Fires and firey sunsets

It's still so dry here.  We had a couple of turnouts east of us in Wandoo country, and they were rather fraught at first, with fire on both sides of the roads and helitacs dropping water very close to us.  Of course you can't take time to get photos when it's all happening, but I did get this one as we were returning from a water run to fill up the truck.

Andy got a few good ones of the 2nd fire when it settled down.  This is me out in a paddock, using a monitor to put out burning cow pats and wet down the edge of the fire on case of flare ups later.  You can see why people use the cow pats for fires in wood free areas.  The little buggers just keep smoldering!

Here's the traditional selfie by Andy!

There was a lot less slog in the black stuff than we usually get, just a bit at the end.  I came home from the 2nd fire positively spritely and almost clean, though it's hard to see from this pic how that could have happened!

We also took the new caravan out for a trial run weekend.  We went a little under 3 hours up the coast, to a town called Cervantes.  It has a beautiful bay.

I loved these birdy footprints in the sand.  

The sunsets were stunning.

We also went to check out the Pinnacles, which are stone left behind by an ancient forest.  They had really interesting energy.  Kind of treelike and yet stonelike, which I guess makes sense.

 
John Grey, if you are reading this, this pic is especially for you!

The caravan performed well and I wasn't affected by sleeping in it, so that is good news, but we were buggered by the time we came home, so we've pulled out of plans to drive over east to South Australia.  It's 2700km one way, and we'd need to do the drive in four days.   Um, nope!  Maybe one day we'll do it when we don't have a time limit.

Instead, I've booked last minute plane tickets (or in fact darling Michelle who should be a travel agent has!) and Roo will hold the fort here (and happily read books) while I once more gad off to play with other Druids.  Weeeeee!

Here I am communing with the local King Jarrah with one of my Druid friends, who came to visit on Sunday. It is so nice to be with people who see the world as I do.

In the world of chicken, things are going on as usual.  Guinevere has two chicks left of the original four day-olds I bought her.  The third chick was a lot smaller than the two that are left, and over the weekend she injured her leg somehow.  It was not repairable and she was in pain, so I had to send her to chicken heaven.  It was sad, but that is life with chickens. She had a good life while it lasted, and at six weeks, she was only a week or so younger than meat birds are when they kill them, believe it or not!   

Here she is, tucked very close to mama, while they all dust bathed last week before the accident (whatever that was.)

I love how Pongo has his legs in the air!  Yes, it is a he, and the remaining spangled girl is a girl, thank goodness, who I have boringly called Ham for now.  Pongo is some sort of throwback, and has a few black feathers and some brown feathers on the back of his head.  Odd.  He looks rather Dalmatian-y, hence the name!

Hamburgs are supposed to be a bit flighty, but so far these babies have been particularly tame for hen-raised birds.

I can pick them up, push them gently out of the way, and they don't turn a feather.  Guinevere is very friendly so that probably helps.  That and the mealworms!

Frankendotte the rooster is now crowing and chasing the ladies, and as expected, just like his dad he has no manners, so unless he goes to a new home this week, he'll be in the pot.  Poor Nanny Ogg's feathers have only just grown back from before Elvis went to rooster heaven.  He's handsome though!

Behind him is one of my two Coronation Sussex girls.  They are such a laugh! That is Mofo. When she needs to lay an egg, she runs around trying to find the very best hidey spot and ends by laying anywhere she ends up when it is too late. She has yet to lay an egg in the nesting box!

This is what waits for me at chicken bedtime.

Looks like a scene from The Birds!    

Rosie turned eleven.  I can't believe my baby is eleven.  Dear sweet Rosie. I have no idea how you had such a feisty daughter, who by the way bit our lovely postman this week when he came in the gate to give us a parcel.  I'm so sorry Martin!

Tuppence is a handful, no doubt about it.  I'm not sure why she bit him when she's met him many times before and been ok.  She just has a loose wire in that ordinary lab-looking head of hers and sometimes it goes spoing!

Now I have to find some way to keep her from the driveway when we are out of the yard that attache sot our cottage, and on a rural acreage that is going to be tricky unless I just never let her accompany me about the property.  Ah well, in the meantime, there is my sweet Rosie to comfort me.  Can't you talk to Tuppy, Rosie and tel her to pull her fool head in?    

Hey, I never wanted kids in the first place. She's your problem.

 
Cyrano is wasting away to a baby elephant, as older family members used to say.

He is definitely getting around more easily.  He might argue that that is no compensation for a full food bowl, but we'd run out of types of medication to add for him, so it was diet or curtains, and I want my boy around for a little longer yet!               

         


   

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!   

 
  

Love

I'm not sure I deserve the love of this very large and devotedly snuggly cat.

Being the special person of a special animal is a privilege, but also a heavy burden at times.

Especially when the special animal is also bloody heavy!  (And even more especially when the weather is hot and you are having hot flashes!)

