Winter...

It's that time of the year agin. What time of the year is it you might ask? Well, it's that time of the year that we celebrate all that is cold, snowy and penguin at the the Antarctic Midwinter Festival

The next nine days is filled with all sorts of fun and interesting things. There is a photo contest, a film festival amongst other things and of course the penguins (some real and some not so real) So, I wanted to let you all know about the festival in case you wanted to pop in and join in the fun. Now if you aren't able to join us then at least visit the festival website and enjoy the photos and get a look at some of the things we'll be doing for the next few days.

Also as a side note in reference to some of the questions about my last 12 of 12.

Chocolate tea tastes like it sounds except it's tea. You might think it would taste like a watery hot chocolate but it is totally different. when you drink it you know you're drinking tea but it just happens to have a hint of chocolate which is just enough to soothe those chocoholic cravings.

The candle light picture is a candle holder that hubby bought me. the pattern on the outside of the top is etched into the pottery but it is done in reverse so from the outside with no candle it look a bit odd but once you put the candle in you see it's secret

The patterns are the top of an outside table top and the other one is the back of a chair.

Winter settles in...

Well it's taken a few weeks but winter has finally made it's self known here in the land down under or at least here in Tasmania. We had two of the coldest mornings so far this winter. The past two days both mornings were below freezing and both days never even reached their expected highs, missing them each day by 4 degrees, which if you translate those numbers from Celisius to Farenheit it means we missed the mark by 7 degrees.

There was frost on the lawn and in the garden. We even had a bit of ice on the windshield of the car to go along with a nice coating of frost that covered the entire top of the car. The frost was so thick on the car it looked more like snow as it was about 1/4 in thick. It was really pretty cold. I know it's nothing as cold as it gets in say Minnesota but then again now where gets as cold as Minnesota, unless maybe Winnipeg Canada, or Siberia, or let me think... Oops sorry, I started to wander. Old age will do that along with a heavy dose of pian medication.

Where was I? Ah yes, it's winter here. Anyway, so since we figured winter has finally settled in we decided it was time to winterise the garden. We got stuck into raking up the last of the dead leaves, trimming a few trees, and pruning back the roses etc., etc. To be honest, James did most of the winterising. My contribution, other than giving moral support, was planting some new pansy's we bought at the nursery. Hey, planting pansy's is hard work. I had to plant like 50 new plants. OK maybe it was only 10 but by the time I had cleared out all of the pots, recyclde the old soil, refilled them with new soil and actually planted the flowers I'm telling you I almost broke a sweat. On top of all that did I fail to mention having to decide which pansy's were going in which pots and in which colour combination. I had to take at least 4 hot tea breaks. Let's not forget I also found time to put together a new pot of herbs to put in the kitchen. Let me tell you there was some manual labour going on my friend, mostly on James' part but none the less it happened.

After it was all done it looked really nice. You know even when all of the leaves are off the trees (except for the conifers of course) and the majority of your flowers have gone to sleep, there is still something to be said about a nice clean, tidied up, pruned back garden topped of with a bit of extra new mulch to protect the bulbs and to minimise the weeds, which although not as prolific as in summer still seem to be the only thing that grows in the garden on going. James worked really hard and I just kind of put bows on everything to make it all look pretty. I'm just sayin'.

Banner & Background...

I changed the background to add a little extra holiday spirit to the blog, even though it doesn't snow here at Christmas. It snowed where I used to live so I'm thinking of those that are back there. I also changed the banner to go with the snow theme, but be on the look out for a whole new banner to celebrate that we are into sumer here in the land down under. So keep tuned for further updates. Until then stay warm and Enjoy...

Time flys (especially when you're cold)...

It is amazing how time flies by when you're not paying attention. I mean it's been four days since my last post. I thought it was like only yesterday. I felt like I should write a little something but this isn't going to be a ground breaking post, just a bit of a hey there, hi there so I won't have such huge gaps between post and I also won't feel guilty for not posting. As I said this isn't going to be a ground breaking post full of items about the most intimate parts of my life basically because I don't do that and to be honest there isn't anything ground breaking or shocking going on in the intimate department of my life. Not that I would honestly tell you anyway :) Nope pretty boring here.

So, what is happening? Well as you know it's winter here in the land down under and everyone is kind of hibernating including me. I don't mind winter as I like things like snow, wearing jumpers (American translation jumper = sweaters) and I love a nice fire in the fireplace. It's just that our house, which I'm sure I've mentioned before, is over 115 years old and there is no central heating/air conditioning. We depend on couple of space heaters, 2 oil heaters and one reverse cycle system which is located in the kitchen. We also use the fireplace in the lounge room and occasionally the one in the dining room.

What I'm getting at is, we don't leave all these item on except for the one oil heater that is in the bedroom to keep the chill off that room. So by not leaving anything on to keep the rest of the house warm over night it can be pretty darn chilly if not down right cold first thing in the morning. The first thing I do when I get up in the morning is turn the reverse cycle on in the Kitchen. It has an automatic timer but I have never learned how to make it work. Occasionally I will turn on the fireplace in the lounge room but I hate to waste the gas. I guess I should be happy it is gas fuelled and not one that I would actually have to start with kindling and such because that just wouldn't happen. I never was a very good boyscout. It usually take about 30-40 minutes before it starts to really warm up and then it only does in this part of the house. The rest of the house stays cold. Anyway, that is the price we pay for choosing to live in a temperate climate, which is hard to find in Australia. At the end of the day I will take the cold over the heat because I hate it when I start getting all sweaty and can't seem to get away from the heat. I'm sure I will survive.

