Picnic at Relbia

We joined with some friends for a picnic lunch on the banks of the North Esk at Relbia. Although it was a grey day, it was quite warm and we enjoyed just sitting in this peaceful rural setting, chatting, eating and relaxing. Several of the friends also enjoyed a swim in the river.

Off to the Launceston Cup

Today was the day for the annual Launceston Cup. Lua and Raf went off to spend the day with friends and to see the special horse races.

Our favourite Greengrocer in Launceston

We purchase almost all of our fruit and vegetable supplies from one shop that is situated in Charles Street, Launceston. It is known as Ye Olde Green Grocer and it is operated by a wonderful couple: Garth and Jeanette Barber and their son Andrew. One of the things we really like about the shop is the terrific variety of potatoes that they have available at any one time. Each variety of potato is clearly labelled and also the recommended method of cooking is included on the labelling.

Albert the cat

Here are some up-to-the-minute snaps of our wonderful cat Albert - who is now 17 years old.
He is quite a character. His nick-name is 'Mr Ears'.

Lunch with Paula Griffiths

Lua organised a lunch time meeting with Paula Griffiths at the local Trevallyn cafe - Cafe Culture where they serve excellent food and coffee. We have know Paula for many years. She was a wonderful ballet teacher who encouraged and enthused Lua and our son Zachary. They both attended classes with Paula while they were at Primary School and she encouraged both of them to audition for the Victoria College of the Arts Ballet School. They both subsequently auditioned and attended the school in Melbourne for their secondary schooling.
It was nice to have a chance to chat with Paula over a leisurely lunch.

Fish and chips for dinner

Our daughter, Lua who lives in Brisbane is visiting us for a few days. We arranged to meet our son Raf and his daughters Jessica and Caitlin for an evening meal at our favourite Fish and Chips cafe. While we were waiting for the food to arrive I noticed a large flock of seagulls resting on a slipway near the restaurant which is located on the North Esk River near where steamers and sailing ships once docked over a century ago.
As we were leaving the sun had just set and the sky was looking beautiful as we looked over the river and Trevallyn.

A rainbow from the kitchen window

This afternoon we had some heavy rain with some thunder and lightning. It was the first heavy rain we have had for months but it was quite localised and so some parts of the city area hardly saw the rain. Later in the afternoon, when the storm had moved away, we could see a rainbow from our kitchen window. I like rainbows. The plants in the garden were very happy with the rain too.

Margaret Taplin pays us a visit ...

We were delighted to reconnect with Margaret Taplin while she is in Launceston. We have known Margaret since the 1960s when she attended Riverside High School and Noel and I were young teachers at the school. More recently in the 1990s, Margaret and I worked in the Faculty of Education at the Launceston Campus of the University of Tasmania. Currently she spends various parts of her year in Hong Kong, India and Tasmania. It was wonderful to spend time with her over a cup of tea and to share stories of our adventures over the past 10 years.

Lunch with David Sice

We spent a relaxing morning at Cremorne with Marion and Suzanne before heading off with our bags to meet up with another Tasmanian friend, now living in Sydney

We were delighted to be invited to join David Sice for lunch at his apartment in Elizabeth Bay.He prepared a very delicious meal and we had lots to talk about while we consumed the results of his careful food preparations. Like many of our friends it was two years since we had last seen him. He is very keen on paper making and book arts and since moving to live in Sydney he has begun taking classes at Primrose Paper Arts Inc at Cremorne. After lunch with David, we started on our journey back to Launceston.

Anji Lake surprises us!

As we were walking along Oxford Street on our way from the Freeland Gallery to find directions to the Sydney Antique Centre, we were delighted to find Anji Lake rushing up to us. It happened that we were passing near the boutique where she currently works just as she was having an afternoon break. We were amazed that she had recognised us as it is at least 9 years since we last saw her. It was wonderful to see Anji even for just a few minutes ... she is such a vivacious and delightful young woman.

Freeland Gallery, Paddington

Following the advice given by the lady at Willoughby Art Centre, we decided to locate the Freeland Gallery. After consulting a small map we decided to walk from China Town across (up hill) to Paddington. We descovered that there are quite a few well known galleries in Glenmore Road, Paddington where the Freeland Gallery is to be found at number 120.

The owner was very friendly and kindly explained the significance of the pieces currently on show. We enjoyed the work very much. The artists currently exhibiting are Bruce McWhinney, Les Irwig, Anna Choi and Sally James. I particularly liked the clay and fibre wall pieces by Sally James.

I was thrilled to find that there was a pottery piece on display in the gallery by one of my earliest pottery teachers who lived and worked in Hobart - Mylie Peppin.

China Town

As it is the beginning of the Chinese New Year period, we decided to take a quick trip down to China Town before walking over to Paddington.

Lunch with Elizabeth Taylor and Colin Dibdin

Our dear friend, Elizabeth Taylor who lived in Launceston for many years, invited us to join her for lunch at her home in Willoughby. She had also invited another good friend, Colin Dibdin to join us. It was wonderful to spend time with them and to share news of families and current activities. Colin had to leave after lunch so Noel and I went for a walk with Elizabeth to visit the local Willoughby Art Centre in Laurel Street. We spent time looking at an exhibition of work by the tutors that included examples of painting, drawing, ceramics, sculpture and printmaking. The very friendly lady at the front office took us to have a look at the ceramics in the ceramics studio and mentioned the Freeland Gallery in Paddington as a gallery that specialises in showing ceramics. This is an excellent Art Centre.

A quick visit to Manly Beach

We made a quick trip to Manly on the bus. The beach looked great and the waves were rolling in. We did not stay very long as we had arranged to meet a dear friend for lunch back at Willoughby.