Cascade Track

Today we walked with our social walking group from the centre of Hobart along the Hobart Rivulet to Cascade Gardens for a morning tea stop, overlooked by the famous brewery of the same name.

Behind the brewery lies the start of the Cascade Track that opened earlier this year. It's a lovely walk; here's a map of the route we took. Not far along you cross this newly constructed but old style bridge, named after Peter Degraves who founded the brewery in 1824.

Dump yard blues

It's a common feature of rural areas: the property strewn with various vehicle and machinery wrecks and other refuse that's failed to make it to the tip. The most impressive I've seen in the Huon so far was a place up the top of Jacksons Road in Franklin, where more than 40 dead cars dating back to the 1960s were neatly lined up along the paddock fences. There were VW Kombi vans, the good old Holden Kingswood sedan and of course the odd Torana or two. The neighbour across the road looked poor by comparison - he only had a bus and this lovely old truck.

This post was prompted by our neighbour, who this morning brought home a totally trashed red Mazda 323 on a trailer. It begs the question: if it was somewhere else, why bring it home?

Wood delivery

We have ordered a wood heater, which will be installed in a couple of weeks. While the heat pump (not air conditioning, as it was called in Sydney) does a great job, we've been a little concerned about power outages, especially with the snow we've had already... plus nothing beats the cosiness and warmth of a real log fire. And I'd rather stare at a log fire than the TV any day! In preparation, today we took delivery of two tonnes of wood, which David has stacked in an apple crate at the back door and in the garage.

Organic orchard care

Yesterday morning we spent two hours at an organic orchard care workshop run by orchardist Chris Steenholdt and held in a friend Penny's lovely permaculture garden. With a small collection of bare root stock apple and pear trees on order from Woodbridge Fruit Trees, I figured we'd better learn something about how to care for them. We learned about pruning, pest control, feeding and mulching... as you can see from the photo, this fruit tree business is very serious stuff. Actually, there were plenty of laughs as well.

Bruny first pass

With Mum and Dad visiting us for the weekend, yesterday we took our first short trip over to Bruny Island. The ride over on the ferry was very smooth, but on the return journey the wind had got up and spray washed over the ferry and the cars on board. We were only there for a few hours so it was only a small taste of what the place has to offer. We drove to Dennes Point and had coffee at a lovely new building called Art At The Point, then headed south to Adventure Bay and the Bligh Museum of Pacific Exploration, a late bite of lunch at the Hothouse Cafe then back to the ferry. We had a dinner booking at The Red Velvet Lounge to look forward to, so had to make sure we got home in plenty of time!

Friday funny

It's a poor quality photo taken with my phone, but a nice piece of local humour that we spotted in the Palais Theatre in Franklin last week. Someone has tampered with the light box sign above the stage door.

Tetsuya afloat

This morning, well-known Sydney chef Tetsuya Wakuda took delivery of his lovely new Huon Pine boat, which was built at the Wooden Boat Centre here in Franklin. Crowds and TV crews gathered on the Franklin foreshore in the grey fog to see her put into the water. As you'll see in the series of photos below, a crane lifted her over the wharf and into the water, before her name "Belle" was revealed and the champagne corks popped. The engine fired up and Belle made her first short trip on the Huon before returning to the wharf. Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings officiated at the launch. Tetsuya sounded quite emotional as he thanked the many people involved in building his new pride and joy. People here like him a lot, largely for the long-term support he has given to Tasmanian food producers - firstly by using their produce, and also promoting it whenever he gets a chance. He was made a Tasmanian brand ambassador in 1994.

If you get a chance, take a look through the Wooden Boat Centre to see how they do it. And if you have plenty of $$$, why not get their experts, volunteers and students to build a beautiful wooden boat for you? They are looking for a new commission!