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Diary walks each month

 I am doing monthly walks around our place to keep track of changes - monthly, seasonally and annually. this month we received new ducks - 3 girls to add to the 1 girl and 3 drakes.  the drakes are getting angsty as spring is approaching ... we must move two drakes out of the pen as they are fighting regularly. (i lose it in this video!) we may need to move the third drake too as he is very big compared to the new very small call ducks that have arrived.  and within a day 'mini' (the apricot callduck) laid our first egg and has been laying each day.  so sweet.   check out our youtube channel and the playlists which feature various aspects of artist lifestyle in country Tasmania. i am googling and finding suppliers of oyster grit, pea pebbles, pellets and i soon learned (from taking note) they ate the candy (rolled oats, cracked corn, wheat) and ignored the pellets which are more nutritious.  so now i feed only pellets and use the candy as a training t...
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Ducks - lessons to learn - if you have any tips, reach out please

 i have got us into quite a pickle - we decided to get ducks rather than chickens thinking ducks are less problematic - they dont need to roost, they dont need a house, and they will just come and go when they begin to free range. well.  we have had them now for around 4 weeks. we received 3 drakes and 1 female who we thought were call ducks.  lesson 1 - too many drakes and not enough females even for a single duck.  so we brought in 3 female call ducks with the intention of moving 2 of the drakes to a bachelor pen.  well ... the new ducks are the 'real' call ducks and they are tiny !!! so i googled yet again and have established our ducks are wels harlequin drakes and duck (Daisy). they are twice the size of the new call ducks so now we have to move all three harlequins to the bachelor pen.   its nudging spring already and the boys are fighting amongst themselves trying to establish territory and the girls have been here 2 days which is not helping te...

back in the studio

George & Archie lots happening in the studio after a #getaway to an art retreat at Enclave organised through Artable .  posts at blackfisharts studio blog about the art retreat here and back in the studio here .   a few drawings on retreat here . a recent published haiku here .  I am an award winning artist/poet working daily out of my studio in Tasmania. in an effort to keep my activities as an artist working daily and living/learning in the country i have blogs dedicated to each area -  my art gallery is at blackfisharts this blog Regents Park is about learning /experiencing #countryliving in Tasmania. a blog about my art, books, printmaking etc is at blackfisharts STUDIO WORK  my poetry is at Emerald13 my favourite recipes (mostly from my mum) - luscious Hungarian fare - as we are heading into winter its time to add a few more. If you are enjoying my blogs do leave a message and let me know and do visit my youtube channel which has playlists featu...

#anyexcuse Drive to nearby Burnie Tasmania

 sometimes i am a passenger in my own car so as to give V a go at driving the Diva.  a few images on the road to Burnie using slow exposure.

birthday #getaway #anyexcuse to drive the Diva

I am late to post but here it is.  my birthday #getaway this year was a train ride after the road trip to Queenstown. #anyexcuse to drive the Diva. We had to leave very early to make the 9.30am deadline arriving in Queenstown on time, enough to grab a coffee. The road to Queenstown is extremely winding which, needless to say, the Diva handled beautifully and V was quite happy to be driven (notwithstanding he takes calls all the time - running his car hire business on the move).  He did drive a portion of the road to give me a break over the 3.5 hours it takes. We had fun and some nice food, sparkling orange juice and Tassie chocolates.  The weather was (Tasmania) damp, chilly, not uncomfortable with random sunshine. The train trip, of 34 kilometres, on The Wilderness West Coast Railway Tasmania  is very well setup taking us through 'rugged terrain and breathtaking scenery' whilst telling of its history and that of the area.  love that little TOOT at the end We h...

check out the art gallery

Two new prints - unique, one-of-a-kind, available, float mounted (edges are shown) ready to take to your framer.  #workingeveryday  hellebore1 Updating online art gallery with new monoprints and small collages for sale (with free postage anywhere in the world - small collage series only).   I created a bundle of collages as part of a #freebie #giveaway to my subscribers of  the art gallery.   and kept creating them. hellebore2 I have also updated the look of the site so that artworks can be seen as a whole across the screen with a quick, easy look at the detail. ... let me know what you think