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RuthsArc

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Monthly Archives: November 2015

Changing Seasons – November – Spring into Summer

30 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by RuthsArc in one with nature

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

flowers, seasons, Tasmania, trees

My head knows that the seasons here in Tasmania are back to front from my UK background. So I’m posting this monthly series to record the changing seasons and to encourage my mind to grasp this southern hemisphere reality.

As I post on this last day of spring, it is blue skies and temperatures in the mid twenties. A perfect day for the seasonal fruits that are now available.

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November has been another month of beautiful, colourful flowers.

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Now that blossom has long gone, small seed pods are growing on the trees, whether acorns, chestnut, sycamores or gum trees.

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Farmers are harvesting their winter grain crops and watering other crops on a huge scale.

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It has been a month spent outdoors, at twilight markets and weekend music events. Cooking on our new barbeque on our balcony, whether dinner or brunch.

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After my encounter with a native reptile in the wild, last month, I got up close and personal with snakes and blue tongue lizards at the Huon Show. I touched both creatures and can now recognise a tiger snake from a copperhead. The “reptile man” was very informative so I shouldn’t be so freaked out when I next come across one of these locals on a bush walk. With the warm weather, reptiles are out and about after their winter hibernation.

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Climate

29 Sunday Nov 2015

Posted by RuthsArc in making changes

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Hobart, me

On the eve of the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, hundreds of thousands of people around the globe are making their voices heard under the banner of #Peoples Climate.

In Hobart, the Peoples Climate event was a rally rather than a march. Speakers were eloquent and ranged from an environmentalist, animal conservationist, faith leader, to fire service leader and a seventh generation farmer. All had the same message from different vantage points. The science can’t be ignored and we are already beginning to experience the effects of climate change. Australia has a poor record on carbon emissions and needs to step up.

“The answers are not easy but they are possible”.

“We must pass on a better world to our children and grandchildren”.

It is hoped that at this conference the 147 global leaders will agree to ambitious targets with short time frames in order to make a real and lasting difference.

There were an estimated 2,400 people gathered in Hobart, with much bigger events in other cities across Australia. Globally, it is anticipated that a million people will attend over 2,000 events in 150 countries. That is a lot of people wanting their politicians to take notice.

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It was a family event, all generations, a mixed representation of the community. People had taken picnics, dogs were on leads, kids played on the outskirts. It was friendly and colourful.

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A wonderful and unexpected element of the event has surfaced on social media in the past few days…. #march4me.

Following the tragic attacks in Paris two weeks ago, the planned climate march in that city has been banned by French authorities. People attending events all over the world are linking with someone who can’t attend a march but wants their voice to be heard. I signed up and represented Mathieu from France. I saw others in Hobart with signs representing others from France and Tunisia. As I write this, over twenty six thousand people have been paired up.

Here are some of the banners from Hobart. Everyone was happy to share in photos, many were home made, often with help from the kids.

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Weekly Photo Challenge – Transition

28 Saturday Nov 2015

Posted by RuthsArc in one with nature, weekly photo challenge

≈ 20 Comments

Tags

flowers

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These beautiful agapanthus flowers are just outside our window in these various stages of transition.

New buds through to last seasons seed heads.

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I couldn’t resist some macro shots.

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<a href=”https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/transition/”>Transition</a&gt;

 

More Aussie mail boxes

27 Friday Nov 2015

Posted by RuthsArc in photography

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

art, Tasmania

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Ready for Christmas?

25 Wednesday Nov 2015

Posted by RuthsArc in days out

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Hobart, music

It is one month away so I really should start thinking about Christmas.

Last weekend Hobart held it’s annual Christmas Parade. The city centre came to a stand still as twenty thousand people lined the streets. The parade was a fun collection of bands and community groups, music and dance, closing with Santa on a giant sleigh.

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This will be my first Christmas in the southern hemisphere and my head knows that it is summer. But it still seems odd to me to see tinsel and decorations amongst people wearing short sleeves and shorts, shop displays alongside beach wear.

Christmas lights are not a big thing here, which I guess is logical with long days and short nights. There are traditional decorations in shopping malls and on public buildings. A new modern tree sculpture in Salamanca Square is prompting lots of opinions and conversation.

