fairy godmother jax

and then a great thing happened - jax arrived. one of the best parts of being in australia was spending whole week with this wonderful woman. next time it would be great if all our of families could be together - pipes, griff, janu, jax, me, adrian, paddy and more! we climbed mountains (hartz, almost!), cooked, swam (well jax was brave enough in tigger undies!), talked and talked and talked. and janu fell in love, and started doing this great little sniff-snort-chuckle-smile at her. we have to be lucky to get one, but jax got loads. jax tromped around the hills of tinderbox while I went back to bed, we explored, and ate and relaxed....i wish she lived about 20,000 km closer

cygnet folk festival

I've really got to remember to take more pics of the context of the situation, not just little Janu's beautiful, mud covered, face. This was at a lovely folk festival, where he did his own little jumpy dances (like a monkey nodding with it's whole body) at all the drumming and crazy sounds.

the round house

this is our favourite walk from mum & dad's in tassie. it winds round the road towards tinderbox beach, past my favourite eucalyptus globulous. It is an old, gnarled tree that someone has thrown used tyres around it's high branches. It's in a dark gully, and has littered the road underneath with it's caps and flowers (the same ones worn by snugglepot and cuddlepie). For some unknown reason, it is the single tree in the whole world that I like best. What a side-track - the tree isn't even in this video! I'll take a picture of it next time I'm there.

bellendena

Janu gets pretty excited by dogs.

This is the glorious house on tinderbox rd. mum and dad moved here about 13 years ago, and planted the garden with all tassie natives. At the bottom of the land, below a gully full of gums, a slope leads down to the derwent river. There are fairy penguins nesting there ! Dad planted an acre of grapes (his babies) that demand lots of love and energy. Three dams sit, usually empty, and Soju the hound leaps between apple trees, gums, cherry, lemon and guards the fecund veggie patch. There are possums, rabbits, dogs, birds a-plenty and chickens crow from next door.It is my favourite place on the planet, I think. Well, certainly one of them.

Just ignore all the black sections on this video! One of them shows the outside, and the other the inside of the house...

fluted cape

janu has definately slept through some of the most beautiful landscape in the country - but wakes up to enjoy it. fluted cape, 300 metre cliffs climbing straight up from the sea, is on Bruny Island. We caught a ferry across and walked from the beach up up up to the top (luckily mum carried him!)

tas arrival

tas - beautiful, calm, quiet, dry, grapes, garden, cooking, food, walks, swimming, sleeping, crying, splashing, swinging, reading, collecting seaweed, mulching, washing, relaxing, eating, sighing, talking, playing, exploring. I had about 3 weeks in tas with mum and dad. the sunset is reflecting on their house, looking over the river derwent, and on out to sea. the picture at the bottom is from the 'round house', where you can almost see m+d's house jutting out into the river. Dad showed Janu his grapes, but we couldn't find a way to put him to work. maybe in a couple of years. he did help in eating up all the mulberries, and blackberries, and cherries, and apples and and and and and mmmmmmmmmmm

bass strait

leaving the mainland far behind - - -

his BMW

janu hitched a ride on a motorbike the for the rest of the trip to melbourne - we met him at the local pool near my sis's house in northcote.

bonegilla migrant centre

on the drive down from broulee to melbourne, we stopped at bonegilla migrant reception and training centre (near Albury, Vic). This was where dad arrived with his family in 1956 from Hungary, with one suitcase between them. Along with 100s of families, they stayed in the spartan ex-Army barracks you can see behind him. Over 300,000 people passed through this centre from the 1940s through to the 1970s, some refugees like dad's family, some immigrants. I was really glad to see the place, and it felt somehow healthy, respectful, that Janu could see where his Nagyapa first set eyes on Australia.

Mum and sis are shown listening to recorded stories from a range of people once housed here.