Autumn is beauty

Tasmania and Rhody and Suki in a Victorian Yarra Valley vineyards

Tasmania and our Yarra Valley Cousins, Jackson, Gemma the dog Lauchlan and Matilda

Benny the dog,  raking autumn leaves and a Yarra Valley Vineyard

Tasmania

Community Knitting project and Clay Crucibles

We visited Beaconsfield Mine and Heritage Centre

the day before ANZAC Day this year. The centre is a wonderful tribute to Australian gold mining history. I was surprised how great it was. I was reminded of the tragic mine accident that happened at the Beaconsfield gold mine in 2006 in Tasmania. The Beaconsfield Mine collapse occurred on Anzac Day 25 April 2006 in Beaconsfield, Tasmania, Australia. Of the 17 people who were in the mine at the time, 14 escaped immediately following the collapse, one was killed, and the remaining two were found alive after five days, using a remote controlled device. These two miners were rescued on Tuesday 9 May, a full two weeks after being trapped nearly a kilometre below the surface.

I was taken with these clay crucibles. I did a hand building clay class years ago with Andrea Toomey at Brisbane Institute of Art. We did saga firing which I loved. These crucibles brought up these memories. And I just love the text on the crucibles.The gold goes into these then put in the furnace to melt the gold then it is poured into the molds, Bullion cast. (Think gold bar)

 I was also reminded how valuable community is and how people pull together in the face of tragedy and find creative ways to bring about union and support. If you like this knitting project you may like the knitting project Chrys Zantis is working on.

The Carrots the supermarket rejected

We saw carrots on the road and followed the trail and ended up here. These are from the carrot farmer. To every 8 truck loads of carrots that go to the supermarket. One truck load is full of so called rejects (they don't look like a suitable carrot to sell). These particular rejects are for this farmers cows to eat. That conjours up all sorts of images, orange milk, black and orange cows and cows with great night time vision. I met  a girl once who ate so many carrots that the skin on her hands and face were very orange
 



The druck driver gave us a bag and we made carrot cake.

Magic Mushrooms

photography by Rodney Nash

Mushrooms Mushrooms! My husband Rod took these photographs. We went for a 3 hour walk to Lake St Claire, near Queenstown. The walk was a 1 hour return journey. However as you can see we got a little side tracked. Their was so many differnt varieties of Mushrooms. I am not sure if you can eat any of them. We didn't try, but they look pretty enough to eat! No! we haven't found any of those magic mushrooms.

Drawing, what was the best part of your day?

by Rhody 5

our daily evening question over dinner, what was the best part of your day?

Rhody 5 is in Prep and I am home schooling, him. Part of his lesson's is to write what was the best part of his day and draw a picture of it.

I hope everyone had a nice Easter break. We spent Easter camping at Arthur Lake in the Highlands north of Hobart. It was very cold most days, we were thankful for the fire and hot water bottles. We befriended 2 Tasmanian families camping for the long weekend. Rhody and their children spent 4 days exploring and playing hard. It was a welcome break and social time for us, as they gave us the best of Tasmanian hospitality.

Fog, Webs and Nanna's Crochet

It is a foggy morning here at Penstock Lagoon

good weather for swans




it was under 0 degrees last night we got out the hot water bottles

I hadn't noticed these spider webs before, when I looked I saw they were everywhere

they remind me of Nanna's crocheted doilies

I looked a little closer and found a pattern I liked


the fog started to lift and the sun shone bright, it is going to be another beautiful day