Lyre and chickens.

Blimey it's been a lovely couple of days here!  Early spring, cool, sunny and glorious!

Saturday I had Fireys in the morning, then in the afternoon spent some time outside with my lyre while the chooks ranged around me.  I'm still working on the new song so was tinkering with that and then played a few old favorites just to keep my hand in.  It was very pleasant indeed!

Nanny Ogg was enjoying herself too, showing off her fine Australorp figure.

Sunday we popped over to my sisters Jen's place to give Bro-in-Law his late birthday present, then I did some baking and a bit of guitar playing ( Weee! Am loving playing Ghosts of the Open Road so much!) then it was off to our first controlled fuel reduction burn of the spring.

The weather was perfect; not too cold or hot, not too windy.  It did get a bit smoky due to a bit of wetness in the leaf mulch still. Ah well, we have such a short burning window here we had to get going, so sorry about that neighbours!

You can see why I was calling Paul T "Apocalypse Man," after getting this shot!

I am superman and don't need to breathe air like you mere mortals!

It was lovely for me because I really liked the team we took.  This is Jen and Michelle clowning around during blacking out while in the background the guys light up a pile of branches that we later were told the owner was saving for a bonfire. Whoops!  :D 

 

Phil from Liverpool has recently joined the brigade and I do enjoy hearing his accent. It's not so much like my own Da who has lost his, but very like my aunties.  He took to the firebug like a natural.

I loved having sister Jen with me and we got to drive the Light Tanker back to the station together.  Bonus!   
 

I was a tad (a lot) buggered by the end.  Need to get my fire season fitness up some more, but I do have the excuse of still being a snot-monster.  My cold is taking a while to clear out.  
 Cyrano has been enjoying the weather too and he accompanied me over to mum's today to have lunch with us and posed for us to appreciate him.  I thought his eyes looked particularly beautiful here with the pupils closed up to show more of his lovely pearly-green irises.  

Wherever you are, may the turning of the seasons bring you some mild days of natural beauty to enjoy!  We're taking every advantage of ours!

Heh, Andrew just came in from another burn.  He is a tiny bit feeeeelthy!

He's a bit buggered now too, having been out two days in a row, but as our Lieutenant pointed out yesterday, it is righteous buggeredness!   It certainly is a satisfying job, but not really for those who like to stay pristine and clean. 
  

Birdy num num

Spring is just around the corner, and the birds are letting us know.  My morning practice has once more been joined by Limpy, who doesn't bother in the winter season but as soon as the nesting starts, she is back nagging me for a little bit of extra to stock up the larder.

Hand it over or I go for the toes....

 
This is the sound of them all calling nest to nest in the night that I got last year.  To me it says spring like no other sound.

This year it sounds like we have four nests within hearing, not just two! I'm not sure if it represents the same family all split up for nesting season, or if I can hear birds from other territories.  They are fierce tribalists.  I only seem to see one set of babies at a time so maybe those are other tribes outside our birds' territory, or perhaps other family members settle elsewhere in their patch than the egg nest and sing back and forth to tell each other where they are.

It's interesting how we can live so close to another being and not know much about them, isn't it.  And yet we think we'll be able to understand aliens when they show up? 

I had a meet up with another local feathered being yesterday.  Andrew was in town for a job interview and he still has his cold, so I went along as chauffeur so that he could spend all his energy and brain power on the interview itself.  I sat in the atrium-y space of this hotel and business centre to read and wait, and who should come to keep me company but a Willie Wagtail!

   
This little bird, insect eater, was once common, but was almost wiped out by one of the insecticides (dieldrin maybe?) that accumulated in their bodies form their diet and made their eggshells too soft to sit on without breaking them, but now they are coming back, I am very glad to see.

It was still odd to see one in such an alien environment. I would expect pigeons and even seagulls, but not a bird that I so closely associate with the bush.  What do they eat?  Spiders?  He was very busy seeing off a rival male with loud chaffs and chucks.

Piss off, you horrible interloper!

And hardly even noticed me, even sitting right behind my shoulder on my chair and staying put when I turned around to look at him, my eyeballs only centimetres away.  It is by far the closest I have ever been to one of these little guys.

