Veronika Wild

  A magnificent sight on Hobart's Waterfront on the weekend Aye me Hearties! Before we go back to Germany again, I thought you might like a few glimpses of Hobart's Wooden Boat Festival which is held in Hobart every second year. It’s a wonderful sight to see the great tall ships lying at anchor in the harbour just as they might have two hundred years ago. Boats and visitors come from all over the world for this and this year there were some 60,000 visitors over the four days. Sadly, at least one ship didn’t quite make it. The Goondaloo, a historic pilot ship which used to ply Sydney Harbour, sank on the way here.  Scrambling down Kelly's Steps from Battery Point  I was a bit worried at first as I hurried down Kelly’s Steps - the sandstone stairway built by Captain James Kelly in about 1840, so that it wouldn’t take him as long to get to work. Not many of the usual cafés in Salamanca Place were open and Salamanca Square behind the sandstone warehouses also seemed rathe...

  This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA (Thanks to Joe Haupt) It’s Valentine’s Day today, so here’s wishing all you lovers out there a wonderful day, even if you haven’t yet found the love of your life. The world needs all the loving people it can get. I just read a bit about how during the C19th when Germany wanted to encourage orcharding, it decreed that all newlyweds must plant a fruit tree. I think that’s a lovely idea which wouldn't go amiss today.  I have just planted a lemon tree. A lemon might not sound all that romantic but it does symbolise cleanliness, purity and even fertility. Just think of it as aspirational. In the meantime, it has a lovely scent and if it produces any lemons, that will be a bonus as they are extremely expensive here at the moment. There is a lovely song about Love and Lemon Trees , though it isn't all that happy. I have been looking at the Language of Flowers to see what it had to say about how to express one’s lov...