Jack, Cooper and Lachlan's Portraits

 Granny's Gallery had a major upgrade with three new photos.  Cooper's 17th, Lachlan's 15th and Jack's 19th.  

New Basketball Season

 Jack, Cooper and Lachlan have mixed it up this season.  Jack is Coach of Lachlan's team and they all met up for the first time yesterday at their first game.

The strange age grouping has also meant that Jack and Cooper are playing together in an older team.

James' Birthday Portrait

 We caught up with James today for a birthday photo to keep Granny's Gallery up to date.

Flower Show

 Lisa got us some tickets to the Tesselaar Flower Show and Terry and Tricia came along for the ride.  We enjoyed the wander around the display that has become a multifaceted event over the years.

We took a ride on the ferris wheel to get the overview that was impressive.

Family Gathering

 As Murray and Judy were visiting from Perth, Brett and Cathy offered to host a family gathering on the Sunday night.  It turned out to be the perfect warm autumn evening and we were able to eat under the stars.

Murray and Judy Visit

 We arrived back from Tasmania at the right time to catch up with Murray and Judy who were passing through Melbourne on their way to Tasmania. They were interested in the Australian Garden at Cranbourne so that was our destination for the day.

James 23rd Birthday

 James had his birthday party with the Reid and Altis families while we were otherwise occupied in Tasmania. We always enjoy this event and were sad to miss it but sometimes things do not work out.  It went well and Sophie tried some photos with one of Adam's (very) old digital cameras proving they can still work well.

Richmond

 The last major attraction of our Tasmanian Odyssey was the historic town of Richmond.  A lot has happened in the town since we last visited in 1969 when we remember being a little underwhelmed.  Now the town sparkles.  It has rejuvenated its historic buildings and there appears to be a thriving local community.  The historic bridge is still a feature but it is now surrounded by a visitor park.

A standout attraction is the Richmond Gaol.  Once used to house convicts, this gaol remains in its original form with the rooms, the isolation cells and the gaol keepers residence all as they were originally constructed.

Maria Island

 We drove south to Triabunna to catch the ferry to another National Park, Maria Island that was once (yet another) convict penal colony.

Once again, there had been considerable effort made to erase evidence of the unsavory past.

However some of the more substantial (and perhaps useful) buildings remained standing.

A surprise for us was the number of wombats wandering around in the middle of the day. Being isolated from the mainland there are no foxes so no evidence of mange disease and they were quite untroubled by the presence of humans.

Wineglass Bay

 The weather had decreed that we could not visit Wineglass Bay by boat so we were obliged to take the land route.  We traveled around Coles Bay to the Freycinet Peninsula.

Then it became a test for old legs to climb up to the Wineglass Bay Lookout.

Once there it all seemed worthwhile although there was no way we were going down to the Bay.

By this time we had decided that getting back to the Car Park provided us with sufficient physical challenge for that day.