Summer?

We think summer may have arrived, at least for today.  It is supposed to get up to 38 (100) degrees today with thunder storms.  Marvin doesn't believe it one bit!  But we have had some very nice days this week, so we are enjoying it.  Southern Australia (mainland) has had record breaking heat of over 40 (abt 105) for the last 4 days and are suffering greatly.  The Australian Open (tennis) is being played this week and they had to postpone some of the games yesterday because the players were experiencing heat related issues.

Since I usually write about our escapades other than work, I thought I had better say a little about what we are doing at the Archives.  We have been imaging burial records and creating metadata for records previously imaged.  As of this week we have imaged 83,533 images since we started in October.  So we really have been working hard.

Every man needs his BBQ.

I finally said OK when Marvin found a BBQ for $12.00 in an after Christmas sale.  So, here is a picture of our little BBQ which really works quite well. 
We had to refresh our memory about charcoal brickettes and learn how to use Australian firestarters.  They don't sell lighter fluid in the stores.










Our latest trek has been to the most southern part (at least by paved road) of Tasmania to the Hastings Cave.

  It is a dolomite cave filled with stalagmites and stalagtites.  We took about an hour tour through the cave.  The walk to the cave went through a temperate rain forest that was amazingly beautiful.

 We also drove to Southport which is the last southern community in Tasmania.  We enjoyed a leisurely walk on the beach and picked up a few different shells. 

We have come to realize that not far south from Hobart, towns disappear.  There are homes and summer cottages but no real towns.  So much of southern Tas is bush and hills and dirt roads.  I guess that's what makes it so unique.