In Crimson Dawn, one of the characters, Thomas, talks of ‘sea of sheep’ stretching as far as the eye could see. I felt like this on Friday! We had to run 4,000 ewes through the yards to get them preg-scanned. Our vet travels the 100+ kilometres from town with his ultrasound wand and screen, we…
After watching Landline a few weeks ago, I wrote this article on drought and why the powers that be, government, farming bodies and so on, can’t make decisions on drought relief in the middle of drought. It’s too raw and emotional. The article first appeared on The ABC’s The Drum website, then was published in…
Yesterday was a crappy day. You know how they just pop up out of nowhere? How they hit you by surprise and at the end of the day, you’re left wondering who the hell you ran over to get such a day? Yeah, well it was one of them. Maybe it was because I…
I’m sitting here at my desk, completely torn. Charlotte Dawson’s death has pierced my heart. I can’t imagine what her friends and family are feeling right now. At the same time, I feel a little sad about all the out-pouring of grief over social media. Because she was famous her death is getting so much…
I can’t believe we’re up to D. Can anyone tell me where these past four weeks have gone? (Actually where today has gone… Sorry I’m running late with posting this blog!) What between Outback Paparazzi, this A – Z of Farming Series and getting ready for the launch and tour of CrimsonDawn, oh not to…
What did you get for Valentines Day? Or was it you did the giving? Roses, chocolates, lingerie? I bought hubby a dozen roses. Yeah! I really did. Except… they were chocolate! Woolies had this really cool gimmick. A dozen ‘roses’, on long artificial green stems and the roses were wrapped in red foil. We’re not…
Squeeee! You may have seen this floating around, but here is the cover for Crimson Dawn. We’re in the process of re-branding my covers and name and this is the start of it – you’ll notice there is a lot more of the girl than in previous covers. You know what I love most about…
A 3:30am start isn’t what I had planned for Sunday morning, but if it meant getting you your lamb chops for Australia Day, I was happy to do it! The kids, Boss and I spent Saturday weighing up lambs, to find the right ones to send away on the truck. The Abattoirs we supply…
I’m sure you’ve heard of the craze “selflies”? Kids are doing it everywhere and posting photos of themselves on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and so on… I know I’m forever deleting photos of my daughter, from my phone (I keep the good ones!). I’ve actually never been able to understand the push to take a photo…
**Spoiler Alert: You are NOT to read this post if you are under 16** I remember a Christmas, many years ago, when I was about 10. I was SO excited. My family from Alice Springs were coming down, I’d get to see my cousins, whom I ADORED, my Aunty who was even better and there…
The one thing about cropping, is as hard as you try, there is always likely to be something that isn’t quite perfect about the grain. It might rain, and it get stained or worse, begin to sprout. This decreases the quality. Sometimes you might find that the boomspray has had a blocked jet and there’s…
I guess all of us have people who inspire us. Women we look at and muter under out breath, ‘I wish I could be like her.’ They might be great mums, family people, have achieved greatness in their line of work, or overcome some type of adversity and come out stronger women. Well I’m here…
Writing for me is therapy. And this is about my journey with Mrs. Mac: For the last four years, my day to day life has been shaped around a strong and determined woman. My mother-in-law has been sick for some time, but it was only during these four years, that she has needed me to…
With The Boss on the boom-spray practically every day for the last two weeks, our working dogs, Weasel and Law have been hanging out with the kids and me. We’ve been checking out sunsets, heifers calving, watching the tractor go ’round in that ‘beautiful circle‘, Sara Storer sings of. So really, they’re on an extended…
Inside this heavy fog, there should be a large granite hill. It seems to have gone missing this morning! Waking to a mist so heavy, you can’t see the front fence is always beautiful. As I settled in front of my computer for the first time today, I peered from the desk into…
Sometime ago, I was asked if I would give an endorsement for a debut novel called Ryders Ridge. I was sceptical because I wasn’t sure what I would do if I didn’t enjoy it. As an author I always feel sick if someone doesn’t like what I’ve written, because so much love and effort goes…
The day after a book launch is one the same feeling I have after we’ve had a ram or bull sale. I wake up, sort of feeling like I have a hang over. (No I’m not doing a Tessa, it’s an emotional hangover.) So much work and energy goes in to getting to the point…
So on Wednesday, Silver Clouds went out into what some authors seem to call the ‘The Wild. I guess it is in a way. It’s certainly not on my computer any more and I’m not stressing over editorial deadlines. It’s sitting on shelves from Cairns to Albany (from photos people have been kind enough to…
A week ago today, many women from many walks of life, got together to talk about and celebrate “finding love in the country”. And even though we are from different walks of life, what linked us together, is that we are from Rural and Remote areas. Both Fiona Palmer and I were lucky enough to…
