More pictures from Tasmania...

Don't know why I couldn't add these...

Peppermint, persimmons & pizza

We spent the Queen's Birthday long weekend with friends in Hobart, Tasmania. Our hostess is a fantastic cook who used to run , with her then husband, a Middle Eastern restaurant.

Outside her dining room window was a truly wonderful persimmon tree. We sampled one of the fruit, but it was not yet ripe. I love looking at them, and frequently use branches of them in autumn flower arrangements, but I'm afraid I find the taste most unappealing - it's like taking a mouthful of cat fur. I'm told it's the tannin in the fruit.

On the Sunday, we drove to the beautiful Peppermint Bay, about 45 mins south of Hobart, for lunch. It was a truly beautiful day - warm enough for short sleeves if you were sitting in the sun, and freezing if you weren't ! Much to the chagrin of the waitstaff, we moved table 3 times in a (futile) effort to chase the sun, which seemed to be moving faster than us.

With eight mouths to be fed on Sunday night, our hostess made a huge amount of pizza dough, and we each, in turn, put on our own topping. This was a great idea, as new, hot pizzas came out of the oven every 20 minutes or so, and everyone was involved with the preparation of the meal.

This time we mangaged to get to the airport in time to make the plane home. A lovely long weekend !

Transport of delight !

With the crisp, autumn mornings come these identifiable flying objects. Somewhere, deep down in a pile of old National Geographic magazines, I have a photo of a whole barrage of them flying over Paris: from memory they were all old original designs.

I've never actually been in a hot air balloon, but I will one day soon ... maybe next time I'm in Paris !