As you can see my white boards are beginning to fill up with ideas, character descriptions and a few other things. I don’t always use everything that goes up on these boards, and there’s nothing plotted here, only a place to throw ideas and thoughts at. I’ve been troubling over how to start Book…
Last week I wrote about a needing to write two books at at time to make my deadlines. I was getting involved with NaNoWriMo to help do this. Deciding to spend one week on each book, would mean I should get about 25k into each book by the end of November. Best laid plans…
Well it’s November and November can be an important month in writer-world. November means NaNoWriMo. What does that mean, you might ask? Well, it means National Novel Writing Month. And today, I’ve just formatted my new file to start book 20, so I can join in. During NaNoWriMo, you’re supposed to write about 50,000…
‘Have you put on sun screen?’ Mum always used to ask as I headed out the door to ride my bike, or go swimming. I hated sunscreen. I always wore a hat, but greasiness of the cream, I’d do everything to avoid it. Until mum would make me stand in front of her and smeared…
I watched with annoyance, the ABC’s 4 Corners report on glyphosate and it’s ‘carcinogenic causing’ qualities, then with amusement when the 7.30 report started their series on Australia, how big is too big? According to the 7.30 Report, there is ‘national anxiety’ about the population of Australia; how we’re going to feed and water ourselves,…
Having been a farmer for twenty years, I can tell you what the reality of drought is: it’s dry dusty paddocks, with little or no grass. It’s dams that have nothing but mud in the bottom; sheep or cattle getting stuck as they search for water. Its people shutting their bank accounts down, none essential…
Have you ever read the book The Secret Garden? I fell in love with that book, the mystery and wildness of the garden, the secrets within such a grand old house and of course the unexplained cries in the middle of the night. I always feel like I’m heading somewhere mysterious and wild when I head…
It’s not often you get to see a full rainbow, let alone have the camera handy to catch them before they disappear. This beauty hung around for about ten minutes, while I fiddled with my lens and managed to get these shots. The above photo, though, really doesn’t do it justice. It was such a…
It’s that time of year… The little baby lambs are about to drop is great numbers! And thankfully, this year, the ewes will be lambing onto green grass, not sand, like we have for about the last eight years. But before they lamb, the girls really need to be crutched. After all, imagine (Oh, if…
Tonight, when I looked out of the window, the light was ‘just perfect’. The green was spectacular, the boganvillas which are on the fence light glowed with extra colour. ‘Look at this,’ I screeched to Number One son – we were home by ourselves and I’m allowed to screech then. Usually because I’m in…
I’m not sure if I’ve ever told you all, but I am NOT a summer girl! I don’t do heat and at the whiff of a 35 degree day, I promise myself I will shift to Tasmania. Yesterday it was 45.6 degrees on our verandah. In the bloody SHADE! I can’t tell you how ‘ugh’…
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a start to the thunderstorm season like the one we’ve had this year! If you go back to a previous couple of blogs, you’ll read that we have had about 40mm over the last week or so. Well you can make that about 50mm now! The sheep always camp…
It hasn’t really rained when we wanted it to – well, not in the amounts we would like to have seen this year. The dams around the district have been drying to a puddle, and most farmers that have stock are worried about how they will water them. Us included. It’s amazing how a…
Making hay is one of the fun things about the farm … unless you get hay fever, like I do! For the last few weeks I’ve been sneezing my head off and will continue to do so until harvest has finished. Rye grass, grain dust, normal dust and ‘fines’ (minuscule particles of…
Weather is such an interchangeable thing. And sometimes it changes within minutes. The boss came home for lunch today – a luxury at this time of year, what with hay making, shearing and lambs to weigh, all in the next twenty four hours. After a cup of tea and a chat, he wandered back out…
The weather that Australia, in particular Queensland, has been having, is incredible. I’ve cringed at, not only the destruction that Mother Nature has brought, but the grief and pain caused to humans and animals alike. The TV news seems to be full of detailed reports, shocking images, crying, homless people and animals moved from their…
Katrina Germein, Emily Gale, Kate Gordon and I have got together to raise money for the QLD Flood victims. I don’t know about you, but I’ve stood in front of the TV crying at the images and feeling so completely helpless. I couldn’t volunteer with the clean up, from down at the bottom of WA!…
I know I’ve talked before about the wild and unpredictable weather we have in Esperance and today hasn’t been any different! I thought we may have been in for a few thunderstorms, when I looked out of the window, this morning but as the day drew on there wasn’t much sign, except for a few…
We were so ready to start harvest today. Yep, we were. Yesterday the boss said that he’d be swathing the oats and then start harvesting standing barley… depending on what the moisture was. (Can’t harvest if the moisture inside the grain is too high – it doesn’t store well.) So, even though we knew there…
Yesterday was a shocker of day. The wind blew hard from the north and it was above 35 degrees. I was really pleased that I chose yesterday to head to town and do the shopping! (Nothing like air conditioned shops and ice cream!) There was a forecast for thunder storms in the evening and that…
We started our main shearing on Monday – a busy time, but it’s always fun! I love the smell of the wool as it gets thrown on to the wool table and the hustle and bustle of the shed. Music blares out from the inside of the shed; it’s the only time we work in…
