Tuesday 23 December 2014

A snapshot in time.

Making: Olive oil crackers to eat with my very large wheel of double brie from King Island Diary
Cooking: some summer soup full of lentils, corn, kidney beans and fresh coriander.
Drinking: too much wine, true to form at this time of year I guess.
Reading: A Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog by Dr. Bruce D Perry. A very disturbing read at times but also very insightful for me as a future nurse.
Wanting: for my love to be home. 1 month to go.
Looking: forward to seeing Augie March play at MONA on the 1st.
Playing: nothing much these days.
Waiting: to hear the outcome of a job interview (I guess it won't be til the new year now).
Liking: the time of year, the long long days, the warmth, the fruit, the festive cheer.
Considering: the future.
Watching: the rain drops running off the leaves of the tree outside my window.
Hoping: for good guests, good weather and good times on my next work trip starting after Christmas.
Needing: to get on top of uni work. 3 work trips and a flying visit to Canberra in the first 3 weeks of the semester is not a good recipe for a calm, stress free study schedule.
Wearing: my delightful Nimble tights. Sold out I know, but you can still admire their beauty.
Noticing: my knee getting better. WOOHOO.
Thinking: about the year that was.
Buying: a few odd gifts but mostly just the essentials.
Getting: tanned.
Bookmarking: various chapters of my nursing textbooks.
Feeling: that hunger that really is just boredom in disguise. 

Thursday 11 December 2014

Welcome back, Sun.

It's so good to see the sun again. Hobart has been pretty grey for a while now but today, I woke with dappled light across my face.

Between classes and frantic assignment writing I went for a walk through the rose garden near Uni. It was the perfect respite from the stark white world of my text books with its pink lemonade fragrance and vibrant petals, still coated in the droplets of last nights storm. Moments like this remind me that it's the little things.

Enjoy them.

Dee x.


Friday 5 December 2014

Time away.

Tonight marks the start of a long stint of nights where I will sleep in my own bed. Prior to tonight, I have spent a total of three nights of the last month asleep on a sunny hillside in South Hobart, the rest spent in Overland Track huts, on the beach at the Bay of Fires or most recently, in Canberra.

I'm feeling especially grateful for my time away from home because each night has represented something significant in terms of the opportunities that I am lucky enough to have had. From working in one of the world's most remarkable landscapes and sharing it with my guests to attending a two day workshop in Canberra for ASANNA (the Australian Student and Novice Nurse Association) that focused on how a small collective of amazingly accomplished student and novice nurse leaders can CHANGE THE WORLD! (Well maybe not the world but we can certainly change things like the experience of clinical placement, for both the student and the nurses they interact with AND the opportunities for nurse post graduation all in order to better the health outcomes of Australians).

So, if you're a student nurse or a graduate then I hope you too are inspired by the future of ASANNA and all that we represent.

ASANNA deets:
Sign up for email updates here.
Follow on Twitter here.
annnnnd on Facebook here,

Dee x.

Wednesday 12 November 2014

Step inside my office...

I'm heading out to this beautiful part of the world tomorrow.
Guide life on the plains south of Pine Forest Moor. Thanks to Sohee Kim for the photo.

The Overland Track. 

And I'm excited.

I'm excited for the beauty, on both a big and small scale.
I'm excited for early mornings and watching the sun wake up the bush around me.
I'm excited to eat RJ Fish Fruit Cake. 
I'm excited to see my guests shift their view and start to see and feel what I do.

So, with that in mind, I better pack!

Dee x. 


Details:

The company I work for is Tasmanian Walking Company. They are a beautiful bunch of people. Check 'em out. 

The Overland Track is a 65-84km long walk through Tasmania's world class wilderness World Heritage Area. The track takes you across alpine moors, over mountain passes, through dark forests and along rushing rivers over 5-6 days. Get out there, you won't regret it. 


Wednesday 22 October 2014

Out with the mad and in with the glad.

Awhile ago I was drafting a blog post that started a bit like this... 'Here is a list of all the things I hate'.

Lately I've been consumed by this feeling of hatred, anger and frustration. I'm not sure if the feeling created the thoughts and the whole thing grew from there or if the thoughts came first but what I do know is that it doesn't matter.

What I know now (thanks to Eli) is that by focusing on the negative and by giving power to my inner bitch, I am just making myself unhappy and coping less and less with all the bullshit that crops up in my life (eg. exams, bitchy people who should grow up, bad drivers, flab etc).

