Top Ten Thursdays - Hometown

This week's theme for top ten Thursday is the things we miss from our hometown - I've decided to do it on the northwest coast of Tasmania, the island state of Australia where I lived until I was 23. I can't really do it on a hometown as I grew up on a farm and then moved to Burnie to do my nurse training, and then my parents moved to Wynyard when they both retired - I'm not sure where my hometown is.

These aren't in any particular order, except for number one, as that's where it should be - these are my top ten things I miss about my home state of Tasmania.

10. Rumour Has It..... This is a cafe in Wynyard, which is a small town on the Northwest coast of Tasmania and where my mum lives. Whenever we go home Ken and I often go to Rumours for coffee and cake, as they do scrummy food - pictured is their toasted banana bread with maple syrup and yoghurt.

9. Stanley - a small town further west along the coast from Wynyard and a town I have to visit every time we go home as I love it. It has kept so many of its old colonial style buildings and it has the Nut - an extinct volcanic lava lake that towers over the town. There is a chairlift to get up the Nut and there are great views from the top. When I was a kidlet our family used to go to Stanley to fish off the wharf and mum and I walked up the Nut. There is a thriving seafood industry and Dad loved the crayfish that you can get there and there are also some lovely little tea shops with great homemade cakes.

8. Wynyard harbour - it's a small harbour for a small town but it's a really beautiful one and this is one of my favourite photos I've taken of it over the years, just as the sun was setting. People fish off the harbour and there is a great fish shop where we always buy at least one supper from when we're home. They do great battered scallops as well as many different breeds of fish.

7. Wynyard Christmas parade. This is held on Christmas eve and is very popular with the town being packed for this fun event. If we're home for Christmas we always attend as it really gets you in the spirit of goodwill to all mankind. There are certain people that everyone expects to see doing funny stunts in the parade and there are always lots of floats and vintage vehicles. This pony looks very mortified to being seen in this santa outfit.

6. The quirkiness of my fellow Taswegians (that's another way to say Tasmanian). I love people that can laugh at themselves and that's definitely something we've learnt to do especially when we're often the butt of the rest of Australia's jokes. Funny mailboxes is just one way people show their uniqueness to the world.

 5. Fossil Bluff - this is an area in Wynyard which includes a beautiful beach and the bluff which is famous for fossils, hence the name. Australians aren't very imaginative when naming things, and if you get the chance check out the comedian Danny Bhoy who is Scottish and does a great routine about Australians choosing names for places. I also love this beach because friends and I had picnics there when I was younger, Ken and I have built sandcastles there, and we had wedding photos taken there.

4. Boat Harbour Beach - west of Wynyard this is the beach we used to go to most often growing up. We went as a family, the Sunday School picnic was held there, and school picnics were sometimes held there as well. It's a small beach but a sheltered one, with lovely white sand and crystal blue water. Another place that when we go home for a holiday I like to make a stop at and last year when we went, Ken and I were exploring amongst the rocks and I ended up overbalancing and pulling Ken backwards on top of me. How we laughed.

 3. The Big Penguin - lives in Penguin which is a small town east of Wynyard and he has lived there since 1975. Anyone who visits Penguin has to have their photo taken with the big man, especially at Christmas time when he dresses up for the season.

2. Very strange place names. This is something that is found all over Tasmania with Murdering Gully Road being just outside of Wynyard and it always makes me chuckle. Some of the other great place names that you will find as you travel around are: Nowhere Else, Paradise, Lovely Bottom, and Misery Knob to name just a few. We also have a Bagdad, the Walls of Jerusalem, and a cave called Satan's Lair. 

1. Mum's Kitchen - the heart of any home and the heart of our family as it contains my mum, and as it's an open plan kitchen/lounge it's where we all congregate when there. So when I think of my Tasmanian home I think of where mum is and often where my oldest brother is as well as he is the only one of us that still lives in Tasmania.

Mum cooking in the kitchen

My beloved with my big brother

There you have it, my top ten things I miss about my home area of Tasmania. What do you miss about your hometown? Take the time to pop over to Tamara's blog, Confessions of a part-time working mom, to see what my fellow bloggers have come up with for their lists - click HERE to visit.

Until next time, be good, stay safe, and think about ten things you love about where you are now.

Pamela & Ken

xxxxxxxxxxxx

P.S: I have to add an extra to the list, but this is more a thing that I miss that doesn't exist anymore, and that is my grandparents home which we could see from our farm and had the most beautiful garden ever. It was quite a small house but we all seemed to fit whenever we gathered for Christmas. Nanna was a fabulous cook and Grandad used to tip his tea into his saucer to cool it down. So I guess even though they and their home aren't here in the physical form, they are still part of so many of our memories.