Two weeks in Tas: People

The penguin in the jumping picture is one of the only things I remember from the Tasmanian holiday our family went on in 1986. It was strangely awesome to get to see that beloved penguin again -- a lot smaller than I'd remembered. Oh, and the picture above is one of they very few with my Dad in it; others usually include him and a sticking-out tongue or similar. Nice.

This is my last post of Tasmanian pictures and -- shout hooray -- my hundredth post here. Throw some confetti!

Two weeks in Tas: Nature

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conversations:

Melody -- so glad you enjoyed them! Tasmania affords so many opportunities for beautiful picture-taking; only this time I confess I did much more reading than photography, thus the mediocre shots of some amazing places.

Carla -- I'll visit and catch up! ;)

Two weeks in Tas: Architecture

Honestly, I think it takes a while to re-enter the atmosphere of the real world after a two-holiday. That's certainly been the case for me; it's been hard to settle down to normal life again. Hard to settle down to the good, important, and necessary stuff, I mean -- and all too easy to let go of the other good things gained: the inspiration, the refreshment, the new ideas, the hope of possibility.

Happily, looking at these pictures of Tasmanian architecture inspires me all over again:

[the view from the balcony of our apartment]

[the clock tower that chimed every quarter of the hour;
my brother's counting improved greatly just by listening to this]

[one of the fountains in City Park, Launceston]

[glorious old homes]

[more old home deliciousness. The roses!]

[the mysterious Spiky Bridge; no one knows quite why it was built so]

Coming soon to a blog near you: Tasmanian nature. Yum.

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conversations:

Caitlin -- my pleasure! It was fun sending those postcards back off to the mainland :).

Carla -- I STILL miss you! I must catch up on your blogging ;).

Staish -- I know you will appreciate the fine art of picture posing.

Words. See them grow!

[a sneaky peeky at the upcoming project for Homespun magazine. Don't tell anyone!]

One of the things that I'm looking forward to about the Tasmania trip -- I mean, even apart from the cool weather, the lack of sensible bedtimes, the day trips, the walks, the old buildings, the bakeries, the reading, the explorations, the familyness (is your mouth watering yet?) -- is the chance to make amends for my utter failure to meet my 20,000 word goal in January.

To be sure, I hadn't expected that our home would explode with such a multitude of delightful people all one after the other. I struggled to make my bed most days, let alone sit and type for a few hours uninterrupted. So I have an excuse -- sort of -- but I also have an opportunity to redeem myself.

If anything, it might be harder to write, over there. There is nothing so very pressing to do, but all the delights of a new place distract and delight. Nevertheless, I will chain myself to the keyboard at least a little each day, and see what happens. I want to reacquaint myself with my writing projects, to begin to care about them again. To write, you have to care, at least in some small way, about the words or the characters or the story. I've been so long absent from my characters and stories that I've forgotten to care. I want to start caring again, and I hope the holiday will work for me.

Also: journalling. I very very much would like to start writing again. My brain needs it and I think my family would appreciate me pouring out my thoughts on paper before I launch the bombardment on them.

On a sort of slightly related note: would you like postcards? I'd certainly like to send them :). If you would like a postcard from the tiny little crooked island down south, send your mailing address to postcardsplease@gmail.com. The first fifteen people (I'm being ambitious) will get something in the mail! Oh, and even if you know that I know your address, send it anyway because it's nice to have everything in the one little place.

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conversations:

Caitlin -- We can't understand it all, but you are so right: God is definitely in control.