So, in order to turn the tables on the well trodden route of negativity in my brain, here is a list of all the things that I am grateful for.

friends. You guys are the best.
family. I've recently uncovered a heap of information on my Dad's family that I never knew. I'm super grateful to come from a family of strong, educated women who quite literally, ain't need no man.
food. I'm really appreciating pears, banana smoothies, greek feta, silverbeet and whole free range chickens that only cost $6.99.
my body. Even though I don't love the way I look all the time, I do love my body for allowing me to climb mountains, ride my bike, lift things, eat things, excrete things and love other people.
my education. I don't even really know how to put this into words but I just feel so blessed to be able to read, write and think critically in a world that is too often dominated by weak politicians, hearsay and propaganda. Thanks brain.

That's enough positivity for one day.

Dee x.


Sunday 12 October 2014

12.10.14

Things I'm looking forward to this week:

Getting my hair did. Blonde bob, be mine.
Feeling the relative freedom that comes with the end of week 13.
Getting crunk to celebrate said end of week 13.
Watching Gone Girl.
Seeing a physio and hopefully getting my dud knee fixed.
Riding my bike.
Being in Hobart.
Signing up to my next block of Go Booty.
Memorising the names, function and origin of the 12 cranial nerves (mmmm yes, fun).
Dinner dates with friends.

Dee x.

Monday 6 October 2014

Burnie v Hobart

When the opportunity to spend two weeks living with Alex in Burnie arose, I jumped. I thought to myself, 'nursing prac? what nursing prac? I'm going to spend two weeks hanging with my boyf'. But you see, I was wrong. The nursing prac, although sometimes a bit slow, was all consuming. I was vacant, tired, distracted when I was done for the day and all I really wanted was to be at home, cooking in my own kitchen and eating dinner overlooking glorious Hobart, not staring into the world's ugliest courtyard from Alex's kitchen table.

Here is a totally biased list of the things that make Burnie and Hobart what they are.

Burnie

bakeries fresh out of the 70's
bogans
empty streets
a truly massive woolworths with a disproportionately small range of items
one hours drive from Cradle
beeeeeautiful beaches
tulips
dominant primary industry
young kids, young parents and old people
whale sightings from the main drag.
rain
Waratah (NSW varieties) growing on the nature strip

Hobart

pigeon hole bread
a sentient mountain to keep me company
bonsoy flat whites
people on bikes
french cheese
tree lined streets
traffic
MONA/ tourism/ culture
people between the ages of twenty and thirty
shops that have competition
a sense of community


Until Sunday Hobart, I'll keep dreaming of you.

Dee x.





Monday 22 September 2014

Things I love about spring in Hobart.

magnolia blooms.
the odd shirtless runner.
the legitimacy of icecream.
uncomfortably warm cars.
getting my pins out.
the short period where winter veg is still sweet and delicious but you can get the occasional mango.
the smell of daphne and jasmine heavy in the air on a warm evening.
grand final day.
not lighting the fire.
how quickly the weather changes.



what I don't love about spring in Hobart.
the bird (a wattlebird I'm sure) that makes a terrible noise outside my window for roughly 30 mins from 5:30AM every single day. 

Dee x

Saturday 13 September 2014

An Exercise Overload.

So, I feel like I should preface this with a bit of a spiel about my past sporty self. I used to play a lot of hockey and most summers I disappear into the mountains and turn into a bushwalking guide (cue huge quads, rock solid hammies and a diet that consists primarily of fruit cake) so my body does know how to move, I'm just lazy. 

This is what happened. Parkrun started up in Hobart and Eli convinced me to go with her. We decided we should go for a warm up walk one afternoon on the Mountain before our first run where we some how decided that we should also start going to a boot campy thing type. WTF was happening? In the space of a few days I had gone from being a chronically lazy person who occasionally commutes to town on a bike to doing 3 separate exercise events a week! On top of that, I soon remembered that I had earlier committed to playing futsal once a week. Shiiiiiiit.



So, I wanted to document how all this exercise was going down...

Did I suddenly feel fit and fabulous?
Was I crippled by the activation of muscles that I never knew I had?
Was I compelled to eat whole bunches of kale in one sitting and drink coconut oil for breakfast?

Parkrun.
I thought I'd take the couch to 5k in a morning approach. It felt pretty good at the time but now, I'm not so sure. Eli and I plodded along, playing jump frog with a few people who were doing the whole run fast then walk thing. I can't do that, I'm all about maintaining a pace. The first week left me feeling pretty bloody sore! In fact I think it might have started off a bit of a knee problem but I'm sure it's nothing that a few Voltaren 25s and the physio can't sort out.

6:30am Boxing.
Boxing, also known as mildly aggressive cardio in disguise. It's pretty great! There was lots of interaction with the others in the class and as a total newbie, I felt myself improving over the space of a single class. The only issue is standing face to face with someone else's morning breath. Alex's morning breath is the only sort I can handle and even that gets tough sometimes.

