froggy in the window

A quiet weekend spent catching up with washing and gardening after being away last weekend and rain most of the week.  The sight of Jill's frog amused me.  She enjoys sitting on the couch in the sun room and apparently had put her frog on the window sill.  Possibly to amuse the horse in the opposite paddock  who seems to have had a wet and lonely week - nothing anthropocentric about me.  I acquired the frog after helping out at our local market.  The stitching had come apart and so he was unsaleable.  Jill has spent many a happy hour disemboweling him.  I have now sewn him up and he is the inside toy, though she thinks he is a bit tame now.
I have been to a couple of markets since then, including sharing a stall with my friend Barb.  Barb whips up crocheted hats and children's aprons.  I sold Steve's cards.  One day I will remember to take photos while I'm there.

Stash 4

I am spoiling you.  I'm brimming with bonhomie cos I just got a clean bill of health from the doctor (and hopefully I'm not jinxing myself) and I forgot to tell you that the Woodbridge Nursery has inspired me to be The Primula Queen of Triabunna.  I had no idea there were primulas other than the pink and white 'instant colour' ones you see in Bunnings, etc.  Have a look at vialii, chorister and co.

Totally unrelated apart from the fact I love it is my birthday present from Georgia - her polar bear print.  By coincidence Georgia gave me the print the same week this article appeared in our local paper.  The gist of it is that we need to accept that there are places where we humans are not top dog and respect the right to be of animals such as polar bears in Norway and sharks in Australia.

Reporting in

hmmm could have done better.  Had a busy week last week with many lovely moments including the soiree to celebrate Triabunna's Tidy Town win and Jill's playdate with Dexter, a four year old Pointer type dog whose energy far exceeds his mistress'.  A situation which we share.  Of course I totally forgot to take photos.
Friday it was off to Abel's Bay to stay at Green Bean's 'shack' and relish her glorious cooking and many gardening magazines.  Heaven.

We think the white foam line is caused by the Huon River water meeting the sea.

Mr Green Bean feeds kookaburras under watchful eyes.

Later on Saturday morning The Bean and I went off to the Woodbridge Nursery which had featured a week or so ago on Gardening Australia.  It did not disappoint.  I bought poppies and ixias which I've never seen in a nursery before and always thought I'd have to purloin from someone's garden.

This photo hardly does it justice.  It is small but beautifully landscaped and has inspired me to re-think our garden, yet again.

This is beautiful country with lots of small holdings of organic produce and heritage apples.  That night The Bean whipped up a blackberry and apple pie for dessert.  A lovely, lovely decadent weekend.

a few of my favourite things

I have to lift my game blog-wise.  It's not that there is nothing to blog about but I just get caught up in it all and forget to take photos.  This place is so beautiful I've got a bit blase about it.  So I have resolved to notice the ordinary on a more regular basis...

Rain is far from ordinary here lately.  This was the start of it - lovely on the tamarisk but already affecting the rose at the front gate.  We've had rain on and off for about 4 days now.

I've taken to driving to Hobart via the Coal Valley and Richmond.  Here you see pastures of lettuces for Houston salad-leaf products in the very late afternoon.

Definitely favourites:  Cointreau and lime; East Coast grown walnuts and 3 chosen ones who've had their portraits done by Ms Green Bean; and one of the tea-light holders bought to replace those damaged when gusty winds caught the outside candelabra.

Thwarted weekend

On Saturday Steve, Jill and I were to go into Hobart.  I wanted to catch a film at the French Film Festival and Steve and Jill were going to do some walk inspired art somewhere.  Sort of fortunately I phoned ahead to book a ticket and was told that the screening was fully booked out, imbecile.  So we decided to go to the Bream Creek Market, held on the first Sunday of the month instead.  A May Day market among happy, healthy hippie people would surely be a delight.  We may never know.  It rained overnight, the first time in yonks, and sadly there had been a two car accident before Buckland.  Police, ambulance and fire service all in attendance and all traffic stopped.  We waited for a while and then decided we didn't need to get to Bream Creek that desperately and maybe it was kinder to everyone if we turned around and went home.  It may be age but I also think my time with the SES made me realise how much we take emergency services for granted.
So I have finished my 5 library books and can return them on Tuesday after Zumba.  One of the books is M*A*S*H which I never liked as a tv series and don't like much better for having read the book.  However it did make me think of the decisions that have to be made in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital and I did find the surgical procedures fascinating.  Never thought I would.  The Floosie would probably love the pages-long description of a football game.  Spare me.
Sandrine La Belle phoned at 3pm for afternoon tea and a beautiful rainbow curved around the village.

The Stash 3

It's wildly exciting to get home and find a parcel from Spain waiting for you.  Carefully unwrapped it revealed a lovely light pink scarf with owls on it.  I fell in love immediately.  When Momery Twigg (now Spanish Rose) and I were children a lady would occasionally walk past our houses with her hair and poodle dyed to the same pastel colour.  I thought the pink particularly stylish for a poodle and suitable for old ladies...

You know that I love owls and this book had jumped out at me at the library.  I like Janet Frame  as an author, and the title I recognised as from a Shakespeare poem that my Dad spouted occasionally.  I admire Janet Frame.  Let me quote a bit from the blurb:  'She wrote her first book, The Lagoon and Other Stories, in 1946 while working as a live-in maid and studying part-time at university.  When the collection was published in 1952 and won a prestigious literary prize, Frame's doctors cancelled a lobotomy they had planned for her.'  She led a precarious life.
This post was going to lead into my first day at my new Thursday job at the local school but it is eclipsed by this article http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2016/apr/28/the-day-the-war-came-poem-about-unaccompanied-child-refugees?CMP=share_btn_tw which Bronnie sent and see also Jackie Morris' blog post 'Empty Chairs'.  My day at school was fine.

The Second Stash

I know I've shown you these pictures before but I have to take you back to Adelaide.  On the first Monday after daylight saving ended, when it is easy to be up early,  I spent a lazy morning reading the Watchman on the porch.  Curled on the bench in the green shade of Mum's huge hibiscus, it was easy to imagine I was in The Deep South.  On another day I lolled on the bed reading and eating Easter egg in the late afternoon sun, my feet resting on the westerly window sill.  True bliss.
Yet another day I caught the bus into town, astonished that I could travel free as a Senior, bought my lunch at Subway where I was offered a Senior Discount (which is good though a little hurtful) and met Lily Mimosa at the uni for lunch.  Adelaide Uni has changed so much.  I watched a hapless young student try fruitlessly to get students to sign a petition protesting against the proposed lowering of the income at which student loans must be repaid.  No-one signed and only 2 acknowledged her existence.  In the loos I discovered squat toilets as well as traditional Western ones.  LM is studying Mechanical Engineering and finds the lecturers' accents difficult.  Programming apparently revolves around mattresses and radishes.
But I digress.  H Bells and Co gave me my divine Christmas and birthday presents.

The possum scarf brought back lovely memories of a similar chap bought for Georgia in Launceston many, many years ago.  The gardening gloves remain unused because they are so beautiful, but the day will come.  The empty jar had contained exquisite chocolate covered coffee beans which Watkins had discovered at the Central Market.  The chocolate is cappuccino flavoured.  Sadly Steve thought they were scrumptious.  Luckily I thought the Moroccan Jam and spicy eggplant chutney that were his presents pretty yummy too.

And what, I hear you ask, is in the purple prezzie?  Well, that photo was taken upon my return to Tribes where that gift awaited me.