Random photos from a lovely weekend!

A great weekend.Well not that great for me.. l worked all of it! But made up for by lovely quality time with Geoff when l got home each night. He worked exceptionally hard all of his two days off. He brush cut miles of paddock fence lines and cut and split the last of the wood! Wonderful! It's lovely to know now that the wood is in the shed (sort of!) split and ready to burn for the long cold winter ahead!

The sight that greeted me as l pulled into the yard when l came home from work.No more logs lying all over the yard! Hooray

The very last pile................................

We scrubbed out the water troughs in the big paddock as they were getting a bit slimy on the bottom. The water pressure from the Rivulet is so great l have to put a large rock on the corner of the hose when it is filling up to prevent it flipping all over the place like some giant worm!!

 Ably assisted by goats of course!!!!

It really makes you appreciate the value of unlimited water on a property as opposed to only being able to have enough animals that your water tanks will allow to supply!

 

This afternoon when l got home we headed off into the top paddock DESPITE the frequent occurrence at the moment of a very large Wedge Tail Eagle over the house!

The main problem we have up there are blackberries! We are starting to resurrect the electric fencing that is all in place and surrounds the property. It's been neglected for probably 3 or 4 years and the weeds and blackberries have grown almost out of control. Obviously when they cover the electric wires they provide a constant short which stops the fence from operating. Geoff spent 3 hours today clearing one fence line alone.

But even Geoff and the Wonder Whipper Snipper were stopped by....................THE Blackberry Bush from Hell!!!! About 8 metre across and just as wide, it straddles the winter creek making it impossible to climb through, cut, walk over or burn!!!! Serious consideration as to how to destroy this little number will be taking place these next few days!!! It starts here.................

And finishes here........................................dense........high.........thick.................. and very VERY prickly.............

We need it to be like this to get the fence to work......we have a lot of work to do!!!

Our goats don't help.......................................

Toggles simply clambered THROUGH the fence and ate the grass on the next door neighbours property!! Great! Nice one Togs!

 We all headed home to tackle it tomorrow.

A pretty flower has just appeared in the garden though!!

Wood Heaters

This morning l am off to Hobart to look at wood heaters! We have a wood heater here which is built into the old chimney. It's lovely and cosy to sit in front of but we are a bit concerned that it won't be enough to heat the rest of the house on the coldest winter nights! The previous owners we think used mainly electric heating but that's not an option we like or want. Of course, being ME l don't WANT a sleek modern efficient wood heater!!! They are completely unattractive and boring ..............................

 l want a weird old quirky strange one! l had a look on the Internet and found some fabulous ones...............................mainly in America though and most of them either $1000's of dollars or not even in working order! l can dream though! Have a look at this! Isn't it just gorgeous!!!

This one is a bit odd even for me!

 See.....................................Showrooms of the things.....in the States!!!! These look like Darleks!!

This is stunning!!!! Ghastly, over the top and overly ornate ...............but very beautiful all the same!

 This is IDEAL!!..............but European and very expensive! Sigh!!!!

We are very limited over here and even more so down here on our own little Island!! Pretty interested in this one though l found which is available in Hobart. It's for small areas and more interesting then most!!!

The other possible option which is a bit cheaper is this rather boring little number but it looks sort of old! l will throw the dogs in the car and head off and see how l go!

Apples

Its Apple time down here in the Huon Valley. What relatively few orchards are still here are overloaded with apples of every colour. Huonville is forever full of back packers from around the world who get work picking.Its hard work but they can earn good money if they stick at it.

 

The roads are full of ancient old trucks weighed down with crates on their way to the docks or cool stores for shipping. You never dare be late for work as Sods Law will have it that you get stuck behind one and have to follow it the whole way into town and some of them don't go very fast!!!

 

Road side stall are everywhere so woe betide any local who buys their apples from Woolworths! Mind you, one of Woollies biggest apple suppliers is in fact one of the Orchards down here! They get picked here, shipped to the Mainland then distributed out of the Woolworths warehouses back down to within 5 k's from where they were picked! Crazy hey? 

l pass these towering mountains every time l go to work. Its incredible to think they are all going to get filled! That's a lot of apples!