Sunrise Pilates.
It's not actually called sunrise pilates but I think it makes it sound so delightful and whimsical. It's more accurately described as torture as it awakens looooong dormant muscles like there's no tomorrow. The deep breathing made me feel a bit faint and the foam roller caused all sorts of pain but afterwards I felt like I had been stretched out from top to toe and my muscles were fatigued but I didn't feel lethargic which was pretty amazing.


A paddock full of daffodils to brighten your day. 
Futsal commentary to come! First game is tomorrow; GO YOLANDA!


Dee x


P.S Eli wants me to do Zumba some time. I tried telling her that I have about as much rhythm and coordination as a drunk baby lamb but she didn't believe me. She'll learn.

P.P.S There's been no kale or coconut oil drinking. In fact, I think I've been using all this exercise as an excuse to eat like a football player.

Details:
Parkrun is a weekly event that runs all across Australia. The principle is run for 5km against the clock and yourself, they will time you and compile your results so you can track your progress. It's free and fun and you should all get around it.

Go Booty is run by Mel, a superwoman disguised as a normal person albeit one with great muscle tone. She has established an amazing atmosphere of support and makes you want to go to her classes!

Monday 18 August 2014

Science, smchience...

At 5:30PM on Saturday the 16th of August I was perched on a rock, chin resting on my knees, watching the setting sun colour the sky pink, then red, then dusky blue. I had Frenchman's Cap on the western horizon, the King William range a little to the south and Mt Gell to the north. I could feel the last warmth in the sun on my face and could hear the carrying on of 8 school kids playing in what was left of the winter snow. To me, this was a blissful moment, an accumulation of my passions falling into one single experience. I was in nature, completely aware of how lucky I am to love and live this life and I was sharing that with others who might one day develop their own connection to the raw and true natural world, just as I have.



There was a small part of me that wasn't present in that moment because in that same moment, under different circumstances I would have been wearing a silly hat and a long robe at my graduation. I will instead receive the very important A4 piece of paper via Australia Post in the next few weeks.

While I don't attach a lot of worth to the ceremony surrounding things like graduations, I could see the value of my degree in that moment. Science has shown me how to not only love nature but to know it. It has given me the tools to write and talk about detailed natural processes in a way that resonates with people who wouldn't normally be interested in or able to understand them. My science degree has helped me in my guiding career, makes me feel closer to my Dad, given me endless exposure to amazingly passionate people who are my role models and mentors and continues to be a blessing as I study nursing.

So while I may bitch and moan about the size of my HECS debt and how I will never work in science because I hate data analysis, blah blah blah, this blog hopefully shows you and may serve as a reminder to me in the future that my science degree has been instrumental in putting me where I am today and for that I can only be grateful.

Dee x.

Friday 8 August 2014

Eat. Shop. Sleep. Repeat. The Melbourne Edition.

Once again, too many words, not enough pictures. Sorry, I suck at this, I know. 



After a cancelled flight then some lengthy delays and a hypothermia inducing walk across the tarmac, we arrived in Melbourne early on Friday morning (we're talking 1AM). We went straight to bed only to be woken early by the clatter of construction works next door so we did the only logical thing to do; left the hotel to get breakfast.

12 Claremont St, South Yarra

My favourite cafe in Melbourne. The interior is light and open and they have the most amazing pale aqua coffee cups. Laura was still sleeping thanks to her ear plugs so it was just Alice and I for this meal. We shared the veggie breakfast, a huge plate with perfectly poached eggs, sauteed spinach, haloumi, avocado, mushrooms and cherry tomatoes ($19) followed by the house made crumpets with mandarin curd, mascarpone and figs ($13) which was delicious but totally unnecessary given the size of our first course.

We didn't make it back here (other than for a takeaway coffee) but distance makes the heart grow fonder and there's no doubting that I'll be back. They also have Top Paddock in Richmond and the very new Kettle Black in South Melbourne which I would looooove to check out. 

Emporium Foodcourt (foodcourt does not do this place justice).

On the bottom level of the very new and shiny (and still slightly unfinished) Emporium is a foodcourt that exceeds all expectations. We went in search of dumplings that Alice had read about on a blog but also found fresh rice paper rolls, ramen and thai street food. Yum yum yum. A great option if you find yourself overcome with hunger while lining up in the fitting room queue at Top Shop.

229 Chapel Street

After a bottle of Prosecco and a cheese platter on the floor in our hotel room, we finally ventured out to find some food at around 9pm. Still on Hobart time, I was amazed and pretty excited about the fact that many restaurants were still just warming up! We headed up Chapel Street to Colonel Tan's; a thai restaurant that becomes a bar come 11pm. The steep staircase and the winding corridors leave you with no misconceptions; you are about to eat dinner in a place that has no doubt been the site of many indecent acts but I feel that this just adds to the appeal. The low red light and sticky tablecloths aside, this place is happening; awesome cocktails, great (and very reasonably priced) food equals good times all round.

