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RuthsArc

~ Looking forward, looking back & enjoying now.

RuthsArc

Category Archives: 52 challenge

Daily Gratitude

12 Sunday Apr 2020

Posted by RuthsArc in 52 challenge, all about me, my place, Uncategorized

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

gratitude, Hobart

What are you grateful for in these unusual times? Here are some of my daily photos.

Finding balance in this new normal (17 stones, my personal best).
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This weekend I am especially grateful for where we live. We arrived in Hobart five years ago yesterday. (We knew Tasmania’s history but never thought we’d be “locked in” with no flights out! Lols)
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Daily exercise after working from home. Grateful for these tracks and views. We do not have to walk along city or suburban streets.
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Our new garden windmill, looking good with this week’s full moon in the morning sky.
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Early morning high tide at a local beach.
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Fresh local produce still available at our weekly farmers market.
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We are very fortunate and grateful.

#2020 Photo Challenge – Blue Tongue Lizard

04 Wednesday Mar 2020

Posted by RuthsArc in 52 challenge, one with nature, photography

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

animals

We had a visitor to our garden last weekend. I’ve seen a few Blue Tongue Lizards in the wild now, but I was able to get up close to this fellow.
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This month, Jude’s monthly 2020 Photo Challenge is all about texture. I love the contrast of textures in these photos, reptile, concrete and branch. His intricate scales and colouring is also perfect for last month’s topic of pattern.
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And I finally got a photo of his blue tongue.
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Changing Seasons – February

29 Saturday Feb 2020

Posted by RuthsArc in 52 challenge, photography

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

seasons

Another month has flown by, with limited time to post or read other blogs. I aim to participate a bit more in the coming months, as our days draw in towards autumn and winter.

February included some unexpected travel. My flight over Tasmania revealed intriguing circles of green on the land below, where some paddocks and crops have been watered.
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I had a weekend in Sydney with torrential rain and storms, trees down, roads closed, power cuts that lasted days. We take electricity for granted. I missed my regular cups of tea. The choices for meals were limited. When offered a cheese sandwich, my son-in-law asked “Do you mean a raw Toastie?”

Then a road trip to Dubbo in NSW. The drive took us through huge landscapes with big skies.
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Through bush fire impacted areas and communities, with miles of burnt out trees on both sides of the road. There were tinges of green after the rain but still a devasting sight.
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We stopped at Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, usually a place filled with tourists. It was very quiet following the fires and now the travel ban on Chinese tourists due to the corona virus. I was glad we could stop, shop, have lunch and support their local economy in just a small way. The Three Sisters Lookout was in the clouds, a beautiful eerie feel to the view.
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This was the view when we were there last May.
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Back in Tassie, we had weekends to relax and reconnect, to enjoy our local waterfront, summer drinks and beach walks.
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This is my contribution to Su’s Changing Seasons Challenge.

Changing Seasons – January 2020

02 Sunday Feb 2020

Posted by RuthsArc in 52 challenge, photography

≈ 19 Comments

Tags

seasons

What happened to January? I don’t know where the days have gone since we returned from our New Zealand holiday. As I look back through my photos for the month, we were busy, making the most of each summer weekend.

We went blueberry picking at a local farm. My first time. The berries are delicious and are “easy pickings” almost falling into the pot as you run fingers gently over the bunch. The bushes are a reasonable height so it isn’t back breaking work either. As well as enjoying fresh berries each day we also have a few kilos in the freezer.

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As we passed another farm shop we bought raspberries and cherries a few metres from the orchards. All these fruit have so much more flavour than shop bought produce.

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As we are thinking of changing our front garden to natives, we visited the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens and Inverawe Native Gardens for some inspiration.

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We are on water restrictions and the landscape is parched, fortunately we have had reasonable rain in this recent days.

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This is my belated contribution to Su’s Changing Season Challenge here.