I love their grumpy little white eyebrows and their smart tuxedos. 

 What an odd environment to find one thriving.

 

I found this video of one hunting bugs while someone is gardening and thought it was a good one for showing how cheery and cheeky they are.  You can see him do his characteristic tail wag too.

I think the tail wagging is a sexy thing for the girls. It certainly doesn't seem to help with flying or hopping!

Speaking of tail wagging, someone is happy that his mama is home from holidays, and making sure that she doesn't get away from him again!

You can't go anywhere if I'm on your feet!

Even though he seems not to have had too bad a time staying with us.

Although it got a bit hard for us when he began manifesting as Evil Angus!

You will comply with my evil plans!

This Raspberry Jam tree, so-called for I-don't-know-what-reason, is flowering a beauty this year!

And Cyrano likes that daddy is still sick and sitting around keeping him company.

    

Such is the life of a kitty!

At the end of writing this week I am less than one thousand words shy of the big 100 000 words on Land of Giants.  Go, me, go!



       
        




 

Winter Colds and Spring Flowers,

We're still snotty here and still minding mum's two snuggly Yellow Labs, so there's been a lot more of this:

And some of this too.  Angus loves to snuggle on the bed but he is totally crap at it.  It's elbows to the nose and feet to the kidneys all the way.   

Which reminds me of this meme, which always amuses me because it's true, for some dogs at least.

We've been staggering outside for little walks and up to the block too, just a bit later when the air is warmer.  We had a bit of a rainy one up at the block the other day.  Man, drying off four Labs by toweling them off is better than a gym workout!

We know that spring is just around the corner because the Wattles, Hakeas and Lucerne trees are all flowering.  I just love the cascading habit of the Lucerne trees.

The bees love them too.  It's good to know we can help them get through the winter by having so much early-flowering goodness available for them. 

I managed to write my novel words all last week so am very proud of myself for keeping that going, snot and all.  Music playing had to be curtailed to pure music as any attempts to sing caused coughing, but I did play every day, still, lyre and guitar most days.  Am currently practicing my version of Jabberwocky so that I can be ready to video it for you, and have started work on a composition of my own about Odin and his horse, Sleipnir.  I have the chorus and one musical bridge worked out nicely but the verses, both lyrics and music, need more work.       

I did manage to keep up with my baking.  Rosie likes to sit right next to where I do my mixing in case anything yummy falls off the counter, but she ended up in the exactly the wrong place the other day when I got a bit wild with the flour.

 

Sorry baby!  And it doesn't even taste nice!
      
We had to miss Fireys this weekend due to the attack of the snot-monster but I did manage to get Sawyers Valley Volunteer Bushfire Brigade's website news done for the month. If you'd like to see what we've been up to, go here.   

Extra Labradors

We have mum's two Labbies (Rosie's mum, Tess, and Rosie's son and Tuppy's bro, Angus) staying with us this week, and we have a cold too, so there has been an awful lot of Angus being photogenic and not much else being done.

 

 He is very snuggly.

Tess likes a snuggle too.

The only person who is not enthused at the extra patronage of our laps is Mr Superkitty!   :D

Humph!

An Interesting Weekend

We started with the local Folk and Blues Club on Friday night. I think my personal favorites were Dingo's Breakfast.  A great mix of singalongs and originals, and lovely harmonies. There was a lassie from down Fremantle way who stood in for a band who nearly all had the flu. I missed her name but she had some really good original songs and could play a mean guitar.  Funny too.  It's good to see such a depth of talent in our little city.

There was a lady with them this time. I think they change their members round a bit. 

Suzy got a lovely photo of sister Jen, and I.  Amazing how light it seems, as it was quite dark in the venue!

Awwww, I love my Jen!

 
Saturday morning was schedules at the Sawyers Valley VBFB station, but also minding my nieces because sis and bro-in-law were at a radio course for Fireys.  After we got home from their basketball and my Fireys duties, we watched one of my all time fave B-Grade movies; Beastmaster!

