I broke down today at Stillwater Restaurant right on Laucneston's waterfront. The staff could not have been more friendly, helpful and attentive.
The day was bright and sunny, the tide was in, making the Tamar River look sparkling and the view from the resturant was magnificent - all bobbing boats and wheeling seabirds.
This must be one of the best locations in the entire city - making it the perfect place to break down, if that's what you're going to do.
Stillwater is also the perfect venue for any kind of function, large or small and certainly my favourite place to sit and enjoy a coffee or (just occassionally) to sip a glass of champagne if I can think of any reason to celebrate.
And what about the food? I hear you ask. After all Stillwater is a restaurant with a huge reputation for the very finest dining in Tasmania. It also has one of the best cellars - and there's even a wonderful cellar room you can reserve for that special private dinner party.
Sadly, I'll have to leave descriptions of the delights of the menu for another day - I had no time for more that a cup of (very good) coffee.
Then it was - go get that pesky car fixed!
How to find Stillwater Restaurant
Situated at Ritchies Mill at the bottom of Patterson St, Launceston
Email: stillwater@microtech.com.au
Ph: 6337 4153
www.stillwater.net.au
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Red Bridge Cafe at Campbell Town
There's a new food emporium in Campbell Town, just near the Red Bridge. Well, it's new to me, and I loved the atmosphere and the decor that's been created.
The building is all sandstone and the architecture is unmistakably Georgian of the 1840s. It was long known to Tasmanians as an antiques shop and is now named 'The Red Bridge Cafe' in its new incarnation.
The owners have wisely kept all the building's old-fashioned rustic qualities to create a lovely space for the huge range of foodstuffs they are offering. As you walk in the door you are confronted by foodie heaven! And, of course, there's an emphasis on the produce of Tasmania all beautifully displayed - difficult not to treat yourself to so many yummy things.
The surprise for me was complete when I walked through to the rear where an enourmous log fire warms a restaurant area with windows overlooking the river. The view from here takes in the attractive red-brick bridge and the peace and quiet of the river valley.
Open seven days a week, this is the perfect spot to linger over coffee or a light lunch and a lovely place to break your journey along the Heritage Highway.
How to find The Red Bridge Cafe and Providore
Dino & Karen Dioguardi
137 High Stree, Campbell Town
Ph: 6381 1169
http://www.redbridgecafe.com.au
The building is all sandstone and the architecture is unmistakably Georgian of the 1840s. It was long known to Tasmanians as an antiques shop and is now named 'The Red Bridge Cafe' in its new incarnation.
The owners have wisely kept all the building's old-fashioned rustic qualities to create a lovely space for the huge range of foodstuffs they are offering. As you walk in the door you are confronted by foodie heaven! And, of course, there's an emphasis on the produce of Tasmania all beautifully displayed - difficult not to treat yourself to so many yummy things.
The surprise for me was complete when I walked through to the rear where an enourmous log fire warms a restaurant area with windows overlooking the river. The view from here takes in the attractive red-brick bridge and the peace and quiet of the river valley.
Open seven days a week, this is the perfect spot to linger over coffee or a light lunch and a lovely place to break your journey along the Heritage Highway.
How to find The Red Bridge Cafe and Providore
Dino & Karen Dioguardi
137 High Stree, Campbell Town
Ph: 6381 1169
http://www.redbridgecafe.com.au
Ladies who lunch
Not that I'm one of those ladies who lunch, but if I were I have found the perfect place to do it! Called 'The River's Edge Cafe', it is a two minute drive out of Longford in the north of Tasmania.
Set in lovely gardens, a 19th century red-brick building has been converted into a sun-filled restaurant with a residence upstairs reached by an attractive wrought-iron circular staircase. And there's a little foot-bridge over a pond at the entrance, so that the building almost seems surrounded by water.
Jane Randall is the friendly cook and she told us her Chicken Bocconcini with Cranberry and a Puff Pastry Crust is a big favourite, as are her risottos - "which I just love to cook" she said.
A beautifully presented cook book written by Jane and interspersed with gorgeous photos of the garden is on sale at the cafe.
