Our First Tasmanian Christmas

It's Our First Christmas!
It's always strange, to me at least, celebrating Christmas in summer. I was born in England and spent a good deal of my childhood in England and Norway, where Christmas is extra special if there's a dusting of snow! (Or a lot, as it is in Lillehammer, Norway.) So our first Tassie Christmas was going to be interesting because the weather can be so changeable down here.

We had cool, rainy days leading up to Christmas and then Christmas Eve was quite warm and sunny - 24 degrees. Christmas Day was perfect. Light breeze, 22 degrees and we had a proper English lunch with roast vegies and beef, Yorkshire puddings and Christmas pud with brandy caramel sauce for dessert. In Perth, Western Australia, they sweltered inside with the aircon blaring all day, or risked sunburn going for a swim.

We watched The Polar Express, which was quite a decadent thing to do in the middle of the afternoon, as every bit of daylight is usually spent working, on the farm or in the garden.

Flossie and Polly enjoying the river

River swim
Speaking of swimming, we took the dogs down to the river a couple of weeks ago and had a swim in the sparkling clear water. Gorgeous! As you can see. The water was COLD, due to it coming from the mountains. Swimming at the beach is a lot warmer.

The quiet down here is really wonderful. Mesmerising for the ears! There's no traffic on the way to town and all you can hear at the farm is the bleating of sheep and lambs, the many birds who visit, our neighbours' cows, sometimes, and the occasional excited bark from Flossie as she works the sheep.

New Birds to Watch For
So far I've seen lots of different birds to what we were used to in The Blue Mountains New South Wales. Similar looking Rosellas, the Magpies have a slightly different call but the Sulphur Crested Cockatoos are just as loud, obnoxious and destructive! They are not native to Tasmania.

In addition we have a glorious bunch of new birds, all of which I identified from this marvellous Field Guide.

Blue Wren,
Welcome Swallow (nesting over the front door)
Flame Robin
Wedge Tailed Eagle (we live in the territory of a breeding pair)
Brown Goshawk
Southern Boobook Owl (or 'Mopoke,' Morepoke)
Grey Butcher bird
Crane (which I think might be Spoonbills)
Spotted Paradalote
European Goldfinch
Yellow Throated Honeyeater

As we've provided more sheltering plants and flower beds plus the wind break, we've seen more varieties of smaller birds visit the birdbath. It really is lovely to sit in the kitchen and look out at birds splashing in the sunshine.