"...wine for the women who make the rain come..."

I had doubts about going back to Maria Island so soon, especially as only a very hardy, seasoned person would brave a tent this time of year.  This means I had to sleep again, in a top bunk in the workshop accommodations.  There has also been a lot of 'nature' excitement at home, with the bioluminescence lighting up a nearby beach.

I am glad I went.  We completed lime washing all the buildings, and had time to really scrub up the stones, steps, and veranda.  This means all will be looking very nice for the heritage board inspection that is coming up.  I suppose 'inspection' is a strong word, but it comes to mind as everything is convict heritage.

The island is what I would call between seasons, summer is over but the subsidized free ferries have not started.  Therefore, we were perhaps fifteen in number, vastly outnumbered by even the Tasmanian Devils.  Added to this, we had time to place some of the penguin homes down near the foreshore and they were so much better (and easier to move) than I could have imagined.

As a bonus to all this satisfying work, I got to go to the painted cliffs at low tide, and the workshop devil came right up to sniff my boots!

He isn't a 'workshop devil', but the shed is on his route, and he often will trot by, although he is looking pretty grizzled, and I am guessing he is getting on in years, they only live to be around eight or so in years.


May 2020 - I love having this record, as since this time the island has had a huge boom in tourist numbers (and now the pandemic could change all that)- but for the last 3 years maybe...there has been a new, much larger ferry going more times each day.  I have only gone by this new ferry three or four times.  I should have been there last month volunteering but parks statewide were one of the first things to close, and they closed before we were even out of our mandatory (enforceable by police fines) 14 days in our home.