Tasmania!!!

I'm in Tasmania! It's been a long journey since Tennessee. After I left I spent two weeks in Ohio with Mom getting the house ready to sell and move. It was time well spent and the house looks great and mom is feeling quite refreshed.

Mom and I went back down to Franklin to be with Kelly and Chad and Marion Love as she recovered from a staff infection. Marion is doing well and healthy and making some squeaks and baby-talk and is cute as ever.

Then, more driving back to Ohio and then to Colorado for two weeks where I saw some great friends and worked on a farm for a couple of weeks. I build a Guinea Hen coupe and worked in the orchard and of course, mucked the barn. Thank You Katherine and Natalie for the work. It was great to get some Colorado sun and help out.

I spent my birthday with friends (Hi John, Beth and Cali) and went to two nights of Sound Tribe at Red Rocks where i had the time of my life. During the weekend my good friend and co-conspiritor, Will Robertson, threw a party called the Hootenanny up in Idaho Springs. This was a gorgeous setting where a team of pranksters built a stage in the middle of this valley out of huge timber. You have to drive up a long dirt road to get there and it's a perfect place for festivals and gatherings. Good work Will. This was truly an amazing time and a great send off to Aussie Land (also thanks Amanda for the good news on traditional herbalism and mountain walks). Eddie, Dean and Joe Romagli went up to the favorite swimming hole in the Poudre River and Seaman Reservoir (good pics). I have also included pics of the Sustainability fair at New Belgium Brewery where Amy Goodman from Democracy Now gave a keynote. I saw John and Kathy (thanks for the delicious bread (as always the tastiest and congrats on the new house- it's perfect for you two). I witnessed the first Sustainable fashion show (nice job Saja, Brenda and Sophie!) It was great to see everyone and know that great things are happening in town. Susie Gordon took me on a tour of the first straw-bale development in the country. It looks beautiful. Thanks Saja, Eddie and Will for the hospitality!!

One more evening of french food at the Brasserie Ten Ten in Boulder and off to LA, then to Auckland, then to Melbourne Australia. Thanks so much to Jamey Birdsong and Marie for helping me on my way and giving me a good laugh as I was stopped by security for all of the liquids I was trying to smuggle into the plane. It turned out to be water and a can of coconut juice. Thanks Amanda for all the delicious treats, especially the dried sea-weed, a new favorite.

Seeing my lanky and extremely long legs, the girl at the counter gave me the emergency exit seat for the flight over and it was the best move ever. Thank you girl at the counter! The flight was not to although I am just getting over the jet lag. When I arrived in Melbourne, I grabbed my bag and caught a bus to the city. I found a map and hopped on a free tram (thank you public transport) that circled the city and took me to Federation Square. There, as you can see in my pics, I ended up in a rally for indigenous health rights. The average life expectancy for Aborigines is 17 years less than everyone reading this email. This event was called close the gap and I ended up putting my paint soaked hand print on the aborigine flag as well as my backpack as my sign that I had arrived. I was called "legendary" by one of the volunteers. I thought this was a good omen.

I walked the streets and found my way to the botanical gardens. These were beautiful and a crash course in what this place has to offer. I tooled around the city for the day and assumed Nick would be home in the evening. I ended up riding the tram to the North West corner of the city and walking to his place. It is unbelievably close the the city and it was a great time. Thanks to Sod, Michael, Lindsay and Nick for the hospitality and a good showing of the city and explaining the game that is all the rage in Victoria, FOOTY. The national championship is this weekend and everyone is Footy-crazy. They fill up 90,000 person arenas with the sport here and I had never even heard of it. It's quite exciting.

Melbourne has lots to offer, especially when it comes to coffee and food. It is the cultural center of Australia. There was lots of public art and great people walking around, especially in St Kilda, where my community garden photos are from. There is more to say here but I am running out of time. Thanks Inge for hanging out with me for a couple of days, Holland must be missing you.

Nick took me to the airport for my Tassie flight and off I went. Tassie is an easy flight, up and down, oh yeah, with horrible turbulence. Kristin thought I would be better off being surprised by it since it is a regular occurrence. I was not. However, i am safe.

So Darren and Kristin and I have met up, had some beers and are living the Tassie life. I hear of many plans for a glorious future of Mariah Island, the Walls of Jerusalem, the Great South West Track and many more. This is going to be an exciting time. I'm also conducting part of the wedding ceremonies. I'll have to make some sort of costume of a large wallaby or something to make everything official. The wildlife here is so so so cute it is ridiculous.

Anyhow, I'm out of time, I hope you are well and I'll keep it coming! More fun times ahead!!! Check out my pics on a link in the bottom right.

Love
David Canter