tasmania

At the end of June our beautiful girl set off for to see the world on her big Gap Year trip. It was exciting but just a little nerve wracking watching her go. She and her friends have been planning this trip for ever though and I'm so proud of them for saving up and doing it!

She's off for five months around Asia and Europe. We'll miss her but already its fun sharing her travels vicariously through stories and photos.

Luckily, as a distraction, we'd booked a week in Tasmania for the school holidays and on Monday last week my three boys and I packed our own bags and headed for the airport!

None of us has been to Tassie before and I planned our itinerary to see as much as we could in the six days which meant lots of driving round the place at the start of the week.

We landed in Hobart on Monday, staying right on Constitution Dock.

A big icebreaker ship, the Aurora Australis sits right at the Dock. This is the ship that transports people and supplies to Antarctica, and there's something very romantic about having a bright orange icebreaker parked outside your hotel! On our walk around the area we filled up on local scallops and chips then visited the replica of Mawson's Hut.

It was raining when we arrived and a planned trip up Mount Wellington was thwarted by ice on the road. Hobart sits below this cloud capped mountain with a huge river harbour flowing down the middle. Its a beautiful city.

The next morning we woke to more rain but managed to beat the clouds by heading north and east towards the coast. By the time we reached Spiky Beach and Spiky Bridge blue skies had opened up, and we were blessed by great weather from then on through the week.

We headed back in from the coast and arrived in Launceston that afternoon. The city is sited on a big hill overlooking a wetland river, the grand Tamar. Tasmania is an island of majestic lakes and rivers, huge rocky crags and rolling green hills. Its really beautiful and perfect for a roadtrip in that the distances between places are relatively close.

Day three we visited Cradle Mountain. The two plus hour drive from Launceston is jaw dropping and passes through some beautiful green country overlooked by craggy mountain ranges. At Cradle Mountain we did a two hour bush walk around Dove Lake, time to take in this most beautiful landscape.

Back in Launceston we had enough just enough energy for a gourmet burger from Burger Junkie food truck. Highly recommended.

Day four we drove the Tamar Valley up as far as Bass Strait. At Beauty Point we did a guided tour at Seahorse World and held some seahorses in our hand. It was great. On the drive back down south was one of the highlights of the trip for me - visiting a valley where my ancestors lived in the 1800s.

How amazing to find the beautiful weatherboard church and stand beside my great great great aunties' Margaret and Alice's graves. They came out with their mother and sister, my great great grandmother from Ireland in 1848, to be reunited with their father, transported eight years earlier.

They went on to become respected pioneers in this idyllic rural valley... but more of that another time, I think it deserves its own post.

Back in Hobart we made another attempt at the peak of Mount Wellington. This time the road was open but the top was fogged in! Next time I come to Tasmania, and there will be a next time, I hope to see the view from up here. I bet its spectacular!

Day five was our trip to MONA. For readers who don't know about MONA it is the celebrated private gallery of Old and New Art on the banks of the Derwent, a great drawcard for the city and something everyone had recommended to us. If you get a chance, do go. It was the gallery space that really amazed me. Carved from rock the galleries take you down into the centre of a hill into the most magical reality. I need some more time here next visit too. It is a testament to its popularity that we ran into neighbours of ours on the MONA ferry and friends from Sydney who'd flown down for a weekend in the first gallery!

Day six, the day we left, we headed south to Port Arthur. On the way we dropped in to Unzoo and saw them feed the Tassie Devils, and Spotted Quolls. We patted kangaroos and fed Green Rosellas and walked down to the water to look across to Flinders Bay the site of the now disappeared Flinders Bay Probation Station where my ancestor Richard Clancy spent his sentence cutting wood.

Port Arthur is a major site of Tasmania's Penal program, but also the site of a modern day massacre which changed the course of Australian gun laws. It is a deeply resonant site, but to me the positive spirits have the stronger voice.

After Port Arthur we headed for the airport, tired but happy, dropping on Doo Town and its blowhole on the way. We flew out of Hobart late arriving home tired but happy, to the familiar lights of Sydney.

We loved Tasmania, it was great to go somewhere where we didn't know what to expect, to a most beautiful natural landscapes, this island with the purest air in the world and new and interesting birds and animals is a great family adventure, and we will definitely be going back, there is still so much to see.

backyard bird count

Since moving to this street many years ago I've delighted in the open Greenway and canal that run behind us, bringing a huge range of birds into our garden and giving us a bush outlook.

So I was delighted to find the Backyard Bird Count which is running now - a nationwide public survey of birds in Australia. I'm looking forward to adding my observations to the count and sharing the range of birds who call this part of the world home.

