I love photos! I love the ones that are full of family and friends and mean something and I love professional ones of land or seascapes.
I love to take photos! If anyone has got a camera at a family shin dig, it’s me and I’m not afraid to use it. Although I’m not very good at it.
But I do like this one! It took me only (!) about twenty shots to get everything in focus and looking the way I wanted it to. Gotta love digital cameras!
I’ll keep playing and see if I can encourage the photographer in me (or out) – I do hope there is one in there!
I think it’s fair to say that we’ve had our fair share of dust storms over the last week!
This photo could have been the start of the storms that hit Sydney. Taken in the north of SA (thanks Helen Williams) it shows not only the destructiveness of high winds and dry land, but how people can get caught in these events and not make it out.
The storm can be upon you in no time and the choking, enveloping dust, let alone the wind, makes life sometime unbearable for these station owners. The storms leave layers of dust, inches thick and clean up can take ages. You can bet your boots that the tiny grains will infiltrate every crevice of the house, sheds and vehicles.
Dust storms aren’t that uncommon in the north and they were the thought process behind the title of my book Red Dust – although I hate them.
Well it’s been and gone… and what an amazing night!
We started the launch for Red Dust at 5pm, but people started to trickle through by 4.45pm. By the time 5:30pm came, there was a definite buzz in the air, people talking, wandering through the shop and lots of laughing.
We had over 110 people through, which, although very overwhelming for me, was fantastic! I think I managed to sound coherent when I talked a little about how Red Dust came to being, but public speaking isn’t my forte!
Thanks to Sally from Le Grand Bookshop, for hosting the launch and my wonderful friends, Gill and Tiff, for all your wonderful food and support. To Lesley, Bindy and Jodi who all worked like Trojans on the night, thank so much. Also to my parents, John and June Parnell, sister, Susan and friend Moira for bothering to come all the way from SA for just one night!
To Cal … you’re the best!
This is the second fog we’ve had in a couple of weeks. It’s becoming apparent that autumn is well on its way. It’s cooled down in the morning, calm and magic.
Autumn is one of my favourite times of the year. We’re all eagerly awaiting rain and we start to watch the weather charts a bit more closely than over summer – or at least we look for different things – in summer we’re watching to see if we’re lucky enough to avoid extreme temperatures, or if it’s good fishing weather!
When the rains come, the smell on the dry earth is something that could lift you to the clouds! It’s the most beautiful smell in this world.
Then the tiny specks of green start to appear and after a few more days, the life giving green grass is well on it’s way to being tall enough to be eaten by the stock.
That goodness for Mother Nature – we’d be lost without her!
Having just finished the last edit of Red Dust and farming, kids and just ‘life’ not allowing a lot of time for writing at home, I picked up my laptop and headed to town.
Plonking down at a cafe on the Esperance Bay foreshore I started to focus heavily on Blue Skies for the first time in about three months.
Re-acquainting myself with my main character, Amanda, and her world of “Kyleena” (the family farm), I failed to notice the beauty that was surrounding me that day, until I finished the part I was working on and ordered my second cappuccino!
The sea was flat, the yachts that were moored were bobbing gently and there were people swimming and running through the sea and up and down the beach.
How lucky I am to live in such an inspiring, beautiful place.
On a trip to one of local beaches recently, we laughed at this Christmas tree that had been transplanted from the roadside to the beach.
Stuck in a huge hole on the beach, decorated beautifully and complete with a filleting table underneath, we’re pretty sure that ‘John’s Filleting’ and the rest of his campers had a great time!
And what a beautiful place to have Christmas! I wonder what the tree thinks of its sea change?
I love shifting stock. It’s great fun just slowly wondering them down the laneway to the paddock or yards. It’s where I do a lot of my planning for writing and because I’m outside, right in middle of my inspiration.
It’s where I get most of my ‘light bulbs’ ideas. I never leave home without my scribble pad and pen and sometimes I find myself writing whole chapters in longhand.
The best thing about these laneways, is that I don’t really have to watch the stock.
They make there own way and because they are guided by the fences on either side of them, they keep walking, and I keep scribbling, until they reach an open gate and in they go!
Of course, the boss, (woof on wheels) Rex keeps an eye on me and lets me know if I’m not noticing something I should. Oh and by the way, Rexy is wearing a muzzle because we produce prime lambs.
If a dog accidentally bites the sheep on the hock, it downgrades the quality of the carcase. It’s not nice for sheep either!
Our dogs don’t bite anything (sheep, cattle or humans, in fact they’re more likely to lick you death than anything!) but they all wear muzzles so there’s no chance that they could slip up.
My late father-in-law had a saying ‘Morning is the best time of the day, I always say!’ and the past few mornings have been just that!
Calm, cool and really quite autumn-like. It’s been a joy to be up and about early.
With recent rains, Red Dust Country is no longer brown and dusty! In fact it looks quite idyllic through these photos that my Mum and Dad took!
Amazing photos of watching the water just as it starts to run down the creek and long suffering sheep on green pastures!
It makes me wish I was back there for a while! The gum trees are just so majestic and the hills give such character to this timeless land. Beautiful!
Hopefully it will give you and idea of the sort of country that Gemma, from Red Dust, was running and the battles and isolation she faced.
Thunderstorms in summer can be dangerous things. Especially if they’re dry storms.
After a 34 degree day, we watched as thunder clouds bore down on us. Harvest was well underway and we kept scanning the skies, willing the clouds away, least we get another hold up.
Then the thunder started — I’ve never heard thunder like it! It sounded like it was on a surround-sound speaker! We watched, speechless, as lightening hit the ground all around us but without any rain.
There was bound to be a lightning strike somewhere. The bushfire radio crackled to life as we saw the smoke.
The fire was in a national park about 45km from us, so we weren’t needed to help this time.
As the cool change came through and blew the smoke our way, it made for beautiful photos. Mother nature, how beautiful, but she needs so much respect!
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