The only small quibble I had was that it was dificult to choose a light lunch from the menu on offer and I do suggest that Jane might like to introduce one or two lighter choices.
This is a restaurant just perfect for that grand special occassion lunch or dinner with all the trimmings. There is a very good wine list and the deserts are especially wicked.
Note to self: Must try harder to become a 'lady who lunches'!
How to find The River's Edge Cafe
Open 10 am - 4 pm Thursday to Sunday.
38 Tannery Road, Longford
Website: http://www.riversedgelongford.com.au
Email: jane@riversedgelongford.com.au
Phone: 03 6391 2559
Set in lovely gardens, a 19th century red-brick building has been converted into a sun-filled restaurant with a residence upstairs reached by an attractive wrought-iron circular staircase. And there's a little foot-bridge over a pond at the entrance, so that the building almost seems surrounded by water.
Jane Randall is the friendly cook and she told us her Chicken Bocconcini with Cranberry and a Puff Pastry Crust is a big favourite, as are her risottos - "which I just love to cook" she said.
A beautifully presented cook book written by Jane and interspersed with gorgeous photos of the garden is on sale at the cafe.
The only small quibble I had was that it was dificult to choose a light lunch from the menu on offer and I do suggest that Jane might like to introduce one or two lighter choices.
This is a restaurant just perfect for that grand special occassion lunch or dinner with all the trimmings. There is a very good wine list and the deserts are especially wicked.
Note to self: Must try harder to become a 'lady who lunches'!
How to find The River's Edge Cafe
Open 10 am - 4 pm Thursday to Sunday.
38 Tannery Road, Longford
Website: http://www.riversedgelongford.com.au
Email: jane@riversedgelongford.com.au
Phone: 03 6391 2559
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
The 'bones' of the National Rose Garden can only be experienced in winter!
It's the middle of winter, and, at the National Rose Garden at Woolmers there is hardly a single bloom anywhere to be seen. All the roses are sleeping in their winter dormancy. Even so, if you are visiting Woolmers, which, by the way, is open right through the winter) it's well worth taking a walk in the Rose Garden.
I think when everything is wintery, (sometimes it is even so covered in frost that it looks for all the world like snow) that's when the 'bones' of the garden are easier to see - it's when the whole design is most visibly apparent. And there is always a lovely veiw to take in over the surrounding country-side and even the hawthorn hedges surrounding field seem more starkly obvious.
This is a trememdously busy time in the Rose Garden - possibly the busiest time of the entire year. It's the time of major pruning of the roses and also the time they must be fertilised and then mulched. The mop-top Acasias are trimmed back hard in order to keep them in shape, and all the hedges must be cut.
And all this hard work so that, come October, we can marvel at the millions of roses which will then be getting ready to burst into full glorious bloom!
I think when everything is wintery, (sometimes it is even so covered in frost that it looks for all the world like snow) that's when the 'bones' of the garden are easier to see - it's when the whole design is most visibly apparent. And there is always a lovely veiw to take in over the surrounding country-side and even the hawthorn hedges surrounding field seem more starkly obvious.
This is a trememdously busy time in the Rose Garden - possibly the busiest time of the entire year. It's the time of major pruning of the roses and also the time they must be fertilised and then mulched. The mop-top Acasias are trimmed back hard in order to keep them in shape, and all the hedges must be cut.
And all this hard work so that, come October, we can marvel at the millions of roses which will then be getting ready to burst into full glorious bloom!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Ghostly voices from the graves...
Ghostly voices came strangely to me from out of the graves in an old country churchyard...
OK not really all that ghostly, as it was a bright sunny afternoon and not at all eerie or mysterious because the voices came from actors at a most unusual theatrical performance.
The church was Christ Church in the middle of Longford and the graveyard clusters around the beautiful little stone church built in the 1800s - the village of Longford has, over the yers, gradually grown to surround the church.
The theatrical performance by Launceston's Mudlark Theatre was actually right in amongst the gravestones, some very old and worn and tilting every which way. It was an enactment of the lives of some of the early convicts buried there. Their lives have been carefully researched and their stories are authentic and highly dramatic.