I've downloaded the app and plan to do some surveys over the next couple of days, to record our local bird life. It takes just 20 minutes to do a survey, and you can do as many as you want. I think it will be a nice way to slow down, a chance to do something while doing nothing, a sort of mindful meditation.

I'm hoping some of our more exotic visitors plan to drop in so I can record what a truly healthy bird population lives here in the Inner West, so close to the CBD.

There is a page on the website too about bird friendly gardening, for hints to make your space even more welcoming.

Here are some photos of favourite locals who live in my neighbourhood.

the little things

This is the view from the bed in the holiday house in Bundeena we stayed in last week. Above all the backyard fences the trees stretched into the distance and the birds flew between them the whole time we were there. It was very peaceful.

We didn't stay long. Our girl starts her HSC exams on Monday and we didn't want to upset her study routine so we only snatched a tiny holiday away, within sight of the city spires over the water in the distance.

Its always so good to get away, to breathe some different air, to come together as our little family over boardgames, swims, walks and food. To talk, to play, to laugh.

And it was pure bliss to be among the wildflowers at this exact time of year as they burst into beautiful flower. It reminded me of the wonderful holiday we had this time of year in the Blue Mountains five years ago when all our walks were garlanded with beautiful native blooms. (How I love being able to look back quickly through this blog and find those photos and be transported to that time.)

These are taken on the most beautiful bushwalk which leads to this surprise waterfall called Deer Pool in the Royal National Park. My camera stopped working 50 metres in, can you believe its broken again - I nearly cried, but I managed to use my phone and J's camera to take some photos.

It's been a funny scratchy year this one. I haven't quite found my creative rhythm, or any sort of rhythm really, and here we are in October!

On the day we took this walk we learnt our friend had lost her battle with cancer. An especially heartbreaking battle for someone so young.

This morning I went to her funeral. It was so sad but it was also a celebration in many ways, a celebration of her life and courage. She never gave up her fight, and never let the disease change who she was. She was brave and courageous to the very end. And she and her husband were simply awe inspiring in their support and love for each other.

It reminded me, like everyone there I'm sure, of how lucky we are to have this life. How lucky to have these people. I resolved again to stop worrying the bad things, the scratchy things and to keep focussing on the good and beautiful things. The little things like wildflowers in spring. And making, which I have been neglecting, but which I need more of in my life.

plant

Spring is here at last!! I always love spring but this year I've been looking forward to it's arrival more than usual. This year I get to plant for the long term, after missing out on gardening last spring during our building work, and losing a lot of plants and landscaping in the process.

I can't wait to remake my garden with new plants and a new layout. Gardening is my meditation and my exercise. It's a creative outlet for me  and a part of my plan for a more natural and healthy life - growing and cooking my own food organically and preserving the excess, while composting our green and food waste and making a cooler, healthier environment for our house and a home and food source for local creatures

And I love doing it.

To celebrate I have shouted myself a whole heap of perennial flowering plants and seeds. And impatient to start I actually ordered a lot of the plants as bare root perennials way back in July.

You might not have gardened this way before but its worth thinking about. Many of the online nurseries I buy from are busiest in winter and spring. This is the perfect time to be putting most plants in. It gives them time to establish a root system before the stresses of hot summer days.

Also I love flowering perennials but they are are impossible to find at local nurseries. It makes me really happy that they are increasingly available to buy online. There are some great online resources for every type of plant now. I found a great Ebay seller this year and have ordered from a couple of established nurseries as well. A great resource for finding these is the Nurseries Online website.

I've also splurged on seeds, which are a much cheaper way of building up a garden. You need more patience, and some of the plants you want aren't easy to find or grow from seed, but for vegetable gardening there is no better way.

The change in season means each day more and more of my little bare plants are sending up new shoots and leaves. New spring plantings of seeds are emerging and my winter crops are hitting their stride. I can't wait to share more photos of the garden as it matures.

If you're interested to see pictures of the flowering plants I'm growing see my pinterest Plants board. And for an idea of what I'm after, a wild and thriving grass and flower garden, I love the Trolles garden in Sweden or check out my Garden board on Pinterest.

For my own records I've made a list of this year's new plants below. From past experience I know that not all of these will be happy in my garden. Some will die, some will sulk, but then others will thrive and grow and take over!

A gardener learns from their mistakes and triumphs and I have a few of both to teach me. Also plants don't live forever and if they die it just means space for new ones!

