It’s been ages since I’ve blogged – I don’t think I’ve ever left it quite as long! Sorry to all the people who keep popping over for updates on our farming/writing world. We’ve been so busy actually farming, I haven’t had time to write about it! I’ve also been frantically finishing off Crimson Dawn, for…
I love winter. It’s my season. I love the way the wind bites at my cheeks and the sound of rain on a tin roof/window/shearing shed/ground. It’s like music to me. And rain it did last night! The deluge woke me at 12:15am and I was still listening to it drum steadily on the roof at…
I think everyone who comes onto my site, knows I love thrillers, murder mysteries and crime novels. This also includes psychological thrillers. Silence of the Lambs is a book I love – and yes, I love the movie too. Honey Brown writes such books and Dark Horse is her latest offering. As with many…
I have found another love. Nope, I’m not running away from hubby or kids. Nor am I leaving the farm or the beautiful scenery. I’ve found INSTAGRAM! Yep, I realise I’m probably behind the eight-ball. In fact I’m sure I am, because I have a feeling I signed up to Instragram when it first came…
A while ago I wrote a post about our new pet calf, Lightning. He’s a beautiful natured little thing and so fit and healthy. Hayden has done a great job of looking after him! Lightning drinks 3L of milk, which Hayden makes up, every morning and every night. He has the days sleeping in the…
I often taken our Jack Russell with me when I’m out doing jobs on the farm. Especially if I’m feeding out hay. He’s loves watching the cows and calves and occasionally he is brave enough to sit up on the back seat and bark at them. (A bigger sooky la-la, you’ve never seen. This dog…
Fiona McIntosh is a master story teller. I’m in awe of the tales she tells and how she writes – often with three book on the go at one time. I could only dream of doing something like that! I loved The French Promise so very much and I’m sure you will too. Fiona is…
HAPPY EASTER, from the McDonald’s Farm! In my family, Easter is not only about chocolate easter eggs, hot cross buns and commercialism. It’s about Eternal Life and what happened so that we could have that gift. But the other thing which signals Easter is family. To have the whole family home, together, is now an…
Once in a while, sad things happen on farms. And once in a while weird things happen. This is a ‘both’ situation. Late last week we had a massive thunder storm which dropped about 40mm of rain over the farm. (It makes for over a 100mm since the start of March, so things…
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…
In January, I was lucky enough to go on a three day holiday with my family. Just us, no one else. Now it’s the first time we’ve ever managed to that. Most times when we go away we’re heading to family and as much as we all like hanging out together with my family or…
Last night was our seventeenth wedding anniversary. Hard to believe that so much has happened within that time. Especially when the wedding seems like only yesterday. Two kids, two or three farm bought and sold and bought again. And as with most families, there are few people missing from our family now, who were there…
There are times farming seems like it’s a long road without an end. The list of jobs to do, can be longer than your arm. Sometimes it feels like your treading water, not getting anywhere. And as with most jobs, they all should have been done ‘yesterday’. That’s how it is for us at…
I love photos. Photos are memories and I’m always snapping, where ever I go. Every time I release a new book, the call comes for new publicity photos. This is one of my least favourite things to do, because I’m much happier behind a computer screen, or out in the paddock, than I am in…
I think I’ve told you all many time, how much I love where I grew up in South Australia. Now I understand, people who live in ‘greener areas’ might get a bit freaked out when they see the country up here, but it is really special. Yeah, there are lots of stones, prickly bushes and…
Introducing Greg and Emma Koch from Redden Bridge Wines in Wrattonbully, South Australia. Greg and Emma manage their Wrattonbully vineyard using Organic and Biological techniques, to ensure the health of their family as well as that of the soil and vines. Their story is the 51st I have featured this year in celebration of the Australian…
Harvest! The very word seems to bring out the feral in every man, woman and child, involved in cropping. It also seems to be the time for Murphy, from Murphy’s Law to rear his ugly head. Here are a few examples. Upon jumping in the new (second hand) header, we bought this year, the Boss…
Introducing Madie Hamilton. Madie is one of the most inspirational young farmers in Australia. Her young career has taken her all over the world and when she’s not busy at her day job in the city, she works with her dad George, from ‘Meroo Hills’ near Mudgee, NSW. Madie’s story is the 50th I have…
Introducing Bernadette Walker from far south west Queensland. Bernadette is the 49th farmer I have featured in my quest to feature 52 farmers in 52 weeks in celebration of the 2012 Australian Year of the Farmer. Summary of your family and farming enterprise We are graziers – that means we do not do anything to…
What a week of weather! I know if often seems as if farmers are always complaining about weather and that’s a fair comment, but so much relies on it! On Thursday last week, it was fairly bloody hot and humid after a thunderstorm the previous couple of days. I was drenching sheep and the shearers…
Introducing Ashley and Danielle Wren of Greendoor Garlic located 8kms northeast of popular foodie town Kyneton in the Macedon Ranges, Victoria. Their story is number 48 in my quest to feature a farmer a week as my way of celebrating the Australian Year of the Farmer. Our family and farming enterprise Greendoor garlic began one sunny autumn’s…
