Back in my blogging saddle

Howdy, pardner. I’m back in my blogging saddle, and rarin’ to go [1]. I hope my seven ‘comfort list’ posts interested you. But I doubt they surprised you. My comfort list items contain nothing astounding. Or unexpected. Or scandalous. I’m just an ordinary guy doing the best I can. That’s all.

Sweetheart Vivienne and I had six superb days at Cradle Mountain Lodge [2]. Walking, talking, planning, eating, reading, thinking, and sleeping. Also I listened to podcasts. Several of them. (Indeed I was up-to-date until I arrived home and downloaded ten new ones.) Our time away was perfect. Literally it couldn’t have been better. And it was kind of nice to vacation less than 75km from home [3].

But now it’s back to real life: Medical work. Farm chores. Mail. Telephone. Internet. Shopping. Cooking. Bills. And blogging. Bring it all on.

P.S. Yesterday was my father-in-law’s 92nd birthday. As readers of Alzheimer’s: A Love Story will know, he’s a remarkable man. I wish him continued health, as happy a life as he can have without his beloved Lucy, and an undiminished sense of humour.

A perfect day: a woman, a mountain, and a cup of tea

Occasionally one comes along: A day much better than average. Perfect. Or close to it. Yesterday was one such day. Naturally Sweetheart Vivienne and I spent it together. For without her one of those days’d be impossible. After a leisurely porridge breakfast we set out for Cradle Mountain – 80 km to Mole Creek’s west [1]. But first we packed warm clothing – beanies, gloves, scarves – as the forecast maximum temperature was 5°C. Nothofagus gunnii – Tasmania’s only deciduous native plant [2] – puts on a vivid autumn display (pictured), and yesterday we aimed to view its 2010 performance. We walked for two hours, savouring each moment. One way from Dove Lake car park to Ronny Creek past Crater Falls. There were some ups and downs, of course. It was aerobic at times, but nothing overly strenuous. The Nothofagus was, at a guess, 7-10 days past its prime. Disappointing? Not at all. At Ronny Creek, awaiting the shuttlebus, we ate leftover roast chicken and potato from Friday’s dinner. It was scrumptious. But as Sweetheart Vivienne often says, all food tastes delicious out there. After the shuttlebus dropped us at the transit terminal, we each savoured a mid afternoon hot drink: She a skinny latte; me (given this [3]) a cup of tea. Then, replete with this and our nature deficit disorder antidote, we headed home. After a day like that, life’s okay. Calm. Mellow. Balanced. Thank you Cradle Mountain; and Sweetheart Vivienne.

P.S. Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers today. (I hope I placed the apostrophe correctly.)

farmdoc's blog post number 586

Today’s ‘List Friday’.

Until a few years ago, the word icon was in the lexicon but used little. Nowadays the word icon is nothing if not iconic. Almost everything that’s is a bit better than ordinary, is labelled an icon. Which prompts the question: What were icons called before the word icon became iconic?

And so to this week’s list: The Top Tasmanian Heritage Icons. The list was chosen by an independent panel from amongst hundreds of community nominations. (Independent of what, you’re entitled to ask.) The National Trust of Australia (Tasmania) was somehow involved. And so was a (shadowy and mysterious) body called Heritage Icon Awards. This is the second year of this process. In 2008 these were the top ten icons, and as such were excluded from consideration this year. The top ten for 2009, listed here and profiled here, will presumably be excluded from consideration in future years. That way, if the process continues for enough years, everything and everyone in Tasmania will be on the Tasmanian Heritage Icons list. Or perhaps it’ll all fizzle out once 100 icons have been selected. (Or 1,000. Or 10,000.) As well as 10 icons selected each year from nominations by adults, one’s selected from children’s nominations: 2008’s was the Tasmanian Devil, and 2009’s is Cradle Mountain (pictured). Me? I agree with the kids.

farmdoc's blog post number 210

I’m not a religious man in the conventional observant sense. But I am spiritual. For example, as I’ve written, whenever I visit Cradle Mountain I feel the presence of something I can’t explain, but seemingly a strong preternatural force. Two days ago, when darling Emily, Jono and I walked up to Marion’s lookout and then around Dove Lake, I felt it again, even though apart from brief glimpses The Mountain was shrouded in cloud and mist. I have a theory that each person has a hardwired affinity to mountain vistas or sea vistas, but not to both equally. If so then I’m unequivocally in the former group. But I digress. Because what I want to say is that there are some man-made creations that evoke awe in me, albeit not with any sense of spirituality. Here are two, and they’re related to one another: The Google search engine never fails to impress and excite me. Searching the entire World Wide Web in a fraction of a second is astounding, astonishing, dumbfounding. And patterns in Google search queries can be very informative. Last year a Google team began to explore if search queries could accurately model real-world phenomena. Last Tuesday Google launched Google Flu Trends which to date accurately mirrors true data (for the USA). Amazing. But nowhere near as amazing as Cradle Mountain.