June 30

We have been gone almost two months. It is hard to believe as the time is flying by so quickly. The weather here changes quickly. On Monday it was a dreary rainy day and we spent the day in our little suite reading and watching TV. In the night a big wind came and Tuesday was a sunny day. We decided to go to Devonport, a coastal town. This community is quite large compared to Deloraine and is about 50 km away. There is a beautiful park that follows the coast. We parked and it became obvious that the it was perfect surfing weather. Cars drove quickly into the parking lot and the driver would leap out, grab their surf board and head into the water. There were huge waves and the surfers were having a good time. We watched for a while and then walked along the parkway. It was fascinating to watch the ocean crash against the shore. Everything died down by early afternoon and we went to Port Sorell so Bruce could fish off the jetty. I told Bruce he was to catch and release so I am not sure if he did catch a fish as he came up to car with no fish!! Today started overcast but by noon the sun was shining. I went shopping in Launceston with our host Margaret as she bought some last minute items for their three month, volunteer trip to Tonga. We had a fun time chatting and shopping. The day finished with a beautiful rainbow in front of the house. Our plans are to go to Hobart for the week-end. We will take a couple of days travelling along the east coast to get there. Thanks for the comments folks are writing. It is great to hear from you-- oh Happy Birthday Canada.

June 27

This week I was able to go to a meeting with the chaplain for the high school. It is an interesting position as the government pays for his services two days a week and the churches in the Deloraine pay the other two. The second hand clothing store run by the churches is one of the main services of income. He is given special training in pastoral care for young people. His office is in the school and students drop by. He also helps with field trips or travelling with school teams. He is simply available to help students with their spiritual development. When the position was reviewed, state wide, it had the highest rating by principals, teachers, parents and students of any of the programs offered in the school system. I was fascinated as I don't feel this position would ever be accepted in our public schools. In one of the letters to the editor responding to complaints of teenagers at the mall in Launceston it was suggested that a chaplain should be hired to work in the mall with the teenagers. This program has lots of support from the general public

Today was another beautiful sunny day in Deloraine. If it is frosty in the morning you know it will be a beautiful day and it was very frosty this morning. We have moved back into the little suite we started out in. Bruce no longer has his fire to tend to. The suite is in a walkout basement of the home of a couple who are going to be working in Tonga for Uniting World. Uniting World does similar work as our M&S Fund. I was the Worship Leader this morning. I didn't do the sermon--I only organised the service. It is not a hard task as there is a scripture reader and always one of their members does the Prayers of the People. I used a similar format as Innsifail United and Bruce put the Powerpoint together. Several folks said they liked having all the words projected. This week the Uniting Church in Australia turned 33 years old. We celebrated in the usual church tradition of food and had a delicious chocolate cake at coffee time! After the service we showed a presentation of our life in Innisfail. Everyone is surprised at the amount of snow we have. This afternoon was great fun as we celebrated the 60th birthday of one of the church members with an Aussie high tea. I am not sure how it differs from other high teas but we had a fun time. The tea was on the veranda of a huge home built in the 1840s. It is called Calstock and is an exclusive bed and breakfast. After the tea we were taken on a tour of the home and the grounds. It is a very impressive place. When it was a family home they raised horses and had one horse called Maula that over a ten year period, in the 1800's, won all major races in Australia. We haven't taken a picture yet but there is a life size replica of this horse in front of the Deloriane Tourist Information Center.

I hope you all have a meaningful Sunday service and blessings to you all!!

