Number 90: The Much Anticipated but Most Unexpected News

In this year of so many different things this post is a standout.

We have celebrated the wedding of our son; the second birthday of our grandson; we have travelled extensively adding new countries and new destinations to our global travel; we have walked wherever we found ourselves and did some incredible hikes in Sicily, Austria, Italy and Tasmania; we have eaten gorgeous food and drank interesting gins; visited family in Malta, Australia and New Zealand; spent time with dear friends from all over the world; I have birded and baked and knitted and quilted and taken in amazing art spaces; bought a new car; and so on and so on. The list is getting to the magical 100.

Number 90:

The Much Anticipated but Most Unexpected News

A 12 week baby scan from Johannesburg

The photos tell the news.
We have been anticipating the expanding of our family so the news that both Shawni and Craig and Kim and Barry are pregnant was not completely surprising.
But!
Two babies due within days of each other, that was completely unexpected.
This is what is called abundance. 2019 is going to be a very special year for Fred and me.

A 12 week baby scan from New Zealand

Number 89: Streaming and Bingeing

Just because I am can!

Number 89:

Streaming and Bingeing

Date with the remote and my wool.

I have to sneak this into my year; this new way of watching TV, fibre optic high speed internet, streaming Netflix for the first time (thanks Ingrid and Justin) and bingeing on 4 seasons of "Grace and Frankie" this last week.

Certainly makes me think back to the time of Dallas and Rich Man, Poor Man in the late 1970's, where I had a standing Tuesday night date with a friend at her mother's apartment in Berea (who had the TV of course) for dinner and watching our favorite show. How different things are now.

So I went digging into my wool stash, found the beautiful hand woven wool made in Barrydale  (thanks Natalie) and started a cushion cover for my Moroccan Room. 

I have completely loved my daily date with the remote and my wool. The project is not finished yet so I need recommendations on series that make for great bingeing.

Number 88: A Bow for my New Car

Suddenly our fleet of vehicles have aged and getting the aches and pains of old age! Time to sell and time to replace.

Number 88: A Bow for my New Car

Gee it is a long time since I last walked into a car dealer and drove out with a car, it must be about 15 years ago when I was still part of the corporate world. So many decision points, so much paper work, a frustrated Fred sorting insurance but eventually I drove her out into the mayhem of Randburg and rather enjoyed the feeling of brand new.

Maddie joins the fleet, almost ready for our December road trip to the Eastern Cape.

Number 87: Accumulated Merits

I have been thinking about how to meet my goal of reflecting on 'different things' this year, when I have been meeting up with my special friends for more than a decade. We circle, which is sending time together and appreciating all that means. I have also been to Hermanus many times, I have seen whales in the bay before too, I have eaten at Bientangs Cave too.

So...

"Marvel Diver" and
Sharon, Natalie, Bev and Sharon loving the beauty of a few days in Hermanus.

Number 87:

Accumulated Merits.

In a year of traveling far and wide, what is different for me is seeing and experiencing what I know with a child-like delight and feeling as though it is the first time. My few days in Hermanus with my dear friends was an exhale, I had left my heart behind in New Zealand and felt its integration for the first time and the exhaustion of endless travel is abating.

Natalie shared a Buddhist concept with me, 'Punya or merits' - it is a beneficial and protective force which accumulates as a result of good deeds, acts, or thoughts... And I felt these merits; glorious weather, rainbows, whales, friendship, gifts, good food and wine, a roaring fire, marvelous sculptures, walks along the Cliff Paths, luxurious sleeps, sitting quietly with a mountain view and breathing deeply.

Number 86: Four generations of art and crafts in my home

James' finger painting age 2. Framed and hanging in my kitchen.

We hung a piece of James' finger painting in the kitchen today and I was struck by the span of the generations represented in my homes through art, crafts, soft furnishings, accessories and ornaments.

Number 86:

Four generations of art and crafts in my home.

Dad's woodwork; lamps, bowls and tables.

Mom's delicate botanical watercolors and fine lined monochrome or colored heritage buildings. Her handmade dolls.

Fred's photographs and woodwork.

My quilts, framed embroideries and cushion tapestries.

My sisters Inel and Doreen's paintings and lithographs - watercolors and acrylics.

My dear brother Clive's metal candlesticks and wooden chopping boards.

Shawni and Barry's childhood paintings.

And now my grandson.

Each piece has a story, evokes a memory and makes me appreciate the person behind the work. And it makes me happy.

