etc etc etc

Yes, I've just watched The King and I - a lot of cringing and a lot of marveling at Yul Brynner's body. I've also watched From Here to Eternity.  I despair of US culture, the adoration of the white man in uniform.  The rolling in the surf bit is the best bit and should have taken up at least half the film.  I also have to report on Daphne du Maurier's Rule Britannia.   Admittedly when I picked up this book from a book cupboard aka Street Library, I was confusing du Maurier with Josephine Tey...  I read this book incredulously.  It was du Maurier's last novel, written in 1972.  She writes of a joint government agreement to merge the UK and the USA to create one economic and military entity of English speaking nations, USUK, with Australia to join later.  Given I've always considered AUKUS to be better named USUKA this was right up my alley.  As were those Celts fighting against  the installation of American culture and control in Cornwall.  There are grating aspects to this novel but, gosh, I enjoyed reading it on New Year's Day.

I didn't make plans for NYE.  I thought I'd just wait to see what happens in Bellerive.  Would it be more than the two toots of a car horn that welcomed the year in Triabunna?  Around 9pm Jilly and I strolled to the bike path above the beach thinking we may be able to see the Hobart fireworks from there.  A number  of families had the same idea with many enjoying glow sticks and sparklers on the beach.  The fireworks started promptly at 9.30pm.  It was  joyous to watch them surrounded by children.

We walked home catching up with neighbours Fiona and Hudson en route.  Fiona bedecked us with glow sticks and invited us to toast marshmallows over a candle in her small courtyard.  We left before midnight, and then watched the Hobart midnight fireworks from my bedroom window and, simultaneously, the Sydney fireworks on iview.  Then a glass of bubbly to celebrate the most social NYE I've had in a long time.

midnight fireworks from the bedroom window

After such a grand start to 2026, I'm sharing other good omens:

the moon through my bedroom window, with curious reflections

 

double rainbows

red skies at night after glorious summer days

Georgia and Miya at Malcolm's dam near Triabunna

Jilly showing the way in best Aunty mode

Tonight's dinner - gnocchi with pesto made today thanks to the pot of basil  Her Majesty gave me for Christmas.  (I have no idea how I got that split half effect.)  The wine is a NZ sauvignon blanc.  Not my usual beverage but I was re-creating a meal The Easterers had on our first reunion at Lady Bay in 2009.  Bronny's PA had organised the accommodation, Corinne was into NZ wines, Heather loved Lady Bay, and I had a garden full of basil in Wentworth.  With age comes nostalgia.

Not forgetting Christmas

Christmas paraphernalia is scant at my place.  To be honest, I don't think anyone's noticed.

But I love it.  Everything is meaningful to me.

But I tore myself away to drive to Tribes on a warm but windy and showery Christmas Eve.  The warm roads evaporated the water to a low mist, and the drive was magical and mystical, fairytale-like.

My intention was to camp in Georgia's paddock, something I've been keen to do for some time.  However, Ella's room became available and I could avoid wrangling tent poles and canvas in the blustery wind.  The Andre Jamet tent was state of the art in the 1970s...  Apparently they are collectors' items now.  In another nod to the past, I had managed to find Tarrango wine.  Back in the days of living at 01 Queen Street in Bellerive, Tarrango was the wine we had for the Ceremonial Cutting of the Ham on Christmas Eve after Mrs History and I returned from carol singing with the Cottage School children.  That house is now part of the Cottage School, which is what we had always hoped.  [Christmas and nostalgia!] Anyway, cutting of the ham at Georgia's was a grand event.  Oscar had baked the ham and its deliciousness wafted from room to room.

Christmas Lunch was also a grand event with Georgia's Mum and her brother plus two of her sons and their girlfriends.  The most social Christmas I've had in a very long time.  Somehow I have failed to mention the 5 dogs🐕🐩🐶🐺🐾🐾none of whom looked anything like this, well maybe the paws.

