckily we found a place to stay… (I had looked but nothing was available when I was trying to book a week earlier)
So we got a better nights sleep and set off for round two the following morning – our official start.

So…off we go again. Back on the bus to Ronny’s Creek to try again.
Even though we were on the track earlier, it was still drainingly hot and hard work.
I was looking forward to getting to Crater Lake so I could jump into it.
I wasn’t full of energy, but today it was Jeff that struggled.
He is super fit and ready for this but he just couldn’t get it together mentally or physically! We think the recent booster shot had something to do with that.
We were at the Lake for probably 30 minutes in fierce debate on whether to continue or not!
The biggest problem with going back was transport. Our car was at the finish line and we don’t own phones to just call people to come on a rescue mission… apart from the VERY big ask that would be. And around here? Buses aren’t a ‘thing’
(OK yes, it also would have been a pretty solid ego blow haha)

Finally Jeff said “Lets just go”
I had actually no idea if he meant forward or back – in the end of course… it was onward and upward.

I didn’t have the camera out until we got to the top of Marions and let me tell you… that was one miserable hard slog that day! (The camera is heavy and I didn’t want to think about it dragging on my neck until I had done the worst of it)
You’ve seen the photos before… you know what that climb looks like (if you are new to this blog… link to photos of going up Marions is here )

Basically I go 10-20 steps and stop. Rinse – Repeat. Might not win any land speed records but it gets you there in bite sized pieces.

We sat for a while and had more to drink and a snack and then continued on.

It wasn’t until this point that we both felt quite a weight (metaphorically) off our shoulders and knew we could really do this!
Was amazing the difference.
Of course the camera had to come out – because if I didn’t use it I might as well have shoved a 2kg paperweight into my pack!!

Across the top towards the base of Cradle… it varies between boardwalk and rough stone ground.

Every water way is a refill in our bottles.
A lot drier up there than usual of course. (Except us… we were puddles of sweat.)

I do like trundling across this part.

(Barn Bluff in the background there… I was pretty positive that there would be no extra mountain climbing for us this trip!)

There was a bit of cloud about and it made the hiking that little bit easier when the sun dipped behind them.

I never fail to feel the awe of this mountain when I am right beside it.
It just looms and makes me feel a little bit insignificant in the grand scheme of things. (But not in a bad way)

Its odd to see this path without water! 3 out of the previous 4 times I’ve done this, its been under water and a lot of mud and rock hopping!

A quick look back

It was a pretty season for wildflowers

Starting to feel a lot more remote now as we look across the mountain ranges

No running water.

Most of the tarns up here were dry

A little bit of water in this one made for some nice reflections

I like the way the path disappears into the greenery here

We filled our bottles again here which was good as it was the last bit of running water we saw between here and the hut

We have a Sawyer Mini filtering bag and depending on the source, we will sometimes filter and sometimes not. But its a handy thing to have to make sure you are not drinking anything dodgy.
These bits of water were good for soaking our hats and heads before moving on.

Anyway, I will leave you here and hopefully work on some more photos tomorrow – you’ll get the whole trek in odd chunks this time instead of neatly packaged into days!
Hope you are all having a lovely week so far
Cheers!

Hello!
We got back home at about 9pm last night… to a VERY happy Pip
He was at the kitchen window…
“Yowl”
“Hi Pip! Miss us?”
“Yowl”
“We missed you too!”
“Yowl”
“We’ll be in in a minute”
“Yowl”
“Just getting our bags”
“Yowl”

This was funny and tragic and all very loud.
It took about an hour before he toned down the howling.
But we got lots of cuddles and purrs and he stuck to my heels like glue when not in my arms!

We did the six days (opted out of the 7th day around the lake) in five and it was the most challenging Overland we’d done for a number of reasons.
But we made it and pretty pleased with ourselves.
Jeff was a hero this morning by getting up early and opening the sealed bags of hiking clothes and putting them through the laundry!
The only thing I would have wanted to do would be to set them on fire!

We’ve had a blissfully slow relaxing day, finishing off with a lovely dinner mostly from fresh home grown veggies (so good)
I’ve made a start on sorting/post processing photos so should be able to share all the little ‘ups and downs’ (literal and figurative) with you soon!

Cheers!

Hello hello!
Already 2022 is getting away from me!

Part busy, part distracted, partly unorganised! The usual!!

We’ve got our lovely friend Rachel with us at the moment – been so long since she has been here. We’ve fully relaxed and talked our heads off for 4 days!
Sadly have to pop her back up to the airport tomorrow

Then we have a day to put our final stuff together before heading off on the Overland Monday!!

So been doing some prepping for that (for example my muesli bars)

I was unsure about being able to go as I was worried I had a stress fracture in my foot.
Happily the xray says nope. The ultra sound did say I have most def. got plantar F. in my heel.
So I am doing certain things (shoe insert, stretching exercise and magnesium spray) to help take the edge off
Jeff will be more of the packhorse with our gear (bless his cotton socks) and I will take hiking poles this time!

So… I am not quite as ready as I wanted to be – fitness and pack carrying – but we aren’t running any races and just looking forward to getting back away in that beautiful country!

So… the zukes have started

And more

Something tells me 8 plants might have been overkill
At least something is growing really well!

We are bandicooting potatoes for most of our evening meals… and the hothouse cucumbers were producing one ready every few days.
Then the apple cucumber plants outside exploded

There are so many coming along and I’ve picked well over 10 so far. They are so lovely and fresh and sweet

So happy to get enough basil to do pesto!
Bliss

And the beetroot are going so well now… finally stocked up on my beloved pickled beetroot!

