History.

Look how incredibly beautiful the sunset was in Hobart last night:

It was just like something straight out of a John Glover painting:

('A corrobery of natives in Mills Plains' 1832)

Except that there are no full blooded Tasmanian Aborigines in Tasmania, now. European settlement and the disease, violence and warfare that went along with it made the indigenous population virtually extinct.  It was one of the first recorded modern acts of genocide, here in Tasmania. What a tragedy.

Finally, there are flowers in our garden. The rhododendron is putting on a show:

Conveniently, it matches the library:

And here is a Camelia:

Tonight, we are going to Venice, as I am cooking dinner using this as my guide:

I love the quote on the back of this book, 'As many times as I went out was as many times as I got lost. But I was never lost. I was always somewhere in Venice'. Sigh. Here was us lost in Venice back in 2008:

This afternoon, in the small window of opportunity offered while the baby was asleep, I made the Tiramisu:

And now all I need to do is put the Lasagne di Pesce, which I concocted around feeding the children, in the oven.

This is what I wore to embark on Saturday morning manoeuvres:

And here are my sidekicks, also dressed:

It was 9.30am and our other two children were already at sport and dancing. There are no languid sleep ins at our house.....on Saturday, it's game on EARLY. Those of us who were left had to go to town to acquire birthday presents, so that when they showed up to parties later in the day they weren't empty handed. I have a rule that we only give books for children's birthday parties.....because plastic NEVER biodegrades. And who doesn't love a book?

Look at the display going on out the front of Fuller's Bookshop:

Oh my. I couldn't help myself.....I had to spontaneously giggle at the chain. They said that this book is significantly contributing to keeping the shop in business.

I love my printed pony skin handbag that I bought on sale at Max Mara in Paris:

But today while I was speculating as to exactly which animal it looks like, I began to think that the colours and stripes are a bit like the extinct Tasmanian Tiger:

Another living creature totally eradicated by European colonisation in Tasmania. I hope that they can find a cure for the facial tumours currently decimating the population of the Tasmanian Devil......so that they don't vanish forever, too.

R