Dinner with the Davidsons

Our dear friends, Erica and John Davidson invited us to join them for a BBQ dinner at their place.The gathering was in honour of Betsy Dere was visiting from Melbourne so it was a fun gathering including some other very good friends, Ann and Kevin Stark as well as their daughters Eleanore and Clare.

Zeb

We managed to meet up with our youngest son, Zeb who also lives in Hobart. It was great to spend some time with him as we had not seen him since we returned from Israel. Kim also enjoyed seeing Zeb again as he used to play games with her eldest daughter Heidi when she lived in Launceston more than 20 years ago.

Alice in Wonderland

We visited the special exhibition based on Alice in Wonderland that was presented by the State Library of Tasmania in the Allport Gallery as part of Ten Days on the Island. It was an excellent exhibition that captured the magical sense of the story and featured the work of artists who work in a diverse range of art media.

Kapurne

We stayed with our son Toby, Nicole, Dorian and Edie. Raf and Caitlin also visited so we had a lot of fun together. I took a few photos around Kapurne including some of Edie as well as some flowers from the garden

Art and a rainbow at the Hobart waterfront

We travelled down to the waterfront at Hobart as we wanted to visit a couple of art exhibitions that were also part of the Ten Days on the Island festival.
We visited the Plimsoll Gallery located at the Centre for the Arts where we viewed the work of photographers Steven Benson, Nathalie Latham, Brian Jefferies and Juha Tolonen. The title of the cuarted exhibition was Better World.
As we walked towards another exhibition, further laong the waterfront, we noticed a beautiful rainbow. over the Derwent River.
We then visited Free Range on show at Mawson Place at Constitution Dock to see an exhibition of innovative work of more than 30 of Tasmania's leading designer-makers that included a range of unusual objects and contemporary designs for furniture, ceramics, glass, lighting and jewellery.

The Knitting Room & Frida's Carload

We called in to the Moonah Arts Centre to visit the exhibition of The Knitting Room:Yarns from the Fifties for Ten Days on the Island. Memories of the 1950s have been fashioned using colourful yarns and threads and melded into a unique installation. The residents of Strathaven and Strathglen residential care home, their families and friends as well as regional community groups have worked together to produce an amazing installation.

At the entrance to the Arts Centre, we noticed a delightful sculpture made by the son of one of my very best friends, Tony Woodward. Frida's Carload. Delightful!

Topiary on the Midlands Highway

Tasmanians recall with sheer delight the memory of a Tasmanian man, Jack Cashion, who while working as a patrolman in the early 1960s on a stretch of the Midlands Highway between Tunbridge and Oatlands, clipped a procession of topiary "rare birds and animals and other creations" along the side of the highway.

Topiaries sprang up overnight it seemed and included a steam train, a giraffe, kangaroo, a gorilla [reshaped after a car ran into the original elephant], a dinosaur, camel and birds of various sizes and shapes.

Today this tradition has been revived.

We stopped to take photographs of these unique creations.

Ross

We set off for Hobart. Kim asked to stop off in Ross so that she could see the famous bridge. We stopped at the Ross bakery and had a coffee. They make the most delicious eccles cakes so I had one with my coffee.
We visited a church and I photographed the stained glass windows as well as the details of a cherub's face on the font.

Ten Days on the Island

During the Ten days on the Island Arts Festival we managed to see quite a few of the art exhibitions in Launceston and Hobart. We also attended some of the performances. Three that we particularly enjoyed were: Circus Girl, The Little Match Girl and Queen of the Snakepit.

Windermere

On our return journey to Launceston, we took a detour to visit the beautiful Windermere area on the edge of the Tamar. The beautiful old church and burial ground are such a rich part of colonial Tasmanian life.
Dr Matthias Gaunt arrived in Van Dieman's Land (Tasmania) from London by the ship Eliza on 2nd May 1831. He came with his wife and 5 sons and settled on the land that he named 'Windermere' perhaps due to it's resemblance to the countryside around Lake Windermere in the Lake District of England.
Dr Gaunt promised his wife before they left England, that, if there was no church near their property, he would have one built for her.
the bricks for the church were made in Launceston and were transported by ship down the Tamar. One boat load actually sank just off Windermere. It was the first church consecrated in the north of Tasmania. Bishop Nixon performed the service on 18th April, 1845.

Lunch with Chris and Ron Price

We travelled on to George Town where we had a very enjoyable time visiting Chris and Ron Price. Kim spent time over lunch sharing stories of the past 20 years since she had last seen Chris and Ron.
After lunch we went for a walk along the river's edge near the Price's home to see some of the landscape rehabilitation projects that Chris is involved with on an ongoing basis.

Bridport

Bridport is a seaside town on the north east coast of Tasmania with beautiful beaches and coastline.
We visited Bridport with Kim to see the Sea Flowers Artwork by Sandra Lancaster which she had created as part of the Ten Days on the Island Arts Festival. Unfortunately the tide was out so we did not get to see the sculptures floating on the water. However, the flower forms still looked amazing as they rested on the tidal flats. We were able to view them at close range.
We visited a local cafe and enjoyed delicious coffee before visiting ne of the beaches where we spent time photographing the beautiful rocks and beach environment.

Rebecca

On our return journey to Launceston, we decided to take the old Rosevears road as the views of the river across to Windermere are very beautiful. We stopped at the 'Rebecca' monumnet to explain the significance of the site to Kim. Many people do not realise that Hoabrt and Launcesaton are the second and third oldest cities in Australia, after Sydney. It was John Batman who sailed in the ship 'Rebecca', that had been built by Captain George Plummer on the banks of the Tamar River, across Bass Strait and subsequently, the city of Melbourne was established.