Vistas

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We’re unpacked, mostly, and settling in. I’ve made bread, yogurt and an apple pie. Just like home. But nothing like home.

There are wallabies everywhere we turn and breathtaking vistas. We walked to my favorite spot on the island, Barn Rock, where there is a good overview of the island, great views of adjacent Erith and Dover Islands and cliffs. One photo shows the compound, which includes the living quarters, museum, school building and sheds.

I took a good look at the garden and it’s great. I pulled the last of the carrots and green beans. There’s still rhubarb, lettuce, tons of tomatoes, cucumbers, silverbeet, beetroot and young beans, carrots, beetroot and broccoli.

Sadly I touched stinging nettles while pulling carrots. It’s a variety that is worse than at home. I only touched it with the side of my index finger and I’ve had tingling nerve pain and numbness since yesterday. Now I can definitely identify the plant. At least I could still knit.

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20150312-072908.jpgThere are several rock cairns on the island. I have to review the history but I think some were originally placed by Captain Bligh, of Mutiny in the Bounty fame, when he surveyed Deal Island.

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Unpacked

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Our days of living out of suitcases and backpacks are over. We left Whitemark, Flinders Island today at 0500 and caught the Strait Lady in Lady Barron. She gave us a very bumpy ride, during which I was airborne at least once, and Captain James decided to take cover in a sheltered harbor to give time for the wind to lighten and the seas to calm. We found the perfect harbor at Whitemark, two and a half hours after our first departure. Fine with me. We had coffee and I gathered ingredients to home brew a batch of stout since a kit had been left on the island.

Back to the boat and a lovely ride to Deal. We landed at 2:30, unloaded, said hi and goodbye to the departing caretakers headed up the hill to the house and unpacked our clothes and food for 3 months. Then we cooled off with a swim in the cove.

Deal is as beautiful as I remember. As I write this I hear the penguins making their penguin noises in their burrows. I’m heading to my own burrow now. Good night.

We’re out of here

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We got the word the boat leaves tomorrow at 0500 and We’ll be on it. The date was actually selected 6 months ago. We thought we might get an early break in the weather but it wasn’t meant to be.

We enjoyed a quiet day on Flinders Island. It’s early autumn and today is Labour day so most businesses were closed. Funny how our Labor day correlates with the first Monday in Fall.

We saw more beautiful views and I finally took a photo of sheep. What took me so long. It’s all been lovely but we’ve been in a state of suspended animation. Tomorrow the real Deal begins!

We’ll be quickly joined by a group of artists from Flinders Island for about a week, including at least one fiber artist. Should be fun.

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Hop, skip and a jump

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We took a puddle jumper flight from Launceston, TAS to Flinders Island and what a flight it was. There was a fresh breeze, 30 knots or so, and we were buffeted about in the sky like a butterfly, to quote Tim. I was pressing Master of the Heart 6 (the acupuncture point for motion sickness) most of the way and had nail marks in my arm from the pressure.

We finally (only a 30 minute flight) prepared for landing, descended, touched lightly then flew off again. Apparently birds were occupying the landing strip and we had to have another go around. We landed safely and were greeted by friends with a car for use during our stay on the island.

So now we are driving a manual transmission, on the left, while sitting on the right. We can’t drive during twilight hours because wallabies hop all over the roads and in the morning are strewn about as roadkill.

So now we wait for calm(er) seas and light(er) wind to take the boat to Deal Island. In the meantime we are exploring beautiful Flinders Island with lovely beaches, mountains and people.
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Perhaps my mohair woolen blanket will be finished before we leave.

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We’ve checked our good purchases and they look fine. We’re delayed until at least Tuesday so I should be able to add some fresh vegetables to the collection before we leave.

We’re not in Kansas anymore

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These signs are fairly common in public restrooms.

We’re in Launceston, Tas today in anticipation of our flight to Flinders Island tomorrow. We hiked in Cataract Gorge, a city park, and took a 90 minute walk. We saw peacocks and wallabies along the way.

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Yesterday Tom hiked to another cape while I explored Port Arthur, where some of the tougher convicts were transported when they were shipped to Australia in the 1800’s.

It’s near the most southern part of Tasmania. The wind howled and the setting was eerily stunning.

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We saw black swans on while driving up the coast. Clearly our world is upside down.

