Rosé and oysters ...
The Covid Gods smiled once again and we made it down to Tasmania for a three week break before the grind of the year begins in earnest. To celebrate escaping the Brisbane heat we stopped off on our way from Hobart airport down to Franklin and had dinner at Mures Restaurant on Constitution Dock in downtown Hobart. Nothing tastes so good as a Tasmanian oyster and a glass of rosé especially when you add in the anticipation of spending quality time in the Huon Valley.
On arrival at Cracroft Farm we were delighted to see that most of our trees and shrubs had survived the really hot and dry spell the Valley has experienced since we left in mid December. The domestic orchard is looking particularly good with our little apple trees now pretty well settled. Although some shrubs are looking a little stressed, we only lost one rhododendron which was a transplant from Cath's mum's garden. I just was not able to get enough of the root ball when I excavated it. It's a real pity as I recall it having a stunning yellow flower. Of course there was ample evidence of wildlife activity given that the cottage has been standing empty for over a month. There were large holes here and there, including a monstrous hole underneath one of our new fences that could only have been burrowed by a wombat!
To celebrate being back in the Valley and the survival of many of our treasures we had a wonderful Sunday lunch at the Port Cygnet Cannery, a restaurant housed in a beautifully renovated apple shed that prides itself of serving food sourced only from the owner's farm.
At this point a casual reader of this post might be forgiven for believing that we live entirely for pleasure, I hasten to assure you that this is definitely not the case. Indeed, Cath made a point of making me read an article in the Guardian yesterday in which a professor from Yale University roundly denounced hedonism as a way of life and insisted that a certain amount of suffering was a sine qua non for a happy and fulfilled life!
First off it was poor old Pepper that had to suffer. We decided that in order to combat the encroaching wildlife and protect our treasures in the garden our trusty working dog would henceforth sleep outside and stand ready to repel any pademelon, wallaby or possum who dared to feast on our plants. Of course this innovation was doomed to failure. Pepper glared at us balefully in the morning out of tired eyes as if to indicate that she hadn't slept a wink. Needless to say she is now back inside, happily cuddling her squeaky teddy and looking forward to good night's sleep safe and sound in her crate in the lounge. Perhaps we will need to procure some larger dogs to act as chaperones for night-time activities.
Then it was my turn to suffer. Cath bought this rather snazzy clothes line that features two very substantial stainless steel brackets at either end. The brackets had to be attached to steel posts, a feat that required some serious drilling through some rather tough steel. Despite being armed with high-speed steel drill bits and plenty of the correct kind of of oil the task required a fair amount of brute force. One of the brackets was in a rather awkward position, requiring me to brace against the stone wall we built last year and lean over one of our water tanks in order to obtain the correct pressure on the drill. Of course, when I went through the steel post, the force I was exerting on the drill carried me forward rather sharply and my ribcage collided with the water tank.
A slight difference of opinion has arisen subsequent to this accident. After a cursory examination, the ER doc dismissed the incident as a mere scratch. I, on the other hand, believe that it has cost me at least three broken ribs, given that I can't lie down, stand up or sneeze (a problem for someone with hay fever) without experiencing extreme pain. Of course I have not been stood down from duty due to injury - no hedonism here!
Seriously though, even in the short while we have been here we have managed to achieve a fair amount. The best result is probably in the domestic orchard where we have weeded around the trees, staked those in need of support and fixed up their wire cages. Cath has also channelled her inner water-engineering genes and set up a fantastic irrigation system that now delivers water to each tree at the turn of a tap.
We are now eyeing off another major purchase, probably a chipper/shredder to aide us in our compost making. Alternatively, we could go for a couple of maremma puppies to help Pepper take control of the invading wallaby hordes ...
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