A day of sights and smells and flavors

Easter and family got in the way of continued blogging – sorry about that!

Just a few miscellaneous remarks first:  We saw a bandicoot crossing the road one night – a little furball scooting along. Very few wild animals were sp0otted during my whole journey- in Papua New Guinea as well as Australia. Not sure what that means…

And while with Di and Chris, I pitched in and did a bunch of the cooking and cleaning up and laundry duties to give them time to work on some art grant proposals with looming deadlines. I’ve since heard that both proposals were accepted and grants allocated!

One of the meals I prepared was  fresh pumpkin soup – not too bad for working without a recipe!

On March 16 we headed to the northern coast of Tasmania so I could participate in the biennial National Basketry Gathering starting on the 17th. Along the way we saw and experienced:

– black cows with a wide white band around their middles – quite the sight!

– evidence of earlier bush fires and logging/burning activity

-lovely lakes in the Central Highlands

-an old salt of a fellow at the Bothwell coffee shop – postcard perfect!

-a helicopter taking off next to the road – we weren’t too close, thank goodness!

-Steppes sculptures in the middle of nowhere

-the pub and hotel in Miena with a special on fish and chips and the first unfriendly Tassies – I think they didn’t like the fact that we were coming in at the very end of their lunch hour shift

-miniature ferns and pencil pine and ice age rock fields along the boardwalk of a national park

-the Tasmania Regional Arts Council offices in Latrobe and a great visitors center with museum

-an excellent little motel in downtown Devonport where we stayed in and had a great Indian take-out dinner

-great fresh ice cream – I think it was blackberry – along the rode to Devonport

With some time to kill the next morning, we drove over to Burnie to visit the Makers of Burnie center – based on the papermaking mill that used to be central to the city, the new center had a large papermaking display and working area plus a number of spaces for various local artists to display, sell and demo their work. We each made some recycled papers with embossed Australian animals of our choice. I also picked up some regional papers – wombat and kangaroo poo paper! Can’t make that back home, now can I?!?!?

Next up – the National Basketry Gathering experience!

Relevant pics now online!