Isn't this a lovely weather change we've had. The grass is looking lovely and green and while we still need some rain to run our water and fill the dams, the place is still looking pretty good. These foggy mornings make for some pretty shots.
This weekend just passed, we had our local Marlborough show and I had some good results with some of my photos. I ended up with 13 places and also collected the Grand Champion photo with this one below.
You can find all these photos here on my blog but they are also on my Smoko Stump Images page on Facebook.
Jess and Gma.... wonder where those eyes came from?!?
She got so excited watching the cattle.
Bit of being spoilt by Gma went on I think. He even managed to con the guy into giving him two arm bands.
Couple of bigs days, had this fella a bit exhausted. I think he's still catching up now. Below is a picture of the cement after we picked him up to go home. He wasn't sweating, it was just the moisture being drawn up in the cement. We thought it was pretty funny... needed some chalk.
Gonna have another beater licker I think!
And another beer stealer.
Branding buddies..... 5 years apart. Good to get our calves finally branded.
We also have a new addition to our little family! Meet Ralphie!!
Yes, he's a lab and yes I know he's gonna chew everything, but he's such a little champion and he's a great mate for G-man. So I'm stoked that we got him.
I feel as though all I do lately is unpack and repack the car as our weekend have been pretty busy and it doesn't appear as though there's an end in sight. This weekend we have the Cave Show Saturday and mum is having a luncheon for her birthday on Sunday and then the following weekend is the beginning of Beef Week, which will be a long week. Then the Sunday that Beef ends, we are going to Springsure for a mountain run (cause I'm going to really feel like that after a big week)! Anyhow sleeping is for the dead, or the rich as someone told me the other day.
I'll leave you with this one, Parachute by Chris Stapleton. My darling cousin Jess got me onto him and I'm a big fan. Hope you're all enjoying the cool change, just makes me feel sleepy and want to drink tea, I'm onto Arctic Fire at the moment and it's a lovely brew.
Ok, so at the end of my last blog, I told you I had some big news and it absolutely blows my CMC news out of the water, so I am delighted to introduce you to Louie Heath Nash.... my newest nephew!
I think this the most perfect photo ever!!
Aaaand we even got to meet him on our way home from CMC!! He's such a little ripper! I look a bit rough, but a 3am start and lack of proper showers for a couple of days will do that ha ha
This little family is so damn gorgeous, can't wait to see the little fella again!
OK, I could look at him all day... now to our CMC fun!!
We left hom at about 3:30 on the Thursday morning and we were so arsey, that we only had to line up for about half and hour or so to get into the grounds when some people had to wait about 5hrs. So we were pretty stoked with that!
Even timed it well with a couple of beers to make the wait go quicker.
On our first night there we saw Jody Direen and she was awesome with a really great vocal range and she was such a good entertainer. Poor mum overheated a bit though, so we called it a night.
The following day we saw Gord Bamford, who was awesome and we even went and got some signatures. I was pretty stoked to get the first 'boob sign' in Australia. I figured since I had to express the whole time I was away it was rather fitting. His female bass guitarist was also amazing, she sang eye of the tiger and absolutely nailed it.
Mum, Gord Bamford and I
I actually missed Darius Rucker.... due to some excess alcohol consumption which I was a bit disappointed about! But the following day he did and acoustic session which was pretty awesome and from what I heard of some of the people who saw his concert, I hadn't missed much as he was joining me in the 'excessive alcohol consumption' category.
Dan and Shay, Darius Rucker, Randy Houser and Luke Combs.
The above is a photo from the singer/ songwriter tent which was so awesome and they all told stories and sang acoustic which was unreal!!
This next video was of Luke Combs singing 'this one's for you' acoustic at his show and for ages his guitar wasn't working but he still nailed it... incredible talent.
The next video is comprised of a heap of snippets that I took over the weekend. Sorry the quality is not fantastic... but you get the drift! We were there!
This is Lisa Dodd, she signed our shirts for us. She was Gord Bamford's bass guitarist. She was so awesome.
Even got to see my good friend Tracey, but the reception there made it difficult to contact people and we were all so spread out across the place, which was a bit of a shame. Need to be a bit better organised next time I think.
We had a few breakfast beers!
So my favourites were Brothers Osbourne, they are awesome entertainers that sound unreal and really get the crowd involved. Randy Houser was the same, such a brilliant entertainer and just loved being up there. Luke Combs and Gord Bamford were also fantastic, but they probably didn't play up to the crowd quite as much, but were still great to see. Jody Direen, Christie Lamb and Davission Brothers Band were also great to watch. They all had so much fun on stage which is always entertaining when they are enjoying themselves. Darius Rucker, Randy Houser and Luke Combs were all fantastic in the acoustic section. So those were my picks, I didn't mind Luke Bryan as an entertainer, mostly because he called us arseholes for wanting him to do a 'shoey', which I thought was pretty funny! But his music is a bit pop country for me at times, and I didn't mind Dustin Lynch's music before I went but not so much now that I seen how much of a 'pretty boy' he is (does that make me shallow lol).
It was definitely god to get back home to my babies and my darling husband who took care of them for the 5 days for me. I must say I was pretty lost without them, I'd wake up at 4:30, 5am and go for a shower and then walk around the camp looking for something to do! Crack a beer seemed like a good answer and as we didn't bother buying grog at the festival because it was $7.5 for a mid strength beer which seemed a bit ridiculous, so we had our beers in the morning and saw the artists in the arvo. Coming back every now and then for a beer. My "check liver" light has finally gone off, but I was a bit under the weather for a while.
The following weekend after we got back from CMC was the Marlborough show ball. Was a lovely evening and so nice to see some new faces in our little town.
Sarah, Tracey and I
Me and my girl
'Pile on'
Jess meets Schultz, I don't think she was impressed when he tried to nibble her hand
Then the weekend after that was Easter and we only said goodbye to the last of our visitors yesterday morning.
Jess and Gma
Aunty Jamie, Jess, Elizabeth and I
Beautiful girls xx
This video of Garrett's first easter egg hunt. I thought it was so damn cute. 'Holey Dooley' ha ha
Uncle Dave also managed to catch a barra. With Miles and Garrett to help of course!
Was absolutely wonderful to catch up with everyone! Grandma and Poppy came out to stay from Rocky on Friday, then Sandy, Jamie and Elizabeth came up from Bundaberg Saturday, Erin and Coolee came out from Alton Downs on the Sunday night and then Dave, Nomes and Miles from Springsure on the Monday. So we had a full house all weekend which is always lovely to have so many wonderful friends in our circle.
How was your Easter? Have your weekends been as full as ours have lately? Getting any rain? We are awaiting the trajectory of this cyclone, so that will be interesting. Might leave you with this one Shoot me Straight.. my latest song that goes on repeat!
