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RuthsArc

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Monthly Archives: March 2016

Thursday Doors – Sheffield

31 Thursday Mar 2016

Posted by RuthsArc in creativity

≈ 28 Comments

Tags

art, doors, Tasmania

Are these doors real or not?

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Sheffield in Tasmania is now a thriving town known for it’s murals and annual mural festival that entices artists from home and abroad.

In the mid 1980’s the town was in decline. Residents elected to follow the example of a town in Canada and commissioned the painting of murals on it’s buildings depicting the local history. Fifty such murals are now a permanent part of the town. Here are a few of them.

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The Mural Festival is taking place this week in a designated park, where the images remain on public display for twelve months, until the next festival. This was a view of the park a couple of weeks ago.

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This is my contribution to Norm’s Thursday Doors series.

A to Z Blogging Challenge

30 Wednesday Mar 2016

Posted by RuthsArc in 52 challenge, creativity

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

challenge, me

I don’t usually post twice in the same day, but fellow blogger, Joanne at my life lived full introduced me to the seventh annual “A to Z Challenge” that runs through April. The challenge is to post every day except Sundays, each post relating to a letter of the alphabet.

I’ve signed up for the challenge.

Some bloggers follow a theme, but I’ll keep it random. It’ll be a good opportunity to pull out some archive photos. My photo a day group have run two alphabet challenges, so I may use some of those ideas and pictures.

I’m trying to plan ahead as it is a big commitment to complete sequential daily posts. I have ideas but hope there may be some spontaneous posts too, depending on how the month pans out.

Hopefully, I’ll continue with the weekly photo challenge, posting that on Sundays unless I can link it to a specific letter. I also hope to contribute to Thursday Doors, but not sure how that will work out.

If you’re interested in joining the challenge, it’s not too late. Click here for info and the sign up page.

Many thanks for reading my blog and as always, I look forward to any comments during this challenge.

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Changing Seasons – March – Autumn and shorter days

30 Wednesday Mar 2016

Posted by RuthsArc in one with nature, photography

≈ 31 Comments

Tags

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.

The days are now shorter than the nights. We’re still getting warm sunny days but overnight temperatures are down to single figures and the early mornings, evenings feel cool and require a jacket. The sun is lower in the sky, creating long shadows.

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It’s been mainly blue skies, some interesting cloud formations, and just a couple of days of rain. Real rain that filled the rivers for a few hours.

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March has been a month of nuts. Walnuts, almonds, acorns and conkers.

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Conkers always remind me of autumn. When my daughters were little we’d walk and scrunch through fallen leaves, collect conkers and stack them on our front door step, creating a small cairn, a landmark to the season. I associate conkers with my daughter’s birthdays, but that’s September! And I’m back to upside down seasons.

March has been harvest time for grapes on the vine. For apples and pears. Oh, there is a theme occurring here!

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Figs are ripening in the trees and are the current fruit at the farmer’s market.

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It has been a time to celebrate local produce at a regional food festival.

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March has seen the beginning of the “footy season”. Here in Tassie, that means Aussie Rules Football, with local games, family events, kids playing on the field before the game and during quarter and half time breaks.

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There are still flowers about, such as these passion flowers, but many are turning to seed heads like agapanthus that were so pretty during the summer months.

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And I’ve seen more snake warnings this month than previously, fortunately, I haven’t encountered a snake in the wild yet.

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I’m linking this to cardinal guzman changing seasons challenge.

Fern Tree to Spring Falls

29 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by RuthsArc in days out, one with nature

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

Hobart, trees, walks

It’s been a few months since we went for a bush walk. We have been enjoying the beach and coastal paths during the summer months.

The shade of the bush called us on a still hot day recently, when there was no cooling breeze off the water. A walk on Mount Wellington from Fern Tree to Spring Falls sounded appealing.

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Fern Tree is well named with an abundance of tree ferns in the area. We chose the steeper path and walked a longer circular route to the waterfalls.

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There was no sign of water in the gullies or below the bridges that we navigated.

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At a junction of bush tracks we saw this memorial. A little further on, this marker provided more information about the 1903 race.

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The waterfalls were well worth the effort even after a long dry spring and summer. We must revisit after some winter rains.

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I’m joining Jo’s Monday Walk this week.

Fire Services

28 Monday Mar 2016

Posted by RuthsArc in one with nature, photography

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

emotography, Tasmania, trees

This sculpture is in Perth but pertinent to all firefighters across the country.

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Fire is a natural occurrence here. Whilst driving, we often see evidence of bush fires.

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Tasmania had a long and difficult fire season this summer. Lightening ignited wild fires in mid January. The remote and inaccessible terrain in our wilderness areas meant fires burnt out of control for many weeks, some burnt for over two months in peat fields.

Tasmania Fire Service has 500 full time staff and more than 5,000 volunteers.

The SES – State Emergency Service – provides assistance in natural disasters, rescues, road crashes and extreme weather. SES in Tasmania has 24 employees and 540 volunteers.