The corn is growing steadily too…

Things got a bit windy the other day… so some staking was in order!

A couple of new things on the soap front…

I trialled a ‘mantra swirl’ which was rather nice.

(used the orange essential oil)

And a slab mould soap using Kakadu Plum… it got messy as the mixture thickened too quickly, but the old chopstick swirled in the right way rescued it nicely

This really makes such a pretty pattern

And the I did another loaf using the oatmeal, milk and honey fragrance… used bubble wrap to make the honeycomb effect and sprinkled on some real oats

Well, thats all from me!
Big day of driving tomorrow… and hopefully slip in a beach walk in the morning!
Hope everyone’s 2022 is starting well.
Cheers

Christmas Day 2021… and off we go. Thinking the peak at the back is where we are heading. We started out at Taylors Flats.

Everything started off nice and meandering… and flat-ish

Path ran parallel to the Leven River, so the sound was soothing

The track at the start was lovely and ferny

The weather was gorgeous… hot summers day.
We started out a bit late as we’d been on the phone doing Christmas Greetings to our Canadian Family.

Not that it mattered. Had no schedule to stick to

Got to this little stream… and there it is! The start of ‘up’

Doesn’t look too bad in the photo (From the comfort of my chair)

Merry Christmas Husband..

The track was easy to follow…

Once we moved up and away from the river, things got scrubbier and a lot hotter

Don’t forget to turn around and see how far you’ve come!!
This also shows things getting a bit steep!

Jeff is so much fitter than I am!!

Sweet summer flowers out everywhere

As we got nearer the top, there were so many more

Loved the colour of these leaves

Its like they are on fire.

That bluff still looks a long way off

Here we go… some good rugged tracks!

And looking back – these were hard on the legs and feet coming down

Still looks far far away…

Small rocky outcrops peeking through the bush

Again just turning to look back

You can see the flowers appearing more along here

Views…

Bigger views

Fluffy flowers (Sorry… sum total of my knowledge of the flora)

Red poker like flowers on spikey bush! (More fabulous clueless plant naming)

OK, yes. Its getting closer but that still looks like a lot of walking yet to go

Views are getting better and better

At this point we are keeping an eye out for a lake that is meant to be up here!

Its pretty hot and I am certain I am going to jump right on in

Heading downwards for a short stretch which was a relief to my legs

How pretty is this area?

Love the little wildflowers everywhere

And yes, I am putting in all the photos 🙂

Views AND flowers!

Where is that lake??

Seriously… has to be close now.

Lake!

Welcome to the most northern glacial lake in Australia

Actually its a glacial tarn… Anyway, see the lines on the water above?? Thats the wind ripping through the saddle and it wasn’t warm!

Beautiful though

Black Bluff looming over Paddy’s Lake

So… with the wind and temperature taking a bit of a dive and the water being… not warm, we woosed out of the swim and just paddled and wet our hair and filled the water containers

So beautifully refreshing!

Hey look! Jeff got me new hiking shoes!
They got a small workout before doing this trek but are lovely and comfy

And new socks…

OK…. What with the time in the day that we had left, we decided not to continue up to the top. We’d had a great day already so, time to head down.

A few dried strawberries to pep me up.

Easier to enjoy the views on the way back.

Burst of yellow at my feet.

Wouldn’t mind returning to get to the very top, but this wasn’t disappointing at all!

Of course… somehow I found some deep mud.

Such a great way to spend Christmas! Even if the cheese ham and relish buns were a bit downscale from a roast turkey… we were quite happy!

Cheers!

Fun with a sledge hammer

The outside run of the chicken coop is in a sorry state…

Its been falling apart for a while – so I decided to give it a helping hand

Cutting all the old rusting wire off… carefully around the wisteria !
We plan on rebuilding it with some of the milled timber.
We will use the round treated pine posts as they are still in good nick, as well as the tin.
The timber is mostly rotted and bound for the ever growing bonfire piles

Er… slowed up with a bit of necessary weeding!! The duck yard is a mess!!

I am going to have to take out the post you see at the front right – it is the post for the duck yard gate but its going to be too hard to work around. (Its concreted in so I might need some of Jeffs muscles to help)

The tin is buried a bit so I had to get the pick out to break the soil at the bottom. I didn’t have gloves so I’ll have to get back to the front lot of tin when I continue as it was a bit stuck. Some of the screws were a challenge! They’d been painted over so I had to break the paint seal to get them started on their journey back out of the tin and rotting wood!

I think this was a solid start. (Jeff was sleeping today)

I’d like to get a laserlite roof on this part of the chook run – will give them more shelter in the soggy weather and will stop the yard from becoming a quagmire in winter.
Oh… also smaller bird wire so we don’t feed as many sparrows.

The Inspector

The rewards!

On another note… check out the lovely Christmas presents from my sister Rosemary!
She has been making these fabulous cat vases… and I was lucky enough to get a pair… Cat and Kitten!

I love them!! Was nice to get some flowers in their tails today!
And from my niece I received this beautiful painting!
How gorgeous are the colours!
Its sitting in the sun room while I decide if I like it there where I see it when I walk in daily or if I can find a different great spot on the wall somewhere!
I adore home made presents (I am actually wearing a nightie right now that my Mum made me for Christmas but I don’t have a photo…. but it is super comfy. I love nighties!)

Well, thats day 2 of 2022 done!
Have a great week everyone
Cheers!