An update on me, the seaweed and the Queen

I was thinking BradfordLass73 that many people who are larger than is considered normal and healthy are very fit and healthy indeed.

People like your grandmother was was doing an amazing lot of work and she must have fit to be able to do all that.

I know plenty of larger people who lived and are living to a good age with no health problems or none that are not manageable.

I know people from Tonga and they are big people too but healthy.

(Reminded my of when Queen Salote of Tonga was at the coronation of the Queen and accompanied by her small husband. When Noel Coward was asked who the person beside her was he replied "Her Lunch".

No, Fatgran we don't have Bandicoots here in NZ but in 2015, we sent specially trained dogs to protect a group of them from predators in Victoria.

Yep, I'm afraid my physique didn't stand a chance but my heaviest grandmother, despite her size, ran not just the farm and all the stock when Grandad was ill with cancer, but the farm cafe at the weekends when they may have up to 200 people through on a nice day.
That meant all the food preparation and baking, not just for the family, but for customers too. Plus, of course, nursing her husband.

A hard working woman.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202003/medium-278199-2020-03-31-13-41-15.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202003/medium-485512-2020-03-31-13-42-29.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202003/medium-678340-2020-03-31-13-43-01.jpg

You have certainly passed the audition BradfordLass73 They are VERY heavy ancestors!!!!

I very sadly found our bandicoot dead in the back yard a few days ago but this morning found some more holes in the lawn so seems as though there may be a new kid on the block!

Will try to catch sight of it and take a photo.

I didn't think to find a photo online to show what they looked like!

Found a few more here.

Do you have them in New Zealand?

I think they are lovely but some think they are like a large rat - they don;t realise they are a marsupial and carry their babies in their pouches. They do have a lot of fleas though.

If you want a real fat gran, you'll just have to make do with me - I'm the genuine article, due to having 25stone ancestors weighing down each side of the family tree.

Yes, I've cuddled numerous babies and children and in the days when I was teaching and it was allowed, some of my homesick and sad Primary School students too.
And I can cook and bake reasonably well.

I even know what a bandicoot looks like !

Have I passed the audition?

fatgran - most of it. Wonderful campervan trip one time with a girl friend. Cradle Mountain was beautiful. Strahan, Sheffield, Burnie, Deloraine (where said pal is) Bothwell, Hobart, Launceston, Sorrell etc. Never made Port Arthur which is sad as I would have liked to research further a relative transported there for murder. Last trip took in the parts I had never been (i.e. Hobart and Latrobe emergency departments!) Excellent care in both.

Yes "Marmight" hopefully our world will return to normal and without too many of us missing.

Did you come to the North West Coast, Stanley, Wynyard etc?

Most people don't come this far up the island, even when they come on the ferries they head in the other direction.

I will have to start another thread about my part of Tassie and keep it running. There is always something occurring to write about

Just found this thread. I love Tasmania and plan(ned) to return next January with my Sydney family. Hopefully the World will be returning to some kind of normal by then. I was there with my late DH & DDs inlaws for a week back in 2010 We had the 4 seasons in one day experience. We loved the Wild West - Strahan & Sarah Island, Cradle Mountain, Freycinet but didn't make it to Port Arthur. I’m just back (one of the last out) from NSW after a month with my family, hence being awake at silly o’clock. I had hoped to travel from Sydney to Tassie on the Spirit of Tasmania one day, but they closed the route some years ago sadly. Such a shame.

Izabella what parts of Tasmania did you visit?

SueDonim we have two of the ferries going back and forth. They will be empty of people now, just freight.

Yes we are a huge country.

I have hardly seen any of it - isn't it strange/funny that often we don't explore our own countries but go overseas and see other ones.

I have been to Paris more often than our own capital city Hobart!

Australians love to travel and as we are so far from the rest of the world we make the most of it when we do go overseas.

No, Fatgran we didn’t make it to Tasmania. We spent three weeks doing Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne (where I saw the ferry to Tasmania!) and barely scratched the surface of Australia. It’s such a HUGE country! Here’s a photo from our travels.