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Lighthouse and fossils at Wynyard

24 Tuesday Nov 2015

Posted by RuthsArc in days out, one with nature

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

flowers, history, Tasmania

On the north west coast of Tasmania, Table Cape Lighthouse sits on an extinct volcano.

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When it was built in 1888 the light was powered by an oil burner. Three light house keepers lived in cottages on the site and maintained the light manually. In 1913 the light was converted to vapourised kerosene and in 1920, it was converted to automatic acetylene with keepers withdrawn in 1923. The most recent conversion took place in 1979 when a lamp was connected to mains electricity.

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A white picket fence marks the site of a grave, the infant son of the first light house keeper, who died within weeks of the lighthouse becoming operational.

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As well as overlooking Bass Strait, the light house overlooks fields of tulip bulbs and fields of white daisies, pyrethrum. An Australian company is the world’s largest supplier of the natural insecticide found in the pyrethrum flower heads.

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The town of Wynyard is a few kilometres along the coast. There are pleasant walks along the river estuary and on beaches. We stayed in a standard motel room but these family units made from shipping containers looked interesting.

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Below the lighthouse, a small beach sits beside Fossil Bluff. Lava from the volcano above collected plants and animals, which can be seen today as fossils in the rocks.

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Back in 1985 – Island Life

23 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by RuthsArc in back in 1985

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Australia, in 1985

On this day back in 1985 I was enjoying a tropical paradise.

The main road south from Cairns has mountains inland and coast on the other side. At times we climbed the hills and had views of the islands, such as Hinchinbrook. I wandered around Townsville before I got the ferry to Magnetic Island, forty minutes offshore.

The permanent population of the island is just two hundred people. Some commute to Townsville for work and the older kids commute for school.

Everyone at the island hostel was very friendly. I had a great day sharing a hired mini moke beach buggy. We drove up to Radical Bay, a small curved beach, warm sea, lovely sand, a few boats anchored offshore. We had a barbecue at the beach side pub, overlooking the water. There were lots of parrots and lorikeets in the trees. All very tropical.

After lunch and a swim, we drove around to Horseshoe Bay and Rocky Bay, more swimming and relaxing on the beach and on the rocks. We then travelled back via as many dead end dirt roads as we could find. We broke a few rules with the dirt roads, with an extra passenger, we drove on the beach and had the top down. But oh what a fun day with fellow travelers.

I was surprised by the number of Aussie’s who openly talked about and smoked dope. It’s easy to get hold of. Apparently it was $100 per ounce on the island, but nearer $300 down in Sydney. This was not something I came across in my UK life and it would be another few decades before I tried it for myself.

There was a life savers carnival on at one of the beaches. They were swimming in the sea as each beach had nets to keep out the jelly fish and sharks.

I spent another day on the island, a peaceful day to myself, exploring by bus and walking along the beach at Arcadia, then back at Picnic Bay, sitting on the end of the jetty just watching the world go by and writing a few post cards.

I left my tropical retreat and headed down the coast to Mackay. We drove through more sugar cane country, some cattle, past a couple of big cane factories and on via Airlie Beach and Shute Harbour with views across to the Whitsunday Islands.

Mackay is another nice town, wide streets with palm trees along them. The town is on a river estuary but with beaches near by. My next stop was Rockhampton as we passed through gum tree forests and a landscape drier than up north. There were no views of the coast on this journey as the “coast road” is actually 50 kms inland.

The reason for stopping in Rockhampton was to get across to Great Keppel Island the following morning. A huge catamaran took us over to the island. It could take up to four hundred passengers. As well as being the island ferry, it did cruises around the island, stopping at an underwater observatory where we saw corals and tropical fish in the seas. We anchored and went swimming in one of the secluded beaches, we did boom net riding off the side of the catamaran. Sitting in the net, partially in the sea as the boat sailed along, brilliant fun.

The island was quiet and peaceful, with a small resort, hostel, camp ground, restaurant and two bars. As with previous hostels, there was a good crowd of travellers, easy to get along with. A couple of girls were playing scrabble in Dutch.

