ORDER Fleur's newest novel 'Into the Night'
Aren’t mates great? Bemoaning the fact I was struggling with parts of my second novel, one of my mates actually listened to me (!) and sent through a survival pack that included this wonderful pink boa pen! I can’t wait to start editing with it to see if it will tickle my nose… or wake…
Now it’s time to sit and do some writing! The Community Fair is over, things are quietly tonking along on the farm and I think I’ve found the bottom of my washing and ironing basket! (For this week at least!) So, the writing… yes, but there’s still office work to do, cooking to fill the…
It’s hard to describe the beauty that the country holds in the early morning. This morning’s sunrise on the fog was just amazing. It was still, cool and quiet. The only noise I could hear, other than a few bird calls, were the cattle munching away on the grass – that’s sort of like a…
We live in very fertile country as this photo shows! I can’t believe the size of this pumpkin – just imagine how much pumpkin soup it would make or how many people it could feed! And I have to tell you, it’s not the only giant one in the patch. There’s four! Along with other…
How strong are you? Have you got a team that could pull a tractor? Well we put it to the test on Saturday, March 21 with the Staines Esperance Tractor Pull at the Condingup P&C Community Fair. There’s $500 up for grabs – you should be able to shout the bar with that! There’s so…
This is the time of year for babies! It’s a gorgeous time, watching them take their first steps then within a half an hour or so being able to run. Calves in particular are beautiful with their liquid brown eyes and long eyelashes. I can tell you that cattle take the cake for long eyelashes!…
I was looking through my photo file since I hadn’t had time to take away news ones for the blog and I came across this one. You might remember, about six or so weeks ago, we had a huge deluge of rain over about four days. The landlines, power and mobiles were all down, but…
It amazes me the things you find when you go looking. While searching the garden with the kids, looking for odd things, Rochelle and I found this little bloke! I guess he’s looking for food but what a great place to hide from predatory animals, like birds! I think he’s got it worked out pretty…
Esperance Helitours come and ‘park’ on our hockey oval, offering rides. White knuckled fliers are more than welcome as are those who take to the air like birds. How great it would be to see Condingup by air, or maybe check out the good fishing holes over at The Duke or close by beaches. The…
Dogs work really hard at shearing time. They make the job much easier by packing sheep into races, getting them into the shed, penning up and of course helping muster the paddocks to bring the sheep into the yards. That’s of course if you’re a work dog. Rocket’s not. But because his legs are so…
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…
There seems to be great competition between kids when it comes to their birthday cakes! Now, this is fine if you’re like my friend Gill and is a brilliant cook, decorator and everything else that goes on in the kitchen! If you’re like me and struggle to get a cake to rise, let alone make…
I recently told you all about the Condingup Community Fair and how it’s our annual fund raiser for our small school. Well this is a competition that happens every year, sets tongues wagging and will whet you’re your appetite to attend the day! The dog high jump is a great entertainer – the dog that…
Every year we scan our ewes to see if they’re pregnant. There’s a couple of reasons we do this, one is so we can pull out all the dry ewes (one’s that aren’t going to lamb) to sell and so we can feed the wet (pregnant) ewes better and two, to know what we can…
I love stone fruit and we are lucky to have moved to a house with a delicious peach bearing tree. Big, fat, juicy ones! Trouble is, the tree is completely overloaded, so much so that one of the branches broke off about two weeks ago. Also the fruit all ripens at around the same time!…
This has just come through from Allen and Unwin’s eNewsletter. Here’s a chance to read Red Dust before it’s published. I hope Red Dust intrigues you enough to feel like entering. All you have to do is sign up for the Allen and Unwin’s eNewsletter and follow the instructions below. We want your book reviews!…
Hang up the hat and out with the rods. I think there’s a fair bit of difference between mustering sheep and cattle and trying to catch fish, but its a brilliant way to relax. Especially when the weather is perfect and the sea is flat. Our fishing trip consisted of an awesome sunset, a couple…
About two hours’ drive from where we live, is an amazing, wild place called Israelite Bay. Brilliant fishing, very isolated (No shops, takeaways and definitely no mobile range!). It drips with history. The old telegraph station that was used as the main point of contact in the late 1800s and early 1900s and the stonework in the magnificant old building…
There is another old wives tale about mist and rain – I think I’ve shared a couple of sayings already with you – this will be another! If there is a misty morning it’s supposed to rain in ninety days. Now I guess some of you will snort at that, but I’m here to tell…
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…