June 24

We had an overnight trip to Stanley. Stanley is the most northern settlement in Tasmania. It is a beautiful town at the foot of the Circular Head called the nut. The nut is a volcanic plug that withstood the the erosion that removed soft surrounding sediment. It is hard to imagine how huge the volcano must have been when the nut is just the inner plug. The town has kept all the charm from when it was established in the 1840's. It is fun to just walk down main street and see all the old buildings. We stayed at the Stanley Hotel that was established in 1847. This is off season so we were able to pick our room and we took one that had a balcony. We were fortunate that it was a sunny day and when we took the chair lift to the top of the nut we had a beautiful view. There is a walk at the top that circles the around and takes about 40 minutes to walk. We even saw a little bandicoot (a small pointy nose marsupial) that ran across the path. I really enjoy seeing animals that we only see in a zoo in Canada. Stanley is a tourist town and most hotels and attractions were closed but we only went to see the nut. The Stanley Hotel restaurant was open and we were able to get fresh sea food for supper. In the morning we drove to Marrawah. This town seemed to be only a post office and store. It has a beautiful beach called Green Point. This is one of the three best surfing beaches in Australia. There were large waves while we were there. This was another great day trip. This morning the Australian prime minister was replaced by Julia Gillard who, the first woman prime minister Australia has ever had. This change didn't happen at a leadership conference but by the caucus. The news on TV seems to be covering it from every angle possible. Politics seems to be the same everywhere!!

June 20

Happy Fathers' Day to all the dads in Canada. In Tasmania Father's day happens at a different time of the year. I am not sure exactly when. Bruce heard from his children which was very nice. We saw Avery for the first time since we left as James and Kendra didn't have their web cam working until now. Church went well this morning. We focused on the Psalms 42 & 43. The Worship Leader found several modern Christian songs on a DVD which reflected the Lament of the Psalmist. It was quite a different service where we only sang one hymn. Today was another beautiful sunny day -- Sundays are great days for travelling to the ocean and that is what we did. At Port Sorell we found a good spot for Bruce to fish and we will return on a week day. It seems like a lots of people showed up as the tide cames in so we will have to watch the tides as well and maybe Bruce will catch a fish! One of the interesting food items in Tasmania is the different kinds of pumpkins they have. The pumpkins are shaped like ours except some have green skins and some are grey skinned. I made pumpkin pie with one variety of green pumpkin called Kent and the pie had a very mild pumpkin taste. Pumpkin pie is not eaten here. Pumpkin is only eaten as a vegetable or in soup. In the grocery store you see all sorts of potatoes and they are known by their names. No one calls them just potatoes but by their name. Folk seemed to have their favorite varieties. It is just another one of those little differences. Here are few more words: Rice Krispies are called Rice Bubbles; go carts are called Billy carts and paper airplanes are called darts. I hope you have a great Sunday. Blessings to everyone at IUC.

June 18

Today was an awesome day as we went to the Trowunna Wildlife Park. This Park is just west of Deloraine in the Mole Creek. Trowunna takes animals in that have been abandoned. Usually the animals parents are killed on the highways. They also have an active breeding program for Tasmanian Devils and work with center we saw up at Cradle Mountain. All of the females are pregnant and they will have over two dozen fetuses about the size of a kernel of rice. Only 4 to 6 will survive and emerge from the pouch. Devils seem to be curious creatures that hope you have some food. We were able to see another feeding which explains why they came out of their hutches when we came by. They really like their food and fight for it. We have seen Wallabies and Wombats in the wild but now were able to see them up close. The wallabies walk around the whole park and walked right up to us. I was surprised to see one which appeared to have an extra set of feet sticking out of it. I have the cartoon image of a kangaroo with the baby poking its head out of the pouch. Apparently this is a more common site as they nurse with their heads down. One of the Wallabies came up and sniffed our hands. The highlight for me was to be able to snuggle a wombat. She was an adult and weighed over 30 pounds. Her name was Lilley and she was found on the side of the road by two young girls who took her home. Because of this Lilley thinks she is human and acts like a large lap dog. As Lilley grew up her instincts as a burrowing animal kicked in and she started to burrow in the house and then under the house. Wombats can be litter trained. She will not be able to be released into the wild again but she will have a good home in the Park. She wants to be petted and snuggled all the time so is a good Wombat for a Canadian like me! We also saw some wedge tail eagles and Kookaburras who had wing damage from being hit with cars. The roads here are very unfriendly to the wild-life. On the way back from the Wildlife Park we stopped in Chudleigh at the Honey factory where you could taste all sorts of honey as well as have a honey ice cream cone, which was delicious.

