BRUNY ISLAND SAFARI...

Part three...
We took a tour of Bruny Island with Bruny Island Safaris which meant we didn't have to worry about driving down and on the day only four of us were on the bus which made it a much more relaxed experience...
Bruny Island is well worth the trip and we'd recommend BI Safaris; our guide, Nigel, was very knowledgeable and lots of fun. 

First up we climbed to the top of the new lookout at The Neck where you'll find Truganini's memorial. Magnificent views from there...

The old Lighthouse is probably the most memorable place we visited and so worth the effort of climbing to the top.

The 120 year old telephone at the top of the lighthouse which is still working!!

Wildflowers line the walk up to the lighthouse (and cover quite a bit of the whole area), and were beautiful. There's a small museum at the bottom where you'll find the names of lots of them.

Then to the Bruny Island Hotel for a delicious seafood lunch and afterwards, a cider tasting. There is a Co-op that uses Island apples and pears for the cider (so we bought some cider! We later enjoyed a fudge tasting (bought some!) as well as a visit to a honey shop (bought some!).

Some of the birds we saw. The hen is endemic to Tasmania and the gull is a juvenile Pacific gull, changes to black and white later.

Saw quite a few wallabies too.
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We also visited Richmond and one day I might even blog about it. Very picturesque indeed and extremely busy as it was a Sunday. 

Here's the old Richmond bridge...

Also went down to Port Arthur where there is now an entrance fee of $39 (may have been one before but don't remember it), however, as we had only two hours to spend there and it was about to rain, we decided to leave it till next time we go to Tasmania. I did do a few blogs about Tassie in 2014 and this one mentions Port Arthur. 

LIFE EXTENDING "HERB" IS WORTH A TRY...

 A former neighbour of my mother's came to visit us the other day and reminded Mum of a wonder herb she'd planted on their fence line some years before.  Sambung or Moluccan Spinach are a few of its names in Asia where it is well known for its health benefits.  I was charmed by the pretty flowers of course. 

She had purchased the plant at Shippards Herb Farm here in Nambour and was pleased to see it had virtually taken over the fence since she'd moved.  She said it was just about anti- everything and could be eaten fresh straight from the vine/bush and urged me to try it. I've since read up a bit about it and am giving it a go as a general tonic, taking a couple of leaves every day (for the past 2 days anyway :D).  It doesn't have an offensive taste so I will see if my very ill mother can stomach some as tea.  Can't hurt I'm thinking.

I'm told the plant can be struck from cuttings or grown from seed so am also trying to strike some myself, one in water and one in a pot.  I'm interested to see just how easy (or not) it is and whether it helps Mum.

Stay tuned...

[edit 29.9.17 - both ways of striking cuttings were successful and I now have several potted plants]

URBAN BIRDLIFE...

Today I arrived back from my Sunday walk to find this beautiful creature marauding my tomatoes. She and a juvenile I couldn't snap because it was in the tomato bush were very cheeky and let me get fairly close before they flew off.  I hope they enjoyed the grubs in the tomatoes too.

 Here she is (on the left) chowing down but keeping one eye on me.  The other photo is a male just to show you the difference. A snap I took some time ago. The juveniles are similar colouring to the female until they colour up.

While I was reading the paper, I could hear some strange noises that turned out to be a couple of Lewin's honeyeaters having a lovely time in the bath I put up for that very purpose. I'd noticed a noisy miner coming down into the yard for a drink a couple of weeks ago, and put that up so they wouldn't have to risk being spotted by the cat on the few times he's outside. 

Call me suspicious but I think this drongo may have been in there too at some stage.  I filled it up again after the honeyeaters left.

During my walk I spotted this blue-faced honeyeater trying to eat a large insect (hopefully, a cockroach) or perhaps just getting a better grip so he/she wouldn't lose it on the way back to their nest. 

And finally, a common or as in this case, garden variety, peewee which bravely struts around the back yard chomping down insects, completely ignoring the cat.  Bruce doesn't seem bothered by it either. Such startling eye plumage.

