I haven’t had much to say.  Life is good. We wake up, eat breakfast, work, exercise, eat a little more, play, eat again and go to bed. Every day.

So I got a kitten to add some chaos to our lives.

Meet Elli.

She enjoys weaving, sewing, knitting, and long walks on the beach.

We spent five more days on the beautiful island, Tasmania. Gale winds if 60 mph found us here too. We stayed in Launceston and swam daily in the beautiful 50 m city pool.

We caught up with friends, had other people cook for us and generally reacclimatized to civilization. And what do we return to? A prison break, 50 miles from home, that made the Tasmanian paper! Hmm. At least it will be summer. It is with mixed emotions I bid farewell to Tasmania.

There is no Tom on this island with us. I often misspell Tim and then started doing it in purpose for my own warped sense of humor. Here’s what Tim has to say:

Questions, questions, questions

These are some of the most frequently asked questions we’ve heard as caretakers on 4 lighthouse islands:

–How did you get this gig?
About 15 years ago, I sailed with a friend to Seguin Island lighthouse in Maine. I chatted with the caretakers and discovered something I would love to do. When I met Lynne, I soon realized she was the perfect person to join me. We applied and voilà. The 3 island lighthouses after that were found through word of mouth and internet searches.

–How do you get supplies?
We don’t. We come with 3+ months worth of food, supplemented by the garden. Lynne plans and buys everything we need with amazing aplomb. AND, she’s a hell of a cook!

–What do you do all day?
We follow the Hippocratic Oath: First, do no harm. Repairs out here are very difficult.
We maintain a presence and greet visitors, perhaps our most important responsibility. We introduce them to the island and sometimes invite them in for a cuppa. It’s quite a trip to Deal and people don’t rush off. We had 230 visitors the first 2 months and none the third. The rest of the time we’re cooking, gardening, clearing 16 miles of trails and dirt roads, cleaning (Aussie caretakers are neatniks!), maintaining the power and water systems, making repairs, and even building furniture.
We leave plenty of time to explore, swim, jog, star gaze, and—sorry to say—surf the internet.

–Finally, there’s a question often implied but rarely voiced: how can you spend 3 months alone together?
If anything, isolated islands bring us closer. You have to be really nice and loving with each other if you’re going to make it work. We’ve now spent over a year and a half as caretakers with more to come.

We experience relativity here on Deal Island. At first, the time seems limitless, stretching lazily before us. Now with a little more than two weeks left, the days fly by.

We’re catching up on many projects and had to contend with several downed trees and branches after the last storm. But beautiful sunsets returned.

The Flag–guest blog, deux

We enjoy flying the flag, as we have at Seguin and Bakers Island lighthouses. We don’t really care what flag it is—we just enjoy seeing it wave in the breeze. On Deal Island, however, there are many days when it’s simply too windy. Today was the first time in the last 10 days the flag wouldn’t shred.

Many Australians seem ambivalent about their flag. Something to do with the Union Jack. But I love looking at the Southern Cross constellation every night it’s clear and, there it is, on the flag.

I’m embarrassed to say, however, I flew it upside down once 4 years ago and twice this year.

~ Tim

Internet has been spotty with a storm with hurricane force winds that lasted ten days. This is what it’s all about. A downed tree, lots of broken branches. We have had winds up to 90 miles per hour! and still have our hats. And tonight’s sunset was finally clear and beautiful.

I mowed the airstrip the other day with the little Daihatsu Ute and a tow behind mower. Airstrip is a bit of a stretch. It is a relatively flat area, which has been used in the past as an airstrip but us primarily a wallaby feeding ground these days.

Then today, we had a phone call from someone who wanted to land here. We couldn’t authorize it and advised them to contact Tasmania Parks and Wildlife. We never heard anything but a small plane buzzed us today. It circled twice and gave us a wing tilt, then left.

I’ve been pulling sea spurge, an invasive plant, with the weedies who are here working. Yesterday we worked our way up a steep hill. It was sunny and hot so we had a nice swim before lunch in East Cove. Lovely.

Yesterday’s sunset was outstanding.

Even on reflection.

I awakened this morning while it was still dark and was checking my email when there was a knock at the door. The Mates4mates sea kayakers came by to say goodbye before they left. I opened the door to say goodbye and the burst into song: Happy Birthday. To me! It was awesome.

They stood in the dark and sang with their green and pink camo zinc faces. I was really touched because I’m sure before a departure you spend a lot of time mentally preparing for the next leg.

Then they headed off to the cove to make their final preparations. They departed before 8 am and thanked me for my lovely birthday weather. We had spent the previous day with gale winds up to 68 knots. Today was brisk and sunny. Sun makes all the difference in the weather.

I had a chance to Skype with family and friends here and at home, which warmed my heart.

I was outside when a group of boaters made it up the hill. They greeted me by name, which struck me a little strange. They had already spoken with Strait Lady’s captain, James, and he had filled them in on us, the American lighthouse caretakers.

They invited us to the cove for bickies(?) and wine. I never know what to expect. Tea may or may not include a meal. Breckie is breakfast. Bickies sounded like biscuits, might mean crackers, so we brought cheese and crackers to the jetty. I had to make sure it didn’t include dinner because I had a birthday cake in the works. No, no dinner so I left the cake behind.

So we walked to the lighthouse to shut her down for the night and I hurriedly finished decorating my cake with strawberry jam filling and chocolate buttercream frosting.

So we had appetizers at the jetty and dinner at “home”. Tim surprised me with a macrame ring for my birthday and a lovely card. He had spent part of the week asking boaters for fine twine to make my present. He got to go aboard several boats as part if the process.

After dinner, he shut the lights, lit my cake, and sang Happy Birthday to me, again. It was beautiful. Then we ate cake. It was delicious!