A Birthday Treat

The other day I was treated royally by Heather, Brent, Kathryn & Thomas. As my birthday present (a few weeks ago), they offered me a day trip by boat to Peppermint Bay, including a delightful lunch on board.

We chose a wonderful day with the weather just perfect:The boat was very comfortable with excellent service. It was a very smooth ride with the water just so still:As we left the docks, we had a lovely view of Battery Point - the Old Hobart Town (not including the Empress Towers), and Mt. Wellington giving a great back drop:It was fun to be on the front deck and while it was a still day, the winds created by the speed of the boat made it very chilly. And here we are to prove it (and don't you love Heather's hairstyle?!):On the way, we were treated to several wonders of nature, including Sea Eagles:And have a look at the next delightful pic of a Sea Eagle swooping on a fish. It's shadow on the water showed how close it was when I took the photo:Plus Seals, including this playful youngster:In addition, we were treated to live video images of what went on under the boat with fish among the kelpie.It was very clear and even the crew were delighted with some wonderful images.The D'Entrecastreaux Channel between Bruny Island & The Channel Peninsula was just stunning and it is in this setting that we enjoyed a wonderful seafood lunch:Thomas thought he would make a good captain on the Bridge:....from where he captured us together with a visitor from Victoria:Peppermint Bay was just lovely and we enjoyed walking around the little village just like tourists:Near the Peppermint Bay jetty, there were some creations that caught my eye, though I am not sure of their true significance. The locals were not able to enlighten me except to say that there was some sort of competition some while ago:And this is the reverse side of the above:All in all, it was a wonderful day with the family. The return trip to Hobart saw us go past Brent's mum's place and the school where Heather & Brent used to go. Finally, there was time to go under the Tasman Bridge and to hear about the awful accident on 5 January 1975 when the 20,000 ton carrier Lake Illawarra crashed into the bridge bringing down three spans and sinking the ship, killing seven people. I for one will never forget that occasion. It was a momentous day in the history of Hobart.

Thanks Heather, Brent, Kathryn & Thomas. I loved your company and had a fun day. Grandma would have loved it too.

A miracle from God

This rainbow appeared in our sky this afternoon:


God bless!

A special weekend

I was delighted to receive visits from Mark & Cal from Adelaide plus Vicki from Kiama last weekend. This was a family weekend where the girls especially would check on Carol's things and make decisions about what to do with her substantial collection of creative things. They were indeed very busy and I am sure found the process emotional and energy draining. I was glad of their willingness to devote so many hours to this and hope that this coming together also helped in their own grieving over their mum. There are so many things that keep on cropping up and that defines who Carol is and what an amazing influence - ever so gently, she had on a each of us. As it turned out, while lots was accomplished, lots remain to be done, and that is fine.
Vicki was not able to stay longer than the weekend, though Mark & Cal tagged on some extra days and we made good use of these in several ways. One was to visit one of my favourite places, Salmond Ponds and have pancakes on the pond. Just lovely.

Gemma and her friend Sam from NSW also joined us and fed the trout that are probably over fed:
The following day we visited Carol's grave, now suitably identified with a bronze plaque. Afterwards, we made an enjoyable visit to the Botanical Gardens - always stunning. It was a bit late for Autumn colours, but amazingly, there was still plenty of evidence of the 'fall':
Mark could not resist going back to his childhood and just had to gather lots of autumn leaves and throw them to Cal:The next photo is of a horizontal branch, which I thought was unusual:There was time to go into the Conservatory and the following were just some of the gems in Orchids that are worthy of another look: