Another Bonnington Batch hits the Bottle

Our friends over at Bonnington Brewery are in production today. The picture above is of their Bottling and Packaging Unit. Click here for the full story of Batch #8.

Settled in the West of the South

Gday all, we've finally set up house in boho West Hobart. Not quite as many prams as Stoke Newington, but that's cos everybody's drivin their progeny round in a Subaru. We do have The Hill Street Grocer (part of the Axis of Evil) five minutes walk away...a must for your fresh organic purple sprouting broccoli and nine dollar bucket of pasta salad.....we love it! Oh, and we've got The Lansdowne Cafe twenty seconds from the back door...great coffee and eggs ben, seven days a week. Not to mention what could be the best pizzeria and videomats in town just round the Crescent. Oh, times they are a-grand!

We've got Duncan and Jeannie, exiles from the Duchy of Cornwall staying with us at the moment. They've decided to swap the force eight gales of Portreath for the relative comfort of eleven degrees and drizzle in Hobart. Well that's today. Tommorrow there could be bushfires.

Anyhow, drop round and try some of me homebrew. Katie and I trudged up the mountain to get the water 'n all.

For those of you that can't get around pronto, there's a real-estate style photo presentation right here.

ps there's a housewarming in the offing real soon, by the way.

Snow on Mt Wellington in February

Last night, and for the first time in at least a decade, snow settled on the top of Mt Wellington in February (for my antipodean readers, that's the middle of summer down this way).

Katie and I ascended to the summit (1270m above sea level) in the trusty 121 to investigate, photograph, and collect some raw ingredients for my next batch of home brew. The wind was knock-you-over strong and the chill factor must have bought the temperature down to minus two or so. Some locals had even half buried their car to turn it into a snowboard ramp.

Going up there reaquainted me with the strange Hobart custom of decorating the roof and bonnet of your car with kilos of snow for the journey back home. It also reminded me of a story when, back in 1986, the premier of Tasmania at the time, a rather unlikeable character by the name of Robin Gray made a statement along the lines of "...the day I am a dictator is the day that snow settles on the GPO steps...". Within the space of a few days, lo and behold, down came the heaviest snowfall in Hobart for sixty five years. The GPO steps, and indeed everything right down to the waterfront was blanketed in snow and the city came to a standstill.

It's great to be back.

There's a few more photos right here.