Dramatis persona*

helenhead Helen Chick

I've always wanted a bumper sticker that said "I'm a female, LDS/Mormon, Scout leading, geocaching, piano-playing, bicycling, mathematics educator with a PhD in maths ... and I VOTE"!

I think this makes me a minority group of cardinality 1!

* Since there's only one of me and "personae" is plural (I think), I've gone with dramatis persona.
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Visits since May 2016

Recent visitors

12 of 12, September 2020 – Falling water

There is a little waterfall on Mt Wellington which I have been wanting to visit for a while and today seemed a good day to choose to do so. I borrowed my brother, who I thought would be interested in exploring as well, and so we headed up to O’Grady’s Falls first which I have photographed […]

Sunset on the tor

Carr Villa Hut, which is owned by a northern Tasmanian Scout Rover crew, nestles just below the escarpment that marks the edge of the Ben Lomond plateau and affords some rather spectacular views of the dolerite cliffs and crags.

While tea was being organised and the chocolate self-saucing pudding was cooking I popped outside and captured the […]

Journey to Little Hell and back

It’s been nearly 6 months since our last proper Scout camp (as opposed to camping in our backyards) and, since Tasmania seems to be coronavirus-free at the moment, we are now able to do overnight things as a group. With barely contained enthusiasm we made a booking for Carr Villa Hut on the slopes of Legges […]

A commemorative beach walk

It would have been my friend Lisa’s birthday today, and after cooking a traditional family breakfast for the kids before they headed off to school, I went down to Carlton Beach for a reflective walk around the river mouth. It was a beautiful day and I recalled some occasions we’d shared in this lovely spot, but, […]

The live rosella photo (not the dead parrot sketch)

There’s a deciduous tree in my front yard, and today, when I was out on the balcony, I noticed that it was occupied. This is a green rosella (Platycercus caledonicus) which is a species that is endemic to Tasmania. I often get wattle birds and the occasional pigeons in the tree, but the rosellas […]

Liffey Falls and Mt Paris Dam

During a few days in Launceston visiting relatives, the kids and I did a day trip out to Liffey Falls and Mt Paris Dam. The morning was crisp and cool, and there was plenty of water tumbling over the two sets of falls that are just a short walk from the car park. I’d taken my […]

Moods of the Mountain #118

We are living in strange times*, but this post-apocalyptic sunset is due to a number of small fuel-reduction burns that have been taking place while the weather has been cool and calm.

I loved the smoky cloud formations so much that I had to take a close-up …

And then I noticed the newly emerging sliver of the […]

Champagne Falls and Bridal Veil Falls

After completing my circuit of Dove Lake, I started heading back towards Launceston, but with a plan to take a detour to find a couple of waterfalls I’d heard about. A 4WD track departs from Lemonthyme Lodge, tucked away in the Moina bush, and heads up a ridge for a kilometre or so before dropping steeply […]

A walk around Dove Lake

I’d really only come to Cradle Mountain to do the canyoning trip, and didn’t have time to stay for very long, so this morning I got up early, broke camp, and took the shuttle bus to Dove Lake to do a quick circuit. The weather was overcast, which reduced the spectacularity of the views, but it […]

Wet and wild canyoning

As a thank you gift for services rendered, one of my now-graduated PhD students very kindly gave me a voucher to go canyoning in the Cradle Mountain area. The original plan was to do Dove Canyon, but heavy rainfall in the day or so preceding the planned trip meant that the location was changed to Machinery […]