#2020 Photo Challenge – Kiwifruit Orchard

20 Monday Jan 2020

Posted by RuthsArc in 52 challenge, one with nature, photography

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

New Zealand, trees

I need a few challenges for this new year, so I was delighted to read that fellow blogger Jude has set a 2020 Photo Challenge to “try out various photographic techniques, skills or concepts”

The theme for January is Composition and Framing. I didn’t know about the challenge when I took these photos earlier in the month during our NZ holiday. But these photos seem to fit the bill, taken on my iphone. I have cropped them to straighten and frame them. I need to get away from the Instagram habit of square images.
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Whilst visiting the Bay of Plenty we stayed with friends of friends whose house overlooked this kiwi fruit orchard and I was able to get up close and stand underneath the trees / vines of hanging fruit.
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I like these photos, looking straight down the “tunnel”. But .. the big leaf in the top left of this one is distracting.
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I like the hanging vine in this, but it hinders the sense of distance and there is not so much fruit in the picture.
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The fruit were not quite ready for harvest, but workers had been there earlier, thinning the leaves and removing damaged fruit.

The orchards are bordered by very high hedges which act a wind breaks.IMG_7648IMG_7662

Have a look at Jude’s photo of Godrevy Lighthouse here and links to other bloggers contributions.

Changing Seasons – December

31 Tuesday Dec 2019

Posted by RuthsArc in 52 challenge, photography

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

seasons

December begun will cool days and snow on the mountain, a cold start to summer. My photos for the month show many with a Christmas Tree theme.
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Also, our office elves returned, bringing smiles to all colleagues. Staff organised a reverse advent calendar this month, donating items for Foodbank, Toy Run and “Share the Dignity”.

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We’re now on holiday for two weeks, so we’ve relaxed. We went to the beach on Christmas Day morning. This is my fifth summer Christmas and it is still a novelty.IMG_E7098.jpg

This week has seen the 75th Sydney to Hobart yacht race, with 157 yachts of varying size and age arriving in our city. We have enjoyed our view from the Eastern Shore. It is also time for the annual food festival, The Taste of Tasmania. We spent a delightful afternoon, eating local produce and welcoming the boats to our city.

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Yesterday, Tasmania joined every State and Territory in Australia, having temperatures over 40 degrees. We have a total fire ban and are on water restrictions. Such contrasts during December.

I am linking this to Su’s Changing Seasons Challenge.

Changing Seasons – September

02 Wednesday Oct 2019

Posted by RuthsArc in 52 challenge, photography

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

seasons

I’m a few days late with my monthly “changing seasons” post. September has been “alphabet month” in my photo a day group so I’ll share a few of my photos to summarise my month.

We’ve enjoyed a visit from our daughter, son-in-law and two year old grandson, so some letters reflected toddler activities.

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A – artwork – toddler originals on our fridge
B – blossom
C – clock tower
D – daffodils
E – eucalyptus flowers
F – fire – back burning on hills behind our house
G – grass through glass
H – hay on hillside
I – ironwork
J – jetty
K – key hole
L – lilies
M – museum
N – night out
O – orchid that I’ve kept alive for 3 months
P – playground
Q – quiet toddler
R – reading
S – slide
T – toddler and friend
U – looking up
V – view
W – white wallaby and brown joey
X – XO noughts and crosses
Y – yachts
Z – zebra at the zoo

Changing seasons

Changing Seasons – August

01 Sunday Sep 2019

Posted by RuthsArc in 52 challenge, photography

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

seasons

My initial thought was that August was a totally wet, cold and windy month here in Tasmania. However, the photos I’ve taken in the past thirty one days give a different impression.

Between showers, we did get out for walks at Pipeclay Lagoon Conservation Area. I’m not sure what the wood spikes were for, perhaps remains of an old fence line or jetty.
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Also a walk on nearby Clifton Beach. Although we had to rush back to the car as the rain fell again.IMG_4264

The mail boxes at this beach always make me smile.
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All the rain created spectacular waterfalls where I experimented with long exposure photos.
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Despite the weather, August is a colourful month here. The bright yellow wattle is a winter highlight.

