What a lovely day and what a lovely son! We had pancakes for breakfast, as he requested, with lots of rousing renditions of Happy Birthday to You. No candles and no complaints about their absence. I think I
actually did pack some birthday candles but couldn’t find them anywhere, when push came to shove! No questions about “where are my presents?” either. Unfortunately, schoolwork waits for no birthday so some of that still needed to be done. After a bit of havoc wreaking Paul put an episode of the Muppets on for Dom, and that gave us a bit of breathing space, but also a quite significant challenge to the concentration, for the big boys!!
Pack up was rushed and a bit stressful at the end as we were concerned about missing the ferry back to Kettering. A few pointed comments were shared, here and there, about another’s pack up technique or priorities, but no real altercations were entered into, thankfully. We are getting better at this business with a bit more on the job experience!
There were lots of vehicles ahead of us when we arrived and there some concerns expressed by some parties about whether we would get on the boat, but we did, with no problems at all, and the kids had a lovely last play with the Spence’s. Our paths are diverging again til our last few days in Tassie. We are to head off to Hobart, to catch up with my parents after a couple of days around the Huon Valley, and they are meandering back up the west coast and will mostly be visiting places a few days before us.
There were lots of vehicles ahead of us when we arrived and there some concerns expressed by some parties about whether we would get on the boat, but we did, with no problems at all, and the kids had a lovely last play with the Spence’s. Our paths are diverging again til our last few days in Tassie. We are to head off to Hobart, to catch up with my parents after a couple of days around the Huon Valley, and they are meandering back up the west coast and will mostly be visiting places a few days before us.
We stopped at a lovely food shop by the road near past Snug (I love that name!) specialising in local organic produce and loaded up with apples, stone fruits and berries. Dom’s birthday treat was some neither local nor organic chocolate teddy bear biscuits that he graciously shared around!20kms of winding road into Cygnet followed. Paul was a bit on edge over the lateness of the hour and what have you and tried to interest the kids out of their new books to look for some free range pigs or a stretch of road that looked familiar as this is where the Gourmet Farmer, Matthew Evans, has his farms. After a few glances the big kids gave up and Dom fixated on it! “Why can’t we just find him?” continued for quite some time and we had to do a lot of distracting and qualifying (He’s probably filming/feeding the pigs etc) to move on. Finding acres upon acres of beautiful apples and stopping to pick up some that had fallen on the ground and get some piccies sure helped. Sascha could not be tempted away from his book, but Dom, Isaac and I had a great time! Isaac asked if they had poisons on them and I said “No more than the other apples at the supermarket!” They were huge and unblemished!! We probably should have peeled them prior to eating them but we took our chances!!
Cygnet did not disappoint. After Paul got the caravan settled into a park and realised we were not going to see any caves or do any bushwalks or such like but just do a bit of “being” things sorted themselves out no trouble! First stop was Cygneture Chocolates, our main reason for visiting, where we got Dom a wonderful double egg, one dark chocolate and one fried egg made with orange infused yellow yolk and white chocolate white. It was fantastic. We all got one little choccy each – mine was a fruit and nut “pizza”, Isaac and Paul had hazelnut pralines and Sascha a salt caramel. YUM! The lovely friendly shop keepers gave us the hot tip to eat at The Lotus Eaters Café, particularly recommending their Chai tea.
We tucked into some local green herby salads with a raspberry dressing not unlike caramelised balsamic. Mmmm! We also had some panini which were chocful of flavour and goodness, and were really hot griddled wraps rather than hot Turkish bread sandwiches. While the food was being prepared I went into a lovely little shop next door called Refind (great recycled books and clothes… did not buy but was very tempted and actually planned to come back after lunch…but didn’t). Isaac came in, flushed, to tell me he had seen Matthew Evans and not to embarrass him! I assume that meant “don’t introduce me to him”. I popped my head out and did indeed say hi to the object of obsession down here! I said “G’day Matthew. We came all the way to Cygnet to see you”. And he replied “Well, it is my home and I didn’t bake today so I needed to come in…. and my coffee machine is broken!!” We all then proceeded to graciously ignore each other during our meal (as much as the boys could with furtive glances and stage whispered comments). I figured if he said “Hi” when he left he was up for a photo but if not we would just leave him alone.
I cheated!
After lunch I checked out the local ACCHO which has a Tassie FPA Sexual Health outreach once a week. It’s going very well and has been doing so for over a year or so. Pleasing to hear. No need for me at the moment though!! Bummer!
