Veronika Wild

  The Flying Pig Pigs symbolise Good Fortune and Prosperity in many cultures and I certainly wish you those, but the flying pig seen here in a local Garden Supplies shop means something else. It is about  things that are unlikely to happen. I have just looked over my New Year  Resolutions  - e.g. give up smoking yet again, get a real job, get a makeover, get new glasses, get a new boyfriend - and yep, I can see all those little piggies strapping on their wings, putting their seatbelts on and turning their mobiles off. This pig had a few friends which I will add to my bad taste collection - expensive too at $500 on special and I'll introduce them to you too, along with another fake tree for that collection which seems to be growing all too quickly. I found one in Canberra too. A Little Bull Some Cows A Goat Not sure if this is a Horse or a Bull ... this definitely looks like a bit of  a Bull  Hey! I saw those first - see the Post "Wild Art" Sun...

Took these pictures at South Cape Bay which is about a five hour walk from the nearest road, but there are plenty of other lovely beaches which are much more accessible. This is the last bit of Tasmania before the Southern Ocean which is why the wind blows so much. I liked it because it was so isolated You can hear this beach roar from a long way off   Getting closer - the approach is via a rickety stairway down the other side of this cliff   Wind pruned vegetation   Littoral    The Birds are enjoying themselves Lion Rock First Spider Orchid on the way back Native Laurel Dogwoods, I think And then a very long walk through button grass plains, back to the car Whew!

Here's why Tasmanians get cranky about people wanting to woodchip our forests. Tasmania has one of the few pieces of temperate rainforest  left in the world and it contains many rare animals and plants that do not exist anywhere else.     This is a leatherwood tree which makes the most beautiful honey  Pencil pines and cushion plants, Central Highlands Pencil pines are an ancient species and these are hundreds of years old. Cushion plants which are individual small plants growing together like coral take almost as long to grow too.  Pandani - these date from Gondwana times, when Australia was joined to Antarctica Pool at the top of a waterfall, Central Highlands   Looking over the top   Another One   The ferns and Fungi are interesting too  And mosses Deciduous Beeches growing here around Crater Lake (actually a cirque carved by ice not a dead volcano) are not found anywhere else in Australia, but South America and South Africa hav...

This was going to be the last post for 2010, but I have just come across some photos of Tasmania I thought I'd lost, so may put them on over the next few days....... The Last thousand Km. Canberra is lovely in the spring. I’ve always rather liked it. For a start it is completely artificial, having been built in a sheep paddock halfway between Sydney and Melbourne because they both wanted to be the capital of Australia.    I haven't seen Canberra look this green since about 1978 Everything is beautifully laid out and it is a bit like a political Disneyland. Here’s Parliament House. There’s the Old Parliament House. Here’s the Prime Minister’s residence and there are all the embassies, each its own fantastic bit of architecture and usually set in lovely gardens or parkland and who knows, you may even run into your local politician opening something or doing a lap of the lake. Secondly, the National University is here, along with several Scientific Organisations and ...

    Main Street, Ariah Park This little town not far past Griffiths had a sign on the road that said:  “The Town of Wowsers, Bowsers and Peppercorn Trees.” I simply had to check this out. I found it so positive and inspiring amid general gloom and doom, that I am giving it its own little page. Ariah Park turned out to be a quaint little 1920s farming village which used to have all the right accoutrements – blacksmith, saddler, service stations, a Newspaper Office and a pub of course, and a lovely avenue of peppercorns down the main street.  Like other bush towns, it too had fallen on hard times, but instead of leaving a row of empty shops to stare like dead eyes onto the street, two ladies from the village set them up as if they were inhabited and they change the display every month. Display in the old butcher's shop   Another  Another The buildings in the town are beautifully maintained and there are pretty planter boxes and bowsers all...