Veronika Wild

A little green at last As you may have noticed I haven’t been out much lately. Too much rain and too busy with family events – we have a new baby in the family – [Welcome Marlow Elvie and congratulations to your Mum and Dad! Be sure to give them a hard time for me], but I did finally manage to do  a couple of short walks in the last few days. I’m not sure where our summer went, but now it’s that mellow time of year – not always sunny, but perfect for walking. The nice thing about these walks is that they were neither very long nor very far away so you could leave late in the day and still get home in time for tea. In fact, I was surprised how many of these walks there are in the neighbouring municipality – 31 to be precise, not counting those on Bruny Island, and I look forward to exploring the rest. Top of the Kaoota Tramway Track- not many photos as we kept getting caught in drizzle Our first walk took us to the back of Kaoota which lies between Margate...

The old look  - messy and uncoordinated Bidencope’s Lane backs onto what was once one of the most exclusive shops in town with an international reputation for its hats and a core business providing uniforms for soldiers, police and firemen.   Joseph Bidencope, a tailor, had begun it in 1877 and although carried on by successive generations, it was finally sold in 1977. Since then new upmarket shops have opened around the front facing Murray Street, but the rear of the premises had been neglected and were a prime target for taggers and graffiti artists.   The mix of styles, the different ages and quality of the work, plus the fact that it usually had to be carried out in haste and in secret – the Council has strict policies about graffiti, meant that the end result looked messy and a bit sad, rather than uplifting.  A bit of @lukansmith There is a mix of bold design and whimsical with many famous street artists represented This...

A chilled out Pablo at the Hobart Cat Café Cat cafés are all the rage, so on Sunday, at the insistence of my daughter and granddaughters, I  visited the one in North Hobart to see what they were all about. Taiwan is officially credited with starting the first Cat Café in 1998, but the idea was so popular with Japanese tourists that they soon started their own. Since then they have flourished around the world, particularly in regions where pet ownership is becoming more problematic.   Even in little old Hobart getting a rental property which allows animals – no, not so much as a goldfish, is almost impossible, as my daughter recently found out. At last count some 30 countries from Latvia to India, from Russia to Canada, from New Zealand to Denmark had Cat Cafés with more being added every day.  A more aloof Tiger Lily reposes on a stool Not all of them are the same. Some have cats which can be adopted offering new hope to abandoned cats; others onl...