 
Yay!  I love all the animals in it, and it has nothing to do with all the underdressing.  Really.  :D

"I must remember to crouch down to show off leg muscles at all opportunities."

After that we played a hot game of Forbidden Island and got off the Island with only two tiles of land left to sink. Phew!

Then we got out my Anglo-Saxon lyre and the kids got me to play a couple of songs, then had a go themselves. It was really fun to have them singing along to Son of the Trees with me and really good to see them pick up playing my lyre so fast.

After that we had to get on the computer to listen to the original Son of the Trees song and sing along with that, and some of the other great stuff that Pilgrim does too.  This one, Feast, had us jumping around, it is so catchy.

I like showing the kids how, once you can play an instrument, you get to join in and have fun with other people making music.  They both play the violin, and it can be hard to be practicing all the time, but it is good to have goals to work towards with your music, and one of them should be fun with other people like these guys get to have!


The dogs and kitty all got some extra loving too.
  

Sunday morning I went along to keep Jen company as she took her big Irish Draft Sporthorse baby, Fionn, to riding club to have a look around. He was a very good boy.

He was desperate to meet this lovely chunker of an Appy.

Then he got to have a practice at standing tied at the float with his hay, with his little friend Jerry nearby and us keeping an eye on him.  We needn't have worried. He was so good!  He loves his food!

Yesterday arvo, I started to get a sore throat and it is still here today. Oh oh!  That is how the current local flu starts!  More silver!  After being sick for so many years, I resent a single day laid low now.  Bugger off germs!

             


 

Drumming and Other Thunder.

It's been a bit of a stormy time weather-wise here lately. We've had some wet and chilly dog walks.

The dogs don't care though!

That's our neighbour's house up at the block. It went up for sale this week.  Newish 4 x 2 house on five unloved acres.  $850 000!  Real estate here is nuts despite the recent down-turn in the great mineral grab.

Stormy weather and dog walks = lots of rainbows!

This was taken above the local pub the other morning. Rain just past, more rain on the way, and in between, this glowing sky. No, sadly, we weren't in our way home from an all-nighter, we were up early and out dog walking as usual! 

In between storms on Wednesday, we went round the firebreak here and there to keep our brains fresh.  The neighbour's three horses came to see if we'd give them some fresh grass over the fence, and of course we obliged.

This grey Appy is my fave. Such a pretty girl and I love her white-tipped ears.  He's had both Appies from weanlings (in those days one was chestnut and one dark grey!) and they must be in their teens now, and the chestnut QH mare is in her twenties.  Lucky, much loved horses!

More please!

Ok, here it comes!

Writing on Land of Giants is positively cranking along this week. It's pretty easy to keep the words coming when your characters are fighting a Smilodon or two!  Word count as of my final session for the week was 88 154 words.

I've been doing well with my music too.  Tin whistle, guitar and lyre sessions have all been had, mostly lyre plus one of the others each day. Current song that is almost worked out is Jabberwocky!  I'll try to get a video this week. 

We actually got some photos of drumming last week.

With all of us having some experience, we really got into some changing patterns and breaks.  Was great fun!  If you are facebooky, you can see two videos of us here:

https://www.facebook.com/HillsDrumming/videos/pcb.1031608263626187/1031601140293566/?type=3&theater

And here:

https://www.facebook.com/HillsDrumming/videos/pcb.1031608263626187/1031606463626367/?type=3&theater

Particularly enjoyed the second one.  We had three patterns going at once, and were taking turns keeping going while the others stopped their pattern and added in the break over the top, and it sounded great to be part of it.

A bit more wood chopping got done this week for a brigade member. We finished his big pile of logs!  Yay us!

Pierre was there too but he's camera shy.  (And he shouldn't be!)

At the sensible age of 11, Cyrano stays in when the weather is bad.  Preferably with someone nearby to smooch him, or someone to sit on!

  

 

Our sweet boy. He went to the vet last week for a teeth clean but came out of his anaesthetic well.

I'm going to take a picture of him all week, one a day.  I think by the end of the week they'll all look like they were taken within minutes of each other.  :D