Regent Park Tasmania - lifestyle of artist in country Tasmania

  <<<this image takes you to youtube We got a few ducks from friends recently and have been learning about them for 2 or 3 months now. The first problem we came across (remember we knew nothing about ducks) was our friends had given us 3 drakes and 1 female.  I soon read up on the fact a drake needs 4-6 females as they are pretty rough on them once the hormones kick in.  So we sourced 3 females and when they turned up, having chosen them from photos, it was obvious the two little call ducks are far too small for the drakes who are campbells cross and twice the size of the little ones.  As spring was kicking in here this past two weeks I noticed the boys were squabbling amongst themselves and quite aggressively.  So .... we created a bachelor pen and moved the 3 drakes out.  My thinking is i also dont want a gazillion ducks where a lot of them might be drakes.  After a short time of settling in we started to find 2 eggs a day - one dropped on t...

 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...

 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...

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

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 ! 

THEN & NOW. Archie on the left and Kimba on the right (in both images) They came to us as a pair after we lost Harry - a beautiful boy that was with us for a short time (2 years) - a bold, cheeky, independent ginger that was cross eyed, pigeon toed, highly talkative and much loved.   THIS IS HARRY (below) and so the twins arrived ... Archie and Kimba - such beautiful little souls that have been with us for 4 years now having come to us as very tiny little beings.  check out the cat run that was built for them - including the early days and planning - the full playlist here - my list of must haves was room to move outside, in the sun, with shelter and trees.   #livingwithcats #countryliving

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...

  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

  THEN ... (at 6 weeks old) Archie on the left, Kimba on the right in both photos. and NOW ... (at 2 years old) Having moved out to the country 10 months ago, we determined the cats would not run free on the property for a lot of reasons with protecting the wildlife on the top of the list. The wildlife here consists of a myriad of birds (redbreast robin, swallows, crows, fairy wrens, european goldfinch, parrots, eagles, kookaburras, spotted pardolot and more for us to still discover and name), small brown frog, blackfish, protected species turbo chooks, a platypus, a resident tiger snake, wallabies, blue tongue lizard and again, so much more to discover. my you-tube channel is a hold-all place for the many videos i am taking rather than posting 3 times a day here.  you can see the platypus video here - wait for it at the 1.09, 221 and 3.03-3.15 minute mark.  and the gorgeous little echidna is here. So, the cat run - due to a variety of reasons it took 9 months befo...

 Three goldfish have been living in this outdoor tank for around 15 years. A lovely big concrete thing which was made for plants so i had to plug the hole on the bottom and for fish you need to coat the inside of the concrete which is porous. The coating is a waterproof membrane made specifically for this situation.   They have provided years of enjoyment and some lovely photographs - like this triptych that was featured on the front page at one stage The water gets mucky over time and i need to clean it out every 6-8 weeks in summer and around 10 weeks in winter.  This image above is halfway through a cleanup - it takes hours - catch fish and remove, place in a bucket of water - half out of the dirty tank and half tap water. catch the fish and remove, placing them in a bucket of water - half water from the mucky bowl and half tap water remove potted plants and toys bucket out the dirty water until there is very little left in the bottom using the hose with a dribbl...