Finally - after tracking down an old cable I have managed to download the images I needed. So here's a bit more to look at:

 This is the vest I did for a commissioned work.

 This is version one of the hat I designed - I dyed some extra yarn to match the colours in the main yarn, and used it to create the stripes on the crown.

 This is one of the earlier versions - the bobble instructions failed to produce the desired bobbles, so it was a start, but no cigar.

 This is the final crown design - I liked the finish better with this one, but had by then run out of the dyed yarns, so skipped the stripes.

 And as you  can see, the bobbles worked better .

 Using a firmer yarn, the stitch definition is much better - this if the final design.

 The swans by the lake have been hatching out babies - mumma and papa brought them up to the toilet block to show them off, but papa swan was very firm about how close you were allowed to get.

 Oh! More beanies - another yarn which does not give such firm stitch definition - lesson learned.

 This was my first attempt at a kep - I got carried away and designed a four-seasons pattern, with the result it is a little long haha.

 A close up of the lower portion of the kep.

 I have participated in an art installation - the images are on tin-type which is the earliest form of photography. Basically the image is trapped in silver on a colloidal base poured onto a metal 'plate'. so you only get one image. It is not a particularly flattering form of photography, so if you are looking at photos of ancestors, they are probably not as old as the image suggests, haha. The exhibition is about those who have looked upon Lake Pedder - the idea being that the light of the image of Pedder is captured by ones eyes, and the light of the photograph captures that light. It will be happening in May or a bit later, so I might invest in a catalogue.

 This is the hideous pug hat - I tweaked the weirder looking stitches before I gave it to her, and it does have a bit more definition than is suggested here.

And this is my latest kep. I got a bit fancy with the crown.

Happy Solstice and merry Christmas in the not too distant future. But I thought I would get it in now since I seem to be having a few technical difficulties.

It's been a busy few months when all is said and done, but unfortunately most of the photos of activities and achievements are trapped on my phone and inaccessible as the laptop has decided not to recognise the USB device. I will try.

Mainly I have been knitting. I designed a hat and knitted it five times before I got it right, then I had to write out the pattern and then knit it from the pattern (a necessary step as I discovered all manner of problems with the way I had expressed myself). I then discovered that I have to work out how many metres of yarn went into the damn thing which means a lot of complicated mathematics that I have yet to gird up my loins to address. Once that is done I will be printing it on pretty paper and selling it via local shop which will also be dyeing yarn suitable for knitting it, and selling it as a kit. The sample hats are currently for sale in another local shop (I know! They are popping up everywhere here).

As well as that hat, I have also been knitting keps (well, two keps - they are a fill-in occupation), and a vest which I sold to a local lad who had commissioned it, and another hat which was (in my opinion) hideous, but the recipient liked it. It had a Pug dog on it. The pattern was hopeless, and the recommended needle sizes too big (the first version rested on my nose) but it was eventually done and she was so pleased she paid me vast sums of money for the work!

I have sent all the photos off the phone to Facebook, so I will see if I can upload them from there ...

 Well, no that didn't work - these are from the other phone, but a good start. This is the vest I knitted - as a work in progress in this shot.

 This is another hat I had forgotten about - I knitted it as a prize for the Parattah Jubilee Hall raffle

 This is the first - failed - pug hat. The dog is done as Intarsia which is not as simple as you expect it to be when you are knitting in the round so I gave up on the head and tail, thinking I would duplicate-stitch them on, but the duplicate stitch on the legs was so ugly I just stopped and put it aside.

This is a little bit of nonsense I am messing around with at present - it was some 5 ply yarn I dyed some time ago but decided not to use for the intended purpose. I am adding beads as I go so it will be quite pretty and utterly useless.

I think I will see if I can get into the blog via the phone and then perhaps I can upload the images from there. Bear with me.

I started the day badly with a 6am conversation on Facebook. I made the following remark in relation to a very pleasing announcement that an all weather bus service to the top of Mt Wellington/kunanyi. My comment was as follows:

'Excellent - all-weather, commercially operated and versatile. Probably a lot more affordable too. Cable car rendered redundant in one fell swoop"

So at six in the morning, on a week day when I had to be out the door in fairly short order to do patient transports, I was attacked by some bloke who attempted to suggest that I had made a completely different statement (to the effect it would improve accessibility and render the entire Cable Car Project redundant and who persisted with his argument despite several attempts on my part to cut it short. So I blocked him till I could find the time to attend to his argument.

