Juan and his pink muzzle

We have a new Alpaca.

New baby Alpaca for Cleburne

Juan was borne during the morning of 21 March, the day after the  Tasmanian State election. At his birth, he was snowy white with a pink muzzle, pink rims around his eyes and pink ears. Now, three weeks later, his wool is white-grey, but the pink can still be seen on his muzzle, around his eyes and in his ears. He is the cutest thing.

His legs are long and spindly, but he runs very fast and has learned how to stop without panicking and looking for the hand brake! We have isolated him with his mother, Lilly, and his Aunt, Chocolate, in our fruit orchard. Lilly has a prodigious appetite for lucerne and water. She is producing lots of high quality milk for Juan, who suckles whenever she sands still. When he was borne he did no know where to find the teats, and Lilly was no help. She moved away whenever he nuzzled her belly. We took advice from an expert and gave Juan milk from a botle.  He devoured it and over the next few hours found his mother’s teats. Lilly did her part by standing still long enough for him to suckle and get the nourishment he needed. 

How cute is this?

The two males, Oliver and Dizzie, will be kept away to let Lilly rest and recuperate and to give Juan time to beef up.

Juan is confident with both of us. When we squat low, he approaches and checks us out. He touches us with his nose, while making little sounds. He also accepts short cuddles and strokes. He is a delightful little guy.

The images show all beds 1 – 10 planted.

FIMBY erecting bean frame

The veggies are much better organized this year, due to FIMBY. Christina and Juliet recently formed FIMBY – Food In My Back Yard – to mentor and assist Hobartians in growing their own vegetables. Here at Cleburne we have space and sun, but we needed direction. FIMBY visit monthly for an hour and a half, during which we do practical garden work, plant, plan the month’s work and learn some theory and the vegetable garden is taking shape with every monthly visit. We have benefited enormously from FIMBY’s advice and direction.  

Crops include: several varieties of potatoes and tomatoes, sweet corn, beans, rhubarb, sliver beet, spinach, varieties of lettuce, beetroot, carrots, radish, peas, cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins, chives and spring onions. Most are doing well in this bright Spring weather. Sunshine and then rain to keep the soil moist.

The potatoes and tomatoes are particularly healthy and we look forward to harvesting a huge crop in summer.

Rod Quantock at breakfast

Rod stayed with us because we support the Tasmanian Greens.

Rod has been performing stand up comedy in and around Melbourne for about forty years – an extraordinary length of time! He is a Melbourne icon, with a very high profile and a huge following.  “Bugger the Polar Bears…”  was about Climate change, how the media are ignoring the subject and how those with a vested interest in the status quo – coal companies, oil companies, etc.  - are hindering positive action to correct climate change.

At one point Rod brought volunteers onstage to represent Earth, the Big Bang and Time, to illustrate how the Universe has evolved over time, and how recent has been the arrival of Man, and how destructive! Lots of tickets were sold and the audiences had a good time and we were delighted to offer Rod our hospitality.

Thanks, Rod, for supporting the Greens and their Climate change policies, and thanks to the Tasmanian Greens for producing the event.

First things first – Tasmania has had an exceptionally wet winter. June, July, August are the three months of winter and during that time, it rained almost non-stop. Week after week, month after month rain fell. Some days it was heavy, some days it was light and misty – but it fell and fell and fell. The soil was saturated and water lay on the surface with nowhere to go. Our creek had rapids. Our pond was filled to the brim, flushed through by the creek and filled again and again. Some Tasmanian towns recorded the highest rainfall since records began – over one hundred years.

With the calendar arrival of spring – September one – the weather changed abruptly. The rain slowed and the sun shone. During the rest of September and October the temperature has been steadily rising and we have had many glorious days of sunshine. As a result, everything on the property is growing madly. Where the soil is saturated, sheltered and holding creek water I have not been able to mow and the grass is very tall. The willow trees surrounding the pond have drunk deeply and grown mightily. Their weeping branches have spread wider and reach further. Their pendants are heavy with luscious green foliage. A stone bench we placed in the gap between two willows two years ago is now almost hidden. The scores of trees we planted along the border – Laylandii, Fotinia, Pittosporum are all shooting up. Trees planted by the previous owners have thickened and widened. All this growth makes everything bushier, denser and much more pleasing to the eye.

Dizzy and Chocolate, our Alpacas, seem overwhelmed by the long grass. They have been such industrious grazers that their grass short, but now, there are large sections where it has grown up to their shoulders! They seem to prefer shorter grass to graze on and are leaving the jungley sections to become more jungley.

For visitors from the mainland where there is still a shortage of water, it is a delight to look down from their airplane window and see the new, sharp, rich greens of Tasmania.

1. Planting veggies. FIMBY (see my separate entry under FIMBY) have been helping me with this. Spuds, lettuces, beets and peas are growing well.
2. The Plane tree, so stunted in the drought, is growing up and out and will soon be a giant.
3. The geese have nested and laid eggs. The winter was so wet and cold that only two goslings have been borne. But, they are both sturdy and healthy. So, we now have a goose gang of six.

4. Our fruit orchard has taken well. Cheery, apricot, apple, pear and plum trees are blossoming.

5. The view from the Dining room is of bushy green trees with dense green lawn beyond, with more trees and more lawn.

6. The ancient Mulberry tree, whose trunks have split and collapsed and produced new growth over the years, has blossomed. We look forward to producing Mulberry jam for our guests.

7. The Courtyard garden is in full bloom. It is now fully-fledged cottage garden, showing a mass of colours, shapes and sizes, all competing for space and light. It’s a cheerful sight and much improved over the weedy, sorry garden of the past.

8. Young willows we plated along the creek bed have all taken root. They will contribute to a well-defined line of willows following the creek from its entry into the property to its exit point from the pond – a strong architectural statement.

9. The Brown’s rivulet races, organised by the Derwent Canoe Club have begun again and I look forward to a few months regular competition.

10. Spring has brought out things other than blooms. Peter Timms has launched his book “In Search of Hobart”. It is a delightful mix of history, sociology, geography, economics, politics and gossip. It is exceptionally well organised and written. I strongly recommend it. Also, Sarah Day is launched her new collection “Grass Notes”. Sarah is a Tasmanian poet, who has published several earlier volumes. Her poetry is intelligent, subtle and accessible. Both books were launched at the Hobart Book Shop in Salamanca Square – one of Hobart’s great shopping assets. I plan an entry soon on Hobart’s Ten Most Interesting Shops.

Captain dominates the Guest Reading room. He was painted at the time of the First Iraq War.

We have been buying art for some years and some of it is displayed on the walls at Cleburne. We have chosen to buy work that interests us. It is usually painting that is abstract or loosely figurative. All guest rooms have current art magazines and books and there is a further selection of art books in the Guest Reading Room.

View our complete art catalogue.

1. The weather.

2. Veggies to harvest – spuds, corn, beans.

3. The guys selling firewood.  All summer they’ve been biding their time, and now they line up like hookers, offering a ute loaded with firewood for a hundred bucks.

4. The snap of early morning air.

5. Dew.

6. Lighting open fires and feeling that special wood fire heat.

7. Digging out thick sweaters – and needing to wear them.

8. Planning winter meals from the Comfort Food recipe book.

9. The carpet of multi-coloured leaves beneath the trees.

10. Smelling wood smoke from our neighbours’  fires.

Our big elm tree has shed a few leaves and is looking thin on top, but that is the only sign so far of natural things coming to rest. We can look forward to a dazzling display of colour from the deciuous trees as Autumn takes hold. The maples, thought still small, have grown well this summer and it is possible to see how glorious they will be in years to come. We plan to put in a few more to create an avenue. The willows and alders will throw masses of yellow leaves in the coming weeks. The single plane tree in the centre of the main lawn, which has grown spectacularly this summer, will also soon throw its leaves.

From March 30 – April 4, the National Play Festival will bring top flight actors, directors and writers to Hobart for a celebration of new theatre scripts. www.nationalplayfestival.org.au Collaborating with this massive event will be the new Tasmanian Theatre Company. www.tastheatre.com  This will coincide with Tasmania’s own state-wide arts festival, the prodigiously successful Ten days On The Island, curated by Liz Walsh. www.tendaysontheisland.org There will be performances, concerts, showings in dozens of venues throughout the island from March 27 – April 5.  We are looking forward particularly to Scott Rankin’s ‘Junk Theory’, the Icelandic ‘Metamorphosis’  and ‘Florence’ – a one-woman show from Newfoundland. Easter is approaching and already we have substantial bookings. www.visitcleburne.com.au

Sue Gunter and David shearing Dizzie

Dizzie and Chocolate have been shorn.  Sue Gunter did the job in February. Summer in Tasmania has not been consistently hot, so the Alpacas have not suffered. Harry Dingle, our groundsman, resident musician/songwriter  and maintenance man, had constructed a pen into which we lured the woolly couple. Diz was shorn first. We controlled his spitting by wrapping a sock over his muzzle. As his treatment was much gentler than he had experienced in other years, the shearing process went smoothly and he was soon able to get to his feet and reassert himself. However, his grandstanding on whatever mound he could find did not work, as the shearing had taken his bulk.  He looked like a gawky child with big eyes, big feet and long, gangly limbs. No dignity at all.  Poor fellow.

Perhaps realising his status was threatened, Dizzie asserted himself another way – by mounting Chocolate for sex.  Sue and I dragged him off and Choc bolted. Not part of the plan. Dizzie was movd to a smaller paddock and Choc eas eventually lured into the pen. Once there, all went smoothly and soon she was long-limbed and lean.

Our list below shows our bias. It does not pretend to be a thorough, objective survey, but merely describes those cafes we go to regularly and the reasons why. Most of Hobart’s cafes are in Salamanca, the City or North Hobart, but some can be found tucked away elsewhere. Good coffee, good cakes and great breakfasts abound in Hobart – yet another good reason for visiting our great little city.

Retro. Corner of Montpelier Retreat and Salamanca Place

Exactly in the centre of the Saturday Salamanca Market. We’ve been having tea, coffee, cakes and breakfasts at Retro since we came to Hobart from Melbourne, seven years ago. The word then, among coffee Nazis was that Retro’s was the best coffee in town. This is still the case. Depending on the barista, you may also get attitude plus ennui.

Saturday breakfasts are special because the market’s teeming crowds throng past and the South American band plays. Outside tables. Customers include pollies from Parliament House just across the road, lefties, architects and artists. Excellent service with personality. Internet. Newspapers.

Machine. Salamanca Square.

Famous for combining Laundromat and Café. You can load state-of-the-art German washing machines with your filthy holiday togs, chow down, take a pause to stuff your togs into dryers, finish your latte at leisure, fold your clean, dry togs back into your laundry bag and get on your way – all in the one location.

Outside tables. Very crowded at weekends. Wonderful venue for kids with immediate access to the giant chess set and the fountain in the square.  Also in the Square are the Hobart Bookshop ( written about in this blog under Hobart’s Best Shops) Kathmandu, Socrates and Smolt, the Tassal fish restaurant. On the edge of the square is the Salamanca Arts Centre with its craft and clothes shops, galleries and display spaces, including Alana Dobson’s brilliant Handmark Gallery. Excellent service with personality. Newspapers and magazines.

Jackman and McRoss Hampden Street, Battery Point.

The Empress of Hobart’s cafes. Really a patisserie, it sits imperially on Hampden Street, Battery Point, ten minutes walk from Salamanca. It is famous for fabulous bread, croissants, pastries and pies. Jacka’s breads are the real thing, and we use them at Cleburne as much as we can – they’re often sold out. Best are the Dutch Fruit Loaf, the Sunflower Rye and the Sourdough. Yum!

Jacka’s in Battery Point is hugely popular with locals. The façade is dominated by full scale plate glass windows. The floor in the dining section is distressed boards and the chairs are dark bentwood. We understand that Chris Jackman trained as a pastry chef in Paris, and it’s there he may have picked up his aesthetic, also. The staff are always frantic, but they’re professionals and service is good.

Battery Point offers a choice of walks through winding streets, past Heritage-listed houses, old working docks and slipways, Battery Park and Trudy Young’s Colville Street Art Gallery, which we strongly recommend for serious Tasmanian arts and artists. (to be written about in this blog under Hobart’s Best Galleries) Newspapers.

Jackman and McRoss. Cross Street, Newtown.

This is the kid, while the Battery Point location is the parent. Newtown has the same excellent pastries, pies and breads and the same Parisian-chic aesthetic, but without the imperial presence.  Some breads sell out by mid-morning.

Coffee is excellent. Outside tables available. While you might find some tourists at Battery Point, Newtown is a locals-only venue. Just up the street is the antique shop of Gordon Brown (of the ABC’s Collectors, produced here in Tasmania). Newspapers.

Tricycle. Salamanca Arts Centre

Tricycle is popular with the artists who have business in the Arts Centre and in the Peacock Theatre immediately next door. In fact, Tricycle’s seating area doubles as the theatre’s foyer when a show is on. Visitors to the Long Gallery on the first floor can look down at Tricycle from a balcony.

Tricycle uses Fairtrade coffee. Their muffins are light and fresh, and I recommend their soups – exceptionally inventive and satisfying. They also have Aussie Breakfast tea available.

Service is excellent from a young, funky management and their team. Newspapers and magazines.

Raincheck, Elizabeth Street, North Hobart.

Looks and feels like something from Brunswick Street, Melbourne, twenty years ago – scruffy, laid-back, battered from the first day. Outside tables right on Elizabeth Street, the main drag north from the city. Plenty of carbon monoxide.

North Hobart is developing rapidly as the restaurant strip of Hobart. At the south end of the strip is the Republic, offering the best and most comprehensive pub food in town, faced by two excellent Indian restaurants – Annapurna and Taj palace – and Onba, a classy coffee shop/wine bar. At the northern end of the strip is the little kitsch Post Office, the State Cinema and the Bett Gallery.

Raincheck does excellent breakfast, including Mexican-style beans with good coffee. Only a small range of cakes, though, for afternoon tea. Live music Sunday afternoons. Lounges for lounging. Newspapers and magazines.  Interesting art on the walls.

Jampacked. Hunter Street

Located within the Henry Jones IXL building at the docks. The University of Tasmania School of Art and the Henry Jones Art Hotel share the same historic sandstone warehouses. Jampacked is an accurate title. It is narrow and jampacked with food options, ranging from the full cooked brekkie with many extras, to extravagant cakes and coffee. Also lots of quality local foods – jams, nuts, fudge, pickles, etc – all beautifully packaged. The décor is dominated by the clash of raw stone and creaking timber with modern glass and steel. It’s very successful.

You can choose to eat in the Atrium, a visually way-too-busy environment, or in the a little cul-de-sac seating area with sandstone walls. The Atrium is ideal on a wet day with kids who want to run, while you want coffee.

If you’re interested in art, try to look into the adjacent School of Art. Some studios are on the ground floor and you can see for yourself what the students are working on. Better yet is a walk into the courtyard where three of Hobart’s most exciting sculptures can be found.

The milieu is hard industry – modern industrial sheds, expanses of concrete, cranes and ships. No trees. No grass.

Macquarie Street Foodstore. Macquarie Street, South Hobart

Well established in a lovely shopping village on the part of Macquarie Street before it turns into a torrent of traffic. From the Foodstore you have views to Mount Wellington and foothills and access to the Hobart Rivulet, possibly the loveliest walk in town. The path follows the Rivulet from the Cascade Brewery to Molle Street. It’s lined with mature trees and a constant flow of visual surprises.

The Foodstore has outside tables, gigantic muffins and good coffee. The décor is messy, but that does not deter the Foodstore’s regulars. One of Hobart’s best delis – the Salad Bowl – is close by.Newspapers.

Dev’lish. Macquarie Street

Right in the city where Macquarie Street has three lanes. Opposite is Store, a furniture and furnishings shop with a truly unique take on interior decorating; (more details soon  in this blog under Hobart’s Best Shops) on one side is ARP a tiny art book store and on the other is a traditional mens’ barber shop run by a woman.

Dev’lish’s specialty is soups, of which it offers three daily. It also has good muffins and great coffee. It’s popular for local business types who buy the packed sandwiches made in the kitchen. Upmarket, smart, modern and very small.

Station café. Newtown Nursery, Newtown.

The excellent Newtown nursery is on the site of the old Newtown railway station. Recently the management sub-let some space for a café, which draws in people from other suburbs for breakfasts and coffee and a browse through the plants.

The Station has an amazingly good Banana bread, which sometimes has chocolate embedded in it. It is thick and rich and very, very good! Always crowded for breakfast. Service is smart and professional. The décor is clean and bright and new. Newspapers and magazines.

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The Willows and seat