After a beautiful early morning walk at Cataract Gorge, Launceston, my friend Shirley and I headed south through brilliant Autumn sunshine to check out a World Heritage site we’d seen a sign for on our way up from Hobart.

We took our time, stopping to take pictures, keeping a weather eye open for market stalls selling new season apples. If we accomplished nothing else on our Tasmanian adventure, we were determined to eat our fill of crisp Tasmanian apples.

As we drove, we spotted an unusual tower poking out above the trees to our left, and decided to investigate. We headed along a deeply rutted gravel road that meandered up the hillside, and emerged to find this beauty of an old church looking out over the surrounding countryside.

I love stone buildings, and this one is a stunner with its red roof, arched windows, and intricate woodwork.

Not far away we spotted a graveyard, and decided to visit.

I’ve liked graveyards since I was a child. I’d cycle out to the cemetery in Three Hills, Alberta with my cousins, and wander the aisles reading headstones, imagining the lives and adventures of those who’d gone before us. I found it comforting somehow, to connect with their stories, to be reminded that we are bound together by shared human experiences.

This graveyard was also comforting to me. It doesn’t matter if anyone remembers us after we’re gone, all that matters is now, loving and being loved. That is a life well-lived.

Soon we were on our way again, heading for Brickendon Historic Farm and Convict Village.

Built in 1824, it is one of the oldest farms in Tasmania and has been run by the Archer family for 7 generations.

It is a lovely spot set along the river, dotted with historic buildings and stunning heritage gardens, and surrounded by verdant hedgerows filled with edibles.

The berries below are haws from the hawthorn, and the herbalist in me was aching to harvest every single one of them for drying. Haws are amazing, used for centuries to heal and support the heart. They have a lovely citrusy flavour that makes for beautiful teas and syrups.

The hedgerows at Brickendon also have towering elderberry bushes heavily laden with ripe elderberries. I wanted to harvest them too, and turn them into elderberry cordial, tea, wine, and liqueur (so good for sore throats, colds, and supporting the immune system).

Brickendon is such a great place to explore. Before you begin the heritage walk, you get to watch a fascinating documentary about the history of the family and the property. Unlike many heritage properties, this one is run by the owners, and Mrs. Archer was the one to greet us at the massive barn door, offer us crisp apples she’d just picked from one of their trees, and bustle about the place feeding ducks and chickens.

I loved the old barns best of all, with their blackened exteriors and cavernous interiors perfect for dances and weddings and jolly parties.

Brickendon was home to many convicts in its early days.

Convicts arrived in Tasmania, known as Van Diemen’s Land, by boat, and were assigned a master or mistress who would oversee their sentence.

Brickendon acquired convicts skilled in farm labor, blacksmithing, carpentry, and domestic duties.

Many of the buildings available for touring were where the convicts lived, cooked, and worshiped during their sentence at Brickendon.

The farm is still a working farm, and it was so nice to wander around and be followed by inquisitive chooks, or turn a corner and find horses blinking at me.

This is inside a convict cookhouse, where many a hearty meal was prepared to sustain the men working hard in the fields.

This is the massive fireplace that covered one entire wall of the building. Tasmanian winters are bitterly cold, so I can imagine the roaring fires here would have been a haven to convicts warming numb fingers and toes after laboring in the frigid wind and freezing temperatures.

This is the chook shed, and a more posh chook shed I have yet to see. Even in the dead of winter those thick stone walls would keep the straw-strewn interior snow-free and warm.

The Archers have done an amazing job of preserving their family heritage in a way that educates and delights the public, while enabling them to continue with a way of life that has been going continuously for nearly 200 years.

I find it so inspiring to see how other people have lived and worked over the centuries. I returned home with great ideas to incorporate in our own farm, and have had fun implementing them a bit at a time.

I’ve started with flowers. Lots and lots of flowers.