WINDY DAY AFTERNOONS…..

Well, another non weekly ramble. Sorry, the distractions are very real and enjoyable. Perhaps this is no longer a weekly log, more “a when the wind is coming from the North at around 100Km an hour” kind of event. Which just so happens to be now. The Ship faces North and the Tasman Sea is our view. Everything outside is on a lean so no use meandering out there - inside The Ship, elevated to be in the elements, but made of steel and maritime engineering to cope with warming East Coast Tasmania air and sea currents meeting those wandering up from Antarctic. Or to be less descriptive - it is warm and still in here.

Coping here….

Much to the annoyance of anyone that is around me (no one is here so I have a free pass), David Gilmour’s new album “Luck and Strange” has been the only music I have been listening too since it came out. I do that (again, much to the annoyance of those around me) - it usually lasts a year or two. There is something about someone who has lived the life of an artist their whole life. I find myself singing harmonies (when no one is around) to such lines as “a Carpe Diem Attitude”, “These eyes stay dry, but my, oh my, guitar” and from time to time I roll out the guitars, cheat a bit with tablature and play along for a bit. If the soundtrack projects a positive and an unapologetic attitude to living life to it’s fullest, then it is certainly better than the Nirvana stage I went through in the “grunge daze” of the nineties.

It is on now as I write and this writing output is taking a bit longer than normal as I wander over to the guitar from time to time (distractions….).

Just a little something I whipped together

Everything not chicken and rice is from the garden.

Speaking of distractions, food and diet has changed quite a bit down here. I got distracted again and made some dinner so have been away for an hour or two. If you are on The Ship metaverse you may have noticed that I have been popping up some photos of the food utopia that is our vegetable and chicken enclosure of magnificence. I planted out 30kg of Pink Eye and Dutch Cream third generation seed potatoes the other month - just starting to pop through now. Pumpkins, onions, carrots, beetroot, snap peas, peas in a pod, eggplant, cucumber, ginger, parsley, garlic, mint, sage, native pepper berry, coriander, black berry, rosemary, strawberries, corn, basil, thyme, lemon, bay leave, five types of lettuce, leeks, spring onion, apples, pears, avocado, mandarin, primrose, wheat and what is my newest addition - watermelon and passionfruit baby! Couple that with eggs daily from Roula, Toula, Soula, Voula, Foula and Agape (although they are still convinced there is a rooster coming and being quite boring lately - technical term is “brooding”) and home grown in the compost creation food soil of Binalong Bay seems to be agreeing with us. A lamb cutlet, a chicken thigh, a scotch fillet and some bacon confirms that I have not completely grown dreadlocks yet, although with my hair genetics that would be unlikely regardless.

Another distraction sorry - the above explains it.

Speaking of which….quite an achieving day I might say. The first mate is on a journey at the moment and is returning tomorrow after a spell on the larger bit of land to the north. So you could say I have been “batching” it for ten days. Debstar comes back tomorrow and it is her birthday. So this morning I awoke at stupid o’clock that I have come accustomed too and cleaned. Nope - not just man clean - years of other gender housemates taught me well. Spotless. Everything in it’s place. Sneaky garbage drop off at the local skip bins for tourists. Roast shoulder lamb bought and marinating, laundry done, mystery meat of months gone by at the far reaches of the freezer - gone. It is a gallery actually. My shoulders are square just thinking of it. Boom!

But it doesn’t end there! Carpe Diem attitude - remember the lyric, it is a cool mantra actually - in fact I have a desk clock I bought in Rome with this phrase on it that was next to the world globe on my desk since I brought it back - it sits on the kitchen bench still.

After all the above was done (0530am - -0930am….although I had a coffee and white chocolate and macadamia nut cookie in between I have to admit). The passionfruit and watermelon garden bed of excellence was beckoning.

Just after I had moved in here I was in Hobart doing some work stuff and checked Facebook Market Place dot com. I have to admit, I am an endorser of Facebook Market Place - I have secured some incredible treasure from this meta super market of cool stuff from the East Coast of Tasmania. But I digress….Whilst looking I saw a vineyard giving away wooden apple bins. I grabbed six. They have been sitting under some trees as a monument to “one day I will use them” - today was the day. The morning was the calm before the mad winds so the trolley was deployed, the shovel (my fathers), the wheel barrow, the four bags of concoctions of poo, mushroom and seaweed in bags, and a carpe diem attitude. Moved the apple bin to location, dug to level, placed and positioned, filled to a level with local dirt, layers with compost from what we don’t eat and sea kelp, cow poo, mushroom and water from the sky and then popped in a watermelon and passionfruit seedling. Of course it doesn’t end there - I had an old wooden tank base (another Facebook Market Place Meta find - free!) and conceptualized a wall of passionfruit and embarked accordingly - photo sums it up below…..

The great (at some point) wall of passionfruit and waterfall of watermelon

Another achievement today was extracting one of my guitars from the “shed”. Mind you, the shed is not a bad place - it is completely set up as a “jam” place with drums, bass, keyboards, PA, mixer, guitars, amps, effects, microphones etc etc….it’s just that it is over there when it could be here…..so here it is. I spent an hour lemon oiling the neck and polishing the frets and popping on some new strings this afternoon.

I was once at a trade discussion at Mac 1 in Hobart when I was in the corporate trade world of commerce. I was on a panel as someone who knew how to get stuff to places (rather than the glossy marketing thing….you know….ships…). Anyway I was with two other panel members who were veteran U.S.A folk. The Ambassador was there, so was the Premier at the time (Will H). A question was asked by the head of the Australian / USA commerce of chamber or something to the tune of “what is your history with the USA”. The other two panel members spoke of working for corporate champions during their expat stays in the USA. Me on the other hand has never been there and to be honest it is pretty low on my list of amazing places to see. When the microphone was passed to me (there were over 150 people in the room suited up eating bacon and eggs - it was a breakfast gig), I said that I own a 1983 black Fender Stratocaster, made in the USA and beside my family, it would be the thing I take with me if the walls collapse. That got a grin from Will H - after all, who else has a Premier that gets up and jams with the Violent Femmes.

New strings and a polish for a musical instrument is like having your car (if you like cars and it isn’t a robot) serviced and driven on that first day. Tuned and polished ready to go again. Thus the little video earlier on - I have no aspirations to be David Gilmore - but I do from time to time join him on stage in Rome, although he has no idea I am there.

Everyday is an exciting day here in Binalong Bay baby!

We are entering “the season” and channeling our host world. I am secretly quite looking forward to it actually. We have met some incredible humans and it is an honour to share this incredible place on the planet. We started a “Google” rating page….let’s face it, tourism works on the social credit system. So far we have some amazing reviews from some amazing humans. We have taken to offering breakfast with the accommodation if you want it. We do a pretty good bacon and egg English muffin. Bacon from Ole Way Farm, eggs from one of the boring chooks, relish home made from other folk, but soon from here, Pyengana cheese - it is pretty yummy and messy. Nothing but five stars so far so we must be doing something right. We are booked out from December 25th until the second week of January, but it is kicking in with bookings coming in quite often. If we could ditch the algorithm based platforms we would as direct bookings are our favourite - and we reduce the price over A$100 per room per night….but you need to use the tools so it is out there in the digital universe. We are getting international travellers predominately via the algorithms so we are not complaining - everyone is interesting and leaves here with a smile on their face.

Well - that’s me for the night.

Hope you enjoyed catching up with the latest….I must say, these Deep South Pedra Ales are quite refreshing…..

Cheerio

Brett