photography

Local swimming holes

/ one2travelfar / Leave a comment

20150316-183056.jpg

No sooner then we waved goodbye to the group of artists, we waved hello to a sailboat from The Lakes and another from Victoria.

Our plan had been to take a swim since it was sunny. We did. Here’s a picture of Tim continuing his laps. He’s the white splash in the right. I quit earlier when the rolling seas made me a little nauseous.

And here he us in the Ute, after we dropped off empty propane tanks on the jetty.

20150316-184129.jpg

We also swam in Winter Cove, on the east side of the island, the other day. We can pick a beach sheltered from almost every wind direction. One of the sailors reported the water temperature is about 65 degrees. It’s a shock initially, then feels great until you get out and the cool wind blows.
Wind is expected to pick up so those that are here will likely stay and we probably won’t get new visitors for a few days. The house is already creaking.

20150316-184758.jpg

I better keep exercising

/ one2travelfar / 3 Comments

20150315-182250.jpg

I had a chance to run this morning and chose the track to Winter Cove. We swam there a few days ago and it was lovely.

Here are some of my views along the way.

20150315-182310.jpg

20150315-182323.jpg

It literally took my breath away, largely by the beauty and partly by the uphill portions.

We’ve had lots of visitors since we landed. Eight artists from Flinders Island arrived the day after us and are staying in the visitors’ house. They have walked all over the island and plan to present a show on Flinders Island later this autumn. I’m sorry we’ll miss it.

There have been two groups of sea kayakers from Melbourne who left yesterday for Flinders Island. I hope they got an early start because we had wind gusts to 48 knots last night.

And a flotilla of motor boats with a total of 20 people spent the night. Not exactly a deserted island!

We are trying to swim most days before it gets too cold. What a treat.

Tim keeps me busy slaving away in the kitchen and garden. We’re stocked with fresh yogurt, homemade bread and there’s a barrel of stout fermenting away. The garden is providing tons of tomatoes and cucumbers are just coming in. I’m freezing tomato sauce, making tomato soup and prepared to make some pickles.

Today I made a batch of Anzac cookies from the Lighthouse Cookbook, which is a fundraiser for Friends of Deal Island. My daughter-in-law was sweet enough to order a copy for me before my first time here in 2010. You can find it here.
Anzac cookies are miraculous. They are an oat and flour cookie made without eggs and are held together with butter and golden syrup, which tastes like a combination of honey and light molasses. The cookies (biscuits) have been associated with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps since World War I. The have a long shelf life but I’m not sure they will be around that long because they’re delicious.

20150315-184431.jpg

Vistas

/ one2travelfar / 1 Comment

20150312-071155.jpg

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.

20150312-071330.jpg

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.

20150312-072944.jpg

Fiber ghosts

/ one2travelfar / 1 Comment

20141029-082436.jpg
My view as I ran an errand yesterday.

I have bought most of my weaving looms and sewing machines used, often directly from the previous fiber addict. It saddens me that I only met these women as they phase fiber arts out of their lives and sometimes moved away from this area.

I think of them as I use their tools. My wool carders have another woman’s name on them. My floor loom has stains where someone tried warp painting. A friend’s husband made my warping board – he’s passed away, I never met him but think of them both as I wind a warp.

Just yesterday I bought an 8 shaft Leclerc table loom from a weaver extraordinaire. Sadly her truck’s packed and she’s heading south after a few years here and our paths never crossed until now.

I am thinking of placing a personal ad.

Time to camp, reap and dye

/ one2travelfar / Leave a comment

Summer is almost over, the crowds have left and kids (and sorry, teachers) are back in school. So we took advantage of some time off and spent a few glorious days in the woods. We hiked to waterfalls, a gorge, lots of ponds and a mountain, with lots of swimming along the way.

