Hard to tell it's winter

We just had lunch at a local cafe.  This was the sky we sat under.

How gorgeous is that? My leg in my black jeans was burning.  It was about 22C.

This morning, after me doing my daily words and making a batch of biscuits, we sat out and had morning tea with mum in her back verandah with the sun streaming in to warm us.

Angus was his usual snuggly self and did this fun face for me so I had to photograph it.

 

Then he did his handsome face instead.

We felt a bit like lazing around today because yesterday we did our first controlled burn of the year.

This is Michelle and I with the firebugs that we use to start the fire, and 1st Lieutenant Angus (the fellow Firey not the family Labrador!) organising getting lunch orders ( a very crucial operational aspect!) It was pretty damp so we had to pretty much make lines across the burn area with them every two metres or so as we ran the fire up the hill.   No need to remind you that I am the shortarse, is there? :)

   

I love this one that I got of Angus.

 And this one of Andrew weirds me out!

 

The smoke and light patterning was lovely at times.

 

The burn was nice and cool so no trees burned up too high, and we found and moved the resident Bobtail Goanna in time to keep him safe, so I was very happy about that.  Will be interesting to see how the area comes back by spring, which will be easy to do because the burn was done on my sisters' place!

The grass trees are inclined to go up a bit much though!  Still, better they do it now than during summer!  Like many Aussie plants, they survive and even thrive on fire, so will not be harmed by being burned like this.  

  
It is due to rain this evening, so things might return to winter weather after that.  I don't mind, then we can do inside things, like crochet and art.

My Niece Niamh is still working on her self portrait with her pony, Ollie. We've had one more session and I think we have one more to go.  There's no hurry.  A lot gets discussed and learned in the process as she goes.

I've been having the best time a novelist can have!  Bá from South America is a fellow writer and one of my creative and supportive peer circle, the Blissful Sisters, as we call ourselves.  She has been reading the first Freya novel, "Freya and the Golden Bear" and really loving it.

She keeps sending me little messages as to where she is up to and what moments she is enjoying or surprised by.  It is as if I get to read my book for the first time, by experiencing her enjoyment.  What a gift!  Thank you Bá!