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Showing posts with label Angus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Angus. Show all posts

Wednesday, 13 March 2019

Autumn catch-ups

At last the weather is turning towards coolness.   Things are going on as normal around here, though I am just getting over a crappy cold of snotness.

The chookies are having a nice life as usual. Guinevere went broody again, and since none of her fertile eggs survived the heat while she was sitting, I bought her four day olds. Three Silver-spangled Hamburgs and one white Cochin, which were what the local stockfeeder had hatching that day. I like Cochins, but I think Hamburgs might be a bit flighty for me, so we'll see how they go.

At any rate Guinevere is happy, though she only has three now because one chick died two days after arriving. It was a very hot day. I gave them an ice bottle but Guinevere isn't the smartest chook and she didn't take them over to it.  She's a sweet mama, though.




Morgana and her singleton child Mordred are still hanging out together.  Luckily she hasn't gone back to broody again!  Mordred is quite pretty, a cross of Silver-laced Wyandotte and black Australorp, and a hen thank goodness!       



 

As usual, the dogs and cat are hard at work.


You can see these two are related!  :D 


I've been playing lyre and guitar pretty much every day (till I got sick).  I'm getting a few songs up to scratch ready to join in Bardic circles when we go over to South Australia for Damh the Bard and Cerri's concerts and camp. Weeeee!

We bought a caravan and have been getting it set up to drive across the Nullabor. We've never done it, and it seems like something every Aussie should do once, so we're going to do it.  It's a Jayco penguin camper.  I really like Jaycos and it is the thing we looked at that didn't smell of outgassing plastics.
   
The biggest hassle has been trying to remove all the left over perfumes in it.  We've had to buy new foam to put in the mattress and kitchen seats because the one that was in them had some hideous chemical in it to keep it fresh.  Bleagh.  What a toxic world we are creating. The new foam is European standard and has no chemical outgassing or perfumes in it.  Thank goodness!  This chemical sensitivity drives me nuts.

Not that i had far to go to get there, as the next photo shows.



That's me embroidering my design on my ceremonial tabard.  Jarrah leaves and blossom one side, oak leaves and acorns the other, and the Awen in the middle with the colours of blue for Bard, Goldy-brown for Druid and Green for Ovate.  i love it now it's done but I will not be taking up embroidery for a hobby!  Head torch, 2.5 times glasses, and still I tired my eyeballs out.


Kitty liked to help me. Help me not embroider!  
               

Other current projects include a t-shirt design for the Druids of WA group.  We put out the call for anyone in the group to design a shirt, and i figure someone else will make a more serious one, so I let myself be as twee as i wanted, and this is the result.  Now being watercoloured.


Black swan,  black cockatoo, blue wren, and a non-gendered druid.   :)

We had a fun games night here not long before I got the snots. This pic came just before Thor crashed the Jenga pile.  We'd already played three games of Forbidden Desert by then and died every time. Apparently the five player version is very hard to win, so we didn't feel too bad.


I'll leave you with these pics of a creepy place I found when walking a local reserve I'd found in the street directory.  Turned out it was a whole big old granite quarry area, now abandoned, and it was one of those really weird moments to come upon it all out there when I'd expected just ordinary bush.


It had very odd energy and i found myself Druidly blessing the torn up land, and blessing the restless spirits of those who had laboured here, perhaps the convicts who built the railway lines in the area.    

This was the deep and black lagoon I came across.  A hole cut while chasing the dark granite into the ground, and now full of black water even so late in a dry summer.  It reminded me of nothing so much as the pool at the gates of Moria.  Brrr!   Didn't even dip a toe!   

 
  

Thursday, 22 February 2018

It's Awkward Family Photo Time!

Yay!  Been a photo-y few weeks really.   Been a few years since we got pics of the family, so it was definitely time!

Jem's growing family minus their oldest, Teelah, who had other commitments. 
They've grown up a little bit since 2013!
 

The best one?

Nice catch Andrew!  :D  

Uncle Greggy kicking back. 

