The day the Mercedes died!

Its been decided that the Mercedes is no more... The timing chain has broken with pieces of it dropping way down into the engine and are irretrievable. The only option is a new engine. Not viable on a 1982 model car! Apparently we can get about $150.o00 for it for scrap.......but it costs about that to tow it away!!!! We will have to ponder. l know of a company that carts them away for free so that might be our only option....
What we do next we haven't decided. Probably sell the Ute as that was only ever meant to be a farm Ute not an everyday vehicle. We shall then probably have to buy a better one that can do the job of the two cars...........lucky l decided not buy the Shire horse..........!

RIP old girl!

Its the little things!

Today at work the Manager came up to Geoff and told him there was a parcel for him upstairs! Unusual ! We don't get mail at work as a rule!He went upstairs and came down with a package. We opened it up and out came a CD. It was from some lovely friends of ours who live in Hobart. The CD was a new album by an artist who they introduced us to last year.What a lovely kind thought.... Little things like that mean so much. It means..... l heard this and l thought of you..... l heard this and thought you might like it too!
Geoff was quite touched.
Its the little gestures like that can make someone's day just that little bit more special.............. whether its a CD

Or  a couple of bars of my favourite English chocolates  Mum brought over with her when they came round for dinner!

Thank you!

Sugar Cane from Afar!

Today Geoff was at work as usual and l got stuck into boring stuff like housework and washing!!! Once the day had fined up l ventured outside and mowed all the lawns. Not so much because they needed mowing ,more to pick up all the Walnut leaves that are falling by the thousand!!!  " The Worlds Longest Flowerbed With Absolutely Nothing In It " is now finally mulched the entire length and breadth with a mixture of lawn clippings, leaves and shredded sugar cane! Its strange to think how far this mulch has come and how different the climate is from where it began to where its ended up!
Tropical Queensland...........To damp Tasmania!

Anyway some of it is now on my long flowerbed so l don't have to worry about weeds and grass growing through as all my lovely manure rots down over Winter to make THE richest most fertile flower beds ever!!

Of course l do have the mammoth task then come Spring, to FILL the 23 metres of bed!!! All it has in it at the moment is an old wrought iron bedhead and the lump of metal and wood l found! l whizzed around with the secateurs this afternoon and collected a few cuttings of old faithfuls like daisies and geraniums. Hopefully they will take off and give me some free fillers!

l potted these a month or so ago given to me from a lady at work. No idea what they are but they all seem to have done ok. Violets l think? l shall stick them in the ground anyway and we shall see!!!

Its a start!!!!!

Talking of Tropical.......check out the Avocado!! l found it lost amongst the Maple trees and Pittosporums  (or PissedOffAgains as we call them as neither of us can pronounce the silly word!) seedlings. Geoff must have stuck an Avocado stone (seed ,whatever its called!!!) in a pot and its worked! l seem to recall somewhere in the back of my non gardening mind that an Avocado in Tasmania needs to be inside for at least the first two years of its life! l shall have to follow that up and look after it a bit! Can't imagine its going to like the frosts here!

The goats sat in the Sun. Enjoying the warm Autumn afternoon while l was doing all this activity!!!

Best friends...........so sweet!

Lest We Forget

Today, many Australians young and old, dragged themselves out of bed before the sun came up to head to their local War Memorial to pause a while in the cold ,possibly the rain or maybe still up in the warm tropics and commemorate ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Day. It is the anniversary of the landing of troops from Australia and New Zealand on the Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey, in World War I on April 25, 1915. The Dawn Service held in Franklin was small by most standards. About 70 people turned out in the drizzling rain.

It was really quite moving when the Last Post started as l was expecting a tape recording of it! Out of the shadows emerged a man l have not seen around here before. He played the Last Post  standing behind us out of sight with his umbrella propped up against the bench as the cars drove by on the highway. It was quite moving!

Here are a few beautiful old photos taken in Gallipoli of Cpl A J Jones Soldier No.100 in the Australian Army. The grandfather of a friend of ours who has an amazing collection of his photographs and diaries kept for the entire duration of the War.

 His Grandfather

Photo taken of the landing taken by a friend of Cpl Jones who was later killed by friendly fire

 A 'bush' telegraph pole

An amazing collection.lest we forget....

A Dilemma

Last week l went to see a horse for sale. Bad idea really as he was way waaaaaaay more money then l would ever consider spending on a horse. He is a 17.3 hand high (huge!) jet black pure bred Shire Horse. The very first gelding to be born in Tasmania in fact. Shires haven't been firmly established in Australia for very long at all. l think the breed all but died out after the First World War and it wasn't until the late 1980's that a stallion was brought out from England to re establish the breed over here. Hence they are still expensive! Clydesdales are cheaper! They are a lot faster moving and active walkers then the steady Shire so they were more desirable as a breed to cover the enormous distances out here. There are probably thousands of Clydesdales available in Australia today but still only a large handful of Shires.....let alone black ones..............

