The new chicken run

While I was traipsing around in the southern forests on Easter Monday, David installed netting over our fenced orchard containing six young apple trees, two pears, a peach, two plums and two cherries. The new net is not designed to protect our young trees and their fruit, but chickens! I currently have eight young pullets around 13 weeks of age, six of my favourite Barnevelders and two very pretty (and large and strong) Huon Blues, a new breed under development by Paul Healy. They are such beautiful birds, I'm so happy to have them. It's part of replenishing my flock, which has dwindled due to random deaths and disappearances over the past couple of years. The orchard is the perfect place for them to forage, but there's no shelter. It's out in the open and basically a smorgasbord for hawks. Except now it isn't. Now, these beautiful young girls get to roam around a large fenced area, pecking grass and bugs, protected by white overhead netting. They are having a great time.

Adamsons Falls

After an easy stroll of one hour return to Duckhole Lake on Monday, I drove a short distance up the road to the start of the Adamsons Falls track. It was a perfect sunny autumn day. This was a varied walk, including grey mud, red mud, brown mud... nah, only joking. As much as I didn't enjoy the cutting grass and mud sections, they were interspersed with such beautiful trees (including many of my favourite, the myrtle beech), ups and downs, fallen trees, singing lyrebirds, colourful fungi, finally arriving on the mid-platform of the falls. The walk takes about two hours return. I can't believe I did not pick up any leeches on this walk, but I did find one on my wrist after pruning a couple of trees in my garden on the weekend.

Duckhole Lake

The Duckhole Lake walk is included in the 60 Great Short Walks of Tasmania booklet and app, as well as many local tourist guides, but when we moved to Tasmania it was closed for repairs. Finally I got there today. It's a beautiful walk, only an hour return and very easy. Almost all of it is on duckboard, and follows an old forestry tramway. The lake itself is a flooded sinkhole that's part of the Hastings Caves landscape. I wanted to check it out over the Easter long weekend ahead of a walk I am leading there this month.

Bloody rabbits

I know, I know, it's Easter, but I'm not feeling very charitable towards those cute little bunnies at the moment. Everyone around here has been complaining about the growing plague of them over the past year or two. They are super cheeky. There are piles of droppings on the lawn right close to our house. You can see below their attempt at ringbarking one of my young plum trees, and below that my latest attempt to foil them - that's the trunk of an apricot tree painted with bitumen rubber to deter chewing beasties. I've painted all the exposed trunks of the fruit trees and the olive. In the bottom photo, you'll see the fine tunnel a rabbit has dug in one of my freshly dug over raised garden beds. I won't be planting carrots in it.

Mount Nelson Signal Station Brasserie

I had a day off last Thursday. I know, big news, right? We'd had notice from the power company that there would be an outage all day while new power poles were installed. Rather than juggle working locations, laptop charging and wifi issues, David and I both took the day off. What a treat that turned out to be. First up, knocking over a to-do list of items in Kingston and Hobart, everything from get a long-overdue X-ray (Susan) to buy a new suit (David). Tick!

The weather was beautiful, so on the way back, we decided to drive up Mount Nelson and have lunch at the Signal Station Brasserie. It was our first visit, but won't be the last. Our food was absolutely delicious. Nice Tassie wine list, lovely garden surroundings (dog friendly) and Derwent River views. And it's only a short drive from the centre of Hobart. My only gripe would be the lack of Tasmanian cider on the menu. There was only a commercial Aussie one, which seems a crime when Hobart is surrounded with fantastic local cider brands. The brasserie would be a perfect afternoon tea spot too - the cakes and scones arriving on the table near us looked excellent. We've added this place to our "when we have visitors" list and will go back soon, perhaps followed by a walk around Mount Nelson to work off the cake.

Introducing Vladimir

Last week I moved our new young Barnevelder cockerel (now known as Vladimir) in with the three older ladies, using the common trick of placing him in the shed at night so he's just there when the hens get up in the morning. After a bit of confusion about where he should sleep for the first couple of nights, when I went to shut the shed door last night, he had wedged himself between two of the ladies on the top perch. They didn't seem bothered, so all is peaceful in the hen house. Hopefully he turns out to be a good rooster and not as aggressive as Russell and Sebastian were.

Le Weekend in Cygnet

The French flag flew on top of the Cygnet Town Hall. The car park opposite featured a collection of old and new cars from the French Car Club of Tasmania. The town was draped in blue, white and red. From baguettes to berets, it was all there. Le Weekend Cygnet is such a great idea for a town with a French history. With our (Swiss) dogs in tow, we strolled around town, stopping every few metres to chat with locals and visitors. But the highlight was a relaxing couple of hours spent at Pagan Cider. The dogs were allowed (no, welcomed) inside the shed to hang out with us on the cool cement. French films played and cider flowed. We had a very tasty lunch from the Tickled Rib food van and a couple of blueberry and quince ciders. Just a terrific afternoon. If you like the sound of it, Le Weekend continues tomorrow!

Hazy days of autumn

As the temperatures start to drop and the summer bushfire danger abates, the forest burn offs begin. Some are conducted by Forestry Tasmania, some by Parks & Wildlife and some by private land managers with permits from the Tasmanian Fire Service. Many people hate it due to the thick smoke and pollution it causes (and the health risks for those with breathing difficulties) and due to the risk of fires getting out of control, like one in the north of Tasmania this week. I'm in two minds about it, living right next to forestry plantations, many privately managed. I'd prefer a few fuel reduction burns now to out of control bushfires next summer in dense bush with poor access for firefighters, but agree with the concerns above. And I'd still prefer we farm timber than destroy more old growth forest that may never regenerate. The water bombing helicopter has been flying past our place since 6.45am today, I guess to make sure the burns from the last couple of days are out. Hope the haze clears and we have clear blue skies again soon.