"A bird in the bath, is worth two in the tomato bush"  SMuGly

A TOUCH OF DUTCH...

 At the risk of boring you all to tears with more photos from my trip overseas last year, I present some of my favourite photos from our visit to Amsterdam and surrounds.  Of course, it wouldn't be Dutch without a photo of a windmill would it?  There are a few working windmills reconstructed in a pretty village called Zaanse Schans near Amsterdam and it is very interesting to see although you know it is for the tourists. 

 Zaanses Schans has been made to look very traditional with a number of crafts being produced such as cheese and clog making, as well as a museum. 

 The clog making museum was very interesting and you can see clogs being made the traditional way. But the thing I thought most fascinating was the horse clogs!  Those are on the bottom left of this display of historical clogs.  Never, ever thought about horses having to wear clogs.

After Zaanse Schans we took a tour around a few of the small villages before heading back to Amsterdam and it was truly one of the most picturesque places I've seen in my travels. No prizes for guessing what these shops are selling...

Being such a wet country, there are many, many canals and this was one of my favourite shots, because of the autumn colours and the light. We didn't see any tulips, of course we were there in the wrong season...

 And how could we visit the Netherlands and not see the famous dyke?  So we climbed to the top and this was taken northward. 

 Another canal, this time right outside the apartment we rented.  Dutch architecture is amazing. I got a crick in the neck from gawking at all the buildings as we passed by.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to go on the canal tour as I was sick by then. A good excuse to return eh?

We visited the warehouse in which the Frank family hid from the Nazis, made famous by the publication of young Ann Frank's diary.  It was required reading in my high school and a very moving read. Visiting the "scene of the crime" was very sad.

A statue of Rembrandt (who owned a house nearby) with a 3D reconstruction of one of his most famous paintings, The Night Watch.  The place was packed with tourists so I was lucky to get this shot of mostly statues. You know how I feel about tourists...

Any fans of the movie The Court Jester starring Danny Kaye?  This is a photo of the National Monument in Dam Square taken from the Royal Palace. Now, I realise this isn't a great photo but is a favourite because it makes me snicker.  Why? Well, I'll tell you.  This memorial is referred to in the guide books as a phallus; yes, yes good enough reason to snicker but not enough for me. In the movie Danny Kayes has to remember a ditty about poison and has a lot of trouble with it: "The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true!"  So, it occurred to me that "The phallus from the palace is the view that is true!"   Still makes me giggle. 

"Get it?    Got it.    Good."

SUNDAY LUNCH...

 Gruesome subject I guess, but it's Nature.  Yesterday, I was looking at this St Andrew's Cross spider because of the sun shining on its web when a fly got slightly stuck.  If the spider hadn't been so quick I think the fly might have escaped.  

I didn't watch the whole event, just took these couple of snaps which showed me the venom didn't kill immediately.  Lots of struggling went on. Had it been a bee I might have intervened (probably uselessly). But a fly?

This is the fly today, all neatly wrapped, could even be a takeaway...

WILD ABOUT TASMANIAN FLOWERS...

 Most of the wildflowers that caught my attention were on the west coast of Tasmania, either on islands off Strahan or seen on the way there.  I'm sure I bought a wildflower book but can't for the life of me find the thing so, unfortunately, most are nameless.  

This first flower is similar to a dandelion I guess but is really a ball of tiny flowers, like lantana but not growing like that. Very sweet and found with the daisies below.

 The golden everlasting daisies were growing in clumps along the Lyell Highway to Strahan and were welcome colour in, otherwise, stark countryside and dead trees. The area looked like it had never recovered from bush fires and, I guess, that may be what happened.

These nameless beauties were also found on the road to Strahan but also in other places. Very eye catching indeed.

Just before arriving in Strahan there was a lookout to the coast and we stopped to have... a look out.

and found this very attractive clump of grass.  I know, what sort of person loves grass?  Silly old cow, I am. I have previously admitted to an obsession.

