Countdown to Holidays

I'm so excited. Early Saturday morning Geoff and I will be winging our way to Hobart via Melbourne. That is, of course, if volcanoes and ash clouds don't interfere!! We will be down for 10 days. I plan on doing some weeding at 'the farm', some
tip-shopping, some touristy type stuff, some cooking up of beautiful local produce and some blissful hibernation in front of the fire. I'll be taking my work-in-progress crochet blanket and my camera gear.
Stand-by for some pictures...

Crafty Distractions

To distract myself from the 'long wait' to our Tassie life, I have been trying my hand at various crafty pursuits. I knit (not very well) and crochet (a little more succesfully). I find knitting labourious and not very fruitful for the time you put in. Patience has never really been my virtue, so I find the quick work-up of a double-crochet stitch with big hook and 14 ply wool much more satisfying. With this rig I can do a long, warm woolly scarf in an evening or (with a lower ply wool) an old-fashioned dishcloth in a couple of hours. As I get better I will get faster and fast results will keep me interested!!
Here's some of my crafty undertakings....

Tea Cosy made last Winter

Woolly scarf

Soon to be woolly blanket

Dishclothes

Why we ♥ Tassie

I have loved Tasmania since the first time I went there for work - to Hobart for various cricket matches as long as ten years ago. I always thought it was somewhere I could live and be quite content. I love the philosophy of simplicity, provenance and creativity. I relished the free trips I would get for work - mostly Hobart, but a few trips to Launceston for AFL were thrown in just to prove the state's credentials for quaint old-english serenity.
Short drives from Hobart after work brought me to the Huon Valley. It took Geoff (a born and bred Sydneysider) a little longer to come around to the idea of moving so far away.  But when he did, boy! He is as enthusiastic as me - sometimes more so. Even though he is a citydweller - his heart has always been in the country.

Here are some photos taken very near to our 'farm'... 

Looking out to D'Entrecasteaux Channel from near Verona Sands

A valley view near Cygnet

The Wooden Boat Centre in Franklin

                                                                      Tahune Forest

                                                                       
                                                                        Bruny Island