I am going to Europe for a month in mid-May with two girlfriends. I will be doing more serious photography but will also use my Samsung phone for facebook, Instagram and blogging in short spurts. I would like to share some photos with friends and the Penguin will be leaving this page and travelling with me too. I won’t forget him this time. I’m going to be on a tour with 20 people max and going to Spain, Portugal and Morocco. Mr Penguin is staying home caring for our creatures. We are known for doing “his” trips, “her” trips and “our” trips. He recently did a “his” trip to India, now it’s time for a “her” trip. We will do an “our” trip at the end of the year. This arrangement is probably why we’ve been married for almost 50 years.
I have not done blog posts on my Samsung tablet so I am doing it now and seeing how it comes out. I don’t want to take a laptop and download the raw photos and edit, etc while travelling. I think this might work.
There are often times I’d like to write up a quick book post or local adventure at night from the comfort of my bed without firing up the big desktop.
Today we went to Willie Smith’s Apple Shed with two other couples. It is a renovated shed that has an apple museum, cider distillery and restaurant with all local Tasmanian food. It’s great. We sat at big picnic like tables, drank wonderful Tassie red wine (though I was limited as I was the driver) and ate wonderful food. It was a clear, sunny autumn day and we had many laughs. One example was the conversation between two of our friends, one a former Catholic priest who remains very spiritual and the other a devout atheist kept us entertained. It was all very good natured.
Autumn in Tasmania is glorious with the light especially. We don’t get the bright reds and oranges as much as North America but yellows and russets and all shades in between into lighter oranges are beautiful. 
On the way out we picked up some Indian apple chutney, apple jam and apple brandy of which I have yet to taste. Tasmania is the apple state of Australia and you would not believe how many wonderful varieties of apples there are. Yet our grocery stores seem to sell only about four varieties. The rest are exported all over but mainly to Japan. One must travel to local markets or food stalls to get some of the lesser known varieties. If you look at the photos you can see the apples, yes these are real, with their name printed below each one. Quite amazing really.
I hope this post is formatted okay because if this works I will certainly have more posts to share while on the road. I think I’ve said enough for Thursday Travel.
Until next time…
Travellin' Penguin 