This is Russell Falls at the Mt Field National Park. It’s just one reason that I love living here. From the rugged coastline on the south east coast to “The Nut” just off Stanley on the north west coast.
And, naturally, everything in between.
I do love the sea and I’m glad that I live in a small coastal town, but just recently I haven’t wandered down to the beach because of my painful foot. Tasmania is very hilly and where I live has some very deceiving, gradual hills. I could walk along the beach but I can’t cope with the gentle incline back up to the house. Terry gets a regular walk to the beach and just loves it. On hot days he even goes in the water.
M had taken Terry down to the boat shed to collect oysters last week. He came back with three bucket loads. I prefer my oysters smoked or slightly cooked. I can eat raw oysters (I mean 1 raw oyster) but my preference is smoked. So M set up the wok with the sawdust in the bottom, stole my best pizza tray with the holes in the bottom and placed the oysters on the tray into the wok. The barbecue ring was then lit and in a few minutes we had the most wonderful smoked oysters. We ate our fill and then he carefully placed the rest in jars and covered them with olive oil. There are a few jars left still in the fridge. They’ve passed the taste test with some Japanese visitors that we had last week, as did the home smoked salmon.
The Japanese visitors were a honeymoon couple who had been married on the Saturday; flew to Tasmania on the Sunday; visited Wineglass Bay on the east coast; Cradle Mountain in the Central Highlands and then down to us in the far south. They left on Saturday morning, after spending only five days in Tasmania, to go home to Japan to return to work on the Monday. Apparently they only have five days annual leave – boy – that sounds really rough. I say apparently because there was just a teensy weensy language barrier. He didn’t speak any English, she spoke a little and M and I don’t know any Japanese. Well, M remembered a couple of words from his 1991 trip but one of those was “Cheers” in Japanese and you can’t keep saying that. Anyway, somehow we managed to communicate and it was fascinating to watch how polite they are. I have always thought that the bowing that you see in movies is more an old fashioned take off of the culture, but no, they bowed every time that they said thanks for anything. They were a delightful couple and a real pleasure to accommodate. We have been invited to visit them in 2012 and hopefully we will be able to go. Just a small hiccup with cash flow!
So, I haven’t had to bake any morning tea since before the festive season. M’s mother brought quite a few goodies down with her and we have been enjoying them. But, they’re almost all gone so maybe later this week I’ll go back to the kitchen. But only if it’s raining, because there’s so much to do outside at the moment I’m usually out there. (and yes it’s drizzling now!)
Jan
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