Lighthouse caretaking

Fog horn and fog light

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I remember the first time I noticed the lighthouse’s unique effect in the fog at night. The vertical bars in the windows project out as shadows and it looks as if there is a huge umbrella originating from the light, providing protection for those under it. There’s even a lot of bird activity at night as they get distracted by the light during their fall migration. A hawk family of four stays around the island and one definitely buzzed me today when I ventured outside. The fog horn has been on more than it has been off over the past couple of days. We’re debating whether the sound would be different if it blew during clear, dry weather as opposed to damp, wet weather. The jury is still out on that one.

Seguin at night

Fog light

We are not alone here

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Well of course not. We have the cats with us. But even during the storm last night, a boat was tucked in behind the lee of the island. They must have been waiting for the tide to change because the weather didn’t really get better until later today and they were gone by early morning. We had several hours of sun today, which was very nice and brightened our moods. Even the cats were a little stir crazy. We were all happy to be out for a while today. Lobsterman were back out and a tanker went by about 3 miles south of the island this afternoon. There’s a hawk, which circles the east and south sides of the island and a few seagulls about. There’s an assortment of migrating birds passing by and attracted to the light.

Enterprise

I accomplished a lot of knitting yesterday and now find I like to have several projects going at once. I used to be almost exclusively a serial, monogamous knitter but there are so many projects. Some I have to focus on and others are more mindless. I’m knitting a “one stitch lace scarf” for patients who receive chemotherapy at the hospital, in a teal, machine washable blend. It’s simple garter stitch, with a dropped stitch lace pattern, and great to knit while we catch up on old episodes of Dexter.

Knitting trio

The gray and pink lace scarf was a mistake but now I’m so far along, there’s no stopping me. The stripes, combined with the lace, are too busy but I’m six feet into it so there you are. The pattern is Traveling roses, a pretty pattern but 43 stitches by 43 stitches for one repeat and this old mind just hasn’t been able to memorize it. I have it on my Kindle and insert a note to remind of the last row knit.

Monkey socks

The third project is a pair of socks for me with knitpicks stroll in a heather. Very pretty yarn and I have made myself a pair of socks each time we have been here (I’m wearing my pair from 2008 now). So I want to keep up the tradition. It’s a nice reminder all year of the wonderful time we have on Seguin.

One stitch lace scarf

Traveling roses scarf

Seguin 2011

Outhouse bound

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Outhouse outfit We’re in the middle of a four day storm.  Hurricane Ophelia is passing offshore tonight stirring up the wind and water.  There’s no way on or off the island for a few days, which is always interesting. It makes me just a little more cautious.  No power tools, careful walking the quarter mile or so (in full foul weather gear) to the outhouse and spend way too much time indoors.

At least I have several knitting projects underway and lots of food to cook. Yesterday I made a couple of loaves of bread, chile and chicken soup. Tonight I’ll bake an apple pie. What could be more cozy.

Benched

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Prototype bench on Seguin Island

We thought we discovered an ingenious design when we were caretaking Seguin Island in 2008.  There was an unpretentious, very comfortable, little grey bench down by the cove.  I don’t know when it was built or by whom.  On the west side of the island was a platform with an Adirondack chair on it and it was one of the best places to watch the sun set.  But with only one chair, we had to take turns.  And when families visited the island, one person would get the chair and everyone else would sit on the platform or rocks around it.

Seguin Island Sunset bench

So we decided to make a bench for it.  I painstakingly copied the dimensions and angles of the bench by the cove.  Then on rainy days, we stayed inside in the whistle house where the work shop was located and played with all the power tools and built a bench.  And it was good.  Now we could both enjoy the beautiful sunsets with even room to spare to balance a glass.  When families went to the platform, 2-3 people could sit on the bench and enjoy the view.

When we were on Deal Island, we tried to think of a project we could leave on the island.  We didn’t have power tools and had to salvage lumber and bolts.  I had the design details with me and we went to work building another bench.  We thought about where it would go and decided to place it in a corner with good cell phone and internet reception for visitors and us.  The only problem was that corner was at the switchback, or zigzag in New Zealand, of a steep hill.  We had time, so we played around with the geometry and built a level bench with four different length legs.

Deal Island bench on the only place it's level

Deal Island bench on level land

Imagine my surprise when we got back home and learned my friend Bethany has several of the same bench!  It was designed by Aldo Leopold, environmentalist and author of Sand County Almanac, “There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot. These essays are the delights and dilemmas of one who cannot,”  How fitting.  Now we have to decide if we want to build a bench, lean-to or log cabin on our property.  There are plans for the bench on an Environmental Protection Agency site.  I didn’t see log cabin plans though.

Dunno about dunnies

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We spent our final day in the Kent Group demolishing a dunnie on Erith Island. We went over on the Strait Lady with a boatload of tools. Naturally, we had a lot of laughs because of the risk we were taking working around poo. I think a dunnie is only an outhouse. I don’t think I could ask for a dunnie in a restaurant but I dunno. (oop)s See what I mean?