Life and Dream

The dream was the 17th OBOD Australian Assembly, or maybe the assembly was real life at last.  Not sure.  At any rate, it was bloody amazing, and I can't talk about much of it because it is secret Druid's business (it is a mystery school and it is most fun if you get to learn things in their correct order) however I can say that a weekend with more than 40 people who are all open, heart-centred, nature-loving, creative and just downright wonderful, well, it was life-changing.

Ceremony, connection, laugher, tears, goosebumps, stories, singing, dancing, hugging, meditating, making music, walking amongst the trees with people who love them like I do.  Pure bliss!

Can I show you pics of the lovely people and what we got up to?  Nopey nope!   I wish I could but I can't.  I'll hold the times and the photos close to my heart instead.  To those who were there, just let me say, I love you all, and you are all amazing humans, and may we meet again soon, because I can feel your hearts all the way out there across Australia and New Zealand, and it is something to hold to, but will not be enough forever.

Special mention to Dusty and Jenni, my fellow WA-ites, who shared a cabin with me and made me feel like a kid camping again.  You both rock and I love you lots!     

Here is the hillside beyond the campground with a distant rainbow.
     

Here is me just after my initiation as Druid.  What can I can say about that but, hell yes, if you are an OBODie on the path, keep going, because it just gets better and better, and of the Druids who held space for my fellow initiates and me, I want to say a heartfelt thank you, and may it be so that I one day come to carry and share the joy, warmth and wisdom that you carry and share so gracefully.

Almost the very best thing?  I made it!  No crashes, no bad reactions, I was full of energy for the whole four days no matter how hectic it got.  I had to be careful, especially of what I ate and breathed, but ten years ago, if someone had told me that one day I would be well enough to do such a thing, I'd have thought they totally sucked for teasing me.  Chronic Lyme *can* be treated and managed well enough to have a good life again, and I am living proof, but I will never take it for granted.  I'm loving every moment of it. 

Home is good too.  I'm still bouncy happy Tina.  No post-con depression.  I am every day working to add more of my spirituality into my life.  Seeking to find out who I am at core, and making sure I prioritise those parts of my life that feed that.  We are all works in progress, and I'm working on it.  Always will be, I'm sure.

More time in nature...

More time with good friends, human and animal...

More time doing work of the hands...

The moccs are getting a makeover. 

Druid tabard to be...

       More time doing all sorts of writing and making art and making music...

New kids' story coming soon!

More time doing service for my community at both my brigades, including my amazing new bushfire brigade, Chidlow VBFB...

Shiny new jacket for a shiny new beginning!

More time snuggling you-know-who...

And apparently less time crocheting, because that same you-know-who likes sitting on the current afghan way too much lately.

Blogging is still going to be less frequent, but I miss the diary element of my time here.  I might endeavour to be more regular with it.  We'll see.  Lots else to do these days!

I wish for you all, "a blessing upon your days, a blessing upon your lives, a blessing upon the land."  /|\ 

 

Winter Warm

It is hard to believe today, holed up inside while wind and rain beat the trees about outside, that yesterday sister Jen and I went to the beach.

We took Jen's two 'Yellows' as she calls them, Kelly and Pippa, and my Rosie.

 Poor Tuppy had to stay home with Daddy and her brother, Angus, because I didn't think it was fair either to her or the masses of dogs that go to the beach to take her along and let her brains get fried.  Some dogs, just like some people, don't do well in crowded social situations.

It was a wise choice, because as a result I was able to relax and enjoy the company of my very special and gentle ten year old girl, who got to be my only dog for the morning.

    
This cute and amazingly-marked dog was just one of the squintillion pooches we passed on our walk.

Blue eyes too!  Did you ever?

I love winter.  Stormy beaches.  Slanting light.  Bonfires...

Amazing dawns...

Those were taken from nearly the same place on two separate days.  Mind bogglingly inspiring!

And rainbows too.

The chickens are enjoying the green grass, guarded over by an almost fully mature Elvis.

In other news, I've been savaging this cheap new violin case to carry my lyre, because I am off east to go to the 17th OBOD Australian Assembly.

It has been kind of fun to hack apart something new.  :D  Let's hope I can get it back together!

At the Assembly, I am hopefully getting to be initiated into the Druid level, so it is very exciting for me!  I think it is been 13 years of study so far, through the Bardic and then Ovate grades, and now I begin the next stage of my journey.  Also, I get to meet heaps of lovely fellow Druidy people, some of whom I have been friends with online for years but never met IRL before!  Yay!

The live story readings are still going well and am now up to the fifth chapter.  I've made a playlist on youtube, so if you want to get the whole story in one place, here it is, or will be when I finish it.  There are maybe two more sessions to go, unless I decide to belt the story out all the way to the end next Sunday!  Beware, is not safe for work and contains some naughtiness and swearing.

Last week I finally took myself off to join in with a local ukulele group.  OMG, so much fun!  Do it!

And with all this winter busyness, what has Mr Kitty been doing, I hear you ask?  Did you really need to?  :D

See you next time I feel bloggy!