visiting Tarraleah

Time for a recap on my recent trip to the Tasmanian highlands. (I couldn't post from there as I had  no phone or wifi because I have the wrong phone carrier).
I went to Tarraleah Estate    http://www.tarraleah.com/  which is almost in the middle of the island. It is a great "hotel on a village scale"' in buildings of the former Hydro town including houses, the community hall, the Lodge, the church, school and pub. After beginnings as a tent town and then singleman's wooden huts, it grew to a town with 2 churches, 3 pubs and a hospital. The town suffered a decline in the 80s and 90s as the Hydro works were completed, and eventually closed as people moved away. Purchase of the village in 2006 saw the beginning of the Estate as it is today.

The accommodation is primarily self contained/self catering, but they also have function venues for weddings, conferences and so on.
 The church

Both a bit hidden, but this is the Highlander Pub, with the Great Hall to the left

 The art-deco style cottages - all are furnished individually

 ... a chair for you Michele

 The Scholars house (part of the old school)

  The square and fountain, and the reception building

  and some of the residents - geese (with Scholars House and Great Hall in the background)

ducks

 and Highland cows, including a new calf

My daughter and her partner have a very busy life managing the Estate, and I went to see what they do, and to  help prepare for, and attend their Christmas in July function. It was a great night, much enjoyed by the 100+ attending.
This is where the bunting I was making ended up -

 

 

The hall looked amazing with rows of little lights between them

 I made table decorations using locals plants (including holly)

Outside decorations on trees by the Church and the Great Hall

 

 It was cold, cold, cold - frosty some mornings

 with frost still in the shaded areas after 10am.  At least those days were clear and sunny.

Frost on the bark mulch

It rained quite a bit and it snowed one day

though I didn't see much of it as I went sight seeing (where there was plenty of snow) for a few hours and it was gone on my return.

I'll post again of some of what I saw round about, some of the plants and a few scenes from Hobart.

a blue ribbon

Just a short post to say it was an exciting day yesterday, finding that I'd won a first place at the Quilter's Guild of South Australia Festival of Quuilts exhibition - for the quilt I spent many hours quilting but didn't show you. Looking very closely you might see there are some cicles / orbs in the quilting, as well as the many, many close rows.

Not the best picture. I forgot to take any before I entered it and took a couple hurriedly yesterday. (It doesn't seem to be hanging flat on the top rod - makes it a bit ripply). It is my own design pairing charm squares from bundles that I had collected, and cutting and interspersing them to get the graded colourings. It was in the Modern Section - something a bit different for me.

Not sure what comes next. I have a couple of bundles of fat quarters that have been on the shelf for a while now, so maybe I'll do something with some of them. And I have a couple of art quilt challenges to do.

The FOQ is a great exhibition (as usual) with a lot of variety and several special exhibitions. I',m sorry I won't get back to have another look, but I'm off to Tassie to deliver the bunting, and be even colder than I am here at the moment!