Acacia melanoxylon

Acacia melanoxylon (aka Tasmanian Blackwood etc.). This tree is everywhere around here. The first two photos are from my yard, the second two from down the road, and there are examples all the way to the shops. This tree is not only peppered all over Tasmania, it's prevalent on the mainland, too.

There aren't a lot of trees that seem to have as many uses as this Blackwood. Used in boat building, musical instruments and cabinet making in the modern era, and medicine and fish poison by Australia's First Nation folk; I find myself curious with regards uses I will find for it.

I will be updating this article from time to time to add more botanical info and the results of my own trials.

Stanley Seaquarium

So, Thursday we took the boys to the Stanley Seaquarium as part of a homeschool group event.

There's the Nut again. The last time we saw it (several posts ago) was to attend a Wildlife Ranger program. We are in the carpark at the Stanley Seaquarium, and it occurs to me that everything in the CBD of Stanley is under the Nut, whether we are tourists, on business, or simply residents.

Can you see the seahorse? Funny how we name sea life after land critters. For example... 

Not sure why (with those stripes, I could suggest a more obvious moniker) but this is a Cow Fish.

sea? 

Crabs 

 and Sharks

and Starfish, oh my! 

It's an edyoomacational experience. 

Hard to tell in this photo, but this is the biggest crab I've ever seen. Really, it is huge. It's the Arnie of the crustacean world. Sharks call it 'Sir'.  

1. Gummy Shark jaw. 

2. Snapper Shark jaw 

3. Son #2 jaw             

Shark egg casings. 

A few educational displays. This is a beach litter display. 

This endeth the Seaquarium visit. But before we leave, I'd like to mention two special individuals. My personal favorite was Kevin the Cuttlefish. Well, I named him Kevin. He looks like a Kevin. The second individual is Son # 1's favorite, Red Nose Ruby the Trumpeter.

 As we were leaving town, I noticed this statue (below) in a park. I don't care much for the subject, but I really like the design.

Walk to the Post Office

For a while now, I've been of a mind to take a photo of a small tree that's next to the post office-bottle shop- IGA grocery store, but kept forgetting to take the camera. Well, today I remembered, and decided to take pictures as I went to check our mail. The distance is 1.4km (2.8km round trip).

This friendly horse in one of our neighbours fields always comes to the fence for some company and a scratch. When son number one walks with me, he quite likes the horse, too.

This pond at the top of our road often has birds life in it. 

I quite like this view looking back down the main road that ours joins on to. A lot of areas around here look as lovely as this.

Noise! Believe me, when you walk past this small forest and the ravens are in... I'm not sure if anything else in nature is this loud. 

Selfies... they're all the rage these days. Almost at the shops and figured 'what the heck, need a little ugly to balance nature's beauty'.

This is why I brought the camera. A rolling stone might gather no moss, but this tree couldn't keep up. Accents beautifully.

This state can count on one hand the number of town halls still under the control of the locals. Most are under the thumb of regional councils now, but not ours. In the background (center), it's still ours. On the left is our local grocery store-post office-bottle shop.

The only church building still standing. No more services and I think it'll soon go up for sale. Want to buy a church? You can't have the graveyard that's behind it.

Way down there, next to that shed, is our place.

Just about every hill along the our road has a tank on top. This view is through a bunch of feral apple trees against a fence line.

So many tanks that I can get two in one shot.

I like this shot. Taken when a flock of birds got restless.

Neighbours bale of hay, two angles, interesting textures.

And after all that, did I get mail. Yep, got this book. Good walk, good book. Happy.