The story I specially liked best was about a convict woman who had worked for her freedom, married and eventually bore her husband no less than fifteen children. After she died (probably of exhaustion!) he re-married and produced a further eleven children - such unimaginable numbers and telling us of such hard lives.
These stories have been digitised and you can buy the CD in the form of an Audio Companion which, along with two fascinating stories inludes original compositions by guitarist Chris Jacobson and music from The Chordwainers played on unique leather instruments.
The CD can also accompany the self-guided walking brochure of Longford's Christ Church graveyard, Voices from the Graves, which reveals the rich and intriguing stories if 14 people who are buried there, and also the booklet, In Heaven as it is on Earth, telling even more stories.
If you are interested, visit the Heritage Highway website at www.heritagehighway.com.au/news/13125492
OK not really all that ghostly, as it was a bright sunny afternoon and not at all eerie or mysterious because the voices came from actors at a most unusual theatrical performance.
The church was Christ Church in the middle of Longford and the graveyard clusters around the beautiful little stone church built in the 1800s - the village of Longford has, over the yers, gradually grown to surround the church.
The theatrical performance by Launceston's Mudlark Theatre was actually right in amongst the gravestones, some very old and worn and tilting every which way. It was an enactment of the lives of some of the early convicts buried there. Their lives have been carefully researched and their stories are authentic and highly dramatic.
The story I specially liked best was about a convict woman who had worked for her freedom, married and eventually bore her husband no less than fifteen children. After she died (probably of exhaustion!) he re-married and produced a further eleven children - such unimaginable numbers and telling us of such hard lives.
These stories have been digitised and you can buy the CD in the form of an Audio Companion which, along with two fascinating stories inludes original compositions by guitarist Chris Jacobson and music from The Chordwainers played on unique leather instruments.
The CD can also accompany the self-guided walking brochure of Longford's Christ Church graveyard, Voices from the Graves, which reveals the rich and intriguing stories if 14 people who are buried there, and also the booklet, In Heaven as it is on Earth, telling even more stories.
If you are interested, visit the Heritage Highway website at www.heritagehighway.com.au/news/13125492
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
'Cookery Nook' is also known as the Baker's Cottage, though I love the first name best as it's just so quaintly evocative. And the reality is every bit as picturesque as the name, as you can see from the photo.
'Cookery Nook' is the first building you see as you walk onto the property and it's everyone's idea of how a small colonial cottage should look, with a lovely dark grey slate roof and even a sweet little 'front yard' to complete the picture. The small building next to the cottage still has its large oven at the rear of the building, where bread was originally baked for all the convicts employed on the property.
Build during the 1840s 'Cookery Nook' was originally the Bakehouse - obviously where the baker lived - and the baker was quite an important person in the scheme of things back then, though he probably would have been an assigned convict working toward an eventual ticket-of-leave and freedom.
Fast forward to the modern era, and, as I saw, when I peeped inside, the little cottage has been made into lovely cosy two-room accomodation complete with a log fire and a print by local artist Michael McWilliams hanging over the mantel.
There's a tiny fully-equipped kitchen fitten into one corner of the main room, but hampers can be ordered from the 'Servant's Kitchen' near the main house if you don't want to do your own cooking. And, I noted that the queen-bed in the bedroom next door is fitted with electiric blankets just in case the weather is cold.
Its easy to understand why this is the most popularly requested cottage acommdoation at Woolmers Estate, though there are several other restored cottages dotted about the Estate which have also been converted into self-contained holiday accomodation.
I was also keen to see some of the remarks vistors have recently put into the Visitor's Book - "A wonderful step back in time", "The highlight of our Tassie holiday", "such utter peace and quiet" and much more tellingly - "Such a totally romantic stay!"
'Cookery Nook' is the first building you see as you walk onto the property and it's everyone's idea of how a small colonial cottage should look, with a lovely dark grey slate roof and even a sweet little 'front yard' to complete the picture. The small building next to the cottage still has its large oven at the rear of the building, where bread was originally baked for all the convicts employed on the property.
