Our neighborhood

Hello again. 

Short version is that my backpack was ripped off about a month ago with our old camera inside. And, my raincoat and 2 extra sets of fiddle strings. Good thing it was my old one, only packed for a day out and had nothing else of value inside. Someone 'nicked' it while it was underneath the stage that I was playing on. Grrrrr.

So, now I'm learning how to use the new camera. The photos here are a larger resolution that what I used to use, so they should look bigger, better, and of course take longer to display if you have a slower connection. Sorry.

The other thing that's been keeping me busy is the huge amount of music that I recorded over the north american summer at music festival jam sessions.  Listening to it, editing out the hours of chat and other non-interesting bits, burning the tunes that I like the best to share with friends I'm trying a new method of sharing tunes on my fiddlejammer.com website. Check it out at http://tunes.fiddlejammer.com You know how I like to say that one can never have enough websites, right?

Here's a tour of our new neighborhood.

The front of our building.  Our apartment is smaller and cheaper than our last one.  Although, with the dollar sinking against the AUD, it might just be about the same.

Liz looks out the back stairwell. Only 2 flights this trip instead of 3 like the last visit.

Looking out our back door.

Looking down Elizabeth Street, the main street through North Hobart.

We're quite close to the fancy post office.

The State Cinema is just a quick walk away. Cheap tickets all day Wednesday... $11 AUD.  No popcorn.  Just flat whites, wine, cafe food, and desserts.

Here's what's playing and what's coming.

North Hobart is noted for many cafes, pubs, and restaurants.

I spied a flyer promoting the workshops and dance from last weekend.  I'll be posting about my music on my fiddlejammer blog.  Just to say here that we had a really good workshop and I collected a few new favorite contra dance tunes.

Just up our street is the Friend's School. We hear a bit of school noise during the day, bells ringing, kids cheering, coaches yelling. Not unpleasant really, just a fairly regular reminder that the school is nearby.

Our street has limited access from the main drag. That makes it a quite street, with mostly foot traffic and cars that have entered from a round-the-block access. Here's the corner that allows for out-going but prevents easy in-coming.

On our way to grocery shop at Woolworths, looking back down our street.

An example of contemporary architecture on our way up to Woolies.

Covered parking, a real plus. Especially if you have a car. Not all that special after a 20 minute walk with a granny cart.

That'd be a 'trolley' for grocery shopping.

New Town is the suburb up the road from North Hobart.  Apparently, their hoe's are in disrepair.

TEDTalks

Well, look how long it's been. I do so hate to read blogs that end up being an excuse or apology for not blogging. So, enough of that for now.

We're comfortably settled back into our Tasmanian life. High speed internet blazing away!

I've been really enjoying some video podcasts lately. They are presentations from the TED conferences. Technology, Entertainment, Design.

Here's their website

Video podcasts - search for TEDTalks on the iTunes store. It's a free subscription.

They go back a number of years. I just finished watching Evelyn Glennie, a deaf percussionist, talk and demonstrate about perceiving sound. Very, very cool.

I might even miss the snow

I came across these old photos taken quite a few years ago after a particularly heavy snow fall. Sure was fun sculpting this sea monster in front of our old house.







So, hope the winter is kind and lovely for our northeastern friends and family. But, for now, back to Tasmania for another year or so. Our Albany phone number still works and will send an email .wav file of your voice messages.

Hello from Camden, Maine

Looks like Blogger's fixed.

Woodstock, NY

On a lighter note, we drove down to Woodstock last month. Spent the afternoon shopping around and the evening at the New World Home Cooking restaurant outside of Saugerties, NY.

In some ways, the town looked more conservative.



In other ways, still the far out place as it ever was.





Nice gift shops, nice sculpture.



The New World is a yummy place, with a really fun monthly old timey jam.



And, um, nice sculpture.



Woodstock, NY recently proposed some non-binding legislation to get folks to aim towards carbon-neutrality. No doubt, these folks have passive solar houses and use gray water to wash their cars. :-)

Post Travel Depression

Oh-ohhhh. From Wikipedia:

"A number of treatments exist for PTD. The most common one is time. It usually takes 1.5 times the number of days away to be mostly/fully functional. So if you went one a trip for 8 days, it'd take about 12 days after returning to be fine again."

So, after 1.5 years in Tasmania I should be mostly/fully functional in 2.25 years.

By then, maybe this faded magnet will have fallen off.



Or, maybe this magnet will be just as faded so no one will notice that it's upsidedown.



Or, maybe many more monuments can be built to honor our insanity.





Or, maybe in 2.25 years, we could stop this war.



On the bright side, there are many, many more of these signs...



What a ray of sunshine!

Oh, Albany!

Back in Albany. Played for a kid's contra dance at the NY State Museum today. Always fun.



Had a hot dog for lunch.



The scaffolding is still up on the state capital building.



And, the Egg's still standing.



Actuallly, these are pictures that I took last June. As of today, the fountains are still empty. So, the warm weather has not officially started.

We're close to getting an apartment, but still looking for a cheap car.

Hello from Portland, Oregon...

...where the airport has free WiFi for all!

Next stop Cincinnati. Then, Albany, NY.

Looking for a cheap apartment and a good cheap car.

Um, and a really flexible part time job would be great.

Anyone?

Mt. Shasta

On a ride towards Mt. Shasta in California.



The Trinity ranges in the distance.



Mt. Shasta is the southern most peak in the Cascade range.



Getting closer.



Objects in the mirror may be closer than they appear.



Volcanic rocks.



You can tell which peak was the most recent eruption.



More photos to come on the .mac site, including shots from a little known memorial sculpture garden near Mt. Shasta. Just drop me an email if you'd like the password.

Back in the U.S., hiking around

Hello from southern Oregon.

We took a walk, almost all the way to Rainie Falls.



An explanation about how salmon make the trip upstream. We could see some splashing out of the water as we got nearer to the falls.



Folks were rafting and fishing along here.



Another day, we walked around a lake. There were some oak trees with mistletoe parasites. Seems that the mistletoe eventually does the tree in.



Spring flowers.



And, snowy peaks.