Tasmania trip 2015

 Hello there, How are things going with you? 

It''s been a while since I last chatted with you here, September just kind of disappeared !

Life has been busy, busy, busy, but we managed to fit in a fair amount of relaxing on our little holiday to Tasmania last week.  We caught the ferry over with our car so we could do lots of sight seeing. 

The ferry was lovely, it has recently had a refurbishment, so was very comfortable, although I felt very uneasy for the whole trip, there was a surprising amount of swaying for such a big ship. I  really only feel comfortable on land, the sea and sky do freak me out a bit! 

Anyway, once we got to Tassie we drove to a little Northern town called Boat Harbour Beach where we rented a house for a few days, it is a really beautiful part of the world, the house opened up to the beach, so the beach was actually our backyard, totally awesome!  It is quite a private little place, with cute little beach houses along the foreshore, everyone would have the same amazing views as we did.

It was very idyllic and I did go a bit overboard with the pictures! 

.......I also found time for crochet of course! :) ......

........early morning quick dip in the very cold sea for Max.........

.......on our balcony looking to the left........

.......looking straight ahead ( lovely!)........

........and to the right of our house..........

 low tide

....our house was the third one from the end at the far end of the beach...

Look at the colour of that water, very tropical looking, so clean and inviting, I'd love to come back when Summer has warmed things up! 

......colourful beach storage at the Surf Club.

We did a lot of driving around and saw many beautiful places.  Tasmania really does beautiful landscapes well, and there is scenery and awesome views all over the place.   This is Stanley, a town in Northern Tasmania that was super cute, with lots of original historic buildings, all very well maintained.

........love the colours of these weatherboards, so cute!

We climbed the Stanley Nut. a really big rock that over shadows the town, fabulous views of the town from up top, I loved the wharf areas and the patterns of the piers....

We drove down to Hobart after our 4 days up north, and we popped into the Coal River Farm and I got to meet Mel (of Coal Valley Views blog fame) and her husband in the flesh, they have an amazing new set up and a beautiful restaurant/cafe space as well as delicious chocolates that I did have to bring home with me!  Everywhere around Hobart has amazing views, there seems to be rivers and inlets all over the place, so all the nearby hills look down on very pretty landscapes.

We visited the Russell Falls, another lovely spot, huge trees and rainforest, very picturesque.

.....We went to Cradle Mountain and walked around Dove Lake, it was raining the whole way so we all got soaked, and the tracks turned into little creeks, but once again, the landscape was pretty special!  And there was still snow on the peaks in the background, I think it was about 5 degrees that day! 

Andre wanted to find some surf, so we found the surf beach on the west cost at Strahan, very wild and isolated!  A bit too dangerous to take the board out! 

We spent a morning at the MONA gallery, what an amazing space, I used to spend a lot of time looking at galleries and interesting art when I was a student, so I really enjoyed seeing everything in this fabulous building.  The boys found it a bit harder to see the 'art' in some of the work, but it was a great conversation provoker, and got us all talking about the nature of art and what make something a work of art.  A fun day I thought!  

The other great  thing about Tasmania was all the fabulous food!!   We went to a couple of Farmers Markets and I noticed a strong local food culture, we brought home lots of delicious ginger beers,ciders, chocolates, cheese, ice cream ( I ate that on the day!) and fudge.  I visited a free range pig farm that made all there own bacons and bought some fabulous meat,( it was super delicious!)   and had a nice chat with the owner about what they were doing and their very lush kitchen garden.  I am all enthused now for my own garden, and am going to give me kitchen garden a big make over! 

We went to so many other places too, it was quite a whirl wind tour!  

But I think that's enough for today, this post is already too long!   

Sorry for all the holiday photos, well done if you've made it to the end!  

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I am tentatively going to say that I am doing a personal 'Blogtober' this year, so one post a day for the whole of October, it's a big commitment, but I'm trying to get my blogging mojo back and this might help! 

Talk soon! 

xxxxxx

Summer Sunday

Hello there!  How are you? 

How has the week started for you? Mine is looking good! 

I like to do the odd post about other non crafty things we have been doing, and thought it would be nice to share the  sunny and happy Sunday we just had......

This last week we have been having some lovely Summery warm weather, almost hot actually, which is nice, as I don't feel we have had a real Melbourne Summer this year, it has been far too cool.   On Sunday we had a little road trip down the West Coast looking for 'real' surf beaches. (Apparently the surf beaches we have locally don't rate!).   My middle son Andre likes a bit of a surf, so we took his board and went looking for waves.   

Max at Torquay

Our first stop was Torquay where I did some people watching while the boys had a swim.......

......I thought it was funny how these people looked ready for a walk in the snow while the water was full of swimmers :) .........

......this little plane flew over a few times, it looked good against the blue sky......

.....there were loads of learner surfers at this beach, it was very choppy though, so not a lot of wave catching was happening, but every one was trying hard and having fun! :)

Then we drove on to Anglesea where the beach was a little less crowded and the waves were better....

....I love the cliffs around this beach, this is my husbands hometown so we have spent a lot of time here when we were younger and it's always nice to go back for a visit.......

.....Andre took his board out and had some fun catching a few waves, he is getting quite enthused about surfing so we might come down here again soon......it 's a nice change from gaming! 

.....he was very happy with his new wetsuit, he stayed completely dry inside it and said he was not cold at all.......

