Foxy

I was dismayed to receive a letter from the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment today advising us that there will be fox baiting undertaken on adjoining properties to ours using 1080 baits. With lots of contradictory information about how safe/dangerous the stuff is and how close to roads and paths the baits will be laid, I'm really unsure if it's OK to take B for a walk up the road or not. The existence (or not) of the fox in Tasmania is a bit of a contentious issue it seems. For a good overview, see this Sydney Morning Herald article. Some landowners are refusing access to the baiters, according to an article in The Mercury last month. The World League for Protection of Animals wants 1080 banned.

Pepperberry

Further to yesterday's post mentioning the pepperberry trees, on a walk around our place late in the afternoon we found a good clump of them growing in the bush. Now to learn what to do with the berries when they appear... a quick search on the web turns up various seasoning mixes, recipes like pepperberry-crusted buffalo fillet and even pepperberry honey. James Squire had a pepperberry ale on the market at some stage, and Lark Distillery in Hobart even makes a pepperberry gin. That sounds like it might blow your head off!

Old Mill Site - Franklin

In the process of researching the area before we moved to Franklin, I found a web page describing a walk to an old mill site and boiler in the forestry area at the end of our road. We walk the dog up there a lot and have tried to find it a couple of times with no luck. The map isn't very clear and I'm sure the forest has grown and changed considerably since the book was written more than 20 years ago.

So when we were invited by a neighbour to join a group of people walking to the old mill site, we jumped at the chance. Yesterday we walked up there with about 25 lovely people, many of whom have been walking together for more than 20 years. Everyone parked in our driveway and set out from there. Baerli joined us, running about 50 metres ahead as usual.

The mill site itself has a large rusted old boiler and various other remnants of equipment hidden amongst the trees. Lorrie showed us a Pepperberry tree with its beautiful dark red stems and David was brave enough to eat one of the hot berries. This is a Tasmanian native plant. We've seen it as an ingredient on lots of menus but didn't know what the tree looked like until now.

After morning tea back down at the river, we walked up Hope Hill for a fantastic view of the Huon River. Unfortunately the camera battery had died so I only got a few happy snaps on my mobile. The steep climb up the hill was rewarded by a bowl or two of soup at Lorrie and Warren's place afterward.

Hairy cows

On the way home from Huonville we drive past a paddock with a collection of cattle in it. Some of them are either black or brown and have long hair - have a look at the baby brown one on the right. I have no idea what breed they are (I'm sure someone will educate me on this) but we think they are cute!

Rowing on the Huon

The first week we were here in Franklin one of the local women asked if I'd like to join the women's rowing group that gather at the Living Boat Trust (basically at the end of our road) at 8.30am on a Thursday morning - in winter anyway. Although I've never rowed, I was keen to give it ago, partly because I need the exercise and partly because the Huon River is so stunning, it seems criminal not to get out on it. However, despite two other local ladies asking since, I had so far piked out. Mainly because I've failed to organise my workload so that I could pop down for an hour or so and not feel chained to the computer. Finally this morning I went along - what fun! Sadly I'll miss next week as I'll be in Sydney, but I'll definitely do it again. Below are some of the wooden boats. Deb, Lorrie and I went out in the white one.

A walk in the forest

Except for 'special' weekend days, when we make the trip to the doggie beach at Kingston, our dog walks consist of either:

1. A quick run along the river at Franklin after collecting mail at the post office; or
2. A hike up into the forestry area which starts about half a kilometre up the road from our place.

Today we did option 1, but I think B prefers option two, with wallabies (real and imaginary) along with plenty of great smells and space to run. It's an interesting landscape at times, with some sections of huge trees, some with young saplings and other sections completely bulldozed.

Grey goshawks are white in Tasmania

Several times we have seen a large white bird flying around our place, and a check in Simpson & Day's Birds of Australia book revealed it to be a grey goshawk - which only occur in the all white version in Tasmania. Yesterday I walked down the hill into town and back (4.5km and 450m) and on the way, saw one of these birds swoop down onto the road ahead of me. When it saw me coming it quickly flew off into a nearby tree and this was the best shot I was able to get of it.

 Another interesting fact: the white morph of the grey goshawk like this one is the only pure white raptor in the world.