Mid morning of Boxing Day was to be spent with Their Royal Highnesses just out of Tribes.  I had a lovely time whiling away the early morning reading John Donne in the sunroom aka atrium.  I have always enjoyed his poetry and it transpired that the book I had found among Georgia's books was my copy from school.  I think he may have been an ancestor of Mick Jagger...

Their Highnesses live in a home among the gum trees.  I love the drive out to it.  The cottage nestles in a field of potatoes.  Once it would have been exactly where I'd want to live.

This little chap kept Jill company, while Her Majesty and I drank tea and caught up.  And then the lovely drive back to Bellerive where all my presents awaited.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Perfect start to 2026.

I intend to spend the rest of the day reading this:

Bliss. XXXX🐾🐾

Festive Bellerive

Every alternate Sunday two hours are devoted to my friends' Jill and Steve's Fleurieu FM radio show.  Yesterday they thoughtfully reminded 'Maggie in Bellerive' that the first of the Sydney to Hobart yachts was hurtling its way down the Tasmanian East Coast.  Ever keen to be first with the news, the Newshound and I jumped into the car for a peruse.  It was a warm and windless day in Bellerive and we cruised The Bluff with all the windows down.

a tempting proposition had my car not been fixed

another house deemed worthy of Bellerive by an Arbiter of Taste

 from The Fort we could see boats but with insignificant white sails

Bellerive Beach actually looked like an Australian beach in Summer

We returned home energised by sun, sea and happy people.  I have discovered that afternoon sunshine pours delightfully into my bedroom.  Jilly and I often spend the afternoon there reading, especially when we should be doing something else.  Seize the day.

gratuitous shot of the current view when I wake up in the morning

fairies dancing in the afternoon light

At 6pm we strolled to the beach, dogs being beach-legal at that time.  Gasp!  A Big Black Sail!

Beach people confirmed that it was the first boat in.  Later I discovered that it was Comanche.  The Newshound was insistent that we walk back along the cliffs.  What a nose for news!  Looking seawards we could just make out another Big Black Sail.

So there we have it.  Witnessed Comanche take line  honours and LawConnect come in at second place.

I have to say the past few days have been perfect.  It really feels like summer holidays.

The woman with the black dog

Apparently I am known locally as The Woman with the Black Dog.  This is sufficiently accurate and mysterious to suit me just fine.  As you know, the black dog and I walk daily and spend a lot of time playing thwacky ball on the beach.

There are a lot of messages to pick up from the locals.

For some reason, Jill is insistent we walk along Kangaroo Rivulet after we've been to the library, even though this adds considerable time and steps to the venture.  Not important now we have the car but exhausting before.

after a long walk

Sadly for me, her recovery time is quick and she's soon ready for more adventure.  The library is her least favourite place and she has strong feelings about books.

Made obvious here - her toy, a gift from her favourite neighbour Fiona, plonked on my book, a farewell gift from the Triabunna Tivoli.

This book is an absolute treasure - a tome written in a most becoming and friendly voice.  A number of people have their beady eyes on it...and it shall accompany us to Triabunna for Christmas.

Black has been a recurring theme recently.  Steve introduced me to Nina Simone many years ago.

I was stunned by her song 'Young, Gifted and Black' and perplexed that this has not been picked up as an anthem. Well, I have become intrigued with the Kanneh-Mason family members since discovering they are 1/4 Welsh.

Mum, Kadiatu, has done it in her 2025 book.  I haven't read this one yet.

I'm still reading this one.  I can't imagine living in a family of seven children.  Kadiatu explains how the household worked with each child encouraged to fulfill their musical potential.  Mindboggling.

This one is also mindboggling but for totally different reasons.  A totally different family experience.  Here is a carefully constructed storyline with hilarious one-liners and heart racing encounters.  You think it must end up ok because it's written in the first person but its so filled with surprises, who knows? 

This is a book filled with knowledge as in The Knowledge that London cabbies are required to have  - that deep knowledge of what really goes on in a place.  It's a book every teacher should read. There are so many kids like August and Eli, and mostly we teachers don't see them.