I absolutely love Tassie. Very fond memories of my visits.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202003/medium-625023-2020-03-29-12-43-03.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202003/medium-687682-2020-03-29-12-41-30.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202003/medium-994891-2020-03-29-12-40-22.jpg

Raining here today so haven't been out in the garden or for a walk yet. Hopefully it will clear later this afternoon and I will be able to get a bit of fresh air.

Heard a commotion a while ago and the black cockatoos were in the banskia.

They have one which sits right at the top and keeps a lookout and he is really noisy.

The others all squark and screech while they tear the banskia to pieces.

Tried to get some photos through the window but they are quite high in the tree so hope you can see the two closest ones. Close up pic are banskia and holly trees

Husband just called for me to come out to kitchen quickly and quietly but I was a bit slow but just in time to see the little hawk fly from the maple into the manfern outside the window. Too slow to get a pic. Haven't seen a hawk in the yard this year until now. Trouble is they kill the blackbirds and sparrows.

Thanks fatgran yes, keep any nature pics coming.
Maybe the bandicoot just died of old age.Depressing thought for us all.

A lovely thread fatgran. Tasmania has long fascinated me and maybe one day I’ll get there. I think it would be more me than Australia. The wildlife is fascinating and I hope you add to the thread. Perhaps about the flora and insects also. I’ve read a great deal about the birds. Wonderful. Thank you.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202003/medium-474644-2020-03-28-15-48-56.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202003/medium-433105-2020-03-28-15-43-20.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202003/medium-370227-2020-03-28-15-43-06.jpg

GabriellaG54 ha - sorry to disappoint you! I am certainly not a comfortable motherly person.

I am more of a reclusive happy to be on my own sort of person. I do like to cook though but mostly weigh the ingredients.

The photos of me (taken at a flattering distance) must have done me some favours. I am not slim, I am short and a size 14-16 .

It's quite funny the mind's eye picture we have other other gransnetters - I picture you as a Margot Ledbetter looking lady or a Harriet Walter. Certainly not an Ann Widdecombe looking person, but you say what you think just like she does!!!

SueDonim one of my daughters did The Great Southern Road trip last year, they took their caravan over on the Spirit of Tasmania ferry. I guess you didn't get to Tasmania?

Blinko a few more pics taken at the far end of my street including galahs and seagulls all together.
Just over the river from the wharf is one of the local golf links, beautiful outlook, I went to take more photos today but it was a bit misty down at the river and the sea.

annodomino we spend a lot of time down at Ardrossan and Saltcoats in the summer with our wee granddaughter.
So many happy memories of there as child.

Lovely photos, Fatgran. I grew up by the sea and it still hypnotises me to this day. It’s never the same twice, the sea is just beautiful.

We were lucky enough to visit Australia last year and did the Great Southern Road. ❤️

Yes, Carillion. It's sometimes known as 'Paddy's Milestone' being between the Scottish and Irish coasts!

Thanks for your view Marydoll Very familiar, though my origin is North Ayrshire with a magnificent view of Arran from the top windows of our house in Ardrossan.

Is it Ailsa Craig where the fabulous curling stones are hewn?

See what you mean Maw. I could even imagine the Antrim coast in the distance! But no Ailsa Craig.

Maw, your picture didn't post, so I found this one of Girvan beach, right beside DH's favourite golf haunt. You can see Ailsa Craig in the background.

You're not fat at all...? and I pictured you as being one of that comfortable motherly number resembling my paternal granny.
She was suitably fleshy and had a marvellouslly accomodating lap which could house any number of GC plus the added attraction of being able to bake delicious cakes and pies without actually weighing ingredients.
How could you disappoint me...???

I collect my seaweed surreptitiously between the beach huts.
I also dig in banana peal ( label removed ?) it's a good souce of phosphorus and potassium.

I'm loving this thread. Keep going, everyone xx

Your 7.41 post picture could be the shore at Girvan, Fatgran , below MIL’s family farm at Dowhill.
I wonder if any Ayrshire Grans agree with me?