Next stop was a little shop over the road called Trove, full of quirky little treasures where I picked up a second hand tea set (for a great price!) which silenced a little need in me that had been quietly murmuring away for some years! I had it packaged and took it to the post office to send to my future self, where I have a space for such lovely things! (Footnote - That future self was not so far away! I enjoyed several cups of decaff coffee and hot chocolate in that very tea set, when in Sydney, at the beginning of April) While packaging was taking place we popped into a really special second hand book shop with a spectacular range of noisy wooden toys for the kids to play with. In the less than quiet atmosphere I had a couple of great finds (the next Harry Potter for Sascha and Playing Beatie Bow). The owners had their son in the shop and were so approachable and on our wavelength. I left with a list of about 5 or 6 authors, only one of which I had heard of, which the guy thought the kids would love after listening to what they were reading and enjoying.
Basically, Cygnet had all the warmth and friendliness of a small country town and showed none of its potential for insularity and closedmindedness. It’s love for real, local food was obvious and clearly predated its fame as the home of the Gourmet Farmer (although they didn’t shy away from product placement with signed copies of Matthew’s books available in most shops we entered!). We didn’t miss the waitress greeting the local vagrant by name and asking if he was thirsty, nor appreciating the in depth conversation about Virginia Wolf and her various relatioships between the Trove shopkeeper and one of her customers.
After lunch I checked out the local ACCHO which has a Tassie FPA Sexual Health outreach once a week. It’s going very well and has been doing so for over a year or so. Pleasing to hear. No need for me at the moment though!! Bummer!
Next stop was a little shop over the road called Trove, full of quirky little treasures where I picked up a second hand tea set (for a great price!) which silenced a little need in me that had been quietly murmuring away for some years! I had it packaged and took it to the post office to send to my future self, where I have a space for such lovely things! (Footnote - That future self was not so far away! I enjoyed several cups of decaff coffee and hot chocolate in that very tea set, when in Sydney, at the beginning of April) While packaging was taking place we popped into a really special second hand book shop with a spectacular range of noisy wooden toys for the kids to play with. In the less than quiet atmosphere I had a couple of great finds (the next Harry Potter for Sascha and Playing Beatie Bow). The owners had their son in the shop and were so approachable and on our wavelength. I left with a list of about 5 or 6 authors, only one of which I had heard of, which the guy thought the kids would love after listening to what they were reading and enjoying.
Basically, Cygnet had all the warmth and friendliness of a small country town and showed none of its potential for insularity and closedmindedness. It’s love for real, local food was obvious and clearly predated its fame as the home of the Gourmet Farmer (although they didn’t shy away from product placement with signed copies of Matthew’s books available in most shops we entered!). We didn’t miss the waitress greeting the local vagrant by name and asking if he was thirsty, nor appreciating the in depth conversation about Virginia Wolf and her various relatioships between the Trove shopkeeper and one of her customers.
From Cygnet we drove directly to River’s Edge Wilderness Camp. We set up on our massive site by the creek. The kids and I did some drawing and tracing of leaves and bark, part of our “EarthArt” unit, which after some significant complaining was actually much enjoyed! Dad cooked up a spectacular serve of haystacks/burritos for dinner (Dom’s birthday choice) which we enjoyed very much around our campfire. It brought to Paul’s mind the quote from The Magic Pudding “As all travellers know, if you don’t sit by a campfire in the evening, you have to sit by nothing, in the dark”.
It was a late night enjoying some reading by the fire and spotting pademelons and brushtail possums by torchlight. After the kids were finally tucked into bed we enjoyed more gazing at hot coals and enjoying the wildlife before finally crashing into our beds where we slept warm and comfy til Dom squeezed in around 4 and made the bed smaller and cozier, as he normally does!
Adddit - 13 April 13 - Dom's birthday was wonderful and celebrations and gift giving continued for some time. The main present, a camera, has just been purchased and will be presented when the family are together again!
It was a late night enjoying some reading by the fire and spotting pademelons and brushtail possums by torchlight. After the kids were finally tucked into bed we enjoyed more gazing at hot coals and enjoying the wildlife before finally crashing into our beds where we slept warm and comfy til Dom squeezed in around 4 and made the bed smaller and cozier, as he normally does!
Adddit - 13 April 13 - Dom's birthday was wonderful and celebrations and gift giving continued for some time. The main present, a camera, has just been purchased and will be presented when the family are together again!