Two weeks in Tasmania

As a side trip between packing up the house and jetting off overseas, we spent two weeks in Tasmania with Bron's family. One of his sisters had recently given birth, so we had to meet our beautiful baby niece, Minnow. The girls were thrilled to meet their first cousin, and had lots of cuddles - especially Ember who was so enthralled by the gorgeous bundle and was always asking to hold her, and was even interested in watching the nappies being changed!

Remember to support her head, darling!

It was a lovely relaxing fortnight of card playing, baby cuddles, swims in the lake, card playing, visits to neighbours (the neighbours have two girls, the older being Ember's age, and they get along famously), egg collecting, salad harvesting, card playing, bread baking, sewing, knitting, card playing, path building, bridge fixing, and bridge boasting!

I finished knitting a jacket for Minnow on the second day down there, and it was well received (even though I was annoyed that the sleeves were proportionately too long for the width of the body). It fit her straight away, even though it was meant to be the 3-6month size. Ah well.

The front of the jacket: it's knit diagonally, in self-striping sock wool

And the back, in her Daddy's arms

While down there I also finished sewing a hat for myself: I have a big head and it's impossible to buy commercially made hats that fit me, so I have to sew them. I made the size L and it's a little snug, but I'll upsize it a little next time. It's so nice to finally have a hat I can wear and stuff into my bag when I want to take it off (as opposed to my custom-made straw hat that needs looking after).

During our previous trip to see the family in Tassie, Bron built a bridge over the creek, on the path down to the garden. He made it wide and solid, and we didn't hear the end of it for a very long time - especially so when he discovered it was still fine after the awful flooding that northern Tassie suffered this summer. The creek had flooded, and had moved a lot of debris from under the bridge - but the bridge was still strong! So this trip he (and the wwoofer, Iannis) made the path to and from the bridge passable by the 4W motorbike.

The man, proudly showing off his hard work

I brought down to Tassie two plain white baby suits for the kids to decorate with fabric textas. What little artists they are: they spent a long time doing such intricate detail on their suits.

The artists and their work

The end of our time in Tassie was celebrated with a camping trip to Circus-Fest in the NE of the state. Four days (three nights) of workshops, demonstrations and performances by circus people from all around Tasmania, Australia and even International acts! We saw many stunning acts, awesome works, but we got a little thrilled-out by the end as we'd seen too much fabulous stuff.

Highlights for me were the "BBBeetles" - a family of Beetles (2 parents, 5 kids) doing balancing acts. The patter from Big Boss Barty Beetle had so many 'B's in it, and it was clever and funny - and those kids were amazing, all talented gymnasts/circus performers in their own right. I also like "Strings on Fire" - two violinists going acrobatics and balancing in precarious positions while still playing, including lighting the ends of their bows and continuing to play. They also danced while both playing the Habanera from Carmen on the one violin (two bows). I appreciated their musical talent as well as their acrobatic skills.

I had never heard of the slackwire (as opposed to the tightwire) before, and was blown away by the lady who performed in the closing act. Her balance on this slack piece of wire was completely amazing.

Della and Bron also attended one of the workshops - Parent and Child acrobalance - held each day at the same time so they could practice and develop their skills. They now have lots of skills with balancing D on B in various positions.

Standing on Bron's hands, up in the air!

Next stop, Melbourne for three days, then a long plane flight to the land of snow.