Pair 'o Dice

I gamble and take only my water bottle and towel.

Thirty paces later I am walking across sand so clean and fine it squeaks. My sunglasses shield my eyes from the bright white expanse of beach. I look right, then left.

There is not another soul in sight. I am completely, utterley alone.

I spread out my towel and lay face down. Beneath me the sand is warm. A light breeze tickles my shoulderblades. I can hear the waves laughing along the shore just beyond my toes. The bright, midday sun promises a spectacular sunset.

Life is oh so good.
Great Keppel Island
This is my pair 'o dice.

Australia Zoo

After driving for around 2 days, we decided to go to the Australia Zoo.It was founded by Steve Irwin's father,and it is VERY,VERY, interesting.Here are the photos of the animals:


I'm not sure what type of python/constricter ssssssnake this is,
but I do know that it's big and it's perfectly happy to have a staring contest with someone inside it's house :o








This is the giant tortoise, about 1 metre long,at least 1/2 a metre deep,and around 3/4 of a metre across.







And these are some of the freshy crocs.
There's about 10-20 of them at the zoo, and they're much smaller than the saltys.








this is one of---you guessed it--- those famous Tazzie Devils!!! He's so cute;isn't he?







This gorgous boy is "Caesar", the aussie darter. He's grand in the water, and he's really silky!!

This is one of 6 of the dingos at the zoo,

and for this fella, it's naptime! He's a
lovely sandy red color with a dash of white!!!

It's a koala!!! This little angel is about to eat some leaves after a long nap!

Here's one of the cassowaries,

and he's about to eat some fruit.

Bright colors eh?

This is Bonnie, one of the two

asian small-clawed otter sisters.

Isn't she adorable??

And last, but certainly not least,

we have, the amazing, the beautiful, the blue and gold macaw!!! isn't it wonderful?

This post has been brought to you by: Emily

Mother's Day

As Sundays seem to be our day to 'discover Tasmania', Mother's Day took a 'back seat' to the well-thumbed map book. This time we headed west to Mt. Field National Park. I'd already been there on a 'moms' weekend in April and wanted to go back to explore a bit with Martin and the kids. The drive took about 1.5 hours and it was spectacular: rolling hills through farmland and majestic gum trees coupled with brilliant fall colours; roadside stands selling bunches of hand-tended and -picked late summer blooms to travellers enroute to 'Mom's place'; the oft-heard cries of the children "How much further is it?" Ah yes, another blissful family outing!
When we did finally arrive at the park we spent about 2 hours walking along some very easy trails through lush, moist woods. Russell Falls is nothing so grand as Niagara Falls but very, very pretty nonetheless. We went through a section called the 'tall trees walk' where the gum trees stretch skyward to dizzying heights.
And fungi . . . well, the kids were pretty patient with me while I exercised my Mother's Day right-to-photograph-yet-another-mushroom. Maybe that's why the 30 minute walk took two hours . . .














We had a lovely day out and as we came into Hobart, Patrick spotted the harvest moon just rising over the city. My picture doesn't do it justice but it was the perfect ending to a perfect day.

Sunday Drive

Today's adventure included a trip to Eaglehawk Neck about 100 km from our home, in the South East 'corner' of Tasmania. This 100 meter narrow isthmus of land leads to historic Port Arthur, the infamous prison settlement established about 1830. One of my many guidebooks indicates there was little risk of successful escape from Port Arthur prison by the inmates as the isthmus was guarded by a line of vicious guard dogs chained across the width of the isthmus. Escape by water was equally perilous as the surrounding waters were reported to be shark-infested.

We experienced no problems as we travelled in the comfort of our van to the sounds of 'Great Big Sea' (no pun intended).
Here's a few pictures of our day out:














Yeah, more beaches and the kids couldn't resist the water (what kid can?)

It was a really lovely day.

Epiphany

. . . I've just had one. I think the reason I'm not writing on the blog quite so frequently is this - I've settled in. The 'holiday' feeling has worn off a bit and I'm well into the routine of day-to-day life; laundry, cleaning, shopping, paying bills, job-hunting, kids who bicker/whine/demand/etc., a husband who works shift, school meetings (yes, I got myself elected to the 'PAC') and volunteering. All the usual stuff.
The 'newness' of the adventure might be fading a bit but I marvel daily at what we have here. There is so much to see and so many places to explore. Sometimes we lament the 'day-to-day' routines that prevent us from venturing away from the house for more than a few hours at a time. But there is always some amazing new park/beach/garden/landmark/community to discover within a 30 minute drive.
So yeah, the dream might be fading a bit but we're still livin' it!

The Flora and . . . Fauna???

I put too much pressure on myself to make these blog entries noteworthy, newsworthy and well, indicative of my attempts at 'literary genius'. (I started this entry on March 15!)

I'd never get a novel finished - not in this lifetime anyway.

So here's a quick post with some pictures of some of the local 'colours and critters'.















There's a parrot in one of those trees - look closely and you'll see it!

Now here's a look at some of the local fauna (er, mostly):
















The huntsman spider was in our kitchen when we woke up one morning. We didn't use the flyswatter on it, that was just for size perspective. We're more of a catch-and-release kind of family.

The kookaburra was at our campsite in the Bay of Fires and happily took the piece of sausage we offered him.

The mini angora goats and the peacock belong to our neighbour but they happily come to visit (the goats do stay on the other side of the fence mostly, but the peacocks like to come right up to our glass doors to 'visit')

The donkeys and ponies were in a field on Bruny Island when we visited there on Good Friday. The littlest pony (shown) was no more than 24 inches tall with his head up!

The blue-tongued lizard is enjoying some of the windfall from the peach tree outside our patio doors.

The sea star was found by Martin while snorkelling in Coles Bay on the Freycinet Peninsula. He's holding it on the end of his flipper (more size perspective).

The Black swan (the first of many we've seen since), was photographed by the kids also on the way down from Sydney.

Not sure if the last picture is a kangaroo or a wallaby (wallabies are smaller). We spotted this one (our first 'live' one) on the trip down from Sydney last October. It was quite far away but I think it was a 'roo.