P.S by the time we left the tables were being pushed back and there were numerous people looking a little bit too comfortable on the couches.

160 Greville Street Prahan

We arrived just before the hordes of lorna jane clad ladies which was lucky because I would've felt a bit self conscious stuffing my face in front of them and their post exercise glow. This place had one of those menus that is hard to order off because everything sounded so freaking delicious. I settled for the thyme roasted mushrooms on seeded bread with smashed avocado and soft Meredith's goats cheese ($16.50) with an added poached egg ($2). It was my ideal meal. I gobbled the first half without thinking then had to savour every bite til sadly, it was over. The girls were wooed by the eggs benedict on potato roesti which was deemed to be incredible. Coffee good, service awesome, vibe wonderful. Go.

Chapel Street, South Yarra

Ah, Darren Purchese, if I was religious I might start referring to you as God but alas, I am not, so instead you are just the King of Dessert. I managed to resist the urge to buy a second jar of salted caramel but couldn't say no to a dessert. I settled on the staff favourite, a plastic tube filled with layers of mint and passionfruit gel, passionfruit custard, a white chocolate mousse dome sprayed with caramlised white chocolate, a mint crisp and finally, coconut caviar. It's a pity I ate this when I was a) full of Kong goodness and b) a little bit drunk. I'm sure it was amazing though.

Kong
599 Church Street, Richmond

So, we arrived at 6PM-ish, well aware that this was a no booking restaurant. We were told there'd be about a 30-40 minute wait so we gave our number and popped down the road for a glass of wine. We headed back before we got a call but quickly found ourselves sitting at the bar, overlooking the kitchen. Our waiter poured us wine and suggested we eat various things and we nodded because we didn't know what else to do. We ate: kimchi 3 ways, wagyu and kimchi dumplings in a light soy dressing, roti roll filled with cabbage, kewpie and lemongrass BBQ chicken, lamb ribs with curry sauce and BBQ chicken. The focus here is on the wood fired BBQ and oven, combine this with the pumping Chin Chin-esque vibe (same owners) then you are guaranteed a good time.

Until next time Melbourne,

Dee x. 








Wednesday 30 July 2014

Break time.

Off to Melbourne tomorrow for four nights of eating and shopping. Doesn't that sound amazing?

Will report back with tales of tasty treats and a bank balance in the negative.

Dee x




Wednesday 23 July 2014

A little note to say I miss you.

To my Dad,

I've missed you every day and I know that won't change. You are gone but you are alive in my mind and in everything I do.



There's an eskimo proverb that reads like this.

'Perhaps they are not stars but rather openings where the love of our lost ones pours through'.

For me, nothing could be truer on a clear starry night like tonight.

Dee x.















Saturday 19 July 2014

Eating my way through Launceston.

Nutella Hot Chocolate. Inside Cafe Launceston. 

Eating is one of my favourite past times. I see this as quite a productive past time because you may as well get more out of chowing down than the sustenance alone. I love cooking delicious things and then eating them in place of more convenient and sometimes more nutritious options but what I especially love is eating out. I love walking into a cafe/restaurant/shop etc. and feeling like a welcomed guest. I love the simple agreement that you enter into when you walk in that says simply 'this is what we offer, we believe in it, we hope you do too'. There's just nothing like bonding over food and all the things that go along side it.

So this post has been prompted by the last 36 hours I spent eating my way through Launceston. I knew immediately when my friend Alice moved north for work a few months ago that it would provide the perfect opportunity for a gourmet tour of the city that I had previously only really stayed in before or after guiding trips. Such stays usually involved me sleeping at a backpackers, wandering the aisles of Coles for something I could eat for breakfast the next morning and getting a takeaway meal of tofu vegie stirfry (pretty exciting stuff, especially when you do it once a week for 3 months).

This trip was going to be different and here's how it went.

Friday

Arrived in time for lunch. Made the walk from the CBD up Charles Street to Aroma's where we enjoyed over priced but delicious olive pizza and chicken and pumpkin risotto. It was good food to whet the appetite for things to come.

Wandered Launceston's small but interesting selection of boutiques, I particularly loved the ranges at Home Body (for now) and Justin Paul (for when I am a wealthy middle aged babe with a liking for italian leather bags and cornflower blue cashmere).

Made just enough room in my stomach for half a chocolate mousse cake and a pot of Prana Chai at Sweet Brew. This cafe is super cute. It's tiny, the staff are the perfect blend of chatty and polite and the coffee is also top notch.

Rolled back to the car to drive to Alice's via a trip to collect the other member of our food tour (Laura) and a quick stop at Cocobean, a small shop filled to the brim with some classic and some more interesting chocolates including a Boag's Wizard Smith Ale Truffle. I bought a few for 'after dinner' but I'm pretty sure I ate them all before we got home.

