tasmania

At the end of June our beautiful girl set off for to see the world on her big Gap Year trip. It was exciting but just a little nerve wracking watching her go. She and her friends have been planning this trip for ever though and I'm so proud of them for saving up and doing it!

She's off for five months around Asia and Europe. We'll miss her but already its fun sharing her travels vicariously through stories and photos.

Luckily, as a distraction, we'd booked a week in Tasmania for the school holidays and on Monday last week my three boys and I packed our own bags and headed for the airport!

None of us has been to Tassie before and I planned our itinerary to see as much as we could in the six days which meant lots of driving round the place at the start of the week.

We landed in Hobart on Monday, staying right on Constitution Dock.

A big icebreaker ship, the Aurora Australis sits right at the Dock. This is the ship that transports people and supplies to Antarctica, and there's something very romantic about having a bright orange icebreaker parked outside your hotel! On our walk around the area we filled up on local scallops and chips then visited the replica of Mawson's Hut.

It was raining when we arrived and a planned trip up Mount Wellington was thwarted by ice on the road. Hobart sits below this cloud capped mountain with a huge river harbour flowing down the middle. Its a beautiful city.

The next morning we woke to more rain but managed to beat the clouds by heading north and east towards the coast. By the time we reached Spiky Beach and Spiky Bridge blue skies had opened up, and we were blessed by great weather from then on through the week.

We headed back in from the coast and arrived in Launceston that afternoon. The city is sited on a big hill overlooking a wetland river, the grand Tamar. Tasmania is an island of majestic lakes and rivers, huge rocky crags and rolling green hills. Its really beautiful and perfect for a roadtrip in that the distances between places are relatively close.

Day three we visited Cradle Mountain. The two plus hour drive from Launceston is jaw dropping and passes through some beautiful green country overlooked by craggy mountain ranges. At Cradle Mountain we did a two hour bush walk around Dove Lake, time to take in this most beautiful landscape.

Back in Launceston we had enough just enough energy for a gourmet burger from Burger Junkie food truck. Highly recommended.

Day four we drove the Tamar Valley up as far as Bass Strait. At Beauty Point we did a guided tour at Seahorse World and held some seahorses in our hand. It was great. On the drive back down south was one of the highlights of the trip for me - visiting a valley where my ancestors lived in the 1800s.

How amazing to find the beautiful weatherboard church and stand beside my great great great aunties' Margaret and Alice's graves. They came out with their mother and sister, my great great grandmother from Ireland in 1848, to be reunited with their father, transported eight years earlier.

They went on to become respected pioneers in this idyllic rural valley... but more of that another time, I think it deserves its own post.

Back in Hobart we made another attempt at the peak of Mount Wellington. This time the road was open but the top was fogged in! Next time I come to Tasmania, and there will be a next time, I hope to see the view from up here. I bet its spectacular!

Day five was our trip to MONA. For readers who don't know about MONA it is the celebrated private gallery of Old and New Art on the banks of the Derwent, a great drawcard for the city and something everyone had recommended to us. If you get a chance, do go. It was the gallery space that really amazed me. Carved from rock the galleries take you down into the centre of a hill into the most magical reality. I need some more time here next visit too. It is a testament to its popularity that we ran into neighbours of ours on the MONA ferry and friends from Sydney who'd flown down for a weekend in the first gallery!

Day six, the day we left, we headed south to Port Arthur. On the way we dropped in to Unzoo and saw them feed the Tassie Devils, and Spotted Quolls. We patted kangaroos and fed Green Rosellas and walked down to the water to look across to Flinders Bay the site of the now disappeared Flinders Bay Probation Station where my ancestor Richard Clancy spent his sentence cutting wood.

Port Arthur is a major site of Tasmania's Penal program, but also the site of a modern day massacre which changed the course of Australian gun laws. It is a deeply resonant site, but to me the positive spirits have the stronger voice.

After Port Arthur we headed for the airport, tired but happy, dropping on Doo Town and its blowhole on the way. We flew out of Hobart late arriving home tired but happy, to the familiar lights of Sydney.

We loved Tasmania, it was great to go somewhere where we didn't know what to expect, to a most beautiful natural landscapes, this island with the purest air in the world and new and interesting birds and animals is a great family adventure, and we will definitely be going back, there is still so much to see.

the little things

This is the view from the bed in the holiday house in Bundeena we stayed in last week. Above all the backyard fences the trees stretched into the distance and the birds flew between them the whole time we were there. It was very peaceful.

We didn't stay long. Our girl starts her HSC exams on Monday and we didn't want to upset her study routine so we only snatched a tiny holiday away, within sight of the city spires over the water in the distance.

Its always so good to get away, to breathe some different air, to come together as our little family over boardgames, swims, walks and food. To talk, to play, to laugh.

