Simple Joys

While I spent a fabulous weekend in Sydney the boys had a pretty interesting time here. John did a great job photographing the highlights..

Heading to Sydney

On Saturday morning they went down to the Sailing club to watch the sailing school setup. Tom is keen to have a go...so we have enrolled him in the Feb sailing course that runs 8 weeks..learning to sail a Pacer dingy.

Saturday arvo was spent at the Huon Show at Ranalagh..just near Huonville..lots to see and even a lady selling lego....(Tom thought this was EXCELLENT)

Zumba

I experienced a lovely sense of coming home...greeted by Dave the builder..and Tom running in to give me a great hug after scouts.. (oh and a big hug from John of course).
Whilst in Sydney, I had the opportunity to catch up with Peter Dabbs. He remarked that his interest in Tasmania related to a place called 'Port Cygnet' where his beloved ketch the 'One and All' had been built in the 1800's.(The boat went down off Middleton Reef in 1971 and there is quite a story attached to the rescue of Peter and crew) Imagine our shared surprise to realise that is where I live. On returning home I read about the shipyards at Martin's point and revisited the spot with a whole new perspective.



Look closely at inscription.


The simple joys of everyday encounters and routines is something that I treasure... 
On my morning walk I see Martin from the Newsagent zipping around in his little green car doing his paper run, Lisa from the Post Office gives me a wave as she drives past on her way to work, Kaye the Cygnet Folk Festival Co-ordinater says g'day as we pass eachother, I give a nod to the guy hosing down the Bottom Pub verandah, George at the IGA always has a friendly greeting, Gilly from Lotus eaters and I had a chat in the supermarket, Steve from The Red Velvet  stops to say hello when I'm out front cleaning the windows, Susan from Cobweb Designs is always ready to have a chat in the street as are Bruce and Jasmine from The Old Bank B&B
Hanging out a load of clothes on the washing line, getting out my sewing machine and sewing the hem of Tom's scout blanket, making a Mars Bar slice for Tom to take to Scout Camp...just lovely.

  

Strange as it may sound, we both feel a real connection with the town as we work and watch the events unfolding outside our front window.. the gathering of people for a funeral is such a public event ..

I never know what task I'll be given when visiting Tom's class on Tuesday afternoons...This week I was drilling holes in bottletops (made in to 'tadpoles') so the children could string them up in bundles of ten. This activity was begun by Mrs Osborne and the Maths Teacher after reading a story about 999 tadpoles...They decided to get the children to make 999 to use as a maths exercise....trouble is, they are only up to about 350 and enthusiasm is flagging!! (I probably only drilled 180 in the time I was there..)

We had a lovely range of people coming in to the shop..Some for the books alone..others, curious about the medicines. John tackled a particularly interesting customer who was somewhat dishevelled, who challenged us on the efficacy of Homoeopathics....It turned out to be a very positive discussion...an intelligent fellow...(definitely following the adage..never judge a book by its cover).

We had some excitement at about 4ish on Tuesday... I became conscious of a Helicopter noise...then suddenly thought..hang on..this is Cygnet!! Something must be happening.. Sure enough we watched as the helicopter combed back and forward over the hill out the back..
Graeme the butcher told me it was the Police looking for a bloke from the Caravan Park who was violent...his story was the guy was handcuffed, but he took off ...(Graeme seems have the finger on the pulse of Cygent...always with some bit of news.."did you know...")

John secretly arranged for the signwriter to put names on our kayaks...so one afternoon I was down in the garage and noticed....

When Thomas was a little boy, I acquired the nicname.."Mama Duck"....so you can guess which is mine. The Wandering Wind comes from  a Bill Badger story..being the name of Bill's barge.

John is busy getting the job of book pricing done...it has been a tricky business up til now. Customers would have to wait while John looked up ABE books to calculate a baseline price...some books that are signed and first editions are worth a bit...it has been quite astounding to discover the value (high and low) of the books. Some of the most mundane books (eg Cake Decorating Australian Wildflowers, The Joy of Smocking) are worth $50 or more...as they are rare editions..(whether anyone will pay that is another matter!!) We picked them up at a book fair for about $5..
We have sold a book on Decorative Picture Frames to a happy customer!! Neither John nor I recall getting that one at a book fair...but glad we did. We sometimes have bets, before John does the search ,on how valuable the book will be. I invariably undervalue the obscure novels that John likes and he scoffs at my smocking books!!

We have had so many wonderful encounters with customers....It is really a lovely way to spend the day...sharing this beautiful shop with locals and tourists...we are receiving compliments every day on the quality of the renovation...
We have also been dispensing for local customers which is exciting...lots of local interest in the medicines.

Thomas is going on a Scout Camp to Roches Beach over the weekend. We spent Wed afternoon getting his things together and labelling everything..

Thursday was a steady day with orders and customers.
We set off for Hobart after closing, to have early dinner at Mures Seafood then across the road to Federation Hall for a Family Concert with the TSO...variety of music from around the world....an lovely programme and only running for 1 hour...very enjoyable.
(The day was all the more special as Hannah reminded us it was our 10th wedding anniversary...and to top it off...Jess rang to say Aaron proposed....and she said.....YES!!)



Federation Hall is the circular building



Friday and although overcast was forecast 27 degrees... the rain came throughout the day..but it did warm up in the afternoon. We set out for Hobart for dinner, then over to Roches Beach Scout Camp. We had no idea what to expect. Turned out the group was small ...only 10 cubs and 3 adults staying in a lovely cottage set up with bunk rooms etc. Tom was quite excited...especially at the prospect of a fire in the teepee on Sat night.

It felt strange to wake Saturday morning with no Tom in the house...but we soon found distraction in the form of a huge order from Wendy in Taiwan. John set about making an Arnica Cream while I did a bit of cleaning and washing..then we went down to the Community Garden in search of Calendula. We met up with Liz Smith the 'unsung hero' of Cygnet who is a real mover and shaker.. She set up the Community Garden some years ago, is a councillor,and generally has her fingers in many pies...supporting the local community. She introduced us to Bob, who has a small vineyard on his property at Petchy's Bay (not far from our land) and lots of Calendula. He took us up there and said to help ourselves to whatever we needed..refusing any reimbursement....really excellent...

We set off back home (about 10 min drive) then processed the calendula, pressed it to get the juice and later in the afternoon (after filling and packing the Arnica Cream) John made the Calendula cream...can't get fresher than that!!

We conked out about 6pm and after a quiet sit, decided to wander up to the Red Velvet for dinner..very relaxing.
Incidently, we had three phone calls from Tom throughout the day..(he was permitted to take a mobile to use in free time). We didn't gain much information as each time he seemed to be holding a conversation with some of the boys there at the same time.. still, he sounded happy. They had pancakes last night , a water bomb fight this morning and a campfire tonight..
More shall be revealed in the next blog....