The less said about the election results the better ... So I will indulge you as I indulged myself today. I had an errand on the East Coast - it was a lovely day, there was a dog show in the recreation grounds resulting in the neighbour's dogs maintaining a continual commentary all day and Shadow was feeling stressed. So we went for a Sunday Drive. . Orford is a small fishing village (or it was last time I was there, it now has a brick venereal suburb attached) on the East Coast. A favourite holiday destination for generations of Hobartians. As you can see the summery weather has the place heaving with activity and so it was hard to find a spot on the beach where Shadow could enjoy his visit ...

Maria Island is across the Bay and looks as if it is floating on a transparent sea:

The beach is littered with the lazy scrawl of the tide, shells in a myriad of designs, dead crabs and fine litter of plants adrift from the sea.

You know when you are on the East Coast because they have such picturesque names there. There was a move some years ago to get rid of some of them (this one in particular) as they offended the niceties of life - I am glad they did not succeed. So now you go past Black Charlies Opening, to Bust Me Gall Hill and on to Breakneck hill, all very evocative of the difficulties of bullock-wagon trail along these steep and winding (though not so winding nowadays) roads.

We went down via Buckland, but came back via Levendale, so had a change of scenery on our way home. You can tell it is spring by the celebration of flowers on the sides of the road, from the wee creeping native heaths to the flamboyant wattles stretching across the delphinium sky - it was a lovely day...