Just some of the art and crafts in my home.

PS. And I thought I just had - I have some pieces of handiwork in my kist done by my Nan, so four is actually five generations gracing my homes.

Number 85: A dinner in Sydney with the Next Generation

We are making our way back to South Africa from Tasmania with a stopover in Sydney. So we arranged to meet up with Jason and Elly.

Number 85:

A dinner in Sydney with the Next Generation

Jason works in the city and met us at St James station. He had already had an afterwork run around the Botanical Gardens. The two of them reflect the youth and energy of Sydney.  I was a proud aunt as we watched the city lights from our trendy eatery setup on a roof in Darlinghurst.

Number 84: Wineglass Bay from the Land and from the Sea

It’s early morning and I am watching the sunrise over the east coast of Tasmania in a little town called Bicheno. My legs and feet are ‘talking to me’ as yesterday we did a 15km circular hike in the Freycinet National Park.

The sweep of Wineglass Bay Beach.

Number 84:

Wineglass Bay from the Land and from the Sea.

Pared down beauty of Wineglass Bay Beach

Fred and I have quite a few favourite beach walks like Noordhoek Beach in Cape Town,  Sandfly Bay on the Otago Peninsula, South Island, New Zealand and we added another to our collection. The magnificent Wineglass Bay Beach, the sand is rich in silica so it is pure white and squeaky underfoot. 

The hike starts with a steep uphill to a lookout point to see the crescent shaped Wineglass Bay with the sea a magnificent blue-green. Quite fabulous!

The name of the Bay comes from both the shape of the sea-facing bay but also from the isthmus that connects it to Hazards Beach and Oyster Bay created by the magnificent Hazards. But also from a story about the sea running red with whale blood and the whalers thought the bay looked like a glass of claret.

From the sea? Well I keep being fooled that I love the sea, I was miserable - cold and seasick and so relieved when the cruise was finished!

Number 83: An Evening Vigil for a Tasmanian Devil

Len out host at Mountain Valley Wilderness Eco-retreat, Loongana in the north-west of Tasmania, has been on his property for almost 40 years. And he knows devils!

Number 83:

An Evening Vigil for a Tasmanian Devil.

A cabin in the woods and a Tasmanian devil!

When guests are settled for the night after dinner, Len drops either chopped roadkill or chicken
in front of each cabin. The instruction is to leave the porch light on, switch off all interior lights and make no noise and keep movement to the minimum. 

The first night I did not make it past eleven and there was no sign of the pesky devil and over breakfast the rest of the gang shared their sightings with us, the Tasmanian Devils had been seen from after 11pm through to 3.30am. Oh dear...

The second night and round two of patiently waiting, this time with determination to wait out the devil. We had a roaring fire going and watched a few episodes of Australian Masterchef until midnight but still no sign of movement. We heard a screech a little while later so I stood at the window, staring out into the dark, the bits of chicken seeming to glow and eventually at 1.10am our first view of a fast moving Tasmanian Devil. A little later it popped back for the next piece of chicken. It looked at the cabin for a quick moment, we saw its face, noticed the white markings before it disappeared. 

Our mammal list now includes a wild Tasmanian Devil.

Number 82: Curious Creatures of Cradle Mountain

We took a long and slow drive across Tasmania from Bruny Island to the second destination of our Rockjumper tour with Steve; Cradle Mountain National Park.

A platypus in the wild.

Our beautiful wombat.

And her young made an appearance out of the backward facing pouch!

Number 82:

Curious Creatures of Cradle Mountain.

So excited, what a sighting!

The birds had to take a back seat as the curious creatures of Tasmania made their appearances along our travels in the Cradle Mountain National park.

A platypus seen from a low-level bridge; a Short-beaked Echidna trying to play hide-an-seek by putting its’ beak into the sand; a shy Brushtail Possum sneaking around at night; Bennetts Wallabies and the diminutive Tasmanian Pademelons feeding around us, we even saw a couple of blond Bennetts; an evening encounter with a Spotted-tail Quoll as I was walking up to our cabin, it was sitting on the steps; but the highlight has to be a female Common Wombat.

Our wombat sighting was a trip highlight, her fur was luscious and her pouch was hanging low. I had not known that wombats have back facing pouches to avoid getting mud and dirt into it. We quietly watched her rear end and the baby put it’s face out to nibble some grass!

An Echidna, too curious, what a quirky beak!