7pm saw us walking into the Black Cow Bistro, a place that has been near the top of my where to eat list since it opened more than five years ago. I was about as excited as one can be to eat steak. Everything was amazing. You must go. You must order the carrot and cauliflower sides and a steak of your choice. You will enjoy. Thank me later.
P.S. this meal cost a metric shit tonne but it was worth it. I noticed that dining in Launie is about 10-15% dearer than what I am used to paying for similar things in Hobart but I think this might adjust once the community starts to appreciate all the deliciousness that is on their doorstep!

Nursed my huge bulging gut to the car, sat in a moderate amount of discomfort until we got home where I could lie down. The steak was worth it.

Saturday

We woke to a super clear and cold morning, just the way I like them. Off we went to a 9:30AM booking at Blue Cafe in Inveresk. The other girls ate prosciutto and herb croquettes with poached eggs on charred asparagus with hollandaise. Looked lush other than the pork factor. I had the sweet corn fritters which I can never refuse when I see them on a menu. They were served on a board with half a wedge of lime and tabasco with chopped cherry toms, avocado, chilli jam and yogurt. I thought I'd struggle to eat so early after such a stuffing the night before but I managed, mainly because they were so delicious.

Off we went to check out the Harvest Market. More food to eat there and less produce than the Farm Gate Market in the south but still very worthy of a wander. We tried some tasty jams and I bought some brownies (wattle seed and walnut and a salted caramel) that I am going to annihilate when I stop feeling sick.

We spent the next hour looking at furniture I'll never own in the Design Centre before heading to Inside where I tried on THE MOST AMAZING GREY ASYMMETRICAL WOOLEN COAT EVER and then consoled myself for not being able to justify buying it by drinking a nutella hot chocolate. This is probably the best hot drink known to man. It is literally an enormous scoop of nutella in the bottom of a large glass with steamed milk poured over the top. Heaven.

Feeling slightly nauseous and with our top buttons undone we got in the car and started the drive south.

My next post won't make you feel so jealous, I promise.

Dee x

Where we ate:

Aroma's Cafe Restaurant
272 Charles Street
Sweet Brew
93a George Street
Cocobean
82 George Street
Black Cow Bistro
70 George Street
Blue Cafe
Inveresk Railyards
Harvest Market Launceston
Cimitiere Street Carpark, every Saturday 9am-12noon
Inside Cafe
10-14 Paterson Street










Wednesday 9 July 2014

1000 words but never enough.

I love Instagram. I love it for the little square shaped window it offers into other people's fabulous lives. Of course most of the time, we all, to a certain extent, fabricate our lives to look a little more fabulous than they really are but hey, it's not such a bad thing, aspiration can be pretty inspiring after all.

My problem with Instagram is often I'm stuck for words and I guess that's partly because the focus is on the photo, but sometimes I don't post because I haven't got a #hashtaggable blurb to accompany it and it just breaks my heart to think that all 60 something of my die hard followers are missing out. Obviously.

So I thought I'd post some shots here from a day in the life of me and write a bit more freely beneath them because we should never restrict ourselves to wit, hash tags and emojis, should we?


Hobart's latest fad. Vita nature + culture by Ethos; taking a junk food in disguise and giving it a firmly healthy and ethical foundation. Delicious (P.S the chocolate isn't as delicious as you hope it is, go the coconut).

This colourful bad boy lights up my door way AND keeps the carpet cleaner! What a star!

Coffee and Miranda Kerr. A recipe for a perfect afternoon.

Snug Falls. Drive yourself twenty minutes south of Hobart and walk for another twenty along a smooth gravel path til you get here. I'm envisioning myself basking like a freshwater mermaid here a lot this summer.

An almond and coconut cake (recipe here) that I made to take to an amazing dinner party hosted by my mate Stu at his farmlet in Glen Huon. The cake is truly amazingly delicious and I served it with Meander Valley double cream and some blueberry coulis- perfection.

Alas, there are things that my unskillful eye and poor iPhone camera can not capture like the amazing sunrises that bless Hobart most mornings at this time of year nor the beautiful pink rose that is blooming by my bedside. I'll keep trying though!

Dee x

Monday 30 June 2014

Right now, I am.

Right now, I am...

wondering if the possum who lives in the tree outside my window will spend tonight in the same way he did last night: clambering up and down the branches, jumping between the roof and the hollow plastic kayak behind the house and just generally making a racket. His silhouette against the dark night sky reminds me of how Hobart and nature are so entwined though and that's kind of cool.

thinking about making a hedgehog slice but put off by all the recipes I have read. Who knew it was basically an amalgamation of condensed milk, processed biscuits and cocoa? For some reason I thought that it could basically pass as some rare form of delicious health food.

planning a weekend away in Melbourne. Pretty sure it will be 4 days of eating which isn't at all a bad thing but it does mean that I may have to rethink my planned outfits to include more elastic and less skin tight leather pants.

forcing myself to get outside and run. It's awful. I 100% despise it. But I guess I despise the 'winter coat' I have developed just a little bit more.

wishing I was spending my holidays a little more productively or at least spending them laying poolside in Bali or some other equally tropical haven.

