Category: Tasmania

RDP: View

My Favourite Views

“You can’t eat scenery.” someone said to me once. I think we had been remarking on the lovely views from a house we’d been looking at. As a practical person I know that’s true but I do like to live in appealing surroundings. Tasmania is a state with some sensational scenery which is why many people from the other states choose to make their home here. The Huon Valley, where I live, is one of the prettiest parts of Tasmania.

boats moored at Franklin, Tasmania

I never get tired of looking at the views of the Huon River. Sometimes it’s mirror smooth, sometimes it’s grey and cold looking.

Cruising the Huon River on Yukon.

Tasmania was a huge apple producer until the 1970s and there are old packing sheds and pickers huts dotted here and there. There are still orchards although many growers have changed to cherries now.

image orchards Ranelagh
Apple orchards at Ranelagh. In the background the range of mountains known locally as “The Sleeping Beauty”.
Wooden building at Policeman’s Point, Huon Valley Tasmania

When I used to work in Hobart I would travel to and from Geeveston on the bus, a trip of over an hour but I never got tired of the views. I imagined all the tourists who would be paying good money to see views that I saw nearly every day.

Passing the Bowls Club at Franklin

Occasionally in winter, there may be a heavy snowfall. Often I want to say to the driver, “Stop the bus!” so I can take photos but of course I can’t do that so I sometimes try to snap a few out of the window.

Taken from the bus window 2015

I don’t actually have much of a view from my house. I can see the road and a row of tall gum trees, not the water or the hills or fields but the views are all around me so I don’t really mind.

Rainbow over the Huon River
Rainbow over the Huon River
image Huon River, Port Huon
The Huon River from Port Huon Wharf. The clouds are tinged with tobacco from a controlled burn in the forests beyond Geeveston.
Port Huon Tasmania

A Photo A Week Challenge: The Rule of Thirds

Rule of Thirds

I don’t consciously think about the rule of thirds when I’m taking pictures, but I probably do when I’m editing them as I often crop photos. I do enjoy looking at subjects that are a little off centre but every picture is different sometimes it’s fine to break the rules.

This old car has seen better days.

Messing about in boats – Franklin, Tasmania

Jetty on the Huon River.

An old church in Dover, Tasmania

Lest We Forget

Normandy Veteran
Veterans at the ANZAC parade 2015
Veterans
Lest we forget
Vietnam Veterans
The Hobart Cenotaph

Today is ANZAC Day. I didn’t get up early to go to the dawn service or catch the bus to see the parade in Hobart but the above are some photos that I took of the 2015 march.

I don’t think of the march as a celebration of war so much as a day that we remember the fallen.

Years ago when I used to go Dawn Service and to see the march in Adelaide regularly I used to enjoy seeing the pleasure the veterans got out of seeing old friends that maybe they didn’t see very often and their determination to go the distance even though they were old and maybe disabled.

It was once felt that the ANZAC tradition would die once the men and women who served in the world wars were gone but instead it seems to have become bigger. Of course,  we’re never going to run out of conflicts to lose soldiers in.

The Waler horse is the type of horse used by the Light Horsemen
Riders forming up before the start.
Two of the horses in the riding demonstration.
A riding demonstration in WWI uniform.

I just hope that young people are commemorating the day for the right reasons. Many young Australians like to visit Turkey and spend ANZAC Day at Gallipoli but it was not meant to be about rock concerts and selfies. It’s a time to be solemn, reflect and do our best to make sure that no more young men have to die in a war.

Dark clouds looming over the Cenotaph in Hobart.

Don’t we have a lot of euphemisms for War?

The Wooden Boat Festival 2019

Here is a more cheery post than I’ve done recently. Today is the first day of the Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart. It is only on once every two years so I didn’t want to miss it. As I was not sure if the bus would be running from Geeveston I opted to stay an extra day with Matt and Ally and go from their place leaving Matt to doggy sit Cindy.

I got a ride to town with Ally who had to work and arrived around 11:30am. Of course, as it was the first day, not all the boats had arrived and many were making their way into the harbour when I arrived. The tall ships that are usually on display were not due until the afternoon and unfortunately, I was not able to stay to see them.

There were still a lot of very nice ones to see though. Some were quite old but a lot of the ones that I saw were built in the last forty years. I’m sorry but I have a hard time thinking of something from the 1990s as old.

I walked around for a couple of hours taking photos of the ones that I liked best. It was already quite busy although still easy to get a seat in the food area where I stopped to get a baked potato for lunch.  At this point, I thought I should check on Cindy and messaged Matt. He said that she had been howling a lot and of course I immediately felt guilty for leaving her and cut my visit short.

I did manage to take more than 50 photos though. Here are some of them.

Messing about in boats
MV Goolara built 1958
Pelican and Curlew two boats named for birds.
Talking Boats
Brittania one of the older boats I saw.
Moored at Elizabeth St Pier
Gypsy
I thought that the man in this boat was called Gus but actually it is the name of the boat.
Rowboat

https://www.australianwoodenboatfestival.com.au/

Bushfire Update 30 January

I have not written an update for a day or two as I am now staying with friends near Hobart quite some distance from the bushfires.

In the Huon Valley, the situation is as bad as ever though. There has been no let up in the hot weather and fires are creeping closer and closer to the townships of Geeveston, Port Huon, Castle Forbes Bay, and Franklin as well as Glen Huon and Judbury and threatening some other places further south. All of my friends in the Huon have relocated thank goodness and we are all now just waiting for this to be over so we can go home and see what is left. So far I believe my house is OK but I worry for friends who live in more rural properties closer to the bush.

I’ve always been proud of the fact that the community here is very caring and in most cases this crises has brought out the best in people, first and foremost the volunteer firefighters but also those people who are volunteering at the evacuation centre, cooking for the evacuees and the firies and those who helped people relocate their animals to safer places until it became too dangerous to drive south to get them.

I also know of many people who have taken in not only friends and family but anyone who needed somewhere to go. One of my friends has three families staying with her and she is making food to send to the evacuations centre.

I also know of people who have taken on the care of any remaining animals for friends and neighbours. At times like this social media is at it’s best helping to connect people and providing information although of course, it can also be a hotbed of rumours, you have to be careful what information you take notice of.

Sadly there are a few lowlifes about who will take advantage of the situation but with so few people left in the area, neighbours are quick to notice anyone behaving suspiciously and report it.

No new pictures from me today. Just another reminder of what a lovely place the Huon Valley is.

My birthday treat for 2018, a trip on the Huon onboard Yukon.

Wooden building at Policeman’s Point, Huon Valley Tasmania

image apple blossom
Apple Blossom in spring – Huon Valley, Tasmania

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-28/judbury-residents-door-knocked-over-fire-danger/10754640

https://www.news.com.au/national/tasmania/europe-and-north-america-on-standby-as-tasmanian-bushfire-conditions-worsen/news-story/2b00a185c267899e7b1a92ca80e98346