20140906-133927.jpg

20140906-133954.jpg

20140906-134003.jpg

20140906-134013.jpg

I packed light with a pair of shorts with zip on legs. However, one zipper was broken and my exposed leg was enjoyed by many mosquitos at dusk. Luckily we had a bandage in our pack and I taped the leg to the shorts but couldn’t make any fancy moves for fear of another mosquito feast.

20140906-134327.jpg

We returned to my bountiful garden where there is not much left to do except remember to harvest now and then.

20140906-134446.jpg

20140906-134451.jpg

I’ve used some of my flowers to dye yarn with, so far, mildly disappointing results. I used colorful zinnias, dahlias and day lilies (with an alum mordant) all of which produced a yellow dye.

20140906-134702.jpg

I saw so many mushrooms during our hike, I want to learn about mycopigment. In the meantime, I’m soaking various lichen I have collected in ammonia to see what they produce. Early results are promising.

20140906-134905.jpg

Wild and weird

/ one2travelfar / Leave a comment

Summer ticks away. The garden is nourishing us. Today we had pizza with home grown tomatoes, purple basil and oregano (thank you Janice).

Sunflowers were planted for dyeing but they are too pretty to behead just now.

20140827-153610.jpg

I’ve been experimenting with my top load updraft gasification stove for cooking dyestuff outside. With my newest rendition, I boiled water in 6 minutes and had jets of gas burning across the top but won’t be able to sustain a flame for an hour. The “top loading” is the problem. You load sticks from the top, which means you have to keep lifting the large stock pot to add more fuel. Nope.

20140827-153911.jpg

20140827-153930.jpg
It did satisfy my pyro tendencies for a day however. Now I’m planning a cinder block rocket stove. There are lots of metal varieties but I don’t weld or snip metal very well.

I had to tell this American Carrion beetle, “I’m not dead yet!” It was marching across my front porch while I worked outside.

20140827-154408.jpg
They don’t usually have “tails”. Not sure what was coming out the back door but it was icky.

Spiders, coyotes and turkeys are up to shenanigans. The coyotes are becoming too bold; hanging around in broad daylight. Today Tim counted 33 turkeys cross the yard and I encountered this spider web down the road.

20140827-182804.jpg

20140827-182933.jpg

Sew old, sew new

/ one2travelfar / 1 Comment

I used my new(ish) serger and my antique treadle sewing machine to make a portable toddler high chair. I found the pattern at Made by Marzipan. It won’t fit every chair but may fit most. I had something similar when my kids were babies and found it very useful.

20140806-210815.jpg

20140806-210823.jpg

My next one may use a longer wrap to accommodate all chair shapes. I ‘ll see how this one works first.

There was a coyote in the field across the road this afternoon. I’m usually casual about leaving my cat, Loki, out when it’s light but saw this disturbing video today and rustled him inside. They’re howling outside as I write.

Flowers are blooming. I haven’t had the heart to pull off their pretty heads to create dye baths.

20140806-213040.jpg

20140806-213048.jpg

20140806-213054.jpg

Maybe next year. So far, I have only processed purple basil; there wereno flowers to sacrifice.

Sailing lessons

/ one2travelfar / Leave a comment

More specifically, sailing knitting lessons. Lesson number one. Save colorwork for calm moments. Multiple balls of yarn become a tangled mess when thrown into the cabin when all hell breaks loose.

Lesson number two. Time flies and you’ll never accomplish all you plan.

20140802-194436.jpg

Lesson number three. Enjoy these moments.

Best view in the Park

/ one2travelfar / 2 Comments
Perfect place to swim after dinner. I did.

Perfect place to swim after dinner. I did.

 

IMG_9650

Can you guess this mountain's name? Can you guess this mountain’s name?

Shaded mountain

This may be it. These photos don’t really do it justice.  Elk Lake Is a pristine lake surrounded by, dare I say, majestic mountains. We arrived in the afternoon and paddled a canoe for a bit.  Then we retired to cocktails on the porch, dinner and a swim. Nice day.