Niamh, Jen and Molly
Pippa, Jen and Kelly


Mum and Angus

Niamh and Pippa


Tina, Rosie and Tuppence.  

It was worth the awkwardness!  Many thanks to Andyroo for getting out the good camera and taking the pics for us!  




 

Sunday, 3 December 2017

The Pleasures of Life

A good life is made up of many aspects.  Love, passion, companionship, interests, community service, connection to spirit, and use of the body in ways that it enjoys all come to mind on this day.  If this is true then my weekend was a good one.

Firstly, many thanks to all those who were so kind about Tess's loss.  Mum feels it the most  of course,  but Angus is running a close second.  He is not happy.

      
Mum said something that last day of Tess's that I think we all need to keep in mind. She was sitting on the floor with Tess's head on her knee, and Tess was so happy, and  Mum said she wished she had taken the time to do this more during Tess's life.  It's true.  It's easy to take a good dog for granted, and if they aren't the sort of dog who pushes forward for attention, sometimes you realise whole days have gone by where you've walked and fed them and talked to them, but you've hardly touched them.

Training mine has kind of fallen off the radar lately with so much else to do and no goals in mind, and because they are both not big fans of snuggles, I tend to be more hands-off with them than some of my past dogs.  Since Thursday, I've been making sure I give both my girls more attention in the ways they do enjoy, and gone back to doing daily training, and they do seem happier for it.

Sporting their new bandannas
Here's a happy dog.  This is Medusa, who is being fostered why the wonderkind brothers, Gogs and Thor.   We popped up to visit them as they were working on their block last friday and they had Deuce, as they call her, with them.  She adores those lads.  I hope she finds her forever home soon, but I think she will be sad to say goodbye to them.

  
Google offered me this funny animation of Gogs trying to get Deuce to jump up on the log they were slabbing.


On Saturday we had an early call-out to a fire.  I got to drive the 1.4 lights and sirens for the first time officially, and we buzzed around the tracks for a while but never found the 'burning fence post' that had been called in.  Then when we'd only been back to the station for ten minutes, we got another call-out this time to another bigger fire out near where the last one was.  I didn't go, because by then there were some very keen people who had arrived for scheds who rarely get to turn out.  I'm kind of glad, though.  It was very hot and sticky, and they had some long waits while the inaccessible area had 'tracks' bulldozed in for them.  If you can call them tracks...

Yikes!!! Glad I'm not Equipment officer any more!  These pics by Dave.

    
They did have some fun, though.  That Andyroo, what a ham!  :D


The helitacs were out in full force.  Always a glad sight to a Firey's eyes.


The guys were out at the fire till 3pm and missed the brigade friends' BBQ that Dave and Mandy had organised, but Roo and Rowdy did make it for food at the end of the afternoon.  Did I get pics of the humans?  No, but I did get a pic of their adorable little sprite of a dog, Lily.  Her tufty ears just killed me.



So expressive!

They also have a lovely cool and shady pond full of big koi and goldfish.  Google offered me this modified pic.  I like how the fish and water glow.

   
Mama chook Spotty managed to survive the last two hot days, and I made sure she got nice cold, nutritious and juicy food to eat.


Although Rover felt that this was vastly unfair and was not averse to leaping up to try and get at my bowl.


Yesterday was IMT training. I was a fake sector commander, reporting back on the fire conditions in my area and asking for more resources as the fire turned my way and got bigger.  Here I am getting briefed at the start.  It's kind of fun and kind of stressful, but always interesting.  Tom took this pic. Thanks Tom!  Note the sunnies AND reading glasses on my head.  It's a look I am attempting to make fashionable since I seem to end up accidentally doing it a lot!  :D 


It's a lovely cool and rainy day here today after two stinkers, and I am having a 'no shoulds' day.  That means there are still lots of things to do, but they are all things that I haven't been able to fit into the past few weeks, so it will feel like a holiday!

         

Friday, 20 October 2017

Our Labrador Babies Are Six!

How did that happen?

Mama Rosie, Baby Angus, Baby Tuppy, Grandma Lynne, Grandma Tess.
Seems like only yesterday that these two beauties, and all their brothers, were being born.