Dee.


Wednesday 18 June 2014

Going Solo.

Today I pushed my boundaries. I set off for a solo overnight walk. The fact that I am writing this might elude to the fact that it was a failed overnight walk but none the less, that was my intention.

The plan.
My goal was Mt Field West, overnighting at K Col/ Peterson Memorial Hut. The weather was sunny on the way up but as soon as I reached the ski fields and left the four wheel drive track behind the mist set in, the wind picked up and the rain clung to my coat. I pushed on. I rock hopped my way to the hut, getting there in 2 hours at 2pm. I tried settling in, I had some tea, made my bed, read my book... but perhaps a bit too quickly. I soon realised that I wasn't going to summit Field West, partly due to the weather which was forecast to be worse the next day but also because I was doubting myself and feeling pretty lazy. I realised that if I kept reading I'd be done by 4pm, with nothing to do. So I packed up and walked home with my tails between my legs.

So, today I learnt that I can bushwalk alone but I'm probably not cut out for the down time when solo. The other thing about solo walking that I'd considered a lot when planning was how a relatively minor injury can pose a much bigger threat to a solo walker than one in a group. For instance, my notoriously shitty left ankle went for it's biannual roll just when the car was in sight, so I hobbled there, cursing but no worries. If that had happened at 4:30pm on top of the Rodway's then I'd probably still be there. Other injuries from the day include a blood blister under the callus on my big toe, an egg sized lump on my shin and a badly bruised ego.

The day wasn't a complete failure though. I walked up a big hill and back again so at least my pack carrying fitness will be better for my next walk and more significantly I listened to the entire 55 Josh Pyke songs on my iPhone and it was bliss. I have and will always love him and his amazing lyrics, full of melancholy and desire.

Here is the single photo I took on my walk, when the cloud cleared for a moment.


Dee. 


Friday 13 June 2014

Work hard, get results.

So, it turns out I can be pretty clever when I want to be. After 3 years of studying a science degree (geography and environmental studies major) that drew out to actually taking nearly 5 years (!!!) I sort of surprised myself but signing up to another 2 years of studying to be a nurse. But it's been amazing and I've been reaping the rewards of working hard.

I was a relatively mediocre student in science, kinda didn't care because a big part of me always knew that getting a job that I would enjoy as a career path was going to be a tough ask but I kept going because I couldn't see the point in building up a HECS debt without having anything to show for it (but given the latest budget, maybe I should have quit whilst I was ahead!). My marks varied from HDs in the subjects I loved to PPs in those I hated (usually the ones full of statistics). But this semester has been a whole different story ... It's amazing what a bit of passion can do.

When you love something, you want to do it well. Maybe this shouldn't surprise me because really when I think about it, all the things I have loved like cooking or guiding, I have worked hard at until I have been better, until it's become something I can be proud of. Things like running and maths, not so much. So I guess my point is,  if you are driven to do something, take advantage of that drive and work it, you might never feel it again. And if you don't, and you've got some flexibility, then maybe sit back and wait til something more fulfilling comes along because as an example, if you don't love studying nursing, what makes you think you'll enjoy working as one?

Anyway, the point of this post has been to maybe motivate you to stick with the things you love, even when they get tough but also to be realistic about how you spend your energy and make sure you are working towards your goals! Also, it was also supposed to motivate me to go outside for a run but it looks like that didn't work.

Bye for now, I've got some apple crumble to tend to!

x

Tuesday 10 June 2014

Winter's Bone.

Winter's Bone. It's a great movie, you should watch it. It turned me into a total Jennifer Lawrence fan girl, but then who isn't one already? She is brilliant.
Also, on a less hillbilly, thrilling, banjo playing note; the Lego Movie is also great. You should watch that too.
P.S. Can you tell it's exam time?

Next week I am going to take myself on a bush walk. It's been a while since I carried a pack and slept out but I am super excited. I'm hoping for a super clear night so I can get some night sky photos and maybe sit and watch an aurora fold through the sky, if I'm lucky.
My plan is to just start short, with a quick overnighter up to Mt Field West, sleeping somewhere on the plateau if the weather allows and then going the long way home around the tarns to see if I can spot some of the Athrotaxis laxifolia that I know is hiding up there!

