Archive for the Category »Photos «

Aug

I’m guessing that many of you think that living on a farm is peaceful. Quiet. Well let me tell you otherwise!

It was a gorgeous morning. We’d had a heavy shower the night before, which had netted us 8mm, so we were smiling! The trees and grass were weighted down with rain and everything was sparkling with dew-drop diamonds.

As I opened my eyes first thing, I listened to the birds singing. That’s a regular occurrence, but this morning, they were singing louder than normal. I could pick a few calls – Wattle birds, Butcher bird. There was a Magpie in the mix and the little Silver Eyes were really going for it!

I wondered outside with my morning coffee and could hear the next farms’ cattle bellowing. I guess they’re doing some cattle work that involves splitting the cows and calves, because it was a panicked, ‘Where’s my baby,’ type of bellow!

I could hear stock trucks rumbling along the road and for a moment, worried that they might be turning in our driveway – the truck carting our lambs, wasn’t due until Wednesday. I could even hear our neighbours dogs barking. (They live a good three or four kilometers away from us!)

Anthony, Shaun and I started our day in the sheep yards and we were also splitting mums and babies, but ours were sheep. The noise was unbelievable! In all the time I’ve worked with stock, I don’t think I’ve heard a louder mob of ewes! I was standing about ten metres away from Anthony and I couldn’t hear what he was saying! (It’s quite funny when you can see their lips moving and hand actions, but not hear anything!)

So today, the farm was far from peaceful – this photo, really tells lies!

Category: Photos, The Farmer's Life Leave a Comment

Jun

ABIA Awards

Fleur

It’s been such a busy time for us recently, with seeding, sheep work and all sorts of other things on the go! It will be like this until after Christmas now with hay making, shearing and later, harvest.

We’ve been lucky enough to have good rains and everything seems to be on track for a good season.

The weather has been freezing and as you can see by this photo, the skies have been far from blue this week – although as I sit and write this, it’s shaping up for a cold but clear day!

I had a phone call from my publisher late Friday afternoon, asking if she thought I could be in Sydney by Wednesday for the ABIA awards. Red Dust is a finalist in the Newcomers/Debut section and oh, how I’d love to go – the powerhouses of the industry would be there along with the writers, the opportunities… the list goes on!

But after a hurried discussion and thoughts about what we have to do this week, I’ve been sad to decline the invitation. However, I really want to wish all of the A&U authors good luck – and there’s quite a few of them. Fellow WA author Craig Silvey is among them with his amazing book, Japser Jones.

Allen and Unwin themselves are up for the award of Publisher of the Year and I have to say after working with them for three years now, they deserve every award and accolade available. Allen and Unwin run their business thinking all their staff are ‘family’ and it shows. Everyone I have dealt with has been passionate, helpful and love what they do. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

Category: Family, Photos, The Farmer's Life, The Writer's Life 2 Comments

Jun

Why I live where I live

Fleur

Every Sunday morning, on ABC radio, Macca has a segment called, ‘Why I live where I live.’ Well I think I’ve talked about this last few blogs, so I’m just going to show you some photos of last evening.

There was a partial eclipse then – Saturday the 27th June – which we watched over a few hours. But these photos are the prelude to that event.

The moon rising over Thomas River (which runs thorugh our farm, down to the beach.)

This was an awesome view, but I wasn’t quite quick enough with my camera. If you look really closely you’ll see some Kangaroos hoping on the horizon. We were driving up from the bottom of the gully and saw about thirty kangaroos hopping in front of the moon.

And this was the view from the opposite direction, as the sun sank on another day.

Category: Country Life, Photos 4 Comments

Jun

Here’s hoping!

Fleur

I hear rainbows have magic powers! Well, here’s hoping it can fix my garden! This was our view as I took the kids to the school bus last week.

A rainbow ends on my farm… that’s got to be good. After all, they’re supposed to have a pot of gold at the end, aren’t they? I wonder what other powers they have and if there would be any chance of the glittery, shiny end of the rainbow helping the plants in my garden. Maybe if it was somewhere between the lemon tree (that seems to have a strange leaf curling disease) and the rosemary bushes (that have a white fungus/moldy looking thing on them) it might be able to make them thrive again. Or, could its magic powers be so strong, that it simply just makes me like gardening?

Most people would assume that if you’re a good farmer, you’re a good gardener. I mean, the skills follow on from each other! You would think it’s important that to be a farmer, that I was also a good gardener. We do grow crops and feed for stock and that involves gardening skills. Even the words sound similar: farmer/gardener. But nope, I think it’s safe to say that the love of gardening has bypassed me all together! My sister has it, as has my mum and Nana before her. Nana enjoyed both cooking and gardening; one of the things I remember as a child, were her beautiful white camellias growing on the verandah- a piece of paradise in a hot, arid environment.

Well, I got the cooking gene, but nothing else! My garden is doomed to be a blob of straggly plants around the house, while the paddocks flourish (when it rains) with green grass and four tonne crops!

I love nice gardens. I particularly love roses, nice lawns, Salvias and Snap Dragons. I just can’t seem to keep them alive. Within days of being home they, at worst, wither and die, at best they just look sick! And if it’s somewhere in the middle, the rabbits have eaten the tips off them. Humph!

Anthony’s favourite saying, when I bring seedlings home from town is: ‘What victims have you got this time?’

I really do seem to have my ambitions and capabilities mixed up in this case

Category: Country Life, Family, Photos 3 Comments

Jun

Another night at Thomas River

Fleur

The boss mans’ fishing adventures have been non-existent lately! Between my high-flying (and rather unusual) absences, the rainy weather (not that we’re complaining!) and getting to the busy time of year, it’s been rather difficult to make it to the beach.

