February 10 2016

Nothing quite turned out as expected!  Indi did not take the new job because it was falsely advertised and was not full time but she did get concussed coming off her horse so Bo looked after most of the work on the farm whilst Edd and I had four days in Tassie.  I feel awful about giving Bo extra work but we did have a fabulous time.

Al met us off the plane in Launceston and dropped us off at the motel where we had booked.   Luckily it was at a place with easy access everywhere and we were on the third floor on a hill and could see all the area spread out before us.  Al took us for a walk up the gorge on the edge of the town that was very spectacular, and then we had a lovely evening meal of fish by the waterside.

The next day we found a beach up where the inlet meets the sea. The weather was perfect, the sand was golden and the sea turquoise so we walked along in the waters edge and relaxed.   In the evening we were invited to Al’s exhibition profiling the individual projects that the members of the workshop had taken on. They were very varied.  I liked the nomadic garden idea.   Gradually as we spent time with Al we were able to understand more of what he had been doing.   It was complex, and based round the premise of unsettlement.  The students were confronted with the facts about our present situation as a species on earth and our trajectory towards collapse, and then asked to make meaning in their lives by changing something.  Anyway, I think that is what I understand.

Al leant us his car and on Saturday we drove up the centre of Tasmania and spent the afternoon with our friends in Hobart.  It is always good to catch up with friends and they had some good news because they have finally sold their spare house.  It was impossible to fit all we had to talk about into the time but we did our best.  

Sunday was different again.  We met up with Al and all went up to Cradle Mountain for the day.  The park is serviced with shuttle buses that go round picking people up and dropping them off.   This is a really good idea because it kept most of the cars well away from the park but meant that everyone could choose the length of walk they wanted from zero to days.   The most used walks all had wooden board walks.  I usually hate this but the vegetation was so different and special I could see that walking on it would soon destroy what everyone wanted to see.

There were big round mounds of golden Button grass, weird trees like yuccas, wiry blue grass by creeks and carpets of an alpine fern.  We ate lunch on a gravel beach by a beautiful lake.  Al had cleverly brought wine, olive bread, basil and locally smoked salmon, which got us envious glances from other passing walkers.  Once again the weather was perfect and we had an amazing day.

Back at the farm most things had survived.  We have eaten the years first meal of runner beans and the pumpkins we planted in the new grow bed have gone mad and are climbing out everywhere.   We have put up another section of the new grow bed and today we have started to fill it up with goat manure and other stuff.