tassie highlights...things starting with F

By this I mean: friends, food, ferns and falls...let me elaborate...

One of the wonderful things about blogging is you get to 'know' people from all over the place. And if you're lucky, you get to meet them for real J

Such was the case last Wednesday night when I had dinner with Sarah from Molly's Maison and Jane from Life on Planet Baby. Here we are looking surprisingly presentable after a few bottles of wine, lovely Thai food and a great deal of conversation. Jane's car got locked in the carpark we yacked for so long!

And even better, Richard and I were invited to their homes on Saturday afternoon...now that I consider a real privilege. Beautiful pastries made by Jane and India for afternoon tea, and champagne at Sarah's...spoiled rotten we were. I wanted to take photos of their houses but thought that would be stretching the friendship a bit far! Just go to their blogs for that ok?

And then there are furry friends.  I had no hesitation in taking photos of the famous Molly in her natural habitat!  I'm not a dog person at all really, but I've fallen in love with Molly...well honestly, who wouldn't. Just look at her J

The day before this we'd headed off on a bit of a drive and ended up at Russell Falls in the Mt Field National Park. This place was stunning, really serene, and the oldest national park in Tasmania. We didn't have the best weather while we were in Hobart (and yet today it's going to be 36!) so it was quite cool but that didn't matter at all. I'm a bit fascinated by ferns...and moss apparently!

And the food...oh the food! Several kilos later...thanks in part to these delicious things. Without doubt, without a shadow of a doubt in fact, the raspberry danish you can see behind the chocolate thingies was the BEST Danish I have ever tasted.

From this place...

And then there were the oysters! From the Barilla Bay Oyster Farm, a saturday lunch of 30 assorted oysters (for $39...I thought that was really good value) and a wonderful ploughman's lunch that Richard got to before I could take a photo...you think he'd know about bloggers and photo opportunities by now wouldn't you! And as an added bonus, a view over the bay and a glass of Tasmanian wine. Bliss.

The produce at the Salamanca Markets on Saturday morning was also brilliant. We were going home the next day so didn't get to sample any of it, but doesn't it look amazing...all those jewel colours?

And just because I can, I'm going to finish off this post with alpacas. They're furry. They're funny. That fits with the theme right J

all images: a tranquil townhouse

tassie highlights...MONA

Well. That holiday went in the blink of an eye!  Despite the fact that I’ve lived in a lot of places, and travelled to more than my fair share...I had never been to Tasmania before last week. I know, I can’t believe it either, or how I could possibly have left it so long!

We had the most wonderful time, spending most of the week in Hobart but getting out and about on day trips as well.  I have taken eleventy seven million photos (almost) and there’s no way they’re all going in one post, so just consider this Tassie highlights No. 1.

MONA ~ theMuseum of Old and New Art. I defy anyone not to be impressed by this place (although I was told by several people that there was a letter to the Editor of the Hobart Mercury demanding it be closed because of its depravity or debauchery or any number of other D words!). 

From the sublime to the ridiculous, the bizarre to the brutal, this place is a bit of a shrine to individualism, to brave choices and in my view, an incredible gift to Australia (not just Hobart) although Hobartians, you can of course ‘own’ it all for yourselves J It is without doubt, world class. Here are some of my favourite artworks...although, I'm sorry, the photos simply don't do them justice.

Richard and I rarely agree on things artistic, but we both thought that this next piece was the most wonderful in the collection ..."Sternenfall" by Anselm Keifer...

And the technology...wow. There are no descriptions next to any of the art...you access all sorts of information through the iPod you're given on entry. 

Some of it is so irreverent..."art wank"...just enhancing the sense of the unexpected wherever you turn...what's not to love?

The spaces in this gallery are stunning. It is immense and jaw droppingly, breathtakingly good...

And you know what...even the shadows on the floor are amazing...

The outside is equally impressive...wonderful rust, reflections and a stunning setting. Hobart is truly one of the loveliest capital cities in the world.

And when you go...take the ferry. You must. And dress in black...of course.

This was also the day Richard taught me to take photos through a torn piece of paper! As you do.

Go to MONA...you really, really must.

top ten ~ 11 Jan 12...from Tassie!

Hi everyone...we're in Hobart

the diversion project

and loving it sick!

peep my style

We spent today at Mona

all fashion allowed

M.O.N.A.....Mona (sing it with me!)

design is mine

Can't help thinking of Lola whenever I say Mona

desire to inspire

Those of a certain age will get it I'm sure

desire to inspire

I've taken eleventy seven pictures today

greige

and then some!

justb

Deserving of a post of their own at some stage.

sfgirlbybay

But for today...it's the first top ten for the year!

And tonight I'm having dinner with Jane and Sarah...yippee :))

molly's maison

I'm a lucky blogger!

bedroom makeover...not quite finished!