Perennials
Geum "Pink Frills'
Veronicastrum 'Pink Glow'
Geum 'Flames of Passion'
Persicaria 'Red Dragon'
Artemesia Rosenschleier
Aster 'Lady in Black'
Eupatorium Gateway
Achillea 'Salmon Beauty'
Miscanthus Gold Bar
Tulbaghia Violacea White (Society Garlic)
Filipendula Ulmaria Flore Pleno
Filipendula Rubra Magnifica
Canna 'Henry Cohn'
Sanguisorba 'Oakbank Red'
Potentilla 'Ron McBeath'
Phygelius 'Raspberry Swirl'
Physalis alkekengi
Anemone Japonica white
Anemone Japonice pink
Bergenia cordifolia
Cosmos atrosanguineus (Chocolate Cosmos)
Eryngium alpinum (Sea Holly)
Echinacea purpurea 'Magnus'
Limonium perezii (Statice)
Punica granatum nana (dwarf pomegranate)
Anthriscus sylvestris 'Ravenswing'
Astilbe simplicifolia 'Sprite'
Helenium 'Rubinzwerg'
Phlomis samia
Astrantia 'Buckland'
Francoa sonchifolia 'Dr Tom Smith'
Geranium x monacense 'Muldoon'
Leucanthemum x superbum 'Shaggy Gem' (Shasta Daisy)
Helleborus x hybridus 'Duke of Burgundy'
Pelargonium sidoides
Penstemon digitalis 'Husker's Red'
Geranium 'Stephanie'

Climbers
Actinidia kolomikta
Hydrangea petiolaris
Clematis Tangutica
Cobaea Scandens
Trachelospermum jasminoides
Parthenocissus tricuspidata
Pandorea Pandorana
Mandevilla

And this is what I'm growing from seed and seedling:

Vegies and Herbs
Rainbow chard, Spinach, Spring onions, Garland serrate leaf (salad leaf plant), Rocket,
Tatsoi, Radish Black Spanish, Radish Watermelon, Pak Choi, Lebanese cucumbers, Cucamelon, Purple Climbing Beans, Scarlet Runner Beans, Spaghetti Squash, Bull's Blood Beetroot, Broad Beans, Parsley, Artichokes, Snow Peas, Kale, Tomatoes, Strawberries, Lemon Thyme, Dill, Garlic.

Flowers
Black Ball cornflowers, Achillea Cerise Queen, Zinnia, Echinacea purpurea, Sunflowers.

midwinter

It's midwinter here in Sydney and its been cold, in fact one of the coldest winters in years. But then its never THAT cold in Sydney! We did go out west in the holidays and see some minus temps and ice skate though.

I love this time of year when the air is crisp but the days are getting longer. I don't mind the cold but I do miss the daylight hours. I'm much happier when we get past the shortest day and we're heading towards spring.

I'm sure the plants sit up and take notice. Spring heralds start flowering. My daphne is out, I saw a magnolia in flower just yesterday and the jasmine is budding up. The last few days there has been a real feeling in the air that warmer times are coming!

The most exciting thing this spring is that I have my garden back. Last year's building work really trampled a lot of the garden as predicted. And changes to our house mean the whole layout of our outdoor space has changed.

These past few weeks though have seen the new garden emerging from the rubble, to the point where I have spent the last couple of days putting new bare root perennials into empty beds! I'm dreaming of how they'll look when they grow, and back to my daily garden walks watching seedlings emerge and shoots appear.

But more of that in another, overdue, garden post!

This post is more a check-in, to say I'm still here, I'm still blogging so please come back and visit me soon. I've been a bit tongue tied, which happens when you don't blog for a while, you get out of the rhythm. But I have some new creative pursuits, an update on our reno and other stuff to share.

Thank you to all those lovely, lovely people who sent messages or left comments here or on instagram about my Dad. Those messages mean so much to me.

Talk soon.

p.s. want to take that pesky new Flickr watermark off your photos, just remove the code between  a and href in the html which says data-flickr-embed="true".

april showers

For the last week Sydney has been in the grip of crazy wet and windy weather which extends up and down the coast for miles. Its left damage and destruction in its wake, though we were lucky to be spared any damage here. p.s. I started writing this post before Saturday's crazytown hailstorm which blew up out of the most beautiful sunny autumn day. Its been wild!

Its also made me feel even more blessed that on our getaway to Jervis Bay we lucked such lovely autumn weather. Somehow we slotted our week in between a wet Easter and the following drenching windy two day storm and afternoon hailstorm.

In contrast on our time away It was warm enough to swim and we only had one wet and windy day.

Its a tradition to spend time at our favourite little 70s decor beach house each year, and a tradition to post my photos from our time down south here on the blog. Here are some previous trips to our magic beach. here, here, here and here.

It is also one of the lovely things about having older kids, making these family traditions which live in their imaginations. They love this place and it is layered with memories for them and for their father and I, who can remember walking this bush track with a double stroller!

Luckily my camera was fixed just in time to take it along. This place is so photogenic it would literally be torture for me without it!