Regent Park Tasmania - lifestyle of artist in country Tasmania

 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...

 now to figure out how to get it out! 

These two are funny ... Millie is his baby - and the only female of 4 cats.  We have two black and whites and two gingers.  check out the building of their outdoor facility where they go each day, if the weather is not foul.  the playlist of videos for the cat run are here .   some of my favourites : Archie escaping the pen which caused us to put up electric wiring - needless to say he tried to escape again, only once.   Millie was the first to come down the ramp leading out of the house and to go into the big tunnel (under the road) to get to the pen - her first time. our youtube channel is regularly updated with experiences in the studio,#countryliving, #tasmania, artworks including artist books and more including #Snowcone - a dariy cow in retirement that lives with us. she has her own playlist that she shares with our turbo chooks and #George - the old cat i would love to hear about the animals you may live with

This tiny bird was caught up in the 'v' of the bird stand - you can see i have plugged it with a little vase at the moment.  the bird was stuck in the bottom of the V shape with each wing splayed around two legs.  fortunately it did not struggle while i lifted it out by its two little wings.  it was extreme luck i was passing having just walked up to the house to get a cup of coffee. .   with eyes closed and shock kicking in i put it into a shoe box with the lid askew in the studio for an hour.  checking a couple of times its little body was breathing heavily while it recovered. and thankfully, recover it did!  it was bright eyed and alert when i put the box outside without the lid.  with other bird sounds around, the little mite chirped loudly and i saw an adult come over to the box.  the little one soon flew off with the adult.  so good. is it a house sparrow ? i googled but i cannot see any images with the  yellow marks on either...

Early Spring our couple of Turbo Chooks that live on the block outside the studio had 6 chicks; they managed to raise 4 to young teenage status and 3 days ago the whole family of 4 teens and 2 adults marched 6 new little chicks out across the lawn.  so lovely to see how they all pitch in. (images below and you tube video below images)

Baby turbo chooks happening all over the place .. these live outside the studio - they started with 6 and unfortunately lost 2 to goshawks.  These 4 have been doing okay - the image was taken 2 weeks ago.  We have kept fallen trees along the edge of the creek which is providing shelter and hiding spots for them.  so good. so cute. Did you know we have a youtube channel that has a playlist for monthly diary walk arounds and living with fauna (among others). - here's one.  October diary walk 2025  and this one (September creek after rains)  

  Normally we would not see the daily machinations of the native hens (turbo chooks) that live with us however, we have a pair of turbo chooks that have set up house on our front lawn - they have been there for 3 years and have not yet grown their babies to adulthood.   Its fast becoming the most stressful time of the year for us.  This poor little bundle was picked up by a goshawk, turbo chook mum and i went hollering across the hill and the hawk dropped the chick. If it were not for the talons i wonder if the chick would have survived.  She is now buried under a shrub.   This little one (above) was part of 6 day old chicks and as of today we are down to 4with one that is hopping having hurt a leg.  Today has been the most stressful as goshawks have come and gone and now a crow has noticed the little one that is not walking well. Mum has chased it away twice and it is just upsetting to think of the battle these little ones endure daily. a short v...

On this same day last year these two posts went up heralding our coming into our 3rd year in this place, #countryliving #Tasmania.  And here we are again. So, we are on our 3rd anniversay here (going into our 4th year) and also the anniversary (April) of these little guys coming into our lives - 4. years ago.  Kimba and Archie .... and George just fell in love too ...  the garden is growing exponentially with a few intros over summer  and i walk to the creek every day a few times a day in the hope of catching sight of the platypus, the eel or what fish are around (trout or blackfish) the trumpet flower came out first time in 3 years and it is established the tree is  a  radermachera sinica (China Doll)   and again this year with the rains, the little brown tree frog visited - sticking to our patio glass door in the middle of the night looking back over art activities in the studio this past summer here

 i knew it ! ... it comes around so quickly ! It is hard to believe we have been here for 2 years already and now into our third year. I have a small notebook into which i have been jotting down the plants that grow here (if i can identify them), the birds that visit and when as well as the fish, reptiles etc. The photo i took of the little brown tree frog was when he was stuck to our glass sliding door - so beautiful, really tiny. The (second) slide show below is a collection of the birds i could find online that have visited here with one or two of my own photos included where i could capture them including the little red-breasted robin and a wasp!  I have added a list of the names under the images. where there is a (g) following the name that is my own photo.                    yellow wattle bird                                   li...

 An idle thought but i will give it a go - so many projects on the go its difficult to know when to post anything about any particular one especially since 'we' tend to wait until its done and perfect. You should see my reject pile ! So i am going to attempt to post each Sunday a look back on the previous 7 days - just images of things mostly in progress. Hopefully this will capture more (in a kinda diary way) my activities and provide the discipline i lack in posting regularly. Let's see how we go ! (I am already a day late on the very first "Looking Back"). The images reflect my week - birds visiting, creek walks and printmaking (of the creek and) flora in the garden, George on a coffee morning catchup, exploring photographs without using a camera, stitching (this piece is finally completed), monoprinting, painting, books and cooking. A middle of the night dash to the emergency as V had a terrible reaction to a virus. It was an all-nighter but a week late...

These are just magnificent this year. last year, there were no yellow flowers - i did notice a couple had small bits of yellow 'trying' to come on but it never happened. at the time i thought perhaps it was a variety that didnt flower ... but nope, happily i was wrong. We are surrounded by them ... thankfully i am more allergic to grasses than pollen see more about the wattles here and join our youtube channel Lovely to find these visitors yesterday - went down with a cup of coffee to see if i can see playtpus ... he hasn't been around for weeks ... i am thinking because the creek is running high and fast.

  so sweet ... today the 'platypus' was not shy and hung around for hours.... then i realised its a baby ... i hadn't seen the platypus (the adult) for nearly three weeks ... maybe this is why ? So much great footage here as this one was quite open to its environment. so good. and there is a bit of a cleanup required along the creek edge after a night of high winds and trees that have fallen across the creek. see video here

Examples of 'lifestyle' include habits in sleeping patterns, physical activity, hydration habits, sleeping patterns. Wikipedia defines a lifestyle "as the way a person lives. This includes patterns related to personal relationships, consumption, entertainment and dress. A lifestyle typically also reflects an individual's attitudes, values or worldview." We 'know' this means tempering things 'bad' and maintaining things 'good'. Bad and good being highly subjective and individual to circumstance, beliefs and choices made. I also want to include a level of privilege. There are many lists on the internet defining 'lifestyle' to include an active lifestyle, a rural lifestyle, a healthy lifestyle, an urban lifestyle, a solo lifestyle etc. Its been a long road to this place in the country, in Tasmania - and what a place it is ... we feel most grateful and look forward to discovering all it has to offer. We have been here for 12 months...

  this one got away from me ... our 1 year anniversary - musing at the bridge ... in the moment we did make the date  ... our anniversary dinner. and this is what it makes us feel like ! images from our first year here #countryliving #tasmania