Trail work

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We took a lovely walk yesterday to Cape Hauy in the Tasman National Park. The Park seems to have a combination of public and private land, just like the Adirondacks, but that’s where the similarities end. The entire track is improved with graded walks and steps, at least a mile of them.

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The views of the Southern Ocean from these giant cliffs was spectacular. I had to lay on my stomach to look over the edge. We passed, or rather they passed us, a school group who took the trip there and back during their school day.

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We could see the lighthouse on Tasman Island off in the distance.

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I stopped at a conservation park on our way back and finally saw Tasmanian Devils. Everyone from home asks us if we have seen them and, until yesterday, we had only heard them at night during our trek on the Overland Track.

Well, they are adorable and ferocious. This little guy was gnawing on a wallaby carcass.

20150304-074042.jpg then he would sprawl out in the straw and take a break. They suffer from a viral induced cancer, similar to cervical cancer, and healthy devils are released on the Tasman Peninsula because they can remain isolated from the virus.

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Funny, I’ve been knitting a hat with a devil on it.

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Tasman peninsula

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We’re taking a vacation during our vacation and headed south to the Tasman peninsula. I’ve been sampling salt and pepper squid along the way, which is one of my favorite meals here.

We lunched in Hobart with dear friends and saw the new Antarctic Research vessel at the dock. Next stop, Antarctica.

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It was in the company of other historic vessels.

We slept to the sound of waves hitting the beach and creating tesselated rocks.

After a breakfast of Weet-Bix, which tastes like shredded wheat but is in the form of flakes that are compressed together and is very good, we’re setting off to bushwalk and explore.

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Flight to summer

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After a mere 25 hours of travel, we arrived in Hobart, Tasmania, where it’s summer. Not hot, hot but there isn’t 2 feet of snow underfoot.

During one flight, I watched five movies(!) and a tv show. I may not be able to recall the plots or even titles but it helped pass the time. Plus we were fed on each flight, including one which was so short, the flight attendants ran down the aisles, tossed us our meat pies and quickly gathered our trash.

After I recovered from jet lag, yesterday I traveled to a fiber show in Bothwell where I got to see the fleece from an internationally known sheep. Shaun escaped shearing for seven years before he turned up on a cattle ranch in Tasmania. It was a wonder he could stand under the weight of all that wool, 14 inches long!

There were felted animals with amazing detail, beautiful lace work and weaving. I didn’t have room in my luggage for a fleece but managed to squeeze in a few silk cocoons.

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Loose ends

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Instead of packing, I’ve been preparing yarn, weaving, finishing Loki’s cat collar and doing my daughter’s taxes. If that’s not enough, yesterday, I tried to add some of Tim’s music to my antiquated ipod classic with my old, dinosaur of a computer from 2005, an iBook, which has 3 gb of free space.

It crashed resoundingly. Itunes couldn’t find any music on my ipod and itunes couldn’t (wouldn’t) even connect to the internet to restore (wipe it completely and start from scratch) it. I was stuck. So instead of doing what I really needed to do, I spent 6 hours learning about hidden files and firmware. I found out what “generation” iPod I had, the great grandpappy, found and downloaded the operating system, got it onto the iPod and was back in business, albeit with an empty iPod. But…I had all my music backed up on an external hard drive that only my ancient computer could read. 80 GB iPod and 3 GB computer is not a match made in heaven. But I got the job done and listened to music on an adorable AYL speaker.

It’s a long flight to Australia. I need music and now I have it, and some of Tim’s as well. Now I’ve been a happy Apple stockholder for some time but don’t think I should be forced into updating and upgrading to go along with planned obsolescence.

Over the course of the week, I wound 2 balls of cobweb yarn totaling more than two miles! I plan to make a 2 mile long shawl over the next 3 months. 2 miles of yarn for a 2 yard shawl. Should keep me occupied.

I cut 6 towels off my loom today (I don’t have time or patience for the seventh (and I’ll return to a warped loom) and will finish them tonight to be distributed at my will.

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At my daughter’s insistence, I added a breakaway feature to Loki’s collar. He’ll be so happy. Tim reminds me he’s never seen a cat hanging by its collar.

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Sorry for the blurry photos, I may start using a real camera again. Iff to finish some towels, clean the refrigerator, all sorts if Friday night fun.