He's up in really high country the other side of Hobart. He's a bit on the lean side but would end up just magnificent with a heap on condition on him....................but ...........he's soooo expensive!!!!!!!!
l am sure though however my old friend Barbara if she is reading this will say he's not expensive at all especially as he is only 5 years old, broken in to saddle AND harness!!!! AND l have ALWAYS wanted a Shire (a black one at that!), ever since l used to ride one in England when l was about  18 years old.

This is his Dad, a stallion called Ingleside Dancer. Now he really IS magnificent and unusual to have hardly any white markings at all. He stands up in Northern Tasmania.

This is what a Shire generally looks like with a bit more condition on them as opposed to being lean and lanky like Eclipse is at the moment.

Anyway the man who owns him has fixed his price Dropped it by $1000 as l think he liked me and knew l would look after him and was happy he would stay in Tasmania as opposed to being shipped to the Mainland. l also think l have been his only offer as the amount of people who WANT such a vast beast is probably quite limited !!! l also know though he has knocked a few people back as he didn't feel they had any experience with heavy horses and he is definitely sentimentally attached to the horse! Hard not to be... he was so gentle and sweet! (The horse not the man!!!)

A dilemma.............a bank loan??? Or no ViewFields Total Eclipse?? Let me sleep on it.......

A Creepy Evening Walk!

This evening after work Geoff and l went for a walk around the paddocks. When we left the house there was the tiniest wisp of mist creeping across the paddock.It gave the whole place an eerie atmosphere! Every photo l took was sort of creepy!!! Even this photo, the colours gave it a kind of 'Frenchmans Farm' feel!!

Geoff walking down the track after going up to the house to refill my wine glass! HE looked creepy, the goats ghost like!

The pear tree in the middle of the paddock. Where are those black Ravens?

Looking like some sort of crazy mountain man!!

Weirder still was these photos were taken in almost total darkness! Yet every shot the sky came out way lighter then it actually was......creepy??

Thank goodness when we came inside the house was warm, orange and cheerful and Buddha was smiling!!

Fainting Sheep?

Today we brought the goats in a bit early and trimmed up their hooves. Lizzie's were getting a bit long so we decided to do them all at the same time. We put them in the sheep pen and of course didn't they just LOVE it!! Toggles got onto the Milking Stand straight away and thought it was great fun! Somewhere new!!!

She stuck her head in the crush and thought it was all very interesting!

Tinks on the other hand tried to get the electrocution thing happening and was straight up onto the (foolishly placed) painting platform and was into the wires, the ropes and the cords for the lights and the pump!

Our sweet little Lizzie did nothing .She just sat down and contentedly chewed the cud. Why can't they ALL be like that????

They were all very well behaved especially Lizzie who is always a bit more nervous then the rest.The Milk Stand worked a treat too! Much easier then last time we did the sheep!!

After we finished the goats feet we decided to bring in the sheep  as it had been some time since we last checked over them. Not too bad but a funny moment when one of them (l think it was one we ingeniously named "Little Girl...." because she was.......once.........) came off the stand and lay down........and wouldn't move! Just sort of in a trance, a bit like a Fainting Goat in fact! Well maybe not QUITE as funny as a Fainting Goat but nearly!!

We had to physically hoist her up and send her on her way! Some sheep ARE stupid.Trust me!

We only had  enough daylight to do a couple more and check on old Omar who we think might have been stabbed by a goat horn as he has a hole in his head poor thing. We cleaned it up and it seems ok so we just need to keep an eye on it. It might get to a stage when the goats can no longer run with the sheep because of their horns. We shall see.

And a few pictures of Fainting Goats in case you have no idea what l was on about! Google them! They really are the saddest little things!!!

Obliging Birds!

l sat and had my coffee and cereal this morning bathed in the most beautiful light....have l ever mentioned how stunning the light is up here? ,..........maybe once or twice??

Anyway l was treated to a couple of very pretty  parrots (excuse my ignorance if they are Rosella's, Parakeets etc etc....l have no idea.....l just call them all parrots!!) They sat and chatted away while l sipped my coffee with the light streaming in behind them, They were most obliging and didn't fly off until AFTER l got my camera!

Looking out the window.

The Goat Shed looking quite quaint and dilapidated from this angle!

And treated this afternoon to two Peregrine Falcons who landed on the pile of reeds at the back of the paddock. MORE obliging birds as they waited for me to run to the house this time to get my camera! A bit blurred but they were a long way away!