Tasmanian Trip

June 11 2014

Today started in
rather a panic because our desert dog Flynn was obviously very sick when we
woke this morning. He was cold and shaken and hardly able to walk. As he was
totally normal and fit last night I was worried that he might have found some
rat poison! We discovered that he was a lot heavier than we had thought so it
took two of us to carry him to the car for a trip to the vet. The vet decided
that he was poisoned, but by what none of us know. Our best guess was mould in
the compost bin and when we looked he had definitely leapt into the bin last
night. He is dehydrated so I am forcing him to drink electrolyte replacer and
just hoping he will gradually recover.

This was not exactly a
good way to get back to normal after out holiday break with friends in
Tasmania. Tasmania was much colder than the Yarra Valley but we were given a
really warm welcome and were looked after so well that the cold was not a
problem. We fitted a lot into a few days. On the morning of the first day we
saw a boat-building workshop that taught students traditional boat building
skills and after lunch we went on an enormous air walk above the forest and saw
Huon pines growing by the river. They were very different from how I had
imagined them to be and grew extremely slowly for a very long time. The older
ones were 3500 years old but they had all been harvested where we were. It is
hard to imagine anyone wanting to kill such a tree.

Next day our friends
took us to Mona, the museum of old and new art. I am actually at a loss for the
right words to describe this over whelming experience. There were elements I
loved such as stunning architecture and a descent through solid rock into
galleries dug into the promontory. Once underground the exhibition was spread
through a labyrinth of large and tiny spaces where dark predominated and the
light made sudden contrasts. The atmosphere was edgy and slightly threatening
but there was amazing skill and beauty. Of course I soon managed to get
separated from the others but gradually we all worked our way to the surface
and recombined as a group.

On our final day we
decided on something less confronting and spent the day exploring the botanic
gardens in Hobart. I could see the TV gardening program's vegetable garden and
lots of amazing trees. It was bitterly cold but lots of unexpected plants were
thriving. The garden had been built within a tall brick wall that could be
heated but it was not needed so possums have taken over the accommodation it
provided.

All this site seeing
was great but the best bit of the holiday was catching up with our friends,
laughing with them and seeing their new small holding in the Huon Valley.