Winter has set in here. The days are barely reaching 9 degrees Celsius and I'm going to start wearing my leather gloves again (yay!). Soon I'm going to post something about my perfect day in Hobart but it starts just like these days have, cold and clear. They make me want my coffee more, which can never be a bad thing, can it?

Keep you posted on my adventures next week!


Dee x


A song to soothe you into these long, cold nights.


Monday 19 May 2014

Better hop to it.

Things have been changing round here. I'm all motivated to run again, I can see the reward in how it clears my head. I've also taken to mindfulness mediation after a not so successful attempt nearly two years ago. Last time it made me too aware of what a bad head space I was in. Now it's just a nice way to 'anchor yourself to your here and now' as the nice man tells me in the recording. 

Recently I also realised that I had pretty much turned into a vegetarian due to a. not being able to afford meat and b. being too lazy to cook meat for one. It was getting pretty bad. The other day I realised that it had been weeks since I had felt energised and I was able to link this back to my iron levels! Anaemia and I have been friends on and off for a while now but I'd forgotten about him and he was reminding me a not so subtle way... nausea, headaches, breathelessness, exhaustion. Since eating half my weight in beef though I am feeling SO MUCH BETTER! yay.

So, in between all this and keeping more and more uni work done I have been baking bread, stewing apples, cooking roast dinners and mexican feasts and admiring all the beautiful ladies in fancy dresses at Cannes. My favourite below, Blake Lively.

 Gucci. 

 Giambattista Valli

Chanel. 

Tell me your tips for keeping your iron up, or any good mediation suggestions, or your picks of the Cannes festival (both the movies and the fashion).

Dee x

Friday 9 May 2014

Hobart Love.

Thanks for being you, Hobart. I love your clear blue sky, your soft warm sun, your glowing afternoon light and your relaxed attitude to life. Keep on keeping on.

I've hit week 10 of the uni semester. In fact, really it's just finished and week 11 is about to start. It's busy! This week I handed in a final piece worth 40% to one unit and gave a presentation in another- hoping both went well! Next week I have a reflective piece and a 2500 word essay on tourism management in Antarctica due- kill me now. To 'console myself/ waste time/ force myself to realise that working hard equals access to all the things I want in life' I am creating way too many shopping baskets on net-a-porter then closing the tab at the last minute and spending too many minutes watching clips from The Voice on YouTube to remind myself that a singing career on a bad television show is always an option. But at this stage I'd still rather be a nurse.

Sorry if this post makes little sense, I am battling a rather bad hangover for a Friday afternoon. Turns out drinking with a bunch of 18 yo's is a recipe for a good time!

P.S. Thanks Mother Nature for putting on a show last night. Watching my first real aurora from the top of Mt Wellington at 10:30 PM is something I'll never forget. What a place to call home.

Colours in the Japanese Garden, Royal Hobart Botanical Gardens. DL

All paths lead to the Mountain. DL

Dee.

Sunday 4 May 2014

Love Song.

It's not a love song but goodness me, do I love it. It's like Oasis and British india had a baby and out came the DMA's. Get around it. Makes me wanna go walking in the rain and snow and wear an ugly polyester Adidas striped jacket.



Time to get my study on,

Dee.

Tuesday 29 April 2014

Drip, drip, drip.

The drip, drip, drip of rain has been my most constant support throughout a long, tiring and pretty average day at my desk. I had a productive morning, printed off a heap of articles but now they just sit in a pile, not being read, not being formed into a cohesive and concise essay on the determinants of rural nurses career longevity.

My current plan of attack (to finish the essay) is to walk away, go for a drive, buy some big boss lollies and come back to it with renewed vigor. If that doesn't work then I've just lost an hour and am no closer to submitting. Shit.

Loving.
the smell of pumpkin slow roasting in the oven.
the symphony of rain falling on the leaves, the ground, the roof, the street all at once.
the Moser Roth chocolate Alex bought me in Melbourne. Heaven.

Not loving.
the list of work due above my desk. It's giving me guilt eyes.
the way the rain makes people drive like they have lost the plot.
the need for 5pm coffee.

Until next time,

Dee.

Saturday 19 April 2014

A Quiet Weekend In.

Movies watched and cried over or laughed with.
Hot cross buns eaten fresh from the oven with too much butter and added salt (whoops).
Coffees drunk in cosy cafes with good friends.
Floors swept and mopped for a change.

A mountain hut found. and enjoyed.
And visits planned for another time.
Late night supermarket missions for teabags.
Snuggled on the couch, torn between the rising moon and Janet King.


Monday 14 April 2014

All Good Things Are Blue.









1. North Abbotsbury Beach, Bay of Fires DL 2. Babara Bui Quilted Biker Jacket 3. Moon Phases on Stone, Peter Adams Tasmania DL 4. Glenorchy Pool Details DL 5. Aoraki over Lake Tekapo DL 6. Alice McCall Saint Paul Dress 7. Elk Derby Wedge

Thursday 10 April 2014

Gooey.