And l had to laugh......l snapped this shot of Geoff (making a delicious dinner last night) and compared it with the shot of the kitchen when we first moved in!.....A big difference!!!! We sure are Clutter Bugs!!!

Sunday.

We woke this morning to find 'Queen Pushka' draped over the new chair l bought last week in the bedroom! Not only draped over the chair itself but also all the cushions that sit on the bed during the day which get hurled across the room onto the chair at night! All the velvet and gold made her feel quite regal l think!!

When l drove through Franklin on my way to work l just had to stop to take a photo of this rather handsome rooster and his three girls outside the local pub. How they never get run over on that busy highway is beyond me!!!

When l got home l went 'parental visiting!!"and left Geoff in the barn with loud music, a bottle of wine, a huge blank canvas and some paint!! Hoping he is going to create some masterpiece for the art exhibition at the Focus on Franklin Festival which is coming up in the next few weeks http://www.focusonfranklin.org/. He did some interesting backgrounds and now l wait with anticipation to see what evolves over the next few days!! l got home and we grabbed a bottle of Champers and had a lovely amble over the property. Went to a few corners we hadn't been to for a while, lay down in the grass and got trampled,squished and sat on by our beautiful goats,marvelled and loved their attachment to us humans and wandered in for a very late meal at 10pm! Should be up for some interesting dreams tonight l think after Chicken Schnitzel at that hour!!!All in all a lovely Sunday!

Oh yes the little Wren died, as was expected. She lived through the night , had another drink on Sunday morning but died some time during the day.At least she died warm and quietly.

Tiny Wren

Today on my way home from work as l was driving along the Huon Highway l flashed past what looked like a little rock in the middle of the road in between the two white lines. As l past it l glanced to the right and to my horror saw it was a tiny tiny little female wren.

l had to go a fair way on before l could turn around, l past her again and saw she was still alive. Then l had to go further along before l could turn around AGAIN so l could pull up along side her. Its a fairly fast stretch of road so l had to be a bit careful!
l had to wait for about 6 cars to go past before l could run across and scoop her up. The force of each car passing her buffeted the poor thing around but luckily she never moved.
She's still here,in a box. Surprisingly she had a good drink from a dropper to which l added a tiny amount of electrolytes and sugar. l don't expect her to be alive in the morning but at least l am happier knowing she is safe, warm and quiet and not stuck in the middle of a highway with metal monsters flying past. Poor little thing and she's just soooooooooooo tiny!

And thank you to Andrew for stopping to check all was OK!

Willow Court

Today Mum, my Aunt Gill and l headed off on an 'antique shop' day out! We drove to New Norfolk. Home of the huge Willow Court Antique Centre.'Willow Court' itself is a superb old stone building which was built as a military hospital in 1830-31.It was originally built as a location where invalid convicts could be housed.
It was named so because Lady Franklin planted a willow in the courtyard. Willow Court was part of the former Royal Derwent Hospital and was the oldest mental hospital in Australia.It closed only in 2000 and is said to be the most haunted set of buildings in the country. Most of it today is sadly derelict and falling into a worse state of disrepair as each year goes by. Broken windows, rotting verandas. It's all there and its such a shame as the whole enormous complex is just beautiful.

The Antique Centre as it stands today

A photo of it in the early 1900's

 Derlict and vandalised

The Antique Shop itself though is fabulous!Some of the stuff was just plain bizarre and weird.....

l liked this but maybe a tad too big?

 Now this l would SERIOUSLY love in corner of the garden

You can even come here and buy a motorbike!!

This lamp was my absolute favourite but would find it eternally difficult to justify spending $1550 on it!!!!

This amazing old Morris! Not sure how old it was but the cigarette smoking mannequin in the drivers seat made us all jump!

 Glassware galore............................

And of course the traditional antiques... the sort of stuff you would EXPECT to find in an Antique Shop!

Oh and Candles..................... lots and lots of candles...............didn't buy one though.....!!

All in all a lovely day out in a place where you can only imagine the sadness and horror that the walls within must contain.