"Balmoral Park" farm garden

Wednesday up at 6.45 – shower in laundry. Sat in park and wrote letters. 2.15 bus to Mt. Wellington – fine with occasional shower. Sat next to Canadian lady who had travelled all over the world and had a rather powerful philosophy on human relationships. Reached the top just in time to obtain a photo before being enveloped in a blizzard of freezing driving snow. In evening to see The Plainsman, a fine picture. Able to sleep on mattresses at the gym Thursday shower and breakfast at YMCA – 9.0 car called to go to Hastings Caves, 72 miles to south. Passed through fern trees and slopes of Mt. Wellington obtaining fine views of Derwent – mainly orchard country. Lunch at Hot Springs Chalet then to caves 12.30. Quite beautiful but not as extensive or variety of Jenolan. Devonshire tea on way back to Hobart by 5.0 Ross and I to Bootmaker to pick up boots, which had given up the ghost on our walk. Lady in shop had lived 12 years in Sydney. Back to YMCA to spruce up and write let...

29.12 -5.30 still enveloped by cloud and freezing wind blowing. 6.00 porridge on and 7.00 breakfast of porridge, eggs, etc. 9.15 left Kitchen Hut and skirted Cradle Mtn. and up onto Cirque. Good views of Barn Bluff now obtained. Weather mainly fine with occasional showers, ground very sticky. Left Clique and descended Waterfall Valley where we lost the track for a while but picked it up again when we saw snow poles heading away on neighbouring ridge. Pressed on through the slush, passing several small lakes and finally descending to Lake Windermere and the Hut 2.00pm. Lake is simply beautiful with a small type of pines on its shores. We found hut very comfortable with bunks and big open fireplaces. After a brief lunch we washed up and Barry and I went for a photographic excursion around the shores of the lake and were foolish enough to plunge in for a brief swim. On way back met Gordon Hunter and 4 friends (Gordon was a school friend who lived in the same street) – t...

I finally found how to edit drafts this morning and found this old post I started a year or so ago. Its a good read so I will continue with it. Peter's mother Margaret sent me this diary of her husband Ken's trip to Tasmania in 1948-1949, fascinating to read, I thought I would put an extract here each day. KEN HEATH - TASMANIAN TOUR - DECEMBER 1948 - JANUARY 1949 Ken was 21 years old and 2 friends Barry Newman and Ross Swadling 27.12.48 - 10.15 left ANA offices Margaret St. city. 11.15 left Mascot in Skymaster Tatana, weather hot and hazy. Ascended to 8,ooo ft. Served cold salad over Albury at mid-day. I was very hungry it tasted excellent. Followed up with fruit salad and ice cream. 12.30 passed Hume Weir and Albury. 12.50 weather worsened and hit rain squall 1.35 touched down Melbourne weather very hot. 2.15 left Melbourne by DC3 – very smooth flight over Bass straight. 4.10 Launceston and bus int...

I've been making sourdough bread for about four years now and I must say the end result has improved greatly over that time. I started off researching on the net for a recipe and made a starter...my first few loaves while they smelt like lovely sourdough, were like housebricks. My friend then gave me some of her starter and a recipe and I was in business. although to tell the truth the things that I most needed to learn was some patience! I've read lots of recipes and a few books and this is what i have arrived at. I keep my starter in the fridge in a glass jar and aim to make bread once a week or so. The day before I want to bake I take the starter from the fridge and empty the whole lot into a bowl, this is usually about 1 1/2 cups or so. I dont really measure anything anymore. I then put about one cup of bread flour and one cup of tepid water in the bowl, cover with a clean tea towel and let it sit for at least eight hours. If it has been a while since i baked I will take ...

Our neighbour has gone into business installing grid connected solar sytems. We have been talking about doing this for a long time so it seemed the right time to go ahead with it. this system will generate more power than we use. The idea is we sell the lot to country energy, they pay us for it at a higher rate than we have to pay for what we use. We hope that in the future the battery storage technology will get cheaper and we will be able to be independent of the grid. but for the moment this is a good solution. We have so much sun here it will feel good to be using it to generate electricity. We are jsut waiting on the meter box to get connected. Peter with the Solar Panels In our kitchen there was an old fuel stove. we decided it needed rebricking but when Peter went to do this discovered it was all rusted out. there was a similiar stove in the shed so Peter put the two together. Clever man and voila! a beautiful stove! Cooking on the stove top!

We continue to have rain at regular intervals so far this year so our garden is a very different place. Lush green growth everywhere. This despite some extremely cold weather and hard frosts. I had two trombocino vines that survived the hot dry January and went on to produce a huge crop. We were eating them up until the end of May. About that time I found a few huge Trombocinos that were hiding under bushes or in the long grass so I decided to let them grow, just to see what would happen. They grew into Giants! Peter measured the longest one and it was a metre and a half long. At the moment they are decorating my garden but I am thinking I might cook one to see what it is like.