This will hurt me...

Ezra the convict. Historic Coal Mines Site, Saltwater River. August 2013. Murder on the Orient Express , Agatha Christie: This book moves along beautifully - as the best Agatha Christie novel do. Moreover, even though this one has become a clichéd trope referenced by everyone from The Simpsons to the Muppets, it remains as fresh and surprising as ever. Someone has been murdered. The victim is not very nice. The murder took place on The Orient Express while stranded in a snow drift. There is a colourful array of characters, all of whom are suspect is varied and unusual. Hercule Poirot just happens to be on the train and the solution to the mystery is a pure head scratcher. Well worth your time. B . Henry on the ferry. Bruny Island. September 2013.

Window to the World. Coal Mines Historic Site, Saltwater River. Tasman Peninsula. August 2013. Wordless Wednesday. broken. Coal Mines Historic Site, Saltwater River. Tasman Peninsula. August 2013.

Ezra lures a young girl through a doorway. Royal Botanical Gardens, Hobart. March 2012. The Internet is a wonderful place filled with the rich and varied treasures of the world holds (as well as innumerable straw men.) The following are some things that I've had a look at in the last week. I call this: a Compendium of Click-throughs for Monday Morning... Follow some of the most famous trips in history Scott's Antarctic diet: Stewed penguin and champagne ... Why politicians should rethink their appeals to people's fear Ahhh, the good old days: when we gave opium to newborns and sold heroin over the counter ... Making sense of Visegrad ... Guy comes out of closet on Facebook to friends who are entirely too geeky to care ... The Ottomans were a rather hardcore bunch ... America. " From Nuremberg on, no country has invested more in the development of international jurisdiction for atrocity crimes. And no country has worked harder to make sure that the law it seeks for oth...

Security measures in a cell. Richmond Gaol, Richmond. The Richmond Gaol is the oldest intact gaol in Australia. Building of the gaol commenced in 1825, and predates the establishment of the far more famous penal colony at Port Arthur by five years. It continued to house prisoners right up until 1928. All of which logically leads me to today's Sunday Top Five : Mein Schönster Würste Aller Zeiten (Und Nicht Nur Die Deutschen)! Cumberland sausage ! Bratwurst ! Chorizo ! Frankfurter Rindswurst ! Csabai Kolbász !

Bridge over troubled reasonably placid water. Richmond. February 2012. This Watery Wednesday to the almost-still Coal River in Richmond (a far cry from the raging torrent that we visited back in June last year ). Yet is not so much the water as the bridge itself that has got me thinking... It says something about a country when your oldest bridge still in use - the heritage listed Richmond Bridge - only dates back to 1825. As you can see on the bridge itself, the foundation stone was laid in 1823 and the thing itself was constructed using convict labour (the sandstone was quarried nearby and hauled to the site using hand carts) until it eventual completion one hundred and eighty-seven years ago. All this is a far cry from some of those other bridges that you might have visited, like the Kapellbrücke (1333), the Charles Bridge (1357), Si-o-se Pol (1602), or the good-as-new Alcántara Bridge (106) [!!!] All of a sudden, 1823 doesn't quite seem that far away.

Ezra's trapped in solitary confinement at Richmond Gaol? HELP!

Martin Cash, George Jones and Lawrence Kavenagh (in paper form). The Guard Station, Eaglehawk Neck. January 2011. Martin Cash was Tasmania’s best know convict bushranger. He attracted fame for twice escaping from Port Arthur, which was at the time perhaps the World’s most notorious penal colony. As a smart chap, he cashed in with an autobiography that was released in 1870 – The Adventures of Martin Cash – which was kind of like a cross between The Wire , Prison Break and Glee . As with many famous Tasmanians, he was born in Enniscorthy, Ireland. His autobiography has him entering a life of crime when he shot a man in a jealous rage for making advances on his sweetheart, but records list his original crime as house breaking. Sentenced to seven years penal transportation, he arrived in Sydney in 1828. He quickly received his ticket of leave and worked as a stockman in New South Wales, but soon was suspected of cattle stealing and did as many crims did, and relocated to Tasmania. It wa...

Matthew Forster knew where the bodies were buried. St Johns Park, New Town. July 2010. Theme Thursday , and I am dwelling on death and memory. Matthew Forster got this obelisk for his hard work, I'd rather a nice ARECACEAE...

Wall in Battery Point, September 2009 . Look at that wall will you? Just look at that shoddy workmanship. Bloody convicts. No wonder they got sent off to the other end of the world... Tasmanians are a funny mob when it comes to convicts. You are probably aware that one of the primary reasons for the British settlement of Australia was the establishment of a penal colony far, far away to send their overabundance of criminals. Over the whole period of transportation of convicts, over 165,000 rapists, murderers, handkerchief thieves were dispatched to Australia. For us Tasmanians, we have an extra-special relationship with these vile scum pesky miscreants. You see, the soft, feeble and indolent New South Welch-people decided that the vilest, smelliest and foulest criminals would be better suited to somewhere else, away from them. Thus, a new penal colony was established in Van Diemen's Land! All those buggerers perverts cannibals kiddie fiddlers Irish prisoners who were unable to...

A big ol' convict built warehouse with a small satellite dish, I'm not sure if this is art or not. I'll be honest with you though, I like the building, but I like the sky more! Have a poem that Henry and I wrote in one minute and thirty seven seconds. It rhymes ! Smells So I listen to the breeze while trying to appease my wife who did sneeze and brought me to my knees. She's such a naughty tease with a penchant for sleaze cripples me with ease and it makes my heart seize.

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. ...

It’s all about the textures this morning. I am on a texture kick, photographing walls, grass, bottles, concrete, water, you name it, and I’m taking a picture. Here you can see some of the fine handiwork of convicts. Working on the premise of “make it fit”, these guys seemed to just shove any old bit of sandstone in to finish it off. It makes for some interesting walls.