Hello there Fleur and thanks so much for asking me to drop in. I’m chuffed as I love your books and your website – and those fabulous agricultural women’s stories. I’m not a farmer, though I can drive a tractor, and one of our sons has a few head of friendly cattle on our land.…
I was lying in bed on Saturday night, listening to the sound of rain on the roof. There is no better sound to a farmer. It’s music. That night it was really windy too, and there were times I had to lift my head off the pillow and listen hard to work out whether the…
I though things were supposed to happen in threes? Well just recently they feel like they’re happening in tens. Or even twenties! Okay, that’s an exaggeration, thank goodness. My point is, every time I turn around something bad is happening to someone I love, someone I know, someone I used to know. People are…
One of the things I love most about living on the farm, is the sunrises I get to see. The boss has been working really long hours to stay in front of the airseeder (you have to spray only hours before seeding, for both pests and weeds). And because the hours are long on the…
Got to say that there was immense pleasure as I drove in the driveway on Wednesday morning and saw all these puddles. It’s been very hand-to-mouth with the rainfall this season. My morning text to hubby was greeted with an immediate return phone call. ‘We’ve had an inch of rain!’ The joy and relief in…
Yes, I’m so sorry! I’ve been slacking off on the blogging front. I should have posted last week, but with lamb marking, kids activities and my SIL visiting from Cairns, the week suddenly slipped by and was gone. Because, you know, life just seems to happen and continues on! Anyway, being out and about on the…
Today sees us start seeding. The tractor is going up and back in the paddock, putting the in the oats for the hay crop. We’re five weeks later starting seeding than last year. Traditionally the canola starts to go in on Anzac Day, but this year has been a completely different kettle of fish to…
New Feature! Wordless Wednesday. Telling a story with pictures. I’d love to see your stories with pictures. If you’d like to be featured on Wordless Wednesday, then email me your photos (fleur at fleurmcdonald dot com) in the order they tell the story and you might be one of the people featured here! Enjoy. …
Okay guys, here’s the prologue. Please leave me a comment and tell me what you think of it! Just click on the link. Emerald Bluff by Fleur McDonald
Do ever find lunch boxes so hard to fill? Does it feel like you’re making ham and pickles sandwiches (or something similar) ALL the time and the kids are board with your food? Oh. I sound like an advert don’t? Sorry! But, that’s how I feel. Especially since I’ve been pre-making food for the whole…
Farmers are always accused of complaining about the weather. Let me explain why. A couple of weeks ago, we got a beautiful 18mm. It fell over a few days – in fact I think we had about five or six days straight where if we didn’t get falls of five or so millimetres, we…
I said in my last blog I was saying that I had enrolled in a Photography Course. The first lesson is all about ISO and shutter speed. A complete foreign language to me, because I’m a point and shoot girl. On automatic. (I know all you photographers out there will be cringing about now. Sorry!) Anyway,…
Mum always taught us kids, to have dreams. They also taught us to chase them. Maybe that’s why my brother is a professional percussionist, my sister is a tourism operator with incredible foresight and I’m a writer. We found something we loved, something we dreamed about about and made it happen. Full moons make me…
There is something supremely beautiful and quiet about shearing sheds, when they are empty. I’ve always thought they are so atmospheric. When I was younger, I often headed up to the shearing shed on my Nana and Papa’s station and just sit and think, or even walk around and feel the smooth wood, smell the…
Well, gotta say it’s not every day that I turn 40. I’ve said before that approaching this big birthday, I wasn’t at all worried. I was grateful to be able to celebrate it because plenty of people I know haven’t had that privilege. That was until my sister rang this morning and said: ‘Just think…
Back in December I was planning out a new book. I wasn’t sure when I was going to write it, because I was thinking about taking twelve months off from writing. This book I was planning, called Indigo Storm, had a very tricky storyline and required a fair bit of research and I knew I…
Dear Nana P and Nana H, It’s Mother’s Day again. I always think about you today. How could I not, with the beautiful memories of Mother’s Day. I wonder, if you were here, if you’d talk about the handmade cards I used to give you when I was young. If we’d laugh about how I’d…
I’m planning on telling a big secret in this post. As a disclaimer, neither my parents, nor my children should read it! The dreaded Naplan will be held next week. When I say ‘dreaded’ it isn’t like that in our house, but I know it is at plenty of other peoples places. Neither of the…
This is where we spent most of our Sunday and it’s ‘that’ time of the year again. I guess there is a few ‘that’ times of the year on a farm, but this particular ‘that’, is lamb marking. This year, we have about 10,000 lambs to mark. No small number and it will take weeks,…
Josephine Moon has written the most stunning, witty and enchanting debut novel. Here she is chatting about The Tea Chest and writing. Embrace the Crazy I’ve been hanging around in the writing world for a while now and I’ve come to one firm conclusion: the writing world is just a little bit crazy. There doesn’t…
I have been a fan of Karen Viggers‘ writing since I read ‘The Stranding’ a few years back. That books was followed by “The Light Keeper’s Wife’ and now. ‘The Grass Castle’. Karen is such a versatile writer and never disappoints. Here she is talking about ‘The Grass Castle’. Hi Fleur. Thanks so much for…