2,000 fire fighters came from the mainland and from New Zealand to assist local “firies”. Additional equipment was shipped in, helicopters used on constant rotation. The cost is estimated to be $25 million.

Hopefully as summer turns to autumn and winter, we’ve seen the last of bushfires for a while.

Controlled fuel reduction burns are taking place. We had smoke across the river estuary earlier this month.

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My emotion behind the first image was and is respect. Respect for all people who work in the emergency services.

Silent Sunday – Happy Easter

27 Sunday Mar 2016

Posted by RuthsArc in one with nature

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

flowers

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Weekly Photo Challenge – Half Light

26 Saturday Mar 2016

Posted by RuthsArc in more to life, weekly photo challenge

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

beach, photos, quotes

This weeks challenge has two options:
~ Share a photograph inspired by a favorite poem, verse, story, or song lyric
~ Capture the beauty of morning or evening half-light in your corner of the globe.

So I’m combing the two and sharing some song lyrics by The Script.

Firstly – dawn and dusk photos to go with lyrics from the song “Hail, Rain or Sunshine”

We start to wake
Maybe it’s gonna be our day
And suddenly
We start to smile
The sun is out for a while

And you may see this place and find no worth
But it’s a little piece of heaven here on Earth

We’re all living the good life
Whether it’s hail rain or it’s sunshine

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Secondly – from the song “Millionaires”
I’ve spent the past eleven months living by the beach and these lyrics reflect how I feel about that…..

If time was money, then we’d be worth a fortune
I swear, you may think you’re rich
You can have a million euros but you can’t buy this

Spendin’ our time like we were millionaires

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Half-Light

Thursday Doors – Mountain Chalet

24 Thursday Mar 2016

Posted by RuthsArc in days out

≈ 30 Comments

Tags

doors, Tasmania

This delightful mountain chalet is at Cradle Mountain, in Tasmania’s Wilderness World Heritage Area.

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As European settlers explored Tasmania during the 1800’s proposals for the area around Cradle Mountain and Lake St Clair ranged from mining, railways, to farms and plantations.

It was the vision of Gustav Weindorfer and his wife, Kate, that resulted in the are being declared a national park in 1922.

He proclaimed “This must be a national park for the people for all time. It is magnificent, and people must know about it and enjoy it.”

He built the original chalet in 1912 and welcomed guests who wanted to walk and hike in this remote region. There is audio information about the hut and the family and this room shows the kitchen one hundred years ago.

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The chalet overlooks the start of the Overland Track, a world famous six day, sixty five kilometre wilderness trek.

Various huts are nearby the chalet, some acting as “day huts” now for walkers to rest and escape the weather.

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It was wet and misty on the day we visited the chalet. Luckily the previous day we had clear weather and views of the mountain.

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This is my contribution to Norm’s Thursday Doors challenge.

In the mist

23 Wednesday Mar 2016

Posted by RuthsArc in days out, one with nature

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Tasmania, trees

We enjoyed a casual walk in Cradle Mountain National Park, despite the wet weather.

The mist gave an eerie mood to the lakes and rivers.

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After a long dry summer, the air felt fresh and cool, the natural colour enhanced by the rain. Bright berries jumped out from green bushes.

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Clumps of button grass showed hints of autumn gold and browns.

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Spider webs glistened in the bushes. Water droplets hung from leaves.

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Wildlife in our garden

22 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by RuthsArc in days out, one with nature

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

animals, Tasmania

Whilst staying at Cradle Mountain Lodge, I was delighted to get up close to the local wildlife.

Bennetts Wallabies enjoyed the pink mountain berries that surrounded our cabin.

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Pademelons, small wallabies, were happy to pose for photos by our car.

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Bush tailed possums were very cheeky and sneaky nocturnal creatures. As we sat in the hot tub after dark, we made the mistake of taking wine, cheese, crackers and apples outside, and leaving the door open. A possum climbed up the ten foot high corner of the tub deck, appearing over the tap. We shooed him away but a few moments later, realised he was inside our room. Aussie Mate chased him out but he stole an apple on his way. A couple more possums appeared and they sat on the handrail eating the apple, full of attitude.

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There were skinks in the wood pile outside our door. These little lizards were too quick to get a photo though.

Within the grounds of the lodge, I saw my first wild wombats. One in the distance during a dawn stroll. One after dark, walking across the path before crawling underneath a building.

Later in the day whilst bush walking, Aussie Mate spotted this fellow curled up in a dry, hollow tree, his ears visible as he faced to the left.

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Wombats are marsupials, along with the kangaroo, wallaby, koala, possum, Tasmanian Devil, quoll and quokka. However, the tank like wombat has a pouch that faces backwards, to prevent dirt getting inside. This allows the young to graze out the back as the mother grazes at the front. Another of Australia’s amazing unique animals.

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I’m linking this post to Claudette’s Emotography challenge – delighted.

I’m also linking to Jude’s garden challenge March’s theme, Wildlife in the Garden.

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