Reasons for Neglect, Part One

Poor little blog - how you've been languishing! Alas, I have not been running long on time over the last couple of weeks, as is evident by the way in which things have basically ground to a halt on the craft front. Well, perhaps not a complete halt, but I haven't had nearly as much time to do things as I might have liked, and even less time to blog about what I have been doing.

Anyway, there are two things that I am overdue to blog about. Firstly, the knitting that I've been doing, and secondly, the trip to Tasmania that I've probably been blathering about. Rather than do an enormous Post of Doom that covers both, I decided that it would be more sensible to tackle them one at a time.

So. Tassie.

Months and months ago, Rebecca and I hatched a cunning plan to pay a visit to Tasmania. More specifically, she was coming down to visit from the US and had plans to adventure around down there, and since I had never been before, it was decided that it should be a joint endeavour. Anyway, weekend before last, our evil plan came to fruition!




I packed sensibly. Warm things because it would be cold, and readables because I have a healthy respect for Murphy's Law whenever I fly domestic in this country, and a good book on hand usually serves you rather well. I got into Hobart early in the evening, and met up with Rebecca - definitely a surreal experience after corresponding online for so long. We drove into the city and found our hotel, and then went in search of sustenance. What was found was rather delicious Indian food, including some garlic naan that put me in a good mood for the rest of the evening, just by being as hot and tasty and garlicky as it was.

Saturday morning was spent roaming around Salamanca Market.




I often find markets a little anti-climactic when I've heard as much about them as I had about this one, but thankfully I was far from disappointed. There were lots of fun things to look at, and plenty of tasty things to sample (given the fact that I am a total garbage guts and all, this second point was a rather substantial bonus - I am never bored when there's food involved). I bought some lovely tea from these people - I bought a rather obscene amount of it, actually, because I'd been given orders to fill from friends in Melbourne! Oh, and somewhere along the way I also acquired a cosy new jacket, a pretty coloured dress, and two rather delightful donuts. There was also yarn from The Spindle Tree, though I only bought a tiny amount - more to mark the trip than anything else, as I'm really trying to cut down on buying more until I've used the copious amount that I have. Also my bag was too full of tea.

The afternoon was spent sipping hot apple tea and knitting with all of the lovely ladies from the Hobart SnB group - it was lovely and cosy and fun, and I'm very grateful to them for organising an extra meet so that we could gatecrash, as we both had a lovely time.

On Sunday we stocked up on provisions (i.e. cheese, biscuits, fruit, and the all important beer) and ventured out to Freycinet National Park so that we could do the Wineglass Bay walk that everyone kept recommending to us. We picnicked with the wallabies before venturing out, and then we spent a good couple of hours tramping around the truly lovely landscape - if only my bastard of a camera hadn't run out of battery in Salamanca the day before! In lieu of photographic evidence, you'll all have to either google around for a bit, or just take my word on the fact that it was gorgeous. So there!

Monday was the day that we had to leave, but we crammed plenty into it anyway. We had the breakfast to end all breakfasts at the Jackman & McRoss Bakery - seriously, I was happy for hours just from eating it. Thus fortified, we drove to the top of Mt Wellington, and subsequently froze our arses off - man, but that wind was FREEZING! I couldn't feel my hands after about fifteen seconds of standing in it - really made you remember that Antarctica was the next country over! After we'd gotten back down and defrosted, we lunched and looked around the shops for a while (we found the spice shop to end all spice shops!). And then it was off to the airport to return our car and head back to Melbourne. My plane was delayed by over two hours, so I ended up being very glad that I had my knitting with me - I got home tired, wet, cold, and cranky.

Despite the end, a thoroughly awesome weekend was had! I ate a lot of food, saw a lot of awesome stuff, and did it in great company - what more do you want really? And Rebecca gets special bonus points for spending four days in my company without throttling me - the girl definitely has a strong constitution! Oh, and she gave me yarn, which is always a bonus! Pictures when there's natural light to be had. In the meantime, here is us back in Salamanca - the very last photo before my camera battery gave out:




Hurrah for Tassie adventures! Oh, and kindly note all of the fine knitwear visible in this shot...

In our next (not so) thrilling installment, I shall blather about the knitting I've been doing. Stay tuned, loyal blog readers...