Vale Patricia Ratcliff

Mrs Ratcliff was an author, historian, environmentalist and conservationist.

Born in Dandenong, Victoria, she moved to two other states before calling Tasmania home.

Mrs Ratcliff married Launceston psychiatrist Eric Ratcliff in 1964.

She served on the Australian Press Council for nine years from 1987.

She was a founder of the Launceston Historical Society.

She was the author of ' The Story of Wybalenna' in 1975 and 'The Usefulness Of John West', in 2003.

Toby and Iris

Today we went to Scottsdale to attend the funeral of our uncle, Norman Frost. Toby drove up from Hobart and traveled to Scottsdale with us. It was a good opportunity for Toby to meet his great aunt Iris Charleston for the first time.

Vale Norman Frost : 8th February,1923 -14th May,2010

Bonnie, Norman and Marion

Norman and Ailsa on their wedding day.

Ailsa, Norman and Anne

Uncle Norman Frost passed today. He was brother to Noel's mother, known as Bonnie (Gwendolyn Georgina). During World War 2 he served in the navy.
He was a great character with a generous and kindly heart.

Robin White - The Collaboration: A New Garden

I meet some of my Allardyce cousins

I have a large extended family and I like to keep in touch with them, even though many live in other states and other countries. While we were in Brisbane, we took a train journey to meet up with my cousin Alex and two of his daughters Patricia and Helen.

We meet Pauline Ryder-Smith for lunch and coffee

We arranged to meet Pauline for lunch. I have known Pauline since our primary school days at West Ridgley in the 1950s.

Pauline also took us to have a coffee at a special cafe in New Farm.

Suitcase Rummage

This afternoon, after we had returned from our visit to Scarborough, we walked down to King George Square to investigate the Suitcase Rummage. I had read about it in an issue of Rave magazine and it seemed like a really great concept.

As it was late in the afternoon by the time we arrived at the Square, some of the participants had already packed their suitcases and left, but there were enough remaining to give us a really good idea of how it operates.

A wonderful idea developed by Isabel Fitzgerald and Tess Curran.

See their blog: www.suitcase-rummage.blogspot.com and their Facebook page.

We visit our Stanley cousins

Bruce and Veronica invited us to visit them for lunch at their home in Scarborough. We had not visited them since they had moved into their new home ... so it was a new adventure for us to visit Scarborough and spend time with Bruce, Veronica and their son, Cormac.

We meet Linda Fitzgibbon for lunch

Linda has recently moved from South Korea to live in Brisbane, where she is studying for a PhD.

We had not seen each other for about 11 years, so it was great to be able to meet and have lunch together.

We visit GOMA

No visit to Brisbane is complete without a visit to the Gallery of Modern Art. We enjoyed the current exhibition of work from New Zealand - 'Unnerved: The New Zealand Project' explores a rich, dark vein in New Zealnd contemporary art and film.

Some sculptures at the Queensland art Gallery