Well there you have it a riveting post on how I heat my home during winter. I hope you enjoyed the read. I think I'll go fix a nice hot cup of tea and try to warm up from the inside and leave you to ponder over this this very engrossing post on how I cope with the winter chill. BTW I am very well aware of the heat wave many of you are experiencing over in the states so maybe just maybe I can send you a bit of cool weather. I'm really all about the sharing.

Baby it's cold out side...

Our backyard outdoor electronic weather station read this morning that it was -0.1 degree Celsius = 31.82 degree Fahrenheit and with a wind chill it felt like -3.7 degree Celsius = 25.34 degree Fahrenheit. Now, I know that to many North Americans and some of you in Europe don't think that is cold. If you lived here in the land down under, and more specifically in Tasmania, you would think it's cold considering most of the time our temperatures are quite moderate ranging around 26 degree Celsius = 78.8 degree Fahrenheit to 16 degree Celsius = 60.8 degree Fahrenheit . So it really is all relative. All I know is I've acclimated, there is a thick frost on the ground and snow on the mountain. It's cold!

What really concerns me is winter here runs on an even number of months, meaning we don't really go by the whole first day of summer/winter thing that happens around the 21 of say June or December. No, our seasons run in set three month lots and winter runs from June 1 to August 31. Our coldest month is July so I am a bit concerned as to what next month has in store. Oh well I always said I like cold better than hot because when it's stinking hot I can only take so many pieces of clothing off before I get arrested or people start tearing their eyeballs out. Where as in winter I can put a fire in the fire place, rug up, put on a woolly jumper and Bob's your uncle. Now for my family in America, translation (I can put a fire in the fire place, put on warm clothes, put on a sweater and there you have it)

Anyway, that's all that is happening around here. A quite week ahead with my regular three month check up with the doctor at the end of the week to see how my long, very long (21+ years), fight against HIV is going. I don't expect anything ground breaking as I take all my pills like a good boy, but you never know. At the end of the day if something where to change it would mean changing my medications which would be troublesome at best but I would do what I needed to because I've put up with this bloody (translation damn) disease for so long I sure as hell am not going to stop fighting now. Would seem kind of pointless really. And to think I have this conversation with my self daily. HMMM???

Strahan Tasmania...

We've just gotten back from a three day holiday up to Strahan, Tasmania. We stayed at a nice little place called The Aldemere Estates. The weather was fantastic! Yes, it is winter and it was bit cold but the crowds were low and that made it nice to get around. We went on a the Gordon River Cruise that took us around the harbour and up the Gordon river. It was an all day cruise leaving at 9 and getting back at 2:30. They served us all local foods during the cruise and the menu consisted of:

Appetizers (Spiced pumpkin tartlets, salmon mousse on toast, lemon tartlets) and cheese platter (King Island Dairy Black Label Double Brie, King Island Dairy Roaring Forties Blue, wasabi-flavoured cheese, Dutch Edam) The lunch consisted of three salads (Marinated mushrooms, artichokes and baby spinach, Fresh new potatoes and pumpkin in a sweet mayonnaise dressing, Fresh broccoli, snap peas and baby spinach in a walnut vinaigrette) Fresh smoked Tasmanian salmon, Pate, Thyme infused pork terrine, local sausages and antipasto platter, cold cut meats (smoked ham, beef and turkey) and Wild game ragout made out of local farmed venison and wallaby. There was also all the wine, beer, lattes, tea and all the assorted beverage you could want.

This was all provided within the price of the ticket in the luxury of the captain's private quarter/viewing station including leather seats. It's been a bit of a rough time lately so we thought we deserved to spoil ourselves and it was so worth it. Anyway, if you want to see the pictures you can click on the pictures on the side columns under the Flickr badge or you can alternately just click on this link. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we enjoyed taking them.

Also of note, while we were in Strahan, which is in the northwest of our little island, a cold front came through and it was the coldest day on record (-2C/28F) in the past 12 years back home in Hobart. There is a lot of snow on the mountain and we are expecting more. It looks like winter just might be a cold one this year. We ran into a bit of snow and ice on or drive home but not enough to make it to treacherous.

Reading is fundamental

As winter sets in here in the land down under it seems to be the most logical time to get in some good reading time. It's a bit cold to go outside and nothing is nicer then curling up on the couch with a good book. I've always liked to read and sometimes I would read for days on end. Then other times I get easily distracted or maybe the book just isn't that great. Anyway, I thought I would share some of my most recent reads along with my current read and those to be read. So without further adieu, my current reading material is:

Mississippi Sissy by Kevin Sessums

Recent reads have included:

• The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant by Dan Savage
• Light Before Day by Christopher Rice
• Running with Scissors: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs

Books still to be read include but not limited to:

• Eragon (Inheritance, Book 1) by Christopher Paolini
• Eldest (Inheritance, Book 2) by Christopher Paolini
• Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
• Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog by John Grogan
• The Amulet of Samarkand (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 1) by Jonathan Stroud
• The Golem's Eye (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 2) by Jonathan Stroud
• Ptolemy's Gate (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 3) by Jonathan Stroud
• The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
• Michael Tolliver Lives by Armistead Maupin
• My First Five Husbands..And the Ones Who Got Away by Rue McClanahan
• The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir by Bill Bryson

So, there you have it, quite a menagerie of reading material but I like to keep it all over the shop. I like everything from pure fantasy, thought provoking things, just plain good reads and good old true stories. It also looks like I have a lot of books on my shelves So, I best get reading! What have you read lately, currently reading or plan on reading?

(I linked all of the books in case you might be interested in finding out more not because I think you should buy them from Amazon)