Sleepless Nights

Tag: this is pretty cool

  • Showcase Tasmania: Bonorong Park

    As part of my Showcase Tasmania series, I was lucky enough to head out to Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary last week with the kidlets in tow. Bonorong is a local wildlife park/animal rescue, with various native wildlife, kangaroos to feed and things to look at.

    Oh, and if you’re Amy, there are ICECREAMS, nothing but ICECREAMS, oh god, why won’t mummy and daddy hurry up with the sight seeing because YOU GUYS, ICECREAMS.

    We should have bought an icecream at the beginning is what I’m saying, rather than waiting until the end.

    We saw lots of different animals and I am pretty certain that Isaac would have been happy to wander around in circles looking at everything again, but Amy was being herself and well, you know how that goes.

    It was a gorgeous day.

    Isaac loved the rainbow lorikeets. Loved them.

    Whereas Amy loved the Koalas, despite the sleepy nature of them.

    We played spot the spotted quoll. Shortly after I took this photo, the quoll was kind enough to run past the front fence and show herself (himself?) off to the kids, but I didn’t photograph that bit.

    Three Tawny Frogmouths, all in a row.

    I would happily have watched the Tasmanian Devil and joeys for a lot longer than my children cared to. Baby devils are amazingly cute.

    The wombat got himself tangled in his bedding and dragged it around for a while before working out where the exit was.

    A pink galah. Isaac was also a fan here.

    And the peacock adamantly refused to shake his tail feathers for us. Total shame.

    The rest of us had a lot of fun. However, because we were there at 11am in the morning, the wallabies were more busy sleeping and didn’t want to be fed – which is probably okay, as Isaac didn’t seem terribly keen to get up close to them.

    I’ve been to Bonorong quite a few times now, trips as a kid and back again as an adult and I do highly recommend it. That said, I’ve only ever been during the day and nowadays they offer a Night Tour, which I would LOVE to do, as a lot of the animals are nocturnal and asleep during the day.

    ***

    Showcase Tasmania is me showing off some of the places in Tasmania to visit with children, or Tasmanian produce. I was given a free pass into Bonorong in return for this post and I approached them as a business I wanted to work with, not the other way around.

     

  • Showcase Tasmania: The Fudge A’fare

    When brands started working seriously with Australian bloggers, I realised that what I wasn’t seeing, were any of my favourite Tasmanian brands working in the social media sphere. That made me sad, as there are so many amazing Tasmanian businesses that I would love to work with. So, I decided to approach some businesses that I personally love, in order to share them here, on my blog.

    I wanted to work with businesses that were both family friendly and relatively budget friendly – either to show off Tasmania’s amazing produce, or things to do in Tasmania with a family.

    Showcase Tasmania is my answer to this. Each week (until I run out of businesses who want to participate,) I’ll be showing off some of Tassie’s finest here. I’ve got some exciting things planned, so stay tuned.

    ***

    The Fudge A’fare

    The Fudge A’fare are husband and wife team, Danielle Quinn and Matthew Gould. Danielle has been a pastry chef for over 20 years and she has honed her craft in several high-end pastry establishments both here and overseas.

    Working out of the commercial kitchen on their property, they produce and sell 17 different flavours of fudge. Their philosophy is to only do one thing, but to do it better than anyone else.

    I was lucky enough to be sent all of The Fudge A’fare’s fudge to try and I have been taking my job as fudge taster very seriously, nibbling at every opportunity. Amy and Isaac are, as always, very helpful, choosing to scream over which flavour they would like RIGHT NOW and HIS PIECE IS BIGGER THAN MINE!!! It’s been fun (for me – less for them, as screaming gets them no fudge and time outs. I’m not great at sharing fudge).

    Amy is rather a fan of both the Cherry flavoured fudge and the Raspberry one, and I loved the Apricot and Almond, the Jaffa, the After Dinner Mint and and and and…..

    Actually, I like all of them.

    Isaac likes them all too.

    What is more astonishing than all of these flavours being produced in their home, is that Danielle and Matthew have created this award winning business and are continuing to run it, just themselves, with a three year old and a four month old underfoot.

    I’m not sure about you, but some days I struggle to cook dinner with my two running around, let alone make, pack and sell fudge that wins countless awards.

    I’m amazed.

    The fudge is Gluten Free, as well as being free of artificial colours and flavours and it tastes absolutely divine. Really.

    If you would like to order some fudge (really, you should order some fudge, you won’t be disappointed) you can download the order form here and the price list here (word docs), and then email the order form directly to Danielle and Matthew at thefudge@bigpond.net.au

    PS, family? I think I know what I would like for Christmas, please.

    ***

    I wasn’t paid for this post and I approached The Fudge A’fare myself in order to work with them. They rather nicely agreed to my proposal and sent me fudge to try. They may possibly now be on my list of favourite people. I’m just saying.

  • In the paper

    I was lucky enough to end up in the newspaper again today. Apparently someone thinks I’m doing well enough to answer questions for “The Other Side” in the Saturday Magazine from The Mercury.



    Click the picture to read the article.

    Thanks to Tim Martain for asking me.