 Alongside the grass, though, was this beauty (also unnamed).

And this colourful shrub is apparently, common heath.  There was a board about local flora but not one of those above was on it.

I did find a name for this one, which is the fruit of the leptecophylla juniperina and I read, now, that it is edible!  Next time, I'll try it.

 We took a trip up the Franklin River and one of our ports of call was Sarah Island which had been a penal settlement and completely devoid of trees while being used as such.  Now, only a few ruins remain and it is overgrown with local flora, no doubt thanks to prevailing winds and birds. Nature takes over.

Buttercups and blue berries, for example.

 Or these white daisy type flowers and something that could well be a weed, but is very attractive.

 This stylish pink flower is the stylidium graminifolium or grass trigger plant.

 Now, I think this is a native fuchsia or cirrea but I could be very wrong.  Pretty little thing though.

MINI MUNCHABLES...

Once upon a time when I was a child, our mother, who was very skilled at stretching her meagre earnings, cooked one exotic meal; Chow Mein. She delighted in using capsicum in this, her signature dish.  I loathed the stuff with a passion and would eat everything else except the capsicum. She tried cutting it up into tiny little pieces but I would return my plate with a ring of tiny red or green bits decorating the edge. Choko was also a vegetable that I despised and when we ate at Grandad's house, I was too timid to reject it and would force the disgusting stuff down.  He loved his choko, growing masses of them in his chook pen and would even eat them raw! As an adult, capsicum never entered the house because, fortunately, my husband didn't care either way; choko was another story and I was often coerced into cooking it and making white sauce for it but did not partake myself.  My eldest, though, as a child must have felt deprived because if we ever went to Sizzlers she would come back to the table with a plate of capsicum!  A couple of years ago I was invited to dinner at her house and was dismayed to see grilled red capsicum on the menu.  I asked that she not give me any and, of course, she chose to ignore my request.  To be polite I just ate it.  I was not too proud to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed it and so began my own love affair with red capsicum.  I still do not like green capsicum and will pick it out of my Asian takeaways.

***

This year I decided to have a go at growing my own.  Cunningly (read that as stupidly), I managed to buy mini gourmet capsicums seedlings not realising the fruit would be so tiny. I left the first two arrivals for a while, waiting for them to grow up.  A passing critter relieved me of them so I've been watching the rest like a hawk and this is the first of my crop that I've been able to pick.  Delicious, if I may say so but not terribly filling.

You can read about choko on the blog here.

ANIMAL CRACKERS XVI - BERRY NICE WOMBAT?

 I spent another Sunday doing a long bush walk thanks to Horizon Guides and this time it was very enjoyable.  I was fitter going in and it wasn't raining so I found nothing much to complain about except my appalling inability to capture decent bird images.  The minute birds see me they turn their backs to the camera, use their superpower to become unfocussed or just fly away laughing their heads off but that's a story for another time.

I did manage to capture these pretty berries which Teresa, our expert guide, informed me are Wombat Berries.  If I'd known when I snapped them that they were edible, I may have been able to give you a fuller description but you can read about them here.

MOTHERS DAY HIGH TEA

 I was lucky enough to win high tea for 5 at the Stamford Plaza in Brisbane courtesy of the Hotel and High Tea Society recently and chose to take Pam, our Mum and my 2 daughters last week as our Mother's Day celebration seeing as I would be working on the Day.  Above is the setting for the high tea which is held in the lobby. Quite sumptuous surroundings.

 Part of the table decorations, I'm thinking dahlia or aster but I'm probably wrong. Beautiful, nevertheless.

Some of the goodies. Absolutely scrumptious I assure you.  We could have ordered more, included in the price apparently, but restrained ourselves, finding what was on offer to be an elegant sufficiency. And washed down a treat with Moet Chandon and delicate, fragrant tea varieties served in stylish china.
Prices vary ($35-55 per head) depending on whether you have standard, bubbly or the Moet.