Build during the 1840s 'Cookery Nook' was originally the Bakehouse - obviously where the baker lived - and the baker was quite an important person in the scheme of things back then, though he probably would have been an assigned convict working toward an eventual ticket-of-leave and freedom.
Fast forward to the modern era, and, as I saw, when I peeped inside, the little cottage has been made into lovely cosy two-room accomodation complete with a log fire and a print by local artist Michael McWilliams hanging over the mantel.
There's a tiny fully-equipped kitchen fitten into one corner of the main room, but hampers can be ordered from the 'Servant's Kitchen' near the main house if you don't want to do your own cooking. And, I noted that the queen-bed in the bedroom next door is fitted with electiric blankets just in case the weather is cold.
Its easy to understand why this is the most popularly requested cottage acommdoation at Woolmers Estate, though there are several other restored cottages dotted about the Estate which have also been converted into self-contained holiday accomodation.
I was also keen to see some of the remarks vistors have recently put into the Visitor's Book - "A wonderful step back in time", "The highlight of our Tassie holiday", "such utter peace and quiet" and much more tellingly - "Such a totally romantic stay!"
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Winter lunch at Woolmers
It's winter, the perfect time to think of hearty soups and enourmous, cheerful log fires, and that's exactly the reason I had lunch today in the "Servant's Kitchen' at Woolmers Estate near Longford.
Let me set the scene - the room is redolent of a bygone age with ancient flagstone floor and lime-washed walls. The view, between two towering pines takes in the Western Tiers in the distance and they are bluer than at any other time of year because they actually turn a deeper shade of blue, when the weather gets colder. You look out over the Macquarie River toward a patchwork of fields divided by hawthorn hedges. It's easy to see why the early settlers named the broad valley the Norfolk Plains, so much does this region resemble the English countryside.
In days long gone the "Servant's Kitchen' is where a convict cook or serving woman would have been slaving over that huge log fire - big enough to roast an entire beast and taking up almost half the room. In fact this whole scene has set me off wondering what those long-ago convict women would have been cooking in this very place, and I've resolved to enquire further into this.....
But back to my present-day lunch - I chose (from a choice of three) the delicious sweet-potato soup and it came to me with hot newly-baked damper - the perfect winter warmer.
These days Woolmers is open every day right through the winter, huge logs are added to the fire each day and the soup is freshly set to simmer away! Yum!
Let me set the scene - the room is redolent of a bygone age with ancient flagstone floor and lime-washed walls. The view, between two towering pines takes in the Western Tiers in the distance and they are bluer than at any other time of year because they actually turn a deeper shade of blue, when the weather gets colder. You look out over the Macquarie River toward a patchwork of fields divided by hawthorn hedges. It's easy to see why the early settlers named the broad valley the Norfolk Plains, so much does this region resemble the English countryside.
In days long gone the "Servant's Kitchen' is where a convict cook or serving woman would have been slaving over that huge log fire - big enough to roast an entire beast and taking up almost half the room. In fact this whole scene has set me off wondering what those long-ago convict women would have been cooking in this very place, and I've resolved to enquire further into this.....
But back to my present-day lunch - I chose (from a choice of three) the delicious sweet-potato soup and it came to me with hot newly-baked damper - the perfect winter warmer.
These days Woolmers is open every day right through the winter, huge logs are added to the fire each day and the soup is freshly set to simmer away! Yum!
Who is she?
The soon to be famous Pixie Lowe is writing all she can think about Woolmers Estate, in Longford, Tasmania, Australia.
Woolmers has been nominated for World Heritage Status along with Brickendon and Port Arthur.
Woolmers is also home to the National Rose Garden and I have been associated with the Rose Garden since its birth.
Stay tuned for exciting stories
Woolmers has been nominated for World Heritage Status along with Brickendon and Port Arthur.
Woolmers is also home to the National Rose Garden and I have been associated with the Rose Garden since its birth.
Stay tuned for exciting stories
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