It was a lovely day out, and I got a lot of crochet done on the drive! Bonus! :)  We used to do day trips much more often when the boys were younger, but as they have gotten older doing their own thing more, it has become a rare treat to have them with us. Even though we were without Jesse who had to work, it felt a bit like old times, so nice!  

Do your children still do day trips with you?  

Or are there becoming rare family days, like for me? 

It does make me nostalgic for the time when my family where little, but then again it is great seeing my boys grow up and become more independent.  I think I will just really enjoy spending fun days with them when they happen, and maybe plan them a bit more often!!

I'll show you my crochet progress tomorrow, I think I am still on track to have this blanket finished for the market :) 

Have a lovely day everyone! 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Happy Christmas!

 So, it is Christmas here. Melbourne has turned on a beautiful day, warm and sunny, a gorgeous summer Christmas.  We have a lovely day relaxing with the family, eating delicious food, floating around the pool, chilling out in the sun, drinking a few glasses of bubbles,  low-key, and stress free.

A perfect day ! 

I would like to wish you, dear readers, a lovely day too!  I hope you get to enjoy some down time with loved ones and create some special memories at this festive time of year.  I would also like to thank you all for visiting this little blog and for the wonderful support and encouragement you give me, I am always inspired and enthused by the crafty community out there, you are all such a fabulous bunch!  I wish I was better at connecting with you all, please know I really appreciate the time you take to leave comments, visit my wool shop, show me things you have made from the tutorials, join in the CAL, and generally share the crafty love.  I love being a little part of this global crafty community, thank you all for making it such a great place to hang out!

So have a great Christmas and enjoy the last week of 2013, I think I will be back next week to welcome in the new year and all the wonderful potential it holds!

Much love, Julie  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Weekly stills.....

1.  My cutting garden has worked.  Flowers galore out there this spring.

2. Cat on a mat.

3. Tussie mussies from the garden, edible posies.

4. Things to get finished, or a least work on again.

5. My dad enjoying a cold one, at our family get together the other day.

6. Andre on the same day.

7. Max on the same day.

8.  Thinking of joining a couple of bloggy wash cloth swaps, any excuse to make a few more of these.

9.  Dragging out some vintage sheets for another swap, looks a bit meagre, think I need to hit the oppys. 

Joining in with this lovely link up today.

Catching up....

Outside the Dargo town hall

Hello!

I have a bit of catching up to do today, this week has been busy, busy, busy!  

Firstly, thank you for the lovely response to my colourful washcloths, so many kind comments! I will get onto a spotty pattern post very soon! 

It has been holidays all round at our place this week, the boys are home from school and Gary has been on holidays too, so normal routines have flown out the window!  We decided to take a day trip up to the hills to visit an old abandoned gold mining town called Grant, where Gary's ancestors originally settled when they came to Australia.  It was a very, very long drive and we happened to choose the day when the weather went mental, storms, winds at gale force and a real cold snap.  

We found the boys great-great-great-grandfather's grave in the cemetery which was quite an historic moment!  The bush has certainly reclaimed this place, the graves were the only real sign of civilisation left.  It is hard to imagine that a little over 120 years ago there were around 2000 people living up here working the gold mines and creating a community.  The town was abandoned when the gold ran out and all the people left for fairer pastures.  I don't blame them, it was certainly a very remote place to get to and I felt very isolated.  

 We did a bit of fossicking around and I added the little bits of broken crockery that I found to a collection that other people had left on a rock.  It was very cold up there, we even had snow for about ten minutes! It melted very quickly, but I can imagine in the middle of winter it would have been freezing!  I can't help but think that the people of earlier generations must have been tough, this place was hours from the nearest big town, built on the side of a mountain, very limited access and must have been very isolated, and yet they established lives, families and businesses here in the bush. Pretty amazing!  The lure of gold must have been very strong! Apparently our ancestor owned the general store and kept the records of births, deaths and marriages for the area.   His store was moved from the town of Grant (the abandoned town) to Dargo in the 1920's, we tried to pick it out when we drove back, but we weren't sure which house it was ( all the buildings in Dargo seemed very old!).

All in all, it was a good day for family bonding and Gary was pleased to show the boys a bit of their heritage.  It was a scary drive home though, lots of tree branches across the roads, and the wind pushing the car around a bit, I was happy to get home! 

I did manage to get a lot of crochet time on the drive I was trying to distract myself from the crazy conditions outside!  I did get a bit cranky though, the crochet hook kept slipping down the side of the seats and I'd be looking for it for ages, getting more and more frustrated!!

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......Look what was waiting for me when I got home, my new postcards for my yarn shop!  I am really happy with how they turned out, nice and bright and colourful, now I can send my customers a colourful little message with their order.  I used Moo printing online for these cards and I found it an easy process, I would recommend them, even if they are on the other side of the world!  I guess we really are a global village these days. :)

.....And look, my poppies are out! I had to pick a bunch when I heard it was going to be windy, it's a shame for them to be blown to pieces. 

.....Earlier in the week we had family lunch with my parents and sisters and their families, it was a very pleasant day, nice and warm and we could sit outside and have couple of bevvies!  The kids had fun with their cousins, and my city nephew really enjoyed playing with the chooks!

......And I had to pop a picture of the cat, he loves to relax amongst my crochet, and likes having his photo taken!

I think that is enough for today, well done if you stuck with me to the end! 

Are you on school holidays too?

Are you doing anything fun for the weekend?

Talk soon, have a lovely day!