However, last weekend we all made it down there. A fire, full moon and toasted marshmallows made for a fantastic night. All we were missing were the fish!

The sea has been quite stirred up over the past couple of weeks. The strong winds and rain have caused a huge swell, which in turn stirs up the seaweed and makes it hard to fish. That was what it was like the other night, so after a couple of hours of dragging seaweed, every time Anthony reeled the line in, he gave up and sat down to enjoy the moon rising over the water, the atmosphere and the kids.

Category: Family, Photos 2 Comments

May

What the rain brings

Fleur

While I was shifting sheep yesterday afternoon, I had to marvel at how quickly the country has responded to the rain. The feed has shot out of the ground, which is lovely because the stock really needed an injection of green feed and all the vitamins that it holds.

It was still raining as the sheep milled towards the open gate – 83 odd millimeters over a week and half has wet the soil up nicely and left large, deep puddles lying in the lower areas of the paddocks – it’s been a very long time since I’ve seen that.

The ‘fun-guys’ (as Anthony calls fungi!) has grown quickly too. There are toadstools pushing their way through the dirt in many places and my back lawn has erupted with mushrooms! They’re the safe ones, so I’ll be able to pick them when we have steak for tea. Steak and mushroom sauce – yum, sounds like a pub dinner!

How alone does the tree look though? The fact that it’s dead, the wood is so dark (because it’s so wet) and the stark, grey sky – gives me goose bumps when I look at it out in the paddock!

Category: Photos, Weather One Comment

May

After the Rain

Fleur

Rain just seems to bring the whole countryside alive – animals and humans alike – and the 27mm we had over the weekend has done just that.

The menfolk are smiling and you can hear the roar of tractors, sowing the crops or spraying the paddocks, when you walk outside. At night the landscape is dotted with machine spotlights as the blokes work late.

The stock are chasing the green pick, that seems to have appeared overnight (maybe the dust was just washed off what germination was still left alive) and the insects have gone crazy!

The dragonflies, it seems, have decided it’s mating season and there are huge numbers of them flying around – quite amazing the way that they can mate while they’re flying! Gives a whole new meaning to ‘The mile high club’!

I caught this little guy as he landed on my Butterfly Bush. He (or she!) intrigued me and I loved the way I could see the glistening raindrops on his back.

So, without being greedy, we’d love to see another couple of inches over the coming weekend – we’d hate to have another false break, like we did about a month ago. Here’s to a good season!

Category: Country Life, Mother Nature, Photos One Comment

May

A perfect start!

Fleur

Check out this sunrise! I was up early a few weeks ago – it was before the rain we had over this past weekend and things were dry and stark. The morning air, around this time of the year, should be damp and cool, but not this morning!

This was a sunrise from the middle of summer! The pre-dawn feel was warm and dry and the sunrise was hinting at another perfect day… for living, not farming! And that’s the way we really have to look at dry times: find hope and optimism in each day.

Yep, it’s dry, and yep, we are still hand feeding animals and they not looking in tiptop condition and yep, the water is getting a bit low in the dams - some have disappeared completely. But while we are doing all of this we’re experiencing gorgeous weather – it’s hard to be sad when the sun is shining, the birds are singing and the weather is still (it would be different it was hot with a strong northerly blowing).

And the other good thing is days like these make for wonderful fishing nights!

Category: Country Life, Mother Nature, Photos 6 Comments

Feb

Shifting a mob

Fleur

Today there is a catastrophic fire danger for the South coast of WA. It’s gonna be a stinker of a day and we’re just about to have another meeting to see if the Bushfire Brigade are going to issue a Movement of Vehicles in paddocks ban.

There’s a smoke haze from a fire to the north of us and the wind is a strong northerly that’s sending shivers up my spine. Today is not a day for a fire.

But first up, we had a mob of 1,700 sheep that we had to shift. We had bought them from our neighbours and it was time for them to see their new home!

We started at about 5am with two dogs, Anthony, the two kids, a mate and his daughter and me.

We had to push them across a main road and then down a side road to where we had laid down a fence to let them into our paddock.

The kids did an amazing job of being sheep shepard’s and we brought the sheep down the road without any problems! They’re now in their new home, awaiting some animal husbandry work that we’ll be doing on Monday.

On a Red Dust note, I found out yesterday from my publisher that it was the highest selling novel, across all of the Australian publishers, for 2009, from a debut author. I’d just really like to thank all of you who bought copies. You’re the only reason this happened.

Also, the winner of Sharyn Munro’s book, Woman on the Mountain, was Alison, who has been notified, although I’m just waiting for her to get back to me with an address so we can send it off.

Our guest blog next month is Helene Young, who will be giving away a copy of her new book, Border Watch.

**PS! It’s now nearly the end of the day and I think we had about seven fires across the Esperance shire. Some close to home. Right now I’m listening to the wonderful sound of rain on a tin roof, knowing that all the fires should be under control. Some spots have had terrential down pours and other areas have had a steady rain, that is just enough to dampen the fires and our worry. We are so thankful for rain on days like today.

Category: Country Life, Farm animals, Photos, Red Dust, The Farmer's Life, The Writer's Life 2 Comments

Feb

Australia Day

Fleur

One of the things I love about Australian’s is we love dressing up! Whether it’s for the cricket, the tennis, Australia Day, we throw throw ourselves into the celebrations!

I think the sky dressed up for Australia Day too!

Category: Mother Nature, Photos One Comment