Simply messing...

"Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing — absolute nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing... about in boats — or with boats. In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not. "

Sunday evening, midsummer, launching a rowboat on a friend's pond.  I think Ratty says it all really.

To the lighthouse

I adore lighthouses and Cape Bruny Lighthouse is one of my favourite places in the world.  Standing on the rugged cliffs, looking miles out to sea, surrounded by the pretty coastal heath just takes my breath away.

On our recent trip to Bruny Island, when went for a visit, one of the old keeper's houses was open.  It was filled with relics and stories from the lighthouse keeping days. I loved reading about the families that lived here.  It must have been a hard, sometimes bleak life, but I bet they loved it too, since many of the children grew up to become lighthouse keepers themselves.

The lighthouse was built in 1836, and an access road wasn't built for 130 years.  The ruined jetty where we camped, about 2km away, was the only access to the lighthouse.  What a journey it that must of been, schlepping all your supplies along a goat track.

I find these stories so fascinating. You can read more here.

I would love to live in a lighthouse.  Would you?

Hello!

Since I started this blog back in 2007, I've resisted changing anything much.  I've liked having the same  looking blog in an ever changing sea of shiny newness. I liked being consistently the same. But eventually, even I got bored and it felt like it was time for a fresh new look, being nearly seven years old and all.

I didn't have the skills to create what I wanted, so I asked the experts, and here are the results.   I love it! Designed by the super talented Luisa Brimble, and all that amazing code stuff written by that woman of many talents Pauline Mak, I now have a shiny new blog.

It will take me a few days to fill out all the pages, and get it working properly and in the meantime, if you find any glitches or have any comments I'd love to hear from you.

Thank you Luisa and Pauline for doing such an incredible job! You are amazing!  Hooray!

Restoration :: part 2 :: the food

The night before we left for camp, I googled "camp food" for some inspiration on what to take with us. I was a bit taken aback at the results :: suggestions of cup noodles, dried soup, instant coffee sachets and weetbix with UHT milk capsules left me shuddering.  I'd rather stay at home than eat that stuff thanks.  

The best part of camping for me is the food.   Sure, cook simple food, but I think you can still eat well without resorting to such extreme measures.  It still has to be real food.  And a little stove top coffee maker doesn't take up much room.  If I was short on space I'd ditch the tent before I ditch mine.

On this trip I also fancied a spot of fishing, but my vegetarian daughter put a stop to that idea.  So we stuck to foraging for some greens instead.   After getting advice from local friends (and borrowing a frypan, because I, ahem, left ours at home) we were given some tips on where to find samphire, a native coastal succulent. 

We picked a couple of handfuls, happy to have a chance to use my lovely new knife, a Christmas present from my love.  Back at camp kitchen, I simply soaked it in fresh water, then fried up some home grown potatoes and tossed through the samphire until it started to colour.  

It was totally delicious, and the crunchy salty samphire was a perfect contrast to the soft starchy potatoes.  I loved it and so did the peeps.  Real food that's easy to carry, easy to make and easy to eat.  Perfect camp food.

The next morning, with bacon and eggs for breakfast, there was one sneaky camp food trick that a friend told me about that I did indulge in with my coffee, I know it's not strictly real food, but it was only because the fresh milk had run out...