Off to work  I head and take a particularly unpleasant individual for his two appointments and had to endure politely his reactionary views. Though when we got onto Sikh taxi drivers I felt constrained to politely deflect him 'why, he looks clean and neatly presented' says me.

Back to the office and had to endure a lecture from the boss who takes his responsibilities very seriously, to the point I asked if he had received any complaints about me. He admitted he had and told me a passenger had reported that i had demanded he sit in the back seat as I had my knitting on the front seat! So I pointed out that I had simply suggested that since he was travelling with his wife I had said this to him. What actually happened was that I had arrived, having put my stuff in the back expecting only one passenger, and when he announced his wife was coming too (not actually all that acceptable), I had transferred my stuff to the front to allow them to travel together. When he went to get into the front I had said, Oh, I just moved my stuff to the front so you can travel together and he meekly got in the back. So hardly a refusal, but the boss persisted with telling me how I represent the government when driving etc etc ad nauseum. I am so annoyed, if I could remember his surname I would email my boss to elaborate and suggest in future he simply ask me what happened, but I can't so it will have to wait till the morning when I have another early pickup.

We have three new mainlanders who have moved into the village who have some excellent ideas - one is opening an art gallery, another a shop selling weaving and some of my knitting, and the third also has some interesting plans, so we might even manage to achieve a critical mass to make some progress.

I have also had a chance to meet my preferred candidate for deputy mayor and am very pleased with the meeting - definitely getting my number one vote. My acquaintance who was asked to remove her sign has been stalking me on FB and trying to engage with me - she's a strange girl, and her behaviour is unnerving but I will grin and bear it.

Meanwhile I have a vest to finish, a beanie to knit as a raffle prize for next month and am struggling to get the back yard wrestled into control before the fire season starts (which will be rather early this year). I also have about 20 native tubestock to plant which I can't do till I get some cardboard to suppress the rampant growth in that location. But I expect it will all work out in the long run.

Boo! Weren't expecting that were you!

Sorry for my prolonged absences - I suspect they will only become more frequent as life moves into maintenance mode rather than achievement mode.

The Heritage Bullock weekend was a great success and I really will post photos once I load them onto the laptop.

The Local Government elections are looming and candidates were announced today. I decided not to run - we need to be strategic this time and so the fewer candidates the better the chance of getting someone in (primaries going to non-starters reduce the primaries to viable candidates and insufficient primaries means you don't make it to the distribution of preferences.

As it turns out one of the councillors isn't running this time which at least creates a vacancy, but with 13 candidates it's going to be interesting to see which one gets that seat. My own finances prohibit me also as Centrelink counts the $10,000 annual allowance as income and reduces your fortnightly income accordingly (while the allowance is paid quarterly). So all in all not an appealing option for me.

I agreed to host someone's sign for their bid to be a councillor but today found out they are also running for mayor (which makes about six candidates and basically hands the position back to the incumbent). I explained that in the same post which prompted her request I had also stated clearly who my preferred mayoral candidate is and it's not her. She got a bit huffy (I didn't realise it was conditional says she) but took the sign off. My preferred candidate will be mounting his poster over the weekend.

Apart from a brawl with the new Elders insurance guy (he's a pig who talks over the top of you to the extent I hung up on him and emailed instead), all is good at present. Though I will be ringing Choosi to see what alternate insurance is on offer in the very near future.

Fortunately I have not blown away though the wind had a darn good try. On Tuesday I headed to town despite the forecast because I had some business to deal with. On the way home I stopped off to get some groceries and as I took the trolley out to the car the contents started to blow away. Pausing to hook them back into place I foolishly turned my back to the wind and lost my glasses! I did finally manage to wrestle everything into the back seat and get home safely, but it was a close run thing. Tomorrow is supposed to be seven degrees with rain which may mean snow, but as I have a patient to transport to Hobart it may be I will miss out on that. It's a last minute booking but does mean I can drop something off in Moonah as he is going to Glenorchy.

Dog and cats are lapping up the constant warmth of the woodheater and one little cat is still venturing into the bed for experimental purposes. I imagine she will work it out eventually.

