This will hurt me...

Carrying Ezra down the Nut. Stanley, Tasmania's North West Coast. April 2013. Theme Thursday already and I think that we are facing some serious TRUST issues... Looking out over Bass Strait from atop the Nut. Stanley, Tasmania's North West Coast. April 2013. Sawyer Bay, as seen from the Nut. Stanley, Tasmania's North West Coast. April 2013.

Sunset over Bass Strait. Boat Harbour, Tasmania's North West Coast. April 2013. The Big Knockover and Other Stories , Dashiell Hammett: A collection of ten noir stories from the 1920s and 1930s. Uneven, but when he hits, he hits for the fences. C+ . England Made Me , Graham Greene: An early Greene 'entertainment'. A well constructed little morality tale set amongst the world of international finance and based in 1930s Stockholm. C+ .

John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row is one of the revered books of the American canon and takes its name from a street lined with sardine fisheries in Monterey. The novel revolves around the lives of its inhabitants: Chinese grocers; bums; bouncers; prostitutes; the local marine biologist (!) and other assorted chancers and ne’er-do-wells. As much a series of vignettes as a coherent narrative, the book does a supreme job reconstructing a certain time and place that seems very distant from the world today. As such, it is a masterpiece. It is incredibly funny, yet surprisingly poignant. As ever Steinbeck does a superb job recreating both the exuberance of community and the loneliness of the individual. This really is a fantastic book, one of the best I’ve read in a while. Extremely highly recommended! Second up is something a little different, Philip K. Dick’s Time Out of Joint . First published in 1959, the book captures a lot of Dick's recurrent themes concerning the nature of reality an...

The onion field. Table Cape, Tasmania’s North West Coast. February 2012. This Watery Wednesday I reflect on the fact that pretty much everywhere I have live, an expanse of water has been nearby. By nearby, I mean within sight . I’m not sure what the psychological effect is, but I am reasonably certain that if denied that precious view of H²O, I’d struggle!

Some days Ezra just doesn't give a damn...

The view towards Melbourne. The scenery atop the Nut. Stanley, Tasmania's North West Coast. February 2012. If you've ever been to the small seaside town of Stanley, you'll be familiar with The Nut . One of the more distinctive landmarks in Tasmania, The Nut is an old volcanic plug with steep sides that rises up to 143 metres with a remarkably flat top. As you can see, it is possible to walk to the top of The Nut via a steep track (even for a three-year-old). For weaklings and nancies, there is the option of a chairlift... Henry takes a break halfway up the Nut. Stanley, Tasmania's North West Coast. February 2012. Now, a poem... The Red Wheelbarrow , William Carlos Williams so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens. A Nut panorama. Stanley, Tasmania's North West Coast. February 2012.

Looking over Bass Strait. Table Cape, North West Tasmania. February 2012. This Watery Wednesday features a snap taken during our very recent jaunt up to my old stomping grounds up in the North West of our fair State. The great thing about the North West is that, whatever town you're in, there is a fair chance that should you turn and face north, you'll catch a glimpse of Bass Strait, the sea strait that separates Tasmania from the Australian mainland. Probably because of its limited depth, Bass Strait is notoriously rough, with many ships lost there during the 19th century. Because of that, you'll spot an awful lot of lighthouses dotting the coast. This photo - taken after a particularly rough Sunday night - was taken right next to the Table Cape Lighthouse. Table Cape itself is a rather spectacular flat-topped promontory - geologically speaking it is a large volcanic plug - with a sheer drop to the sea. Right in front of me here there is a very steep embankment that falls...

Here is a shot of Henry and regular blog pest commenter Roddy looking for crabs up at Fossil Bluff in Wynyard. You might just be able to see Bass Strait in the background. As a bonus, here is an arty black and white portrait to scare people off ever getting tattoos. They fade people, and it isn't pleasant when the skin stretches and contracts over time!

A life at sea, that's for me, only I just don't have the BREAD. That's right, Theme Thursday yet again and I post a photo of a yacht dicking about in Bass Strait just off Wynyard. The problem is, I am yet again stuck at work, slogging away, because I knead need the dough . My understanding is that it is the dough that makes the BREAD. And it is the BREAD that buys the yacht. On my salary though, I will be lucky to have enough dough or BREAD for a half dozen dinner rolls. Happy Theme Thursday people, sorry for the rush.

Here is a shot of a penguin rookery located right in the heart of Burnie (West Beach, to be precise). You can't see any penguins because they are all fast asleep. How, I am not so sure, given that Henry and Ezra were making a terrible racket at the time.

This picture was taken last week, but I have decided to use it today. You see these guys down on the waterfront every Wednesday, and they always seem to have plenty of takers for their cruises. It would no doubt be very pleasant, as the Derwent is reasonably flat right all the way down south (until you get out into the ocean, that is. Then it gets hairy!) Contrast this with the number of attempts to set up a catamaran service that could cope with the Bass Strait crossing, from George Town to Melbourne. These Tasmanian-made vessels do very well in around the globe (in the Mediterranean, Baltic, Caribbean, the eastern seaboard of North America, Japan, the Middle East, they even supply the US Navy). While the ‘Devil Cat’ was an extraordinarily cool-looking vessel without doubt, it unfortunately did not seem to cope well with Bass Strait’s unique tendency to big swells, especially in winter. My father worked on this run for a short while, and tells wonderful stories of seamen endlessly...