Egg-citement

Yesterday when I went to shut the chooks in the hen house for the night, I opened the door and there was an egg lying in the middle of the floor! It's the first one laid by one of our four birds. Based on expectations set by the breeder, I thought they would start laying in July or later. It's a proper brown speckled Barnevelder egg, albeit quite small at 49g. How exciting.

Ladies Tarn

On our second excursion to the Hartz Mountains National Park, today we walked with friends to Lake Esperance and Ladies Tarn. From the visitor registration hut, it's less than a two hour return walk including a short morning tea and photo stop. Around half of that section of the track is boardwalk, so it's not difficult walking. The alpine vegetation and the views of the surrounding mountains are beautiful. Next step: all the way up Hartz Peak on a clear day.

Mount Snowy in the background

Wedgies

David spotted a beautiful brown and white wedge-tailed eagle swoop past our house this morning. It sent the plovers into a squawking frenzy. It landed on a nearby branch so he was able to get a few pictures. At least this time it wasn't threatening to take the neighbour's goat. One day we saw three wedge-tailed eagles soaring above our road as we drove up the hill. We thought at least one of them must have been young, as normally they are alone.

Blankies

As the weather turns chilly, some cafes here thoughtfully provide blankets for patrons to drape over their knees. This cute collection is available for use at the Aqua Grill seafood cafe in Franklin. I haven't needed to use one yet, but it looks very cosy.

 

Wallaby tracks

First dusting of snow for the year, and our driveway is criss-crossed with these oddly shaped footprints.

Tree fungus

Autumn in Tasmania is fungus time. We have a marvelous array of mushrooms and other colourful fungi around our place, including the puff ball variety that emit a cloud of spores when you touch them. I thought this tree that I saw on a walk in the hills behind Franklin last weekend was most spectacular.

Twelve months in Tassie

The first frost for the year has melted to reveal a gorgeous sunny day - exactly the same as this day last year, when we first arrived at our new home here in Tasmania. We have met so many kind, generous, welcoming, weird and wonderful people who have helped us settle in and make this our home so quickly. A year later and we have started eating a few things from our own garden, lost a cat, gained a dog and four chooks and had a great time exploring just a fraction of what is on offer here. Our old home in Sydney has just sold, nice and quickly, which feels great. Every day I feel happy we decided to move here. And I still never tire of that view.
 

Tonka trucks

Our road is being graded today. It is a council maintained road, so generally in reasonable condition, but it had developed a lot of holes, ridges and corrugations... and that was before the week of rain last month washed more of the surface away. A parade of tonka trucks is moving up and down the road this morning, first two dumpsters tipping dirt onto the surface, then a truck with a grader at the front and a roller at the back, then a tank spraying water, then repeat... who knew road surface improvements could be so entertaining. Just one of the joys of dirt roads... the others being able to pretend you are a rally driver and actually making use of a 4WD. Oh, and a permanently dirty car.