And it was pure bliss to be among the wildflowers at this exact time of year as they burst into beautiful flower. It reminded me of the wonderful holiday we had this time of year in the Blue Mountains five years ago when all our walks were garlanded with beautiful native blooms. (How I love being able to look back quickly through this blog and find those photos and be transported to that time.)

These are taken on the most beautiful bushwalk which leads to this surprise waterfall called Deer Pool in the Royal National Park. My camera stopped working 50 metres in, can you believe its broken again - I nearly cried, but I managed to use my phone and J's camera to take some photos.

It's been a funny scratchy year this one. I haven't quite found my creative rhythm, or any sort of rhythm really, and here we are in October!

On the day we took this walk we learnt our friend had lost her battle with cancer. An especially heartbreaking battle for someone so young.

This morning I went to her funeral. It was so sad but it was also a celebration in many ways, a celebration of her life and courage. She never gave up her fight, and never let the disease change who she was. She was brave and courageous to the very end. And she and her husband were simply awe inspiring in their support and love for each other.

It reminded me, like everyone there I'm sure, of how lucky we are to have this life. How lucky to have these people. I resolved again to stop worrying the bad things, the scratchy things and to keep focussing on the good and beautiful things. The little things like wildflowers in spring. And making, which I have been neglecting, but which I need more of in my life.

holiday pics

Before I get back to my year I wanted to post some of my favourite photos from our holidays. Very late I know but I always like to record this time on my blog, so please indulge me :-)

Time away with family and friends, lots of both, is part of our annual recharge. Its exhausting taking the Christmas show on the road, but once the wrapping paper settles, I'm never sorry we did it. And returning and repacking for camping is a chore. We're used to it now though and find the camping is when we really relax. Lots of swimming and beaching, walks and drinks and late nights around the gas lanterns are just what the doctor ordered.

And after all that home always looks pretty good. It was most exciting this year because we got to come home to our completed renovation without the builders who had transformed our house over four months.

We are still settling in and there has been a lot of painting but I hope to share some of it soon.

nature walk

It is taking me a while to find the time and headspace to get back to my little blog, though not for want of trying.

I have crafty plans for 2015 and holiday adventures to share, and our renovation pictures! Anyway, they are all to come once life is more sorted, but I thought I'd start by sharing some glimpses from my weeks away...

I'm always on the lookout for nature where it crosses my path, both old favourites and new undiscovered creatures. Its one of my favourite things.

The other day I was trying to get everyone to look over at the delightful resident troupe of tiny blue wrens as they danced across our campground.

In and out of the grasses and bushes they flitted, over and under the towels and tentpegs. They were so beautiful, and the light was so beautiful... I wish you'd seen it.

My son interrupted me quietly to say 'I don't think everyone is as interested in birds as you are Mum'.

Ha ha!

No I don't think they are, but quick, look over this way at my photos of the wildlife I encountered on my holidays anyway!

Not here is the bush turkey who ate through the mesh of our new! tent to get to a wrapped loaf of bread, nor the native mice who chewed through that same pristine mesh to get to the Coco Pops. Not here is the large but unidentified lizard who walked across my path or the Pacific Baza who perched on the fence at my Mum's place.

I did manage to capture a few beautiful things before my camera died though (aaagh, I'm hoping there's nothing too serious wrong with it). Phone and ipad pics for a while on here and instagram.

* blue button jellyfish - belongil beach
* barnacles - Brunswick Heads
* Jabiru - seen from the car near Yamba
* button grass - Corindi Beach
* Not a moorhen apparently, a Purple Swamphen - Crabbes Creek
* Big Black Beetle - Bangalow
* Sacred Kingfisher - Corindi Beach
* Love this, these are the resident Magpie family at the campground drinking and bathing in the salad bowl we left out for them. I like to think the baby is cringing with embarassment as his Mum dives in for a bath!
* Wind carved sandstone - Putty Beach
* Cuckoo-dove - Putty Beach

Did you encounter any new birds or creatures on your holidays, do tell, I'm interested in birds you know ;-)

gold

We often travel out west from Sydney over the Blue Mountains to visit Mr Flowerpress's family in Bathurst.

Last week we decided to take a roadtrip to see some more of the surrounding countryside. I love to travel to new places, and its always amazing to me just what you can see quite close to home.

We planned an extended journey, staying overnight in a hotel in Mudgee and driving there via the small town of Hill End, one of the sites of the Australian gold rush back in the 1850s, and later home to an Artist's colony which included Russell Drysdale and Donald Friend.

This lovely little town is steeped in history, and after a lovely counter lunch at the Royal Hotel we had a wander around, imagining the place back in its heyday. A short drive takes you out to the local creek and Bald Hill mine (which never produced much gold apparently) and then further on to a lookout where you can look down on Hawkin's Hill where the really big finds were made, including the Beyers and Holtermann Specimen the world's largest single mass of gold.

I've got some more pics of the rest of the trip, the landscape, the little towns, the food... I'm going to share them later in the week.