It's taken me days of my holiday...days I tell you, to paint my bedroom and install the gallery wall.  Nothing, but nothing went easily...including the great gloss enamel  'fall down and splatter the floor and one of my new shoes' paint debacle!  And the blunted drill bits when putting up the picture ledges into the brick wall...sigh. Still, it's almost there.

I'll do a full before and after post when I get back from Taswegia (I'll be on a plane just about now!) but thought I'd give you a bit of a glimpse from the doorway just to tide you over...hope you like it...Buffy seems to J 

And yes Mary, that empty shelf will be filled before you know it!

image: a tranquil townhouse

top six reads of 2011...and what I read in december

December was a very light on month for reading I'm afraid, but I did manage a few, somewhere in between the manic last few weeks of work, Christmas nonsenses and NYE frivolities...here they are:

Great House by Nicole Krauss - fiction

Shoe Money by Maggie Alderson - a selection of newspaper columns

Angel Puss by Colleen McCullough - fiction

All That I Am by Anna Funder - fiction

Freedom by Jonathon Franzen - fiction

Apart from the short collection of columns, all of these books were very good reads. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Angel Puss, set in Kings Cross, just around the corner from where the first born used to live, it was incredibly evocative of the area and the people who inhabit it. I bought it from a remainders bin on a whim...good use of a spare $4.95! 

And now the hard part...my favourite books of 2011. All in all I read 77 books last year (still finding it hard to say last year!). I was only going to nominate five, but a six book collage was easier to make J Bloody heck it was hard...even my very favourite author didn't make the cut this time! Because I read so much, the books I chose were the ones that have stayed with me...the ones I don't have to remind myself what they were about, the ones that made me cry, question, wonder, smile, cringe...the ones with 'staying power'. So, for what it's worth...my recommendations for incredibly good reads are, in no particular order because no way am I picking a no. 1 (oh, ok...Peter Carey!)...

In order of reading:

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield 

(a famous dying author summons an obscure unknown author to record her autobiography...ancient houses, bookshops, 'ghosts' and heartbreaks);

Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey

(A french nobleman and an english servant travel to the new world...full of beautiful historical detail...I especially loved the early days of Manhattan... wit, friendship and love)

The Tall Man by Chloe Hooper

(a very well written account of a pointless death, life on Palm Island and the brutality of our treatment of indigenous australians, but with a balanced compassion for all sides in this story)

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

(a 50 year old Harvard professor suffers from early onset alzheimers. This book's every word was enthralling, highlighting both the inner and outer 'workings' of the disease with an incredible sympathy for the sufferer and her family as they come to grips with what it all means)

Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg

(a thriller...not everyone likes this I know, but I found it  fascinating and different. The heroine is unusual...a bit like Lisbeth Salander in the Millenium Trilogy...hard to like but you just have to know what happens to her)

All That I Am by Anna Funder

(the story of a group of Jewish Germans and their resistance to Hitler in the 1930s, set then and in the present through the reminiscences of Ruth, an old woman living in Sydney. Based on fact, it's a story of right and wrong, deceit, justice and injustice. Loved it.)

So there you have it! I hope to read more than 77 books in 2012, but I haven't started all that well...I've been painting my bedroom and putting up picture ledges. I'll show you all that when I get back from Tassie...off there on Monday for a holiday...and I'm having dinner with two bloggers on Wednesday...yippee!!

the 2011 top "few"...

Remind me. What drug was I on when I said I’d do this!

january: seen on this pretty space; the decorista
It's been an interesting exercise I can say that...

february: seen on sense and simplicity
Because I have the memory of a gnat...

march: seen on beautiful portals tumblr
it was kind of nice to look at all the images I've collected over the year

april: seen on the diversion project; my favorite and my best
I wondered whether my taste had changed 

may: seen on my design chic; photo by janis nicolay my pinecone camp
given the exposure to so many wonderful rooms and great ideas.

june: seen on abigail ahern
It appears they have a few things in common...

july: seen on if the lampshade fits; a perfect gray
books, art, textiles and colour (and more white than I would have thought possible for me!)

august: seen on (clockwise from top left): my first little place; from the right bank; i suwanee; the design files
and when they're all in the same room...well, that's just love!

september: seen on an indian summer
and as you can see...I had to do it month by month.

october: seen on mom's turf
And there were sometimes...but not always... more than one

november: seen on brydie brown tumblr
so thank you for looking at these pictures throughout 2011...

december: seen on creamy life; design sponge (the loo was always going to make it!)
it was fun wasn't it...and while I can't make any promises about each and every week... it will continue to be a feature in 2012...it would be rude not to! J

2012

I'm going to give it a red hot go...you?

 image: a tranquil townhouse