Happy Birthday Heidi

and today it was Heidi's birthday, so we have just been out for tea. What more can I say?

Happy Birthday Steven

When this photo was taken you were a year old, yesterday you would have been fortysix, We still think of you from time to time, but you did not have much of a life while you were with us but you taught me a lot. God Bless.

Surely somebody must love me!!!

Hello, my name is Millie and I have come to stay at The Doggy Hilton, Blackmans Bay while my owners are sunning themselves in Queensland.

The people here are quite nice, but they make me go out in the cold sometimes when I would much rather be inside in the warm, they think I must have an enormous bladder 'cos I never want to go out and find a tree!!

Oh dear, I don't know my left from my right!!

Just realised I mislead you, the Wind Turbines are on the Marine Board Building which is on the LEFT of the photo, not on the RIGHT, so have another double click and see what I am on about!! Now I can go to bed happy!

So - whats the difference....

between this photo and the last one? Yes, I know it is taken slightly closer but there is one big difference!!! The second one was taken a few days ago, and the first one was taken today and in that time Hobart has its first Wind Turbines put on top of the Marine Board Building, the big one on the right of the photos!! There was a lot of opposition but I think you will agree, they do not look too much out of place, even though they will only generate about one tenth of the electricity used in that building, doesn't seem much really does it? They are quite visible so I don't think they will be any danger to birds flying by, and although you can't see any movement, they were going round at a fair old rate today, even though it did not seem windy at all from down where we were.

Heidi and I went to our favourite "Timeless Way" for breakfast, a very civilised way to start your Sunday, don't you think?

Don't forget to double click and make it bigger!!

Down at the Wharf - Hobart

One thing I did learn from my three week photography course was that it is really easy to do panorama photos, especially if you then download the necessary software!!!

Here is one of my best ones so far, the wharf and the mountain. I will keep trying to achieve the perfect panorama. I have downloaded it in full so just double click on it for maximum effect!!

Panorama photos

Todays walk

This morning on my beach walk I came across a beautiful shell on the beach and a flowering gum tree on the way home. I am now accompanied on my walks by Bill Bryson reading "Notes on a Small Island" It is so funny, people must think I am a bit mad when I can't help laughing as some of the things he describes about England in the early 1970's.

I hope you can see how some of the leaves on the flowering gum tree have been nibbled away, maybe I should not have compressed the image, then you could have clicked on it and made it bigger.

Masterchef has nothing on Ken!!!

He won't wear a pinny but last night he made the dinner and we had Pink Ling (a white fish) wrapped in bacon on a bed of roast vegetables!!! Are you impressed?

He is in practice for while I am away but I really don't know why he is bothering to learn to cook as he will get so many invites out to dine that there will be no time to 'self cater!!!"

Tonight we had vegetable stir fry so he will be trying his hand at that soon.

Springtime is Wattle time

Its not really Spring yet, too early, but everywhere you look there are beautiful golden wattle trees, and this photo is Heidi's drive, which is lined with Native Trees.

And the Kukaburra was sitting, not in the old gum tree but on the wire waiting for his dinner to appear!!! (and it is telling me that I have misspelt Kukaburra but I can't be bothered to get up and check it out!! (and it is telling me that I have misspelt misspelt but what the heck!!) It is Sunday, a day of rest!!

More native vegetation

This is the wattle I showed you last week, but now it is out in bloom, and it is bloomin' lovely!!




and this is a native down on the beach, you would not usually give it a second glance, but I did, and it is really quite lovely. No idea what it is called but the flowers are quite insignificant unless you look close, then there are all the lovely shades of pastel colour as well as the actual flower. They never cease to amaze me and I hope I will never cease to be amazed!!

German cooking skills being brushed up!!

My Kartoffelkloese (potato dumplings) turned out alright, but what a palava, don't know that I will be doing them too often, too fiddly!! I cooked them, as described, in water till they floated to the surface (couple of minutes) then I put them on top of the Beef Carbonnade that I had slow cooked for Tim and Co. They did report that they enjoyed the dinner, but no special mention of my dumplings, oh well, back to mashed potatoes in future.

Castles in the sand.

Someone spent a lot of time and care building this sandcastle.

One poor washed up seal

I nearly left my camera behind this morning, but something told me to go back and get it. I am glad that I did, because as I was walking along the beach I could see something struggling in the water. On closer inspection I realised that it was a seal, in difficulty. It kept getting washed up with the tide, some times it looked OK and then it looked far from OK. Parks and Wildlife were called in to help, but I don't know what the outcome was, I couldn't wait any longer, but I got some good shots from quite a distance.

You never know what you are going to encounter on Blackmans Bay Beach!!

The church at Pontardawe, South Wales

Can't claim any fame for myself with this one, it is the church in the village where my Dad comes from in South Wales taken on the night that my cousin died. Isn't it fantastic, I wonder how they got that effect with the lights, night photography is my next challenge.

Guten Appetit! (or Mahlzeit!!)

Ken is already getting me in the mood, this is what he came home from the library with today!!!!

Mount Wellington.

As I drove from my Photography Class to my penultimate rehearsal of our Choir for the forthcoming Festival of Voices yesterday the view of Mount Wellington in the midday sunshine was absolutely stunning, so I stopped along the way and took this photo (which you can click on and make it bigger, it needs it) How clearly it shows the Organ Pipes.

My morning walk this morning (Sunday)

Even though it was Sunday, even though it was only 5 degrees outside and even though it was lovely and warm in bed my latest asset, my audio book on my ipod, makes me leap out of bed and get down to the beach where my friends, the birds, are waiting for me.

I am on my second Steig Larsson book, 'The Girl who kicked the Hornets Nest" and although it is very involved, I don't think I would want to live in Sweden (with all those funny names) and the political situation, with Secret Police watching Secret Police etc. etc.

Maybe next time I will go for something English, like the Forsyte Saga, that is a whole 48 hours of walking (and listening) as I have made up my mind I will only listen to it when I am out walking, it is certainly an added incentive, not that I should really need an incentive, living in a great place like Blackmans Bay!!

Shovelling sh***t

I often wonder if Ken every realises what a bargain he got when he married me!! How many other wives would be content with a ute load of horse manure instead of a diamond ring or the latest fashion accessories or, the list could go on. AND what is more, I helped with the collecting, unloading and distribution of this gem when we got home, even if I did take a little time to lean on my shovel and look for birds!!

Double click

Forgot to say, if you double click on the photos you DO get the benefit of the long time it took rather than the minute it normally takes, its up to you.

Experimenting - again!

Would you sooner be a washed up starfish




or a dew drop on the grass? (as long as it was not on the end of someone's nose!!!)

Phew that took eleven minutes to download these two photos but I wanted to see if the quality was any better than when I shrink them to email size!!

I was pretty pleased with both these photos, taken this morning on my daily walk.

Native vegetation.

This is one of the many Australian Wattle Trees, just about to come into flower.



and these are the pretty little flowers of the Tea Tree (from which they make our world famous Tee Tree Oil)

Wonder what gulls talk about!!

Why do they always stand on one leg, and what do you think they talk about amongst themselves, do you think they feel sorry for their other mate (next post)?

Perhaps he is saying "look at me when I am talking to you, and just where did you get that ankle bracelet, you hussy?"

Poor little silver gull

You see a lot of gulls missing a leg, they probably lost them in some careless fisherman's line or net left in the sea.

Its not perfect - but....

This little robin was sitting watching me yesterday on my way along the cliff top.