I decided to take advantage of the sunshine to venture down to Chauncy Vale to investigate this drama. To put myself in a good mood I took the loop to the Caves first where I met a nice father and daughter group and had a nice chat (which gave me a chance to recover my breath). The track up to the caves remains steep, unstable and adventurous, though clearly much work has been done. A nice drystone bridge is a new addition over a gully.

By the time i got to the caves I was worrying that the rest of the loop might be as steep and stony as the bits I had already negotiated, but fortunately it is more ziggy zaggy so not so steep. It did provide its own challenges in the shape of a downed tree which presumably dropped during the last wind and has not been noticed by staff yet.






Having had my return to childhood pleasures I then had to address grown up concerns and the works described in the article and it seems the concern is valid (not quite the storm in a teacup my contacts in Council would have me believe).

Basically they seem to think they have finished but are in fact about a third of the way through the work required. No plantings, bed armouring, bank shaping, and the 'barrier' to divert the stream into its new course is a) subject to being short-cutted in a flood due to a pre-existing temporary course on the flood plain and b) loosely piled soil and rock with no effort to seal or compact.

See what I mean? Useless. Basically there are two of these, the one facing the stream has slightly larger rocks in it, but the matrix is similar. Then there is quite a deep ditch/pool the base of which is lower than either stream bed. Presumably the idea is that if the first wall is breached, the water will pond in this. Problem is, once it is deep enough to top the further wall, the lack of structure in that one will result in catastrophic collapse and a wall of rock-bearing water hitting the eroded bank at high speed.

Downstream the failings in the works is even more apparent as even with the small amount of rain we have had of late, the brief flush caused by the downfall the other night has resulted in some fairly significant siltation at the discharge point of the diversion.


Here's what a proper job looks like (though I would settle for something less manicured, as long as it does the job.

It seems I have been derelict in my responsibilities for far too long. Sorry folks.

I have been busy doing all sorts of things like going to markets and meetings to raise my profile and sitting at home busily knitting to finish off the first side of the jumper. I have done this successfully which is all good. Dog and cats are all fine and healthy and patient transport has been involved too.

Yesterday it became apparent that Council has been up to something terrible and so between driving patients to Hobart and dropping them off to their destinations I have been chasing up sources of information to find out what happened and how.

Chauncy Vale is a nature reserve at Bagdad. It was first established by an author - Nan Chauncy - and her husband after various failed attempts at farming and orcharding. Nan wrote some of the iconic tales of Tasmanian life  during and immediately following on from the War. Her characters grew up at the same pace we did and visits  to the reserve are a part of most Tasmanian children's childhood. It is a place on the Tasmanian Heritage Register and is administered by a committee which includes the daughter of the family. The committee also includes two Councillors.

Some months ago the reserve was closed to the public as Council was carrying out work to deal with erosion that was undercutting one of the picnic sheds. The results of the work are horrendous. The have filled in the creek course for part of its length and have created a new channel which is not formed properly, has near vertical banks and no stabilisation. There's an article in the Tasmanian Times showing images of the destruction (there is no other word for it).

I contacted Council staff to get some clarification and was assured it was a 'storm in a teacup', that it was fully supported by the committee, that in a couple of years no-one would be able to tell the difference. I was not satisfied with this response, so I contacted Heritage Tas which was oblivious to the works. I have also contacted DPIPWE and await their reply. Permits and approvals would have been required from both before work commenced. Bit late now.

Having witnessed the methods by which Council obtains committee approval for things they wish to do (ie, feed them bullshit, create obstacles for any alternatives and threaten no action if their method is not supported), their claims to committee support are dubious at best.

I have also contacted a local councillor. I phoned and when there was no response sent a text seeking his intervention. His response was to text back with a request I supply him with the name of a competent conservation professional and recommend funding sources. I texted back asking for an email address so I could elaborate on my concerns - a request he refused. I continue to await a phone call from him.

So this, folks, is why I am standing for Council. In the mean time I am pursuing my inquiries and drafting a set of 'questions on notice' for Council's response. This will obtain a written response (assuming it is not 'lost' in transit). I have also requested an opportunity to address the meeting. I am sitting on the letter as I consider its wording and also who it is that should be copied into the email. Wish me luck.