So obsessed with this tune. It's so weirdly wonderful. The lyrics are just about the words, how they sound not what they mean. I love it.




Enjoy x.

Monday 7 April 2014

Quoted.

"One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. 

Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast....a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. 


So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. 


Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.” 


- Edward Abbey


Such a captivating piece of writing for those of us who find ourselves when we leave the confines of our city lives and get back to the bush.


I'm not sure where Mr Abbey was from but I think he might have liked Tasmania.



Thursday 3 April 2014

Gloomy.

Ah life. I woke up feeling cold this morning, a sign of things to come. I better close the windows in my room I guess. And now, while I'm trying to write a big assignment on ethico-legal reflection I am feeling consumed with worries of a different kind.

The rain has just started and the view of the weather sweeping past the window is about as joyful as I feel. Not very. Life certainly has thrown a curve ball and it's one of those times where I know I should just be a grown up and move on but part of me (quite a large part) wants to stick my heels in and demand equality!

Time will tell.

On a more positive note, I've found my kitchen mojo again. This week I've whipped up a vego lasagne filled with roast pumpkin, fresh ricotta and a tomato sauce made with homegrown chillies, tomato, capsicum and basil. Also on the menu: a hummingbird cake (too dense, will use more baking powder next time) and a lentil shepherds pie (cooked for hours so it developed some great rich flavours that can be hard to get out of vegies).

I think I'm going to start doing a weekly menu type thing. Just notes and photos of what I've eaten/cooked and some recipes to follow if anything was worth sharing!

An old photo to leave you with today. Sort of sums up how I am feeling (maybe on the verge of being swamped?) but it was actually one of the first climbs A and I ever did together so it really was a happy occasion.


Ocean Boulevard (8), Freycinet. AL

Tuesday 1 April 2014

The post summer haze.

The days are still warm (sometimes) but the mornings and nights are nearly always cool. A few nights ago I could even smell wood smoke hanging in the valley where I live. 

I'm loving my new job, I'm up early and finished work by 10-11am so I have the whole day ahead of me to tackle uni which at the moment seems like a never ending stream of boring readings on theories, concept models and other abstract notions that are too far removed from nursing in practice for my liking. But I'm told they are important for setting the context in which we work so I persevere and try and stay interested.


Today is bright and sunny, there's a warm wind blowing and I think I might go for a walk along the beach. I spent the morning at uni, then meet a friend for a delicious iced coffee and sweet treat at Little Miss Patisserie (on Argyle St, surrounded by car dealerships), it was delicious, you should all get there asap! 

After that I drove around the back streets of Moonah looking for car part shops so I can get my driver's window switch fix. It's looking like finding the part will be a challenge but I'm driven by the thought of looking whimsical as I drive into the golden light with the window down and the wind blowing through my hair. 

I'm leaving you with a photo from a bushwalk I did in early February. These blue bird days always make me crave the bush so I thought I'd try and share that feeling with you too.




Silhouettes in the west.
Ducane Range Traverse. Andrew Winchester 

Thursday 27 March 2014

A start.

Here I sit, in Hobart, Tasmania beneath our Mountain. Mount Wellington. 
Welcome to my blog. Here I'll post musing about all the things I love, those being mountains, food, the uni life and having a good time. 

To start with, here is my take on a post I found on Little Glowing Lights to give you some background to who I am.


Making: my bed every day
Cooking: a spinach and ricotta cannelloni with pumpkin puree and gruyere.
Drinking: not enough water
Reading: lots of nursing papers and other associated nonsense
Wanting: to take a bonsai class but funds are low and it is one expensive past time!
Looking: out my window, through a beautiful tree into the pale blue sky.
Playing: Pandora.com on some indie/folk playlist. It’s good.
Waiting: for cold nights so I can light the fire and cook golden syrup dumplings for dessert.
Liking: pretty much ALL the new season leather I’m seeing in the stores/online.
Considering: how to better manage my time. Taking on an overloaded uni course and a new job will soon equal mayhem if I don’t learn some skills in time management.
Watching: tacky but entertaining real life ambulance shows from NZ and Love Child.
Hoping: that these beautiful clear autumn days never end.
Needing: to keep on swimming even when my favourite pool closes this weekend until next summer.
Wearing: my Nixon watch. It’s a beauty.
Noticing: leaves falling and the return of beanies and knit
Thinking: about what is to come and how excited I am for it all.
Buying: not much, sadly.
Getting: used to a brand new pillow- Christ, it’s been awhile!
Bookmarking: blog inspo and tutes on how to use EndNote.
Feeling: pining for what, I’m not quite sure.