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There has been snow on Mount Wellington all month but the days are getting longer so it is now still light when I get home. I don’t need a torch to get the post from our street side mail box. Oh the memories of having post pushed through a letter box in the front door. They don’t do that here!
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My crochet project at the moment is this spiral square blanket.
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I’m linking this post to Su’s Changing Seasons series. Have a look at how other bloggers have spent their month.

#plasticfreejuly Wrap Up

31 Wednesday Jul 2019

Posted by RuthsArc in 52 challenge, making changes

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

me

As I review the Challenge Checklist I am pleasantly surprised by what we were already doing and what we’ve achieved in just one month. It has been easy to create new habits with our shopping, with storing food in the fridge.

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I’ve bought this book by a local Hobart family who have been living a specific lifestyle for a few years. I’ve only read the early chapters but it is inspiring and practical. It focuses on the key R’s of waste free living:
Refuse
Reduce
Reuse
Recycle
Rot
Reframe

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The book talks about our consumer society, food miles and the benefit of buying local, eating seasonal produce, connecting again with where our food comes from, the effort and energy needed to grow it.

It talks about composting, growing your own, getting to know your local farm shops and markets, being part of a local community, buying in bulk, preserving food that is in season to last through winter, foraging, natural remedies, repurposing, upcycling. It talks about thinking how our parents and grandparents lived before plastic. Is there anything we can learn from them?

It has recipes, suggestions, solutions. I don’t know that I’ll be making my own mascara or toothpaste but never say never.

So I’ll wrap up Plastic Free July in beeswax. Thanks for all the support, comments, inspiration and for joining the discussion. Let’s all try to make a difference, no matter how small. Our changes have a ripple effect. Let’s create a new normal. Hopefully our politicians and multi-national companies will soon get on board.

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#PlasticFreeJuly – Dilemmas

29 Monday Jul 2019

Posted by RuthsArc in 52 challenge, making changes

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

me

I’m looking at the plastic that is still ending up in our recycling bin and I have a dilemma.

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We purposefully buy locally produced milk and orange juice and both come in plastic bottles. We could buy them in tetra pak cartons, but then the food miles is a huge compromise and we are not supporting our local Tasmanian economy. I was surprised to see one carton of juice on the shelf with this labelling.
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We need to find a butcher in our new suburb. We have taken the convenient option and been buying prepacked meat from the supermarket. That needs to change.

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Another dilemma is soft fruit and cherry tomatoes, that are packed in plastic boxes. Raspberries and blueberries are a favourite with my breakfast cereal or porridge. Small tomatoes are sweet and an easy option with my packed lunch. So far I haven’t given up these favoured healthy foods. I have frozen blueberries in the freezer but they are a “Product of Chile”. So more food miles and still in plastic packaging. I plan to grow tomatoes so that will be a seasonal solution. Perhaps I could plant some raspberry canes too.

This month I have only really tackled our food shopping. Cleaning products and toiletries are a whole different quandary.

#plasticfreejuly is just the beginning ……

Although our council collects recycling rubbish each fortnight, there are concerns where our plastics go when they are out of our vicinity, out of sight. Australia has a big problem. Two years ago, China stopped taking our recycled products. Now, Indonesia is returning several shipping containers of “contaminated waste”.

There are companies here making products from recycled plastic. The reusable produce bags I purchased, street furniture, public benches, bollards. Some councils are resurfacing roads with a plastic by-product. I have pencils and a rain jacket made from recycled plastics. But so much more needs to be done on a national level as well as local and individual scale.

Tasmanian beaches are generally rubbish free, but I have picked up some bottles and the plastic rings from bottle tops. I now purposely cut the plastic rings before I put any in our recycling bin, so they can’t strangle a bird or animal if they end up somewhere unexpected.
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