It’s true.
We are joining a farm CSA and are enjoying fresh milk, eggs, chicken, beef and veggies. It’s the end of the season so I made some borscht and home made bread with home made butter. OMG!
I’m near my sewing machine and started quilting again.
And today, I rode my bike to meet up with a great group of women (and one man) to walk up Gilligan Mountain and enjoy the views. My little bug net came in handy and protected me from the black flies, which are coming into their own. 
How about a faux moux?
Sent fom my Palm
I’m reminded of the differences between home and Australia daily. No huntsmen spiders or tiger snakes is one of them. Instead, I hear coyotes howling when I am in the hot tub and wonder what their plans are. The night sky is different. Orion is not a saucepan but is once again a sword bearing hunter. We no longer look for the Southern Cross and the pointers to find south but use the Big Dipper as a guide to the North Star. During the day, I have to remind myself that the sun comes from the south, no longer from the north. I still don’t even know how the toilets flush here or there. We’re trying to extend our healthy eating habits by investing in a local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) where we can get organic vegetables, meat and dairy products.
Scarlet Tanager
Yesterday, I enjoyed a walk with friends on a trail (not a track) led by naturalists on the Champlain Area Trail System (CATS). When we stopped chatting long enough to listen, we had lots of sites, plants and birds pointed out along the way. Here’s a red bird. It’s not a Beautiful Fire Tail or a European Goldfinch, or a Black Swan. It’s a Scarlet Tanager. It flew around the branches over our heads and belted out a beautiful song.
Many wildflowers were pointed out along the way as they began to bud but their names elude me. These were pretty yellow flowers.
I can’t believe we’ve been home a month already. We’ve been busy organizing and getting reacquainted with family, friends and our lovely home in the mountains.
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I made my first batch of cream cheese from a batch of yogurt that I heated too high and killed all that good bacteria. It was delicious on home made toast with jam. ‘ve got bread, bagels and, almost, english muffins perfected, I still need to get those nooks and crannies like Thomas’ does. Now that I’m discussing food, I imported ten boxes of Tim Tams and gave them away to a select few (and ate a couple of boxes myself with a little help from Tim). I was shopping in Brooklyn, NY and right at the checkout counter my son discovered Pepperidge Farms Tim Tams. Apparently they are an affiliate of Arnott, the original Tim Tam baker and sell them in the United States from October to April. So we can all enjoy the Tim Tam slam next winter and fill the void when the Girl Scout thin mints are all gone.
We’ve got a new visitor too. This pheasant seems to enjoy our house, walks up to the window and pecks and cleans up after the birds at the feeders
Not us, the birds. We are comfortably settling in at home and are adjusting to a life among people again. I am very happy to get to spend time with my family and to become reacquainted with friends.
The birds, however, are just moving in. A pair of blue birds checked out all the bird houses (five in total) and selected one on the fence. They got down to business and built their nest in it. The feeder has attracted goldfinches, chickadees, purple finches and blue jays. The northern flickers, robins and blue birds are dining on whatever they find in the grass.
In the meantime, we are having our own little Caddyshack battle. Moles are digging up the back lawn faster than Tim can flatten the mounds. He was even standing on one while it was still getting bigger. Soon there will be dynamite and those words, “Hello Mr. Mole, it’s just me Mr. Squirrel”.
Our two or three day journey begins today. We spent our last night in the camper van at the Christchurch airport. We fly to Auckland today, LA then NY tomorrow and will get to spend Sunday night in Brooklyn. We’ll run errands on Long Island then drive home on Tuesday. What a long, great trip it’s been.
My sense of humor remains the same. I took a picture of this town name on my last day in NZ last year. Not a good food association.
We’ve said a lot of goodbyes lately. Goodbye to the islands of the Bass Strait-Deal, Dover, Erith and Flinders; goodbye to the people we met; and now goodbye to Tasmania after four wonderful months. We loved how people here know how to embrace life with clean air, wonderful food, beautiful water and islands.
We spent a few days outside Hobart and I got to visit a fiber guild and then a day of dyeing. I needed a fiber fix with ladies. I’ve spent a lot of time hanging out with guys this summer doing manly things.
The wildlife is different from Deal Island, but interesting nonetheless. I never got any good photos of the Black Swans in Hobart.
These ladies laid some glorious eggs for breakfast.
We spent a morning in the brand new MONA in Hobart, the Museum of Old and New Art, which displays an interesting private collection. Tim’s favorite was the poo machine, which mimic’s the human digestive tract. It’s fed twice daily and produces once a day like clockwork, with the aroma to prove it.
Mine was the goldfish juxtaposed with a huge knife. 
I’ve heard the temperature has been 8 degrees celsius colder than the average summer temperature. I believe it. I only went in the water once and that was when a dinghy dropped us off in water up to our chests. All this beautiful turquoise water and I haven’t been swimming! I’ve worn wool on almost every day of my Tasmanian summer and often several layers. And now it’s fall.
Last night, there was loud scratching at all the windows. It sounded like a B horror film. I thought I heard someone whispering, “red rum, red rum”. This morning I found dragonflies attached to the house. Naturally, they are huge. The insects and spiders are all supersized here. The bull ants, huntsmen, beetles and dragonflies.
Mild rain was predicted last night. It poured and poured. Tim set buckets around the house while I slept. We recorded 62 mm this morning, which is the most we have had in one day during our stay. Actually it’s more than is recorded for entire months, even the winter ones.
Now we only hope that the sands haven’t washed down onto the jetty road. We thought we would spend our last few days here walking the walks. Instead we may be shoveling the sand, again. Where’s the ibuprofen…and my mittens?
I think I’ll wait until later to look.
We awakened yesterday to the smell of smoke. Not a good thing when you are trying to protect an island. There wasn’t lightening the night before so we thought if it was here, it would be from an open fire on one of the beaches. So we hopped in the ute and checked Winter Cove, where the campground is (and our recent sign, “No Open Fires”). No smoke or flames. We returned home but then as the day progressed, it got smokier and smokier. We went to the north beach, Garden Cove, where we doubted any boats were anchored because of the wind direction, no smoke or flames. Then we heard on the radio, there was a bush fire in Victoria. The smoke kept getting thicker and thicker here until our view of Erith island was obscured. The fire was 100 miles away but with a wind from the north and the pure air here, we smelled it like it was in our own backyard.
Island and North Country Life 