Pretty sure this is baby Angus, or Rocket as he was promptly named on his birthday, because he came out so fast, right behind another puppy.

Yes she's on the couch. She had them all on the couch, apart from one puppy that she had when she was supposed to be outside for a quick wee!  Yes of course we had a lovely whelping box for her.  She preferred the couch!
I'm sure Tuppy is in this one, but I can't honestly remember who wore what bit of yarn, and telling black lab pups apart from a photo is impossible!


Rosie looks so young in that photo.  I guess we all looked younger!  Luckily, we're all wiser now too, to make up for it.  :D

The usual dog-photographing chaos ensues!

Ah well, in other news, this was one of my writing spots this week:

Ahhhhh!
37 000 words written by the end of this week.  Almost at halfway!  A Firey friend has started reading 'Chicken Soup For Satan' and told me he's really enjoying it, and to hurry up and get the sequel finished.  I'm working on it, young Drew!  :D

This morning, we put on our comms brigade hats and went and did a rural urban interface exercise with a combo of a lot of brigades.  It was pretty chaotic at first.
 

But we soon got it all sorted out and the Fireys went out to do assessments of house defendability, then to set up house defense, as the huge imaginary fire got closer.  I got to try a new job; being scribe for the Operations Officer.  It was really interesting and fast-paced and I got to listen in on all of the planning, which was cool. If you don't think you can fight fires, there are plenty of other jobs you could be doing in a local brigade!

At the end, we all came back together for a debrief.  It was great to know so many people there, and I really enjoyed the human interaction.  There are so many lovely people in the Firey organisations!


I always like seeing the mix of uniforms at these big things!

That's me in the blue at the back there.  Love our blue shirts!  That's Max who i'm talking to there. Max is an ex-captain, a whizz on the radio, and a kind teacher, and I learn a lot from him. 



Tom, who took the pic, was amused by the 'no standing' sign on the tarmac there.  Glad to see others enjoy these little quirky moments in life! 

Tonight we go to our brigade annual dinner, and I am looking forward to seeing my good friends there.

Tomorrow I go to Just Add Passion for the Stoneville fete, and will be there signing books and networking with my fellow authors.  If you are a local, come by and say hello!  We're friendly, I assure you! 



   

Friday, 11 August 2017

"Cherokee Girl" on guitar, plus dog and kitty.

There's been more cold and grey weather for us the last few days, with storms forecast for this weekend too.  We've caught outside time when we could, even if it's been so grey at times that the gold of the flowering wattles seems to shine out of the darkness.



This little Wavy-leafed Hakea has gone bonkers!  It think it is about four years old.  One of our babies. 


Angus doesn't care if it's grey at walk time. He had the zoomies this morning while the girls were busy mousing. 





Funny boy!


This grey old man roo wasn't impressed when we walked by the other day.  He and his wife watched us very carefully.
 


It's easy to see why the roos around here are gray instead of red.  They camouflage into the forest so well.   Can you see him now?

It's been the sort of weather where staying in and crocheting or playing music makes good sense.

I recorded this song the other day.  Cherokee girl by Charles de Lint.  It's one of my faves to play because I love his writing and music, I love the writing of Terri Windling that inspired the book he wrote this song about, The Woodwife, and because I love the song for itself.  It's got a very cool message.
 


Kitty feels that the dark, cold mornings require warming himself under the table light beside the pot belly fire and being disapproving.


"I disapprove of you saying I disapprove of things!"


The paintings on the tanks up at Chidlow yesterday where we walked were a nice touch.


They're so gorgeous and bright and I especially appreciate the local birds they've painted.  I do love community art!


This weekend I get some Shaman healing from my friend Frances, and we go to a funeral for Jerry the pony.   Now I have to go and find the right thing to say about our dear little Pegasus pony, whether my own writing or a quote.

Have a lovely weekend!   On Monday I will draw the name of the lucky winner who will receive a free print book from me, to be sent anywhere in the world.  Please go to my site then comment somewhere on my social media to be in the chance to win a book.  Last chance to be in the draw!