A blonde Bennet's Wallaby and a Tasmanian Pademelon

Number 81: My World Birding List hits 2000

The bird sightings on Bruny Island kept coming all day and so many were lifers too. I have been creeping to the 2000 mark ever since birding in Costa Rica and I was expecting to reach this new milestone here in Tasmania.

The shy and quiet Pink Robin of the cool temperate forest of Cradle Mountain.

Number 81:

My World Birding List hits 2000.

After a late night of walking a beach, torches in hand, to watch Little Blue Penguins come in from the sea, I was too tired to do any bird admin – noting which birds had been seen during the day, writing up the details of the sightings in my Australian Field Guide and then updating my excel IOC spreadsheet, where I keep a running list by country of the birds I have seen.

So it was early on day two that I realized that my number was 2007, I am not sure which bird was number 2000 and it will just have to remain a mystery!

Tasmania bird stats: 65 birds seen, 27 lifers and we saw all 12 endemics. We saw seabirds, shore birds, woodland birds and raptors.

Rockjumper Trip Report:

With continuing rain greeting us as we landed in Hobart, we collected the bus and set off toward Bruny Island, our base for the next two nights. Making the ferry crossing to Bruny Island in good time, the first bird we saw upon disembarking was Swift Parrot; in fact, they were seemingly everywhere in the huge flowering Blue Gums there, and in teeming rain we enjoyed our first views of this critically endangered species, a spring-summer migrant to Tas. Our first Tasmanian endemic species came in the form of a

Superb Fairywren by Roderick MacKenzie

family of Tasmanian Nativehens, and we would see many more of this chicken-like, flightless gallinule during our stay in Tasmania.
A few hours later and we were tucking into a finemeal at the Bruny Pub, ready for a good night’ssleep and for more exciting birding here tomorrow. The drive back was punctuated by sightings of Tasmanian Pademelons and Bennett’sWallabies.
Day 21: 18th October. A fine, damp and misty day
greeted us this morning but, importantly, it wasn’training! With breakfast out of the way, we set
about finding some of the island’s endemicspecies. In the tall forests, tussock woodland and
rocky coastline of beautiful Bruny Island, we
quickly racked up Black-headed Honeyeater, loud
and aggressive Yellow Wattlebirds, Dusky Robin
and the unobtrusive and critically endangered
Forty-spotted Pardalote, a major target for us here.
Also in the vicinity was a male white phase of the Grey Goshawk feeding on prey, Scarlet and Flame Robins, Fan-tailed Cuckoo, more Swift Parrot and Brush Bronzewing that were calling from all around, but remained deep within the forest. More endemics were around here too, with Strong-billed Honeyeaters prying bark from branches, stems and crotches looking for insect prey, the beautiful Green Rosella and Black Currawong.
Along the coastal areas of the island, we picked up both Sooty and Australian Pied Oystercatchers, a pair of Hooded Plover, more Black-faced Cormorant and good numbers of Kelp and Pacific Gulls. At one point, we watched as a White-bellied Sea Eagle hunted and took down a Short-tailed Shearwater just offshore.
Sadly, more wet and thundery conditions set in again this afternoon, which stymied our activities somewhat, but cleared enough that we were able to head out after dark and watch as Little Penguins came ashore along an ocean beach and headed to their burrows.
Day 22: 19th October. After a final look around Bruny, we left the island this morning, along the way hearingbut not seeing a pair of Lewin’s Rail that grunted at usfrom deep within cover. Heading to the north of Tasmania and our final accommodation for the tour, today was a travel day, so there weren’t a lot ofopportunities for stopping; but, later in the afternoon, as we drove the backroads towards our lodgings, we picked up some nice birds with Grey Currawong, Pink Robin, Tasmanian Thornbill, Olive Whistler and brief but barely satisfactory glimpses of Tasmanian Scrubwren.

Banded Stilt by John Kendall

Green Rosella by John Kendall

Rockjumper Birding Tours

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Trip Report – RBL Australia - East Coast & Tasmania Ext II 2018 15

A Morepork called on dusk and was seen by a few of us, and after dark there was a carnivore-fest as Tasmanian Devils and Spot-tailed Quolls emerged from the forest to feed on strategically-placed morsels, much to the delight of the tour party.
Day 23: 20th October. Our destination for the day was Cradle Mountain National Park, and it was with a much more leisurely pace that we set off this morning, finding a beautiful Platypus in a clear stream along the way, as well as great looks at Yellow-throated Honeyeater, Crescent Honeyeater, the elusive Scrubtit and our final Tas endemic: a Tasmanian Scrubwren that finally gave itself up for decent views.
Cradle Mountain National Park was its usual magnificent self, although low cloud marred the scenery somewhat. Black Currawong were everywhere here it seemed, and became quite pesky when looking for handouts.
A beautiful Wombat with a young joey in the pouch was a clear standout for wildlife experience of the day, as she allowed us to approach quite closely for photographs.
The evening again offered good views of Tasmanian Devil and Spot-tailed Quoll, a fitting end to what had been a fantastic tour. The company, camaraderie and repartee had been simply excellent, and the author cannot remember such an enjoyable and cohesive group.

