This will hurt me...

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I've opted for a "two for one deal" today, because I couldn't really make my mind up as to which image that I liked better. I am rather pleased with how these turned out, because I took them from a moving vehicle on our journey through the valley of love last weekend . Can you guess what they are? Those of you who are familiar with Tasmania's most excellent BEER would have no doubt jumped to your feet and shouted "MY GOD, I THINK THAT IT IS A FIELD OF HOPS!!!" If you did so, well done, they are precious hops. A crucial element to a successful amber liquid, Tasmania has the finest hops in the world . As we drove past, I did note a slight tremor in Jennifer's voice, and a speck of a tear on her cheek. As she has spent a the best part of the past three years pregnant and/or breastfeeding, she has forced herself to forgo what was once her favourite activity: getting out on the razzle .

I can't decide. Is Ezra thinking about his upcoming date with renowned vixen Riya Sen? Is he thinking about a potential Mexican Pig Flu outbreak in Hobart? Is he thinking about the transitory nature of balloons? Maybe he's just thinking about lunch.

While on a jaunt to meet the bigwigs at HQ, I spotted this odd bit of graffiti on their sign right at their very front door. Despite my firm opposition to vandalism - outside of the Silesian region of Central Europe around 400 A.D. - I am almost able to endorse this as a mark of oddball genius. Alas, the use of "thru" compels me to dismiss the author as a nong .

Upon watching this catamaran sail out to sea, Henry commented that one day he'd own one. Only his would be eight times as large and have its own pool and roller disco!

Theme Thursday again, and this one is rather easy. I am Tasmanian, you see, and aside from being all around general geniuses - as I have amply described previously - we are also very familiar with the concept of WATER. Tasmania is the ONLY island state of an ISLAND continent. That means, we're surrounded by WATER. That should help explain why I take so many photographs of water . Tasmania was for a long time the place where the British (an island race terrified of water) sent their poor people most vile and horrid criminals. The sort of folk who would face the stark choice of a death sentence , or transportation to the other end of the world. Their catalogue of crimes is horrifying : stealing bread assault stealing gentlemen's handkerchiefs drunken assault being poor affray ladies being overly friendly with gentlemen for money hitting people having a drink and a laugh public drunkenness being Irish Fenian terrorist activities being Catholic religious subversion. ...

Humility prevents me from saying that I have the most handsome children going around, so I won't say it. Obviously, I can't stop anyone else from saying it, however... I was thinking about having a caption competition, but don't have a prize. Is anyone interested in some old cassette tapes?

For some reason, I think that this is a very Balkans-looking cat. I'm not sure what it is about this cat that makes me think "Balkans", but maybe it's the knowing grin and slightly world weary eyes. Contrary to such features however, the cat is in fact a la de da Battery Point cat! A resident of South Street, no less. I mentioned a month or so back how I'd discovered that nifty Facebook "Top Five" application, and how I was running off top fives or all manner of things. I thought that I'd share two that I created yesterday: Five people that Henry reminds me of: Cary Grant Maximilien Robespierre Catherine The Great Robert E. Lee Idi Amin Five people that Ezra reminds me of: Frederick the Great Mohandas Ghandi Alexander Hamilton Joan of Arc James Hird. So, no pressure on the lads then! I will note that Henry brings to mind Idi's more positive traits - force of will, determination, grit and so on - rather than his [ahem] more psychotic extravagan...

Here are my three little angels hard at it. They're good 'uns, that's for sure.

So that wraps up the tour, I hope that you enjoyed it. As a last image, I saved this one of my three favourite people standing in front of a tree that had fallen over. If anyone asks, you didn’t see nuthin', right?

Here’s one last view of the river that runs through Mount Field National Park. It’s a top spot, and I’d encourage you all to go and have a look for yourself. I got plenty more photos from the trip, and will probably put some more up in a Facebook folder, for those of you inclined to the ol’ Facebook.

What would a walk in the Tasmanian wilderness be without wildlife? Rubbish, that’s what! After unsuccessfully trying to locate a tiger snake, we did manage to get a look at a pademelon. It was lovely. It went beautifully with the matured cheddar and bottle of Pinot Noir that we bought with us!

I know that people have been waiting for news on whether Henry survived his barrel roll... OF COURSE HE DID! He's always very good with his cunning stunts. Here he is looking for tiger snakes to wrangle.

I’ve already mentioned how Mt Field National Park are full of swamp gums, massive tree ferns and general rainforest bits 'n pieces. But did I mention that a lot of them have fallen over? I blame global warming. Or cooling. One of the two.

Here are Jen and Ez enjoying the sounds of the Falls. If you look really closely, you can see Henry hopping into a barrel preparing to go over the edge. Most of Tasmania's land mammals are live in the park, and there's a good chance you will see a small marsupial on one of the walking tracks or near the Visitor Centre. Russell Falls itself had a three-tiered drop. Henry tackled all three, armed only with an old barrel, one Tasmanian Devil, a spotted-tail quoll, three bandicoots, two wombats, six echidnas, two platypus, nine possums, one bettong and three and a half pademelon (the Devil got hungry).

So here is a peek at the Falls itself, from the side. Incidentally, the waterfall was first named the Browning Falls after the original discoverer – one Mr Browning – but became known as the Russell Falls after 1884. This was not in homage to famous Hollywood bad boy (and all around nob), Russell Crowe. Mr Crowe is a New Zealander who masquerades as an Australian, and thus is in no way worthy of having a significant Tasmanian landmark named after him. What next, the Martin Sneddon Nut? BAH!

There’s a lot of moss about, as you get in the colder variant of a rainforest. Mount Field is about an hour and a half northwest of Geilston Bay. The landscape ranges from eucalyptus forest to alpine moorland. Mount Field National Park was founded in 1916, making it Tasmania's oldest national park. The last known wild thylacine was captured in the region in 1933. You might know this beastie as a Tasmanian Tiger , but it looked a little more like a dog with stripes painted on its side. Who knows, maybe it was a dog with stripes painted on. The convicts were known to hit the rum pretty hard in those early days.

If you take the walk, you can see a mixed forest comprising towering swamp gums – the tallest flowering plant on Earth – and species typical of wet forests and cool temperate rainforests, such as dogwood, musk and myrtle. Towards the falls, the track is framed by stunning tall tree ferns. This area became a fashionable tourist attraction in the late nineteenth century, ranking along with killing thylacines, collecting belly button lint to make vests out of and engendering a sense of shame in the human body in popularity. The Falls Reserve was established to protect them in 1885, which made it Tasmania's first nature reserve.

I am endeavouring to give you a bit of a tour of the Russell Falls section of the exquisite Mount Field National Park. The good thing about this section is that it is accessible by paved walking track, this means that toddlers and babies can make the trek without too much difficulty. Here you can see Jen and Ez on the track that leads to the falls. As you can see, you could even get in with a wheelchair.

So we made our way up to Mount Field National Park yesterday, primarilly to get a look at the oft photogaphed Russell Falls. More of that to come, but first I present to you one intrepid young explorer under the canopy, dear little Ezra.

Competing a trilogy of kayaks , here is one lone woman on the Derwent on her own in the sun. One day I'm gonna get me one. When I do, I'm going to paddle about with Australian Crawl playing in my headphones. Australian Crawl are an excellent act to paddle about to.