Tourist Season Begins

Wow what a fabulous weekend we had.. John thinks I should devote a whole blog to it.

We set out about 5.30am Sat morning...John in his element , while Tom and I take a bit longer to warm to the joys of early morning travel...

Had a petrol stop at Bridgewater and then proceeded to Campbell Town for Breakie break....passing such towns as Bagdad, Jericho. We drove north to the outskirts of Launceston then turned east, keeping a lookout for Hypericum and Onopordon (Scotch Thistle)..Then decided to travel north through back roads hoping to see the plants.
We stopped in a little town called Lilydale whose claim to fame is its painted poles!!

Travelled to Pipers Reach then across to Bridport on the northern coast..very pretty seaside town.
On the way we passed some amazing letterboxes!!

Amazing starfish the boys found washed up on shore

Down the highway to Scottsdale passing many Opium Poppy fields...beautiful country.

We stopped for lunch at Scottsdale and did a walk of the town.

Tom enjoyed Christmas windows

Drove on through amazing mountain pass to arrive at Derby where we stopped to visit the Tin museum. (Ryan suggested we take a look as he knows the architect who designed this building.)

On past rainbow trout rock...

and on to Eddystone Lighthouse.

 Quite a drive and no plants found but what a magnificent place. Thomas was in his element climbing over the stunning orange lichen rocks..real Wilderness Calender stuff.. and it was overcast..imagine on a sunny day!!

After quite a time spent here we decided it was time to drive a bit further south on the Bay of Fires to Policeman's Point camping area.

We found a cosy spot , pitched the tent got the fire going, had a quick walk to the beach and got on with dinner...yummy sausage sizzle with an apple jaffle for dessert.(made in the trusty Croydon jaffle iron).

We took a walk further along the beach in the hope that Eddystone Lighthouse would begin shining...sadly it did not.

Back to our tent and the boys crashed while I enjoyed a quiet sit next to the fire.

Up and packed up pretty early, we drove south to Binnalong Bay and enjoyed a climb on the rocks there.The sun broke through occasionally in the distance..really lighting up the orange rocks.
We had a lovely breakfast at the Cafe there..a great view of the bay.

Headed off further south, still searching for our plants....stopping at St Helens to have a stroll and then travelling down the coast past some beautiful beaches before going inland to St Marys and cutting across the Fingal valley highway (our last hope for finding the plants).

 

We took a detour up around the back of Avoca getting some fantastic views of mighty Ben Lomond Plataeu.
When we had all but given up...John screeched to a halt on the outskirts of Avoca as he spotted some Onopordon in a paddock...we investigated around town and found a big patch in an abandoned block next to a churchyard.. FANTASTIC!!...we will go back over the Christmas break to harvest the flowers when they are in full bloom.

Now the Hypericum was our next problem....we were getting to the point of stratagising how to do a harvest on the Mainland and process before bringing back to Tassie..when again John sceeched to a halt...HYPERICUM!!! yay... Although getting laste in the day ( 3pm) and with a long drive ahead of us...we stopped for about an hour and harvested what turned out to be 5kg of flower...a great result.

Stopped at Hobart for fish and chips dinner before heading home arriving about 7.30pm. A big weekend..but a rewarding one in so many ways..
Just as we drove into town John noticed the speedo on his beloved Subaru on was about to click over to 200,000 kms so we drove down to the roundabout and back so we could see it change ...

Monday and we were all feeling rather tired..
Harvested our first strawberries ...

Tom set out for school and John and I got on with orders to be done. After school, we made more Christmas puddings for the scouts BBQ that night. Tom went off at 5 and John and I went down to Burtons Reserve and Hall for a lovely community night..BBQ, games, skits, Carol singing(with much laughter) and a slide presentation (Tom even featured on Camp)..a really enjoyable night.

Tuesday and we were all up at 6.30 getting orders done and John had a Hypericum/calendula cream to make .
A really chilly day..top of 15 today.
I went over to the St James School Thanksgiving mass at 11.30...lovely.
Then back to serve customers ..gobble lunch then back to help in Tom's class. It turned out they were just cruising through the afternoon ..with no set plan so I came back to the shop for the afternoon.
More baking after school with Tom, then I took a walk around town after dinner..lovely late evening light on the hills.

The awning has come off the Red Velvet

Wednesday and the morning was a sparkler...and fairly mild.

Mark the builder and team were back today to start working through the 'defects' list we complied with Ryan last week. Its lovely to see them (not to mention..terrific to get the odd jobs tidied up). They will be back on Friday.
Another busy orders day and new customers coming through buying books etc.
We processed the Hypericum for the oil this afternoon..wonderful smell and colour.

Over for a haircut across the road at 4pm..then tending the garden and some Christmas cooking

Thursday was a cold one.
We spent alot of the morning getting Christmas parcels and cards sorted. I went over to the hall at 12.30 to the final St James assembly of the year. Lovely to see awards given out, farwell teachers, see slide shows of different events throughout the year and finally some Carol singing..
I headed back to the shop while the school went to Burton's reserve for celebration lunch before breakup.
Tom and I went in to Huonville to Woollies to do some Christmas dinner shopping for Hannah's visit on the weekend.

Friday and the sun was shining bright and clear.

Yay, Hannah arrives tonight!!
The builders were back on site and the day had a real feeling of excitement with lots of tourists in town.
Tim the signwriter was back to put up fascia signage.

Had a lovely visit from Steve Cumper owner/chef of Red Velvet. He came to buy Christmas gifts for his staff and had a list of possible book genres for each of them. Really well thought out gift giving. John had a wonderful time finding him a great selection. We enjoyed a chat about his experience of the town since moving here in 2003...
Off to get Narnie from the airport via Hobart for a quick dinner ..

Just love that Quarantine dog!!

Saturday...and some of us were up early for a walk!!

We decided to do a trip to Bruny Island to investigate.

At Dad's coaxing..Tom obliges.

Bruny did not inspire us. It is a very dry island with a real pioneering feel. We enjoyed a visit to the cheese factory, the lookout overlooking the spit, a wonderful morning tea of homemade cakes at the Hothouse Cafe and a fabulous walk/ frolic along the beach.

We stopped at Woodbridge for a late picnic lunch of bread and cheese..yummy.

The called in to a garage sale at Gardners' Bay on the way home.

After a snooze, we prepared our Christmas dinner...Balssamic/sage Chicken, roast tomato/Basil salad and warm brie salad followed by panacotta with rasberries...yummm.

Clowning around with bonbon decorations

The the long awaited present opening...Thomas is delighted with his collingwood singlet!!

Lots of laughs were had as we had a game of Upwords (another Tom present)

The boys went to bed and Hannah and I did a Christmas Lights drive to Huonville...found a couple of goodies....looking forward to Sunday and the Christmas Market...