Birthday Closure

The trail of parties had to draw to an end eventually and Barb's last was celebrated with Craig, Joy and Abagail. We were looking after Piper, and she brought the total to six at the restaurant where our son Daniel worked. He prepared a fine meal for us. It was a very nice finish to Barb's month-long series of birthday events.

The pic shows Barb and Joy and the scrummy food.

Afterward we had a cuppa at our place and Piper and Abagail helped Barb set up the Christmas tree. The last day of Barb-vent has led into Ad-vent. This is the earliest we have ever set up the tree, but Bec, Gord, Piper and Jasper are soon to leave us for Canada and will have an early Christmas with us before they go.

Piper and Abagail stand in front of the tinseled tree for yet another pic.

A Rabbit!

Barb received a rabbit as a birthday gift from Kelli and Bruce. When we returned from Tassi there it was a real live rabbit in our laundry. Bruce was working on the hutch and had yet to finish it so the laundry was her home.

She has turned out to be a very cute little rabbit, and should not grow too large because of its breed. We give her runs about in the living area of the house, and she entertains us with the exercises she puts herself through. Bruce made her a "five star" hutch, so for the remainder of the day she (Emily) has plenty of room and comfort to laze about and eat loads of food that Barb makes sure that she has.

So we have moved on from rats and ferrets, to having a rabbit!

Birthday Flowers

Even though there were flowers aplenty in Tassi, almost in every front yard we saw, there were two special gifts of flowers that came to Barb after we returned to Melbourne. The Canadian Berkeleys had decided to hold off till Barb had returned, and a dear friend from church had made a card with miniature paper flowers assembled on it. Both gifts of flowers are now acknowledged.
We wondered why the one Gerbera with the roses, and later found out that was an addition instructed by Michelle. So it was a combined Canadian message, and the florist somehow picked the right time to deliver it, just five minutes after Barb got in from work.

Jan made the paper flower card, and if we did not tell you that, you might think some of them were real, such is the quality and craft of her work.
Thankyou for such special memories.

Leaving Neverland

The Spirit of Tasmania trip was a 'worth it' experience, even though the minimum sea-fare was twice the basic air-fare into Launceston. Since we wanted to have our car with us, this was really the only way to cross.

Thes picture shows our last view of Tasmania as evening set in.

The ship had eleven decks and level seven was where all the action was. On that level there was a restaurant, a cafeteria, a theatre, numerous lounges, and even pokies. Our three bunk birth with a porthole was situated on level eight, right forehead, two decks below the bridge, and we had a forward porthole. There were not so many of these and we were privileged to wake up in the morning and be able to watch the Melbourne skyline slowly increase as the ship worked its way across Port Phillip Bay. That was almost as good as the captain's view from the bridge.



All passengers were given a 'gentle' wake up call to pack and be ready for disembarking. Most passengers had vehicles to drive off. Our car had languished on level five were we left it. It was our duty to find it again and to wait in it till it was out turn to drive off. Between the three of us we found it easily and we were soon engaged in the Melbourne traffic again and missing the ease of Tassi. But life had to go on and we had to get into the rest of it.

Tassi Tulips

This was something that should have been posted with the others from the time we returned from Tassi. On one of the last days there, we travelled along the north coast from Devonport, through Burnie to Wynyard and finished up at Table Cape were we found all these tulips growing. Of all places to have a tulip farm, but it must work well there because the business is huge and is supposed to export the tulip bulbs the world over. The colours were just amazing and we just had to stop and fill up the camera's memory.

Port Arthur Prison

We stayed overnight in a cabin at Sunset Beach close to the famous prison location, so we were able to arrive and catch an early tour. The tour included a cruise about the harbour.

The Port Arthur historical prison site was established in the early 1830's. It was a natural prison because of the narrow isthmus, guarded by ferocious dogs. The prisoners were taught a trade and they made everything there to last. There was even successful shipbuilding done there for the Government of Tasmania, by the prisoners. There was forced attendance of church services. It was a harsh place, and when punishment was not effective physically, it was dealt out psychologically through isolation confinement, even to wearing a mask when being moved.

We were amazed by what remained. Such history. The church had burned down but the stone walls remain. The officers quarters was dismantled along with some other buildings, but there is much that is still there. The area is very large and the restoration work covering many different periods.

One part of history this tourist establishment has not yet wanted to record was the 1995 massacre, when a gunman (or gunmen) killed many visitors in and about the main building and car park. Maybe this will happen with the next generation. The pain still lingers. The pain from the 1830's onwards sill hovers there.

Hobart Harbour

So we fuelled up the car and drove down the central highway to Tasmania's capital city. We followed the signs and blended in with the afternoon city traffic, passing the Tasman Bridge, and finding the wharfs, almost by accident. We did have a general map of the whole Island, and there were some city details on the reverse side, so we did OK with what we had. We found we had missed the famous weekly market by a few hours, but were able to watch the city workers returning the streets back to there normal look. All's good. We strolled through the wharf area and got a feel of the place for next time.

We were impressed that a person could take a ride on an old sailing vessel for one and a half hours for $15. Not bad when compared to other expenses.