June 16

Today we decided to go into Launceston. On our previous trips we have gone shopping but this time we decided to check out some of the sites. We walked along a Board walk on the South Esk River. We found a nice place for a Fish and Chips lunch but it wasn't the best we have tasted. We decided to view the Cataract Gorge. This is quite an amazing site caused by an earthquake about 10,000 years ago and the river changed course and the gorge has developed since then. This is not the best time of year to see it as there isn't as much water as at other times. Apparently when there is lots of water the ground you walk up on shakes and you can hear boulders being moved. On one side of the river is a difficult trail of rock stairs but on the other side is a easy trail. Can you guess which on we took?
We started our walk from the wrought-iron Kings Bridge a which is a replica of the one shipped from England in 1904. As we walked over the bridge a tour boat went up the river.





I loved the steep cliffs we walked beside. I have been working on next Sunday's sermon where Elijah hears God in the silence. These were just like the cliffs that artists have Elijah standing on. We then drove home the back way which is like taking highway 2A instead of 2. It was another good day in Tasmania.

June 13

Today I am reflecting on hospitality. Now that I am in Tasmania and the outsider it is easy to notice what helps me to feel that sense of home and belonging. Its not big things just the little. I have discovered that there are clean public washrooms in every town. Many of these facilities have showers. Bruce commented that he enjoys going out for a meal when he feels that the host feed us like family--good wholesome meals--nothing fancy. A member of the congregation here lives in a small community just outside Deloraine. Once a month he and his wife host, in their home, folks in the community to a pot luck supper. They have a large family room that can hold quite a crowd. We were invited to this gathering last Monday and welcomed as one of the community. We offered a slide show about Innisfail and they really enjoyed hearing about our home as we were welcomed into theirs. You can see many of them in the picture. Deloraine Uniting Church is so accepting of diversity as each of their worship leaders plans a worship service that is uniquely their own. The challenge for me is to fit into all these differing styles of leadership with my sermon. The theme of hospitality will be recurring as I am learning from this congregation about hospitality.

Today was a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon and we went on a drive to the coastal community of Wynyard with a couple from the congregation. At Wynyard we saw Table Cape - a solidified lava lake that plugged an ancient Volcano. We went on a walk and had a great view of the area and saw this interesting forest. We then drove on to Boat Harbour. A delightful beach. It seems great beaches are everywhere. What made these two areas extra special today was that they were where one of our hosts grew up and we heard lots of childhood memories
Happy Birthday United church of Canad. You are looking good for 85 years. Your younger sister the Uniting Church of Australia will be 33 on June 22.

I hope the folks at IUC had a great time out a Wimborne and that the dessert theater is a great success tonight.

June 12

This week we took a two day trip to Cradle Mountain. This is a World Heritage site and one of those must see places in Tasmania. It was a beautiful sunny day but the road was full of twists and turns and lots of slowing down to 25 kmh. The closer we got it was cloudier and cloudier and by the time we had checked into our room it was starting to snow. It does snow in Tasmania at the higher elevations! We drove around but didn't enter the park. We decided we would go to see a Tasmanian Devil sanctuary. It was fascinating to see the devils and they are quite interesting creatures. They showed us a video and talked to us about the problems the devils are having. In the past 10 years 80% of the population has died off due mainly to a facial cancer that the devils pass to each other like a virus. This is possible as the gene pool is so small that they are like clones of each other. The sanctuary we were at was trying to breed devils that were resistant to the cancer. The young man who talked to us has a real passion for his work. He brought in a devil that we could touch -- only on the rear end though!! We then saw them have a feeding. The hotel we stayed at had lots of cabins and was a very nice place. The hotel was quite full as the word had gone out that there was snow and all the locals come up to play in it. It was a very icy and wet snow. In the morning we met a man from Queensland and he was very happy and told us he was 58 years old and this was his first time seeing snow. I told him it was perfect snow for snowballs and he told us that he and his mates had a snowball fight at 11:00 pm the night before. I didn't really enjoy the snow as it was so wet and my feet just got too cold. We thought we would take a tour of the park and we booked a bus tour. It turned out we were the only ones who went on the tour and our guide was full of information about the trees and plants as well as the history of the park. The park is actually the vision of one man in the early 1900's who bought 200 acres and his wife bought another 200 acres. They started a small business of bringing in adventuresome rich folk. They believed if they built up the tourism the government would build a road in and of course this is exactly what happened. The government also took over the park so the area could be preserved. After being there for two days we never did see Cradle Mountain but we did learn about it. We will try again to see it when there is a better weather forecast. Note: The mountain should be behind us!!