The Car that Ate Barry

is back!  I still don't know how it happened.  I left my car with Barry the Mechanic for a service, as I have done for the past 11 years, and somehow Barry and my car had an entanglement.  Barry was taken to hospital with cracked ribs.  Three months later Barry's ribs have recovered, though he still has lumps and scars, and Azaria / The River Rat is back on the road

and looking respectable.  I see a lot of dingled cars driving around and now I understand why.  That repair job cost nearly $6000.  Fortunately Barry's insurance paid for it.  I also understand now the sheer convenience of having a car.  If I need something I can zoom out and get it.  Before, Jill and I would have to walk and that would be the one thing we achieved that day.

So, have car, will travel.  And off to Triabunna we drove for Maria Voices' Carols at Our Park.  I left Jill with Oscar, Miya and Bilbo Baggins at Georgia's.  Arriving at Our Park was like coming home.  It's wonderful when you know just about everyone.  This year was even better cos Georgia is in the choir.

setting the scene

the go-go girls

Georgia belts it out

Coll tries to read the music through multiple lenses

And through all this joyous madness, and despite the wintry weather, birds join us.  I am so lucky to be able to melt back into my old Tribes community but also have the anonymity of my Bellerive life.

Croc country

Bellerive Bardot has finally had the chance to assert herself.  She and a former rescue dog descend daily to the beach and, leaving her crocs in a secret rock space, wallow in the pleasures of sea and sand.

The tides make each day exciting and new.  In high tide we paddle through swirling waters at the base of the dunes.

Recently we were greeted by an exceptionally low tide,

revealing unexpected aspects of the coastline.

The beach is forbidden to dogs between 10am and 6pm during December to March so hordes of jolly dog walkers pound the sand before 10am each morning.  Balls, sticks and pine cones crisscross midair.  Most dogs have eyes only for their own missile.  Others have a more sporting attitude and give chase to all thrown objects.  Somehow it all works out.  Camaraderie rules, and we humans are all mindful of getting off the beach by 10am.  We reference Cinderella at midnight and South Australia's former 6 o'clock Swill.  Jilly has new friends: Tupac, Maude, Brian and Nell.  Olley she also knows from Triabunna.

A rainbow arced across the bedroom window this morning.  By the time we got to the beach, it was a wide brush stroke of colour washing Hobart and the mountain.  As we returned to collect my crocs, two pied oystercatchers called out and landed on the sand.  Good omens.

I have become a regular user of the library, borrowing books and dvds.  On one occasion I was there when a large group of adults and children were enjoying Toddler Story Time.  Two staff were presenting, one working a Bingo hand puppet, the other chanting 'I've got a dog, a counting dog, woof.  I've got a dog, a counting dog, woof woof.  I've got a dog, a counting dog, woof woof woof...' I think you've got the plot by now.  The children were so immersed.  It was magical for me knowing that the Jilly Pup was waiting outside, possibly counting the long minutes.

'Persepolis', a Graphic Novel, is the most impressive book so far.  Thanks to the lovely Ella (who is working on her own graphic novel) for telling me about this one and 'Maus'.

With my new found interest in Charmian Clift, this was an inevitable read.  It's a well written story but also a record of the research process, though I'm still dumbfounded that the author could find out so much in only a year.  I have to confess that I also have a liking for Gina Chick.  I'm not a fan of 'survival tv' but for some reason saw the show featuring Gina Chick in the Tasmanian wilds.  I loved her commitment to understanding and working with nature rather than considering it something to be overcome and conquered.  She won.

I'm also a great Heather Rose fan and slipped easily into the beautiful language and quiet observations of 'A Great Act of Love'.  It's a grand story but, I have to say, highly improbable.  And while we're on the subject, I read Erin Hortle's 'A Catalogue of Love'.  It's a book of mature realisations about relationships and living on Bruny Island.

I also had a great adventure with another Tasmanian book/author but I'll tell you about that some other time.