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! 

 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.

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...

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...

  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...

 if you follow me you may know that i am in the studio every day and work across media including collage, painting, slow stitching, photomedia, printmaking and poetry. The image above is from my exhibition held at the Wilderness Gallery Cradle Mountain a couple of years ago - acrylic & gesso on paper.  90x110cm framed in a simple genuine hardwood (eucalypt). Images of the works in the exhibition can be seen here . With over 120 published works of poetry I have created and am slowly bringing the site up to date here . Writing is a big part of my arts practice and poetry is an extension of that writing.  I enjoy mostly short form such as haiku, haiga, haibun, tanka and some free verse. I was fortunate to be a part of a fabulous forum, in the day when there were forums, where some of the world's top poets in short form guided new poets like myself through the maze of information and bias of the various forms. This kind of support in writing and being published was key t...

 Its a beautiful Spring day here - intermittent showers with sunny moments in between.  The Camellia which was planted before we came is in full flower again.  Unusually, i think, its turned two-tone - quite lovely. The studio is lovely and clean - V & I mopped the floor a week ago - huge job (18x12 metres in and around tables and benches) and i swept it up this morning in readiness for our workshop.  A small group (as i like it) and a day of making this book and this one. I dont have workshops often as i work a lot on my own projects but i do enjoy when i hold them. Usually they are held in winter or winter's end but i am open to any time of year if groups organise themselves - bring 1 or 2 friends with you and email me your dates if you wish to have a workshop. I have placed the book workshops here. Updated my poetry site a little yesterday - big job - onward with regular updates to post in one place all my (mainly published) poetry but also some of my favour...

The birds, in mobs, are racing around, chasing, being chased, singing and heralding. The creek is high from recent rains, chinese cabbage and brocoli have bolted, the mini nectarine is already in full flower and if there was any doubt at all .....   the wattles are out. and then there is #Snowcone ... such a sweet girl - our dairy cow in retirement  find her on our youtube channel here ... and check out this hilarious one where she got out and i had not a clue what to do ! 

a lovely surprise  - a great excuse now for regular #brunchdates  love this car ... lunch at the Raspberry Farm was so good. and the little walk around afterwards was enjoyable in lovely surrounds. 

July and we have been experiencing many days and night of rain. we needed it as the paddocks had got very dry, turning wheat coloured over summer.  it only took a couple of days of rain to return to green again and we get these little visitors at night.     image below - link refers to info on the little brown tree frog. and it was such a nice surprise to find, online, the sound it makes - surprise because i always assumed THIS sound was crickets but it is actually the little brown tree frog.  It was October (i think) 2022 when the creek flooded - a once in 7 year flood (apparently) ... there is a  playlist of flood videos  that happened in 2022 on our you tube hoping it is is indeed once in 7 years ... or longer - we will be fine as the house is up the hill but the studio got flooded and that took 6 weeks to clean up !

on a recent walk discovered this lovely flowering - Fatsia Japonica - i wrote about it here .  a winter flowering.  look forward to seeing how big it gets - apparently quite large and wide. i took photos of this particular part of the creek, from the bridge and came back at night to take shots of around the same area, from the bridge.   still discovering things along our journey here -the creek has filled a little since we have been getting regular rains - the paddocks have greened over and the wallabies are gathering in large groups during the night to chomp on the grass. check out this video on youtube of blackfish in the creek  and i am doing monthly videos (just started this year) - we have been here 3 years and i began the monthly vids so i can notice the differences and changes each year.

On a walk across the paddock yesterday I found this plant flowering by the creek.  and today it looked like this ! so pretty. This is called fatsia Japonica and is best suited to outdoor growth.  I purchased one last year and have it indoors - it grew so well that i had extras come up in the pot and this one is outdoors growing beautifully by the creek.  The flowers were such a nice surprise - the one indoors is leafy and large-ish but nothing like this one outdoors. Things I learned from Google today. The name. fatsia Japonica . It is better suited outdoors than indoors - i am now planning where to plant the indoor one once we get into spring. The location i put the one outdoors is perfect for it - shady with some sun. it flowers in autumn (although we are winter here just now) and berries will follow !  great. so good for the birds. it will grow 6-10 feet both in height and width!  how fabulous and apparently the new shoots may get eaten but the older ones ar...

Husleves - pronounced 'hoosh lehvesh' This time last year we both caught a cold this week so I am making this hearty, fullsome soup. Trying to avoid that side-aching, hacking cough that comes with a cold and lingers. This recipe is on the list with the others, accessible  here .   I always make Nokedli to go with it. and, as always, there is a bag of goodies, from all this soup making, for #Snowcone - catch up with her (our dairy cow in retirement)  here  on our you-tube channel.                                                                                                                                           STUDIO WORK ...

After a pretty warm season Autumn arrived on its last day. And day 1 of Winter she arrived with a vengance. Such morning frosts every morning since and such freezing nights. Freezing being the operative word - all water bowls are frozen right through the day and i am breaking up the top of the fish tank which is totally frozen over each morning. a walk into the frosty morning here . Speaking of artist books i completed a few over the last few months - small sneak peek below - i shall be uploading the full images of the books once they are clear of future exhibitions. ALSO in relation to books, the lovely ladies who attended my earlier collage workshop have requested i run a contemporary book making workshop - so stay tuned if

 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...