June 6

Another Sunday is here. This morning I led worship and had fun with the children's time as we talked about all the blessings we have. I used an idea from Seasons that might be used at IUC. We put biscuits (cookies) in bowls as we named a blessing in our lives. Of course the adults also contributed and our bowls were overflowing and we still had more biscuits left in the bag. This object lesson was referring to the widow who gave Elijah hospitality and she never ran out of bread and oil. It is very enjoyable doing ministry with folk who recognize so many blessings in their lives. I also led my first communion here and we stood in a circle and myself and the communion elder served everyone. It was a very meaningful way to serve the elements.
I thought I would share some more Australian English: A thrift store is Op shop as in Opportunity shop; VLTs are called Pokies; Tasmanians are called Tassies; other Australians are called mainlanders; New Zealanders are called Kiwis; English folk are called Pom; a flat bed truck is call a ute as in a utility vehicle; fast food is not take out but take away; and a Bottle Shop is a liquor store.
This afternoon we went driving as it was a beautiful sunny day. Lately there have been many overcast days so we wanted to take advantage of the sunshine. Bruce noticed on Google Earth a large beach behind the airport at Davenport so we headed there. It was a great beach and you could walk for miles. This beach was called Moorland Beach. We then went to a community called Port Sorell. They had a great beach called Freers Beach. Beside this beach there were walking trails that were suitable for those in wheel chairs so folks with mobility problems could also enjoy this beach. We will return there as Bruce wants to do some fishing and a local fisherman told us it was a good spot.

Blessings to the folks at IUC and I hope your Sunday afternoon is as pleasant as ours was.

June 2

Today we went to a congregation member's home for lunch and to plan worship. After we we ate and plans were made our host took us on a tour of the area. They live in a community called Mole Creek. This creek received its name because the creek goes above and below ground like a mole through a series of caves. You can see one of the above ground caves in the picture. Only the locals know about the caves so it was quite special to be taken there. I am standing near the caves in front of a grove of gum trees. This creek is also the source of water for their swimming pool. It was amazing to see a community that was able to maintain a pool which is similar to Knee Hill Valley in our area. Our host then took us to a viewpoint on a very deep gorge. We walked about 20 minutes to get there and as we walked you could here kookaburras laughing. It is called Alum Gorge and the one side of it glimmers when the sun is on it because of the mica in the rock. Our host is with Bruce at the viewpoint. We are slowly getting to know the area around Deloraine.

June 1

Today was a fascinating day. I worked on my sermon in the morning and that left the afternoon for touring around. We went to a small town called Beauty Point and it is a great name for this pretty town. Bruce and I are on a quest for the perfect fish and chips meal and as you can see we had to sample another. It was very good but atoo many chips for me so we passed them on to some birds that were begging at our table. The could catch the food when we threw it up in the air. After lunch we went to the Platypus House. We know there are some in the river in Deloraine but this seemed like a good opportunity to see them. It was fascinating to learn about this unusual creature that is a mammal, bird and rodent. Bruce was able to take pictures and these two seemed to be the best. The bonus of going to the Platypus House was they also had Echidna as cousin of the Platypus. They are sometimes called spiny anteaters but aren't related to the anteater although they do eat ants. They are quite elusive and rarely seen in the wild so we were happy to see these ones. Just before I left to come to Tasmania Kathryn M. said be sure to see an Echidna and until then I didn't know they existed -- so Kathryn today I saw three. As we drove to Beauty Point we saw a sign to Batman bridge and I wanted to go over it. It is quite impressive and goes over the Tamar river. When we stopped to take a picture there was a huge flock of parrots. We are still not used to seeing flocks of parrots they are just awesome birds with so many colors. I finished the day off by going to my Fit Ball class. I need all the exercise I can get because of these quests for the best tasting Fish and Chips.