Abundance

Stone fruit and berries from local roadside stalls and snow peas and broad beans from my garden. How good is summer?

 

Ancient pines

Quite a few years back when Wollemi pines were first sold commercially, I bought one for my Dad for Christmas. He loves Australian native plants and history so it seemed a good combination of the two. Here's what it looked like when I visited earlier this month. Beautiful, isn't it?

On Sunday we spotted Huon pines (Lagarostrobus franklinii) for sale at the Franklin Market. We've had several visitors ask us where they can see one, so now they can see one (albeit a tiny one) in the corner of our yard. Hope it thrives like my Dad's tree has.

Waiting for a sign

The signs start to appear along the Huon Highway, announcing fresh raspberries, cherries, strawberries, tayberries, peaches, nectarines. This time of the year is truly food heaven. Fresh, seasonal, delicious. Today I tried Sylvanberries for the first time, bought from Cane's orchard in Franklin. Very tasty.

They're back

"Our" welcome swallows eventually came back! After last year's unsuccessful breeding season, I wondered if we'd see them again. I love having them around. They are such pretty little birds, always swooping and chirping happily. They built a nest under the balcony, flying in day after day with mud and grass, and are now flying back and forth with food for the hatchlings. The photo below is a bit blurred, but you can clearly see the three mouths gaping.

Food delivery

Cheep cheep

Our second attempt at incubating some of our hens' eggs was a lot more successful than the first ... NINE of these little Barnevelder chicks hatched over the last 24 hours and are now busily cheeping away under the heat lamp in a box in the bathroom downstairs. Seriously cute, huh?

A very social Sunday

The social season is in full swing. Some dear friends visited us from Sydney on the weekend and we enjoyed a lazy Saturday afternoon and evening of eating, drinking and catching up at home. 

To make up for it, we sure packed a lot in on Sunday. After home laid eggs on home made bread for breakfast, we visited Cygnet Market (right), Cygneture Chocolates and Hartzview Vineyard (to purchase spiced apple mead), had lunch on the terrace at Peppermint Bay, stopped in at the Homeland Delights store at the Margate Train for some German treats, then headed to the Longley International Hotel, where we listened to some lovely reggae/ska/funk from local Tassie band Lively Up and enjoyed a beer or two in the sun. What a top spot with a good crowd. We made a short stop at home to feed the animals and make my favourite basil dip with pita chips to take to share at the Sunday night classic movie at The Palais Theatre. This month's movie was What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, a 1962 film of the genre variously called "psycho-biddy" or "hag horror" and starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford . It was truly awful, in a funny way.

Pickers hut at Hartzview

Flowers at Hartzview

The Hartzview cat

Peppermint Bay

The Longley Hilton

Beer garden

Lake Skinner and (almost) Snowy South

I took a day off work yesterday to go on a walk that I have long wanted to do with the Hobart Walking Club. We walked to Lake Skinner, a beautiful sub-alpine lake not very far (as the crow flies at least) from where I live, and then on to Snowy South (1398m), a peak in the Snowy Range. It was a hot day and one woman was throwing up from heat exhaustion even before we reached Lake Skinner.

As we neared the top of Snowy South, clambering over rocks and boulders, I had difficulty breathing so stopped. I'm glad I stopped, because I actually felt very ill once I sat down and think it could have been a lot worse if I'd kept going. I'm sad I didn't see the view out to the west, but as you'll see below, the views I had were not too bad either. One other chap had a bad case of hayfever and we wondered if it was the pineapple grass which seemed to be throwing up a lot of dust or spores as we walked. I've never gasped for breath like that before. I really like climbing hills and mountains, but must say I prefer to do it at my own less-than-cracking pace, taking a short breather to take a photo now and then. I did manage to get a couple of photos of the lovely wildflowers along the way though, and some of Lake Skinner with its beautifully cool, clear water. I'll go back one day and allow time to enjoy it.

P.S. If you look closely at the peaks in the distance in the last photo below, you'll see they are the same ones as in my blog header above, just from a lot further away.