Pink Robin by John Kendall

And sometimes it is the common birds that create magical birding experiences.

Look at that bill, magnificent Pacific Gull, only found on the coasts of southern Australia.

Number 80: Birding Bruny Island

A Swift Parrot feeding on a Tasmanian Blue Gum

A ferry ride from Kettering and our small party of birders, guided by Steve from Rockjumper, are in the pristine native Tasmanian bush in the far south of Bruny Island. The first lifer was the Swift Parrot, listed as vulnerable, they were fast flying and in and out of the huge flowering Tasmanian Gums.

Number 80:

Birding Bruny Island.

It’s early; I am awake well before dawn listening to the dawn chorus from our Bruny Hotel cottage. The rain has abated and the anticipation for my day of birding at Inala has me excited, Christmas morning excited. The Island has all 12 of the endemics of Tasmania and I am ready for my first full day of birding.

Tonya of Inala has created a very special bush retreat, beautiful Gondwanaland gardens, hides
and a raptor feeding station. Apart from the ‘swifties’, the beautiful Swift Parrots, the target at Inala is the Forty-spotted Pardalote. A tiny bird, which does have spots, I am not sure who counted the forty.

After mugs of coffee and toasties for breakfast, we headed off to the hide, a raised platform to give views into the mid-story of the huge manna gums. And there they were, the pardalotes, easy to get onto, easy to see, which makes it hard to appreciate just how rare they are.

Our target bird, the beautiful and rare Forty-spotted Pardalote

Forty-spotted Pardalote

The Forty-spotted Pardalote (Pardalotus quadragintus) is one of Australia's rarest birds and can now only be found in south eastern Tasmania, including Bruny Island. The bird's name comes from the white spots that appear on its wings.

Habitat

The Forty-spotted Pardalote lives in dry eucalypt forests with white gums. The bird relies exclusively on the white gum trees for nesting and feeding.

Behaviour

The Forty-spotted Pardalote feeds on insects and manna of the white gum. They only nest in the white gum tree.

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Number 79: MONA, Hobart

Visionary, monumental, subterranean, darkness, color, form, light, ancient, old, new, sparkling, texture, odd, quirky, unsettling, inspirational, unique, vast, detail, sound, water, oil, noise, silence, edgy, cool, death, consciousness, conceptual, looming, deceiving...

Number 79:

MONA, Hobart

David Walsh's Museum of Old and New Art is a triumph! 

And to quote the man: A temple to secularism, rationalism, and talking crap about stuff you don't know much about. We won't tell anyone. Come and play. 

And we did.

Fred and I completely captivated by all that MONA has to offer.

MONA, moods.

Number 78: Hiking Mt Wellington, Hobart, Tasmania

We flew into Hobart from Sydney. A cruise liner in the harbour, a fine day with sunshine, people milling around the picturesque streets of Hobart and we ignored it all. We left the oyster shucking, cheese tasting and wine sipping possibility and headed for Mt Wellington instead.

Number 78:

Hiking Mt wellington, Hobart, Tasmania.

I chose 'Sunday Suffering'!

Route: Starting from Fern Tree at 420m - Fern Glade, Milles Track, Ice House Ruins, South Wellington Track to the Summit at 1271m.

Rating: Difficult, Rough Terrain, Experienced Walkers only.

Distance: 8km uphill and road walking down  - 7km Sharon, 12km Fred, he fetched the car for me!

Verdict: Amazed to have accomplished this fierce hike, views spectacular and flora remarkable. First bird of the trip, Black Currawong.
Exhausted, body aching and so pleased it's done.

Dwarfed by the boulders along the path, following the orange beacons!

Snow melt and boggy conditions on the Alpine Heath.

Summit, cold windy with quite magnificent views. We are 1.2km above the city of Hobart.

Magnificent dragon-leafed richea.