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When we got back to Deal, Kim had made a delicious stew and later in the day, we had a lovely barbecue on the jetty and I had a chance to sample muttonbird, abalone and wallaby schnitzle. All were delicious and I can appreciate being able to live off the land and sea. I took my last walk along Barn Hill.

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We had almost as much fun as the night before when we ate outside in the rain. We finally gave in and went back up the hill, the rain stopped the moment we got there. But then the skies blazed red and orange during the sunset.

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The weather cooperated and we had a fairly smooth ride on the boat back to Flinders. We enjoyed our first meal in a restaurant and then, after an interview with ABC radio, flew out the next morning to Launceston.

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We were reminded there are some good things about city life.

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A beautiful ending

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We are poised to leave Deal island on the 15th of March. The Parks manager arrived with the new caretakers today and we are officially off duty. And the weather couldn’t be better. It’s warm, like summer. It was calm this morning for their trip out. We’ll see how we fare in two days. We’ve spent the past couple of days cleaning and getting everything in order. Now we’ve moved over to the visitor’s house and are visitors. Yesterday we walked to the lighthouse and had fun looking at our shadows. P3120147.JPG

At the end of the day, I had a home brewed stout, which had a creamy foam.

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Today, I put the work gloves away. It’s official.

Another bush bash

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Today we headed up a hill in the middle of the island to look for a cairn reportedly there.. It literally was a bush bash. We walked through shrubs, trees and tussocks. We got to the height of land and couldn’t find a cairn. I kept thinking it might have blown down because we found open spaces with rocks but no pile. We had a nice lunch but were a little discouraged. Before heading back down, I looked around and saw an area a little higher than where we were. There was a panoramic view and we were able to see the lighthouse and both the south and north entrances to Murray Passage. Tim went over there to explore and sure enough, there was another cairn!! Our day was complete.

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This is how the grass was. You can just about make out Tim. We follow wallaby tracks but they hop and we have to plod through the clumps of grass.

P3100215.JPG Cairn off winter cove track

In the company of strangers

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We saw Deal Island from a new perspective yesterday. A luxury yacht anchored in the cove the night before and called us and said they wanted to see a little of the island. They didn’t have a lot of time but checked out the museum and Barn Hill, which has some spectacular views of Murray Passage. Then they asked us if we wanted to come with them to Erith Island before they left. You betcha!

It was strange because it was our first time off the island for three months. Sort of a practice run for this weekend. The passage between Erith and Deal Islands is much more open then it seems from up at the caretaker cottage. We got to look back at the island and the compound from the water and then from Erith.

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While we were anchoring, we saw our first sea eagle on the rocks of Erith.

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We walked the tracks to explore the shack and campsites we knew were there. Then on the way back, we were joined by dolphins. P3090145.JPG

When we got back we walked to the lighthouse which was shrouded in fog. Quite a day.

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If you want to learn to cook, go some place beautiful where there is no food

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I guess it could backfire, but it has worked for me. I’ve enjoyed figuring out what to eat and trying new recipes to expand the menu. The other day, I wanted something different to drink and made a batch of ginger ale. It was a little nerve wracking because it carbonates and makes its fizz in the sealed bottle. If you let it go too long, the bottle explodes. I found myself testing the plastic bottles for fullness a lot. The recipe came from a Google search and worked well.

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My techniques for making bread, yogurt, bagels, pizza and english muffins have been refined and perfected over the past three months. And I have had a good workout to boot. I don’t have any power appliances, so I knead, stir, cream and mix all by hand. Sometimes, I even work up a sweat. How nice if you could burn off the calories before you actually ate the food!

Often, I just look at the provisions and figure out what I have a lot of and need to cook. So I made gnocchi from potatoes; creamy tomato soup, sloppy joes and lots of sauce from tomatoes; oatmeal cookies and scones from oatmeal, chicken curry from the large tin of curry powder; beet soup, carrot cake, semolina pudding, and risotto.

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Things really become interesting and unpredictable when I have to substitute ingredients. The other night, I tried to make an icing from yogurt and thought I would counter the acidity with baking soda like you do when baking. Instead, I had an acid-base reaction in bowl and inedible icing. I tried again without the baking soda and it was fine.

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Now where is that recipe for roast goose?

It’s March 1 and the first day of Fall?

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Seasons are strictly by the calendar in Australia. None of this equinox, solstice stuff. Summer ended on February 28 and Fall began today. I’ve made a silent vow to walk a track a day until we leave. These photos are along the creek to Little Squally Cove on the south eastern side of the island.

Little Squally Waterfall Little Squally cairn Little Squally Creek

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Returning home on the lighthouse track with a mother and joey wallaby.P2270142.JPG

Yesterday, I submitted the monthly totals of rainfall to the Bureau of Meteorology. We had 121.6 mm of rain for the month, which is the most rainfall on Deal Island since 1939. We experienced one of the wettest summers in 72 years! And it was wonderful.

Since it’s the first day of Fall, we have cold gale winds. The garden is looking so good. I hope it survives. When the sun comes up, I’ll check and consider setting up barriers around the smaller plants again. Then rinse the sea salt and keep my fingers crossed. We’ll see if I take a walk today.