Willowdale

From the South to the North

I'm back, relaxed and refreshed and stocked up with craft supplies and an old green meat safe!

Hobart is three hours south of our farm and I wanted to arrive at the Derwent Entertainment Centre at around 10.30am so I got out of bed, had a shower, a cup of tea, hugs and kisses, reminded Dustin to feed the chooks and Ruby to cook dinner for Dada :) Then I was off.

It wasn't cold but it was wet so the drive was going to be slow. At least I didn't have to worry about ice on the roads. I hadn't had any breakfast so I stopped at Nunermura, a little settlement about thirty minutes from our farm for a take away coffee, not realizing their interpretation of a latte was boiled milk and instant coffee :( never-mind.

I stopped for breakfast in Campbell Town but the only place open was a 'Banjos' bakery where I purchased a cheese and bacon scroll for almost $6. It was then I decided to avoid 'Banjos' from then on. These big chain bakeries that charge ridiculous prices and run the small family bakeries out of towns like Campbell Town piss me off with their bored staff and overpriced products.

So I ate bits of scroll in the car along the way. I love driving in the rain so it was a relaxing trip. I took it easy letting cars pass me, driving along sometimes with the radio on, sometimes in silence other than the rain.

As expected I arrived at the Derwent Entertainment Centre in Hobart at 10.30am. I was surprised at how old it was. I expected a big fancy modern building. Well it was modern but it was quite dated and in need of a paint job. It is on a river, as is a lot of stuff in Hobart. There are a lot of water ways in Hobart.

If you are going to live in the suburbs in Australia you couldn't ask for a nicer city than Hobart.

The weather was clearing and it was a lot warmer than usual.

Inside, the fair was hot and crowded. it wasn't as large as I expected but it was as busy as I expected. There were a lot of stalls where you could buy yarns, fabrics, doll making supplies, paper craft supplies, jewelery supplies, sewing machines and demonstrations. I think the jewelery suppliers were the busiest. I couldn't even get close enough to see what they had on offer they were so busy. There were just tables with women bent over them picking out their treasures. I told Scott "there were too many women and not enough men to hurry them along". That was pretty much the theme and I couldn't spend anymore than two hours in there.

There were some lovely quilts in the quilt exhibition. On my way in I asked the lady welcoming people if I could take photos. She said, "we cant STOP you but we'd prefer you didn't"... OK, that was kind of vague so I didn't take any photos around the area where she was but I snuck a few photos upstairs when no official looking people were watching.

Some of the work was amazing.

That was one of my favourites.

That one was representing the Australian outback.

There were so many lovely quilts. I didn't want to blatantly disrespect the 'official type' ladies and take too many photos so I only took these when no one was watching, although I felt guilty because when I left I noticed a big sign saying "NO PHOTOS". Ooops!

Why didn't she just say so??

I had enough after a couple of hours so I headed off towards my hotel with a bag of stash from the fair including some alpaca fibre for needle felting, fabric for embroidering, some silk yarn and a few little presents for friends.

My hotel was on the water front so I just headed into the main part of the city but I turned off too late and missed my hotel which turned out to be a good thing because I ended up here at the Salamanca Markets where I did some more shopping. Then I finally found my way to the Hotel Grand Chancellor (not quite as grand as it sounds). I had a good view though.

Once I got back to my hotel I ordered room service (which sucked BTW) and watched in house movies (with very bad TV reception) but I still enjoyed myself and relaxed and went to bed early.

It was nice to have a bit of time to myself and just relax not having to worry about feeding someone or wiping someones bum or cleaning up someones mess... although I did miss my someones :)

I'm taking the weekend off!

Seriously! I am going to Hobart for a craft fair thingie. No kids or Scott. This is the first time I have gone away from both kids and Scott since... well ever!!! I am leaving early tomorrow morning for the long drive (three hours) down the centre of Tasmania. I live on the top of Tasmania and Hobart is down the bottom.

Today I have to catch up on all the housework, clean out my car for the trip and top up all the animal food. I don't know what Scott and the kids plan on doing while I'm away. The weather looks like it is going to be cold and wet. I expect there will be a lot of movie watching and playing on the internet and maybe they'll go out and visit friends.

So I'm leaving all this for a weekend in the city!

Gone Fishing

Not me. I hate fishing. Scott has gone fishing. Actually, he is at work now but he is going fishing right after work tonight and not coming home until tomorrow. He's sleeping in a swag out in the freezing (not exaggerating) cold tonight, on a lake on the east Coast of Tasmania.

I, on the other hand will be warm and cozy inside by the fire tonight. It is getting really cold. There is snow in the mountains and heavy frosts here at Willowdale. I'm not sure what my plans will be tonight. I'll probably let the kids go to bed in our bed and watch a dvd and I'll stay up in th lounge room and do... something?

City Park

One of the things we did this Autumn was visit the Launceston City Park. It was the end of a big day in Launceston so before we went home we went to the park for a play.

The park is like any Botanical Gardensy type city park with lots of grass and lots of big old trees.

When we went they had a dahlia garden in full bloom with dahlias almost as big as Dustin!

There were dahlias in our back garden when we came here. Big white ones, not as big as that though. I had to pull them out when we moved the water tank and changed the fence line. I think I'd like a dahlia garden like this... but where to put it?

We played in trees and lay on the grass.

Hanging out in City Park is a great way to end a busy day in the city before the long drive home. We should do it more often.