Hobart Days

Sunday 1 March

This morning I stirred at about 4:30am so by 5am I decided to type up diary. When I got too stiff to continue I dug out the music I have to learn and went through that a few times. Then at about 6am I thought I'd just lie back for a while. Next I knew it was 7:15 and the sun was up. So I really got up, dressed, and put two more days on the blog. By 9am no-one was up and I spent time working on the leaflet.

Just after 10am we headed for the Melville Markets and what a great array of Tasmanian foods were available there. It is just a food market but apart from fruit and vege there were cheeses, pates, whey ice blocks, oils, and all sorts of grains and seedlings.

I finished the data entry for the trip and together we sorted all the stuff from the trip and created equipment lists for next time. Much time was spent debriefing the trip and working through what could be done better or repeated because it worked.

I spent a lot more time on the leaflet and it is looking more complete.

Monday 2 March

Lots of computer work before breakfast then Rosa and I went shopping for food and other bits and pieces.

More work on the computer. The leaflet is now looking almost complete except for dropping in the pictures.

Plans for my remaining days in Hobart are forming.

Tuesday 3 March

During the morning I worked hard to get the photos I had ready for dropping into the leaflet.

Then mid-morning after John (vollie on the expedition) and Ian's second cousin Dan and his partner Louise had gathered at the house, we did a car shuffle to the top of Mt Wellington. It was quite cold and windy on the top with the temperature in single figures (it had been -4C earlier in the morning). However, once we started on our walk down the Zig-Zag Track it warmed up quite a bit as we were out of the wind. The track was quite rough and steep which made walking for John and I rather hard on the legs. We were both grateful for our tramping sticks. I was too slow and Gail was doing too much botanising and we realised that Amelia had to be collected from school at 2pm so there was a quick dash by Ian and Gail to do the car shuffle again while John and I slowly made our hobbly way down.

Back at home with John and I very 'broken' we enjoyed a very late snacky lunch and were joined by Nancy (another vollie) and her partner Sam. What a happy crowd we had around the table. Nancy and Sam left for Launceston just before the family and I went to Menna's for dinner leaving Dan and Louise to their own devices as they were staying the night.

Menna (lead scientist for the expedition) and Leon have a great home backing onto the bush and a creek. Their sons Mungo and Miles run wildly down the steep hill and have a fort down by the creek. There is a large vegie garden, chooks, a rabbit, guinea pigs, mice and a blue-tongue lizard. What a menagerie lives amongst a garden of food plants as well as native plants. I was quite sore and stiff from the walk and found walking down and up from the creek quite difficult but with Gail's help I made it.

Much chat, debriefing and riddles (from the children) were shared around the table. This was followed my more chat as we adults did the washing up together.

Home to bed by about 10pm. I got my 10000 steps in today but am quite stiff and sore.

Wednesday 4 March

Work, work, work. Today I was determined to finish the leaflet as much as I could.

While Ian and Gail had a work meeting I finished the images for the leaflet and then dropped them all into the document. By doing this we knew what images we still needed.

A quick visit to the Tasmanian Plant Nursery and a talk to Karen (a friend of Gail's) and her colleagues meant that they could quickly direct me to most of the plants I needed. There still needed to be a bit of searching because some of them just looked too lush to be growing in the northwestern coastal heath.

Back home for lunch then a quick trip to Knocklofty Reserve where we found the right trees for bark photos.

Home again and another hour or two on the computer meant that the leaflet is done except for the few photos I still have in Sydney. Hooray!

We all went out for an early dinner at Crumb Street Kitchen, fabulous food - pulled pork and beef, potato salad, roast pumpkin, port terrine flatbread and more. While Ian drove Dan and Louise to the airport, Gail, Amelia, Rosa and I went home to sort diaries and wind down.

Thursday 5 March

This morning my task was to pack and learn how to set up the iPod that Gail and Ian have given me so I can practise my choir music wherever I am. I then said my farewells to Ian before heading for the airport with Gail and Rosa.

The flight back to Sydney was a little bumpy taking off and landing. However, I had ordered a window seat and actually on seat numbering even got one but it was in the back row where there is no window, just a bit of blank wall. So I just read my book and did a bit of Sudoko.