Fleur McDonald is one of Australia’s leading rural literature authors, with her books becoming best sellers almost as quickly as they hit the shelves. Having sold over 500,000 copies of her books, she has solidified her position as one of the country’s favourite storytellers.

School Holiday Fun

I seem to be climbing a lot of hills these school holidays! At least this one isn’t as high or as steep as Mount Raggard! This is Mount Howick, the hill I live under… or at the bottom of! The kids and I headed off early one morning, climbed to the top and had a…

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Nature’s contrasts

I guess photos of sunsets have been done over and over, but every time I manage to take a good one, I get excited! This is at Thomas River (again!). We were just setting up our camp as the sun slipped below the hills. The beach is an interesting place at sunset, one minute full…

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Red Dust Prologue

A taste of what is to come … here’s the Prologue from Red Dust: Tears rolled down her cheeks as Gemma stood looking into the grave, a lonely figure in the hot January sun. All the other mourners had since left for the coolness of the church hall seeking welcome cups of tea or cold…

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Family Reunion

I find that even though our family is close, we don’t often get to see each other as much as we should. With family members scattered from one side of the country to the other, and Esperance being slightly ‘out of the way’, it sometimes makes getting together very difficult. This Easter was a lovely…

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Waiting, waiting …

I’m waiting for the phone to ring. My stomach’s churning, my finger nails bitten to the quick and still it’s silent. Taunting me! Then the shrill tone cut through the air and even though I’m expecting the call I jump like a startled rabbit and my stomach plunges to the floor! It’s my first interview!…

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Mount Ragged continued …

When all us oldies managed to make it to the top, we all got a new lease on life. Now whether that was because of this magnificent view form the top or just the satisfying feeling of achievement, I’m not sure, but we all regained our breath and stood in awe of what was before…

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Mount Ragged challenge

I was talking to a mate last week and she asked me what I was up to for Easter. We hadn’t planned to do a lot, since the heifers were calving and we couldn’t leave them for long. It seems I lied! See this large rock in the distance? We went to visit it! After…

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Happy Easter

Here we at Easter already – where has this year flown? I was trying to take a photo of these eggs to help wish you all a happy Easter, but Rocket was intrigued by the smell and wouldn’t get out of the way! So from Rocket and the rest of the McDonald crew, we wish…

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Farm Delicacies

Living on the farm, 100km from Esperance, we don’t often get to go out for meals in flash restaurants or eat meals that I haven’t cooked! However, us farmers have delicacies in our dams that eclipse the tastes of garlic prawns in the best restaurant that you’ve ever eaten in! A couple of our dams…

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Only in the bush…

We get a mail delivery twice a week. It’s a pain when you get a phone call on a day, saying something really important is in town, (like parts for the tractor, a new piece of machinery or… a box of books!) and there’s another week to go until you can pick it up! That’s…

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Crèche

Look at my beautiful view from my kitchen window! Three babies in a crèche! Off to the side, about 100m away, that you can’t see in the photo, are the mum’s, grazing away happily. When Rochelle went out into the paddock to take this photo, they watched her in case something happened that they didn’t…

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First Drink

When I went to check the heifers, I missed this little one being born by about half an hour I reckon! See how he’s still wet, has a fresh umbilical cord and looks a bit wonky on his feet? When he was born, his mum would have licked all the afterbirth off him (that’s a…

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The good, the bad and the ugly!

Some days I have great days with my writing. Everything flows easily, the story unfolds perfectly… and then there are the days when nothing works and my sentences look like they’ve been constructed by a six-year-old, not someone who loves to write. Today is one of those days. See the red scrawls? They indicates that…

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Heifer bonding

These are some of our heifers that are due to calve, and all will have over the next six weeks. Heifers are ‘cows’ that haven’t had a calf before, so the whole thing is new to them. We need to make sure they have the calf okay and that the Mum loves it. Some heifers…

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Lost Hill

We lost our hill this morning! The fog was so thick that when Anthony left to check the calving heifers, he wsn’t sure he’d be able to find them in the paddock, let alone check if there were any problems! Then, when I ventured out to go to the bus stop I could only see…

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My New Friends

Anthony and I went to a 40th birthday recently and we were really privileged to make some new friends. The invitation stated Aussie icon’s only, but no streakers. We thought that was fair enough, considering the forecast was cold. Kylie Mole, B1, B2 and the Original Aussie Farmer were the first few we came across.…

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Slave Labour in the garden

Every so often the garden gets the better of me. In fact, it’s always got the better of me – I’m the worlds worst gardener! I love beautiful gardens and always wanted a huge one with lots of lawn and flowers. I’ve got one, but it seems to grow more weeds than flowers and the…

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