The down side of the island was the mosquitos that bombarded everyone at night. Other creatures that I didn’t mind were the tiny lizards, ghekkos, that were rather cute.  The fresh fruit here in Queensland was delicious, pawpaw, various melons, mango and pineapple.

 

 

Poppies

22 Sunday Nov 2015

Posted by RuthsArc in one with nature

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

flowers, Tasmania

On our trip last week to Tasmania’s north west coast, we noticed the following signs on some fields.

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We have now learned that Tasmania is the largest legal producer of opium poppies in the world.

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Poppy straw contains opiates, natural products used in medicine to make painkillers (morphine and codeine) and cough medicines.

Poppy seeds are used in foods such as baked goods and poppy seed oils. The seeds do not contain opiates.

~ Tasmania supplies half the world’s medicinal opiates.

~ Poppies are grown in a 3 year cycle with other crops.

~ 1,000 farmers are contracted to grow poppies in Tasmania. More than 13,000 hectares of poppies are grown each year.

~ Farmers must be licensed with the Tasmanian Government and registered with a company to grow poppies.

~ Opium poppy trials began in 1964.

~ Commercial production on began in 1970.

~ All poppy farmers need a licence to grow poppies in Tasmania. Anyone entering a poppy field must have a licence and permission, including the harvesters.

~ Any stubble left behind after harvesting a poppy crop is destroyed.

~ Warning signs must be shown on fences around poppy crops. Fences must have barbed wire or an electric top wire.

~ Farmers must be careful their racing horses do not eat poppy straw. Horses turn the opiates into morphine in their stomachs. Morphine is banned in horse racing.

~ Livestock (sheep and cows) that eat poppy re-growth can’t be sold for meat for three weeks.

~ Poppy material is highly toxic, and people who ingest it can become ill or die. Last year a Danish tourist died after stealing some poppy heads and brewing them into a tea.

Weekly Photo Challenge – Trio

21 Saturday Nov 2015

Posted by RuthsArc in creativity, weekly photo challenge

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

flowers, trees

Here are some images of “three’s”

Orchids ~ knitting socks on three needles ~ alpaca’s waiting to be judged in country show ~ branches covered in yarn bombing.

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Also some other yarn bombing photos that have no connection to “trio”, but they made me smile.

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Trio

Back in 1985 – Cairns

17 Tuesday Nov 2015

Posted by RuthsArc in back in 1985

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Australia, in 1985

On this day back in 1985 I was in northern Queensland.

I stayed in Cairns for a week, it was nice to be in one place for a while rather than moving on every few days. I caught up with laundry and met some traveller’s that I knew from weeks earlier at Yulura. I travelled back up the mountains to Kuranda, through sugar cane fields, to experience the rain forest, the Barron River gorge, waterfalls. The countryside changes dramatically from dry season to the wet season, when the river and waterfalls come alive.

In Cairns I wandered the town, visited the aquarium, which included crocodiles and sharks as well as tropical fish that inhabit the reef. Crocodile feeding time was crazy.

When it rained here, it rained. Total downpour for fourteen hours. On the next dry day I caught a local bus and explored beaches north of Cairns, Trinity Beach, Clifton Beach, Palm Cove and Ellis Beach. They were all nice sandy beaches backed by palms and coconut groves. But all had warnings about deadly stinger jelly fish and swimming at your own risk.

I had a wonderful day on Green Island, a coral cay twenty seven km’s off the coast. A small green tropical island surrounded by white sand beaches and blue ocean. I took the ferry across and did a trip on a glass bottomed boat which revealed all sorts of brightly coloured fish and coral. We threw bread into the water and the fish snapped it up, so we could see the fish over the side as well as through the bottom of the boat. I relaxed on the beach and I could see the coral as I swam in the warm sea.

I did another day trip, sharing a car with other back pacers. We drove further north to Port Douglas and Four Mile beach, then back via Mossman Gorge in the rainforest. We took a picnic and climbed the rocks along the river.

I watched the first Australian F1 grand prix on TV. It was held in Adelaide and Keke Rosberg won after lots of action and drama.

 

 

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