"Conjuring Les"
Sometimes my photos have a particular storey and the above is definitely one that does.
The land that I took this photo on, used to belong to a gentlemen named Les Farr and his brother Syd. He is one of very few genuine gentlemen and natural horse and cattle men that I know. Sadly, he passed away some years back when I was pregnant with my first child and it still saddens me to think that he will never meet them and while I know that he's here with me, I wish they had known him.
As fortune would have it, my husband and I, now have the lease on this country which has been quite a blessing under our current circumstances. A couple of days before this photo, a fire had broken out of the army training area and into this country; as it happened, where it jumped the break was right beside the yards there and subsequently they didn't stand a chance. By the time Justin arrived there, they were already lost, as you will see in some of the other pictures I took.
Anyhow with the fire finally under control thanks to a number of long nights from Justin and a crew of others helping, I decided to venture out and take some photos of the yards and of the old hut, that was thankfully left untouched by the fire. Being constantly mindful of my old friend all the while. I was just about to head for home when all of a sudden the sky just started to turn it on for me and this was the result.
I sent a copy of the photo to another dear friend of mine, who asked to have it printed. So I got a bit inspired and as my late aunty Bev who recently passed away had always encouraged me to sell my prints, I decided that I would print a selection of my photos as "single artist proof prints" and offer them up for sale. So this will be something exciting for me that will be happening next year.
To be honest, even these images don't really do justice to the gorgeous mammatus clouds that were there.
I had never seen anything like it.
Thankfully this old hut didn't get touched by the fire.
I was home a little too late to catch the lightening show, I managed to get one shot!
You can see the mammatus clouds a bit more here.
This is just outside the yards. Gosh we have been sooooo lucky with the followup rain that we have had since that fire, otherwise we would have had to more our cattle elsewhere.
Missy's latest trick is to stand on one leg.
I was trying to muster a couple of kangaroos to stand in the right spot for this photo, but they were not very compliant.
Some pipe had been burnt which caused a bit of a leak
Love this little critter.
When the fire was still going, we went to check on the break with Justin and spotted this whirlwind. He is not the avid photographer that I am, cause I would have sped down the road and chased after it for the perfect shot, but this was a close as I could get.
This poor bugger had been badly burnt. Moments after I took this photo, he breathed his last breath. I see a lot of death in the bush, but this really haunted me. I just felt so sorry for it and watching him so angry in pain and struggling in desperation, really made me very sad. I wondered if he knew where the water was and just kept going through the fire to get to it, or if he was nearby. So awful.
This was army smoke, but this had been what they were dealing with.
Check out these pair of kids running together. Stride for stride exactly the same! I was amazed!
The reason that it has taken me so long to get back to my blog is that I have recently been away at a friend's place. My girlfriend Sheree's husband Aaron had a spinal injury that was causing significant pain and complications, so they needed to be reviewed by specialists that weren't available in their home town of Springsure. So that Aaron could travel to Rockhampton for the scan and then eventually to Brisbane for the specialist care that he urgently needed, I ventured out to Springsure to babysit their house and kids. It's very fortunate that I could just pick up Garrett's school and take it with us. Was a busy couple of weeks but I promised her that I would keep her kids alive and they were when I left her, so.... job done yeh!
Sheree left Thursday morning and on the Saturday I decided we would all go up the mountain. I must tell you that I think I levelled up with my trusting abilities having a 9yo and a 6yo, tell me how to navigate through a property and bit of a goat track to get to the base of the mountain and then to pick our way through the jungle up the water course. We didn't get lost, and no one did any wingeing despite having limited water because we didn't want to carry lots with us.
Was a pretty nice little spot though, worth the walk.
I just love all the old tree roots that are growing despite all the rock they have to penetrate.
This little trooper didn't complain at all, except when I told her that she couldn't bring every rock that she wanted home!
Had a bit of a play before we had to make our way home again.
I should have been a geo. I just lock my rocks.
Absolutely loved this image. The reflection of the rock is so cool. And there is a little gnome face on the rock to the left of the big one, but you have to zoom in.
Looking for tadpoles!! Aunty Fox wasn't much help, I'm not a big fan of them!
From my phone:
Once again I only seem to get to my blog when it rains. We've had 165mm on Tuesday night that I got home and then today (Friday) we've had another 45mm. Which has been absolutely beautiful. Interesting to see the catchment that I grew up with, but from a different end of it. There was 300mm upstream from us and so the creek was very flooded on Wednesday morning when we ventured out for a look.
Our horses we stranded on an island in their paddock and had to be shifted.
I managed to hurt my bloody arm. I keep telling people that it was a crocodile, but it was actually a steam burn from a kettle. It would have been ok except I took all the kids to a school fete and they all ended up getting nerf guns each, which I ended up holding when they went on a ride. So whilst holding the guns under my arm, I took some skin off. Thus leading to the lovely infection that I ended up with and needing two different antibiotics!! *insert face palm here* Anyhow, I'm pleased to report that it's starting to come good and is no longer throbbing.
Weekends mean.... pancakes for breakfast!!! Hell yeh! This was the day mum was coming home, I'm not sure who was more excited....
The Friday night, I decided to take the kids to the fete in Emerald. I'm not sure what possessed me to do this, but anyhow..... kids are still alive!! And they all had lots of fun, so that was cool!
Snuggles with my girl.
I should really have taken more photos of Sheree's garden cause it's just lovely, but this one was absolutely gorgeous. I mean to take a cutting but forgot. Her lawn is also unreal.
Cooking up a feast for the hoards.
Alison, called in to visit me with some flowers, which were so lovely. I think she was just making sure there hadn't been a mutiny and that I was tied up somewhere.
Apart from one afternoon, the whole 10 days that I had these guys, they were amazing. They would have been missing mum and dad so much, but they were so good. We did try to keep a bit busy though. But one particular afternoon it got a bit much for everyone after a phone call to mum and dad, so we all sat and had a good cry. I'm not sure what kaka was thinking with her photography, whether it was her way of trying to cheer us up, and despite me telling her to go away... perhaps she's going to have an eye for social documentary photos.
The wild haired girls.
See how trusting I was!!! They were going "oh it's this way past the big tree..... no... it's this way".
She literally wanted every rock! And not even to save her own life by having to hands would she relinquish them! Anyhow, I ended up helping a little bit and I may have discretely thrown a few away.
Was a bit funny taking this photo because kaka didn't want to go up there and I was told that this was a must stop photo spot, so I precariously threw a very reluctant kaka up the tree. She sat there crying and singing out, so I made everyone sing out for the photo. Not that it really mattered in the end because you can't even see their faces, but it would have been an interesting sight for anyone watching.
Scored this little find on the side of the road! Heaps of oranges on branched that had been cut off. We got a whole bag full.
Bit of prep work for the pony club day.
Miss kaka made a friend.
And Jatz was the winner I think.
The night before mum left. Anyhow, like I said, everyone lived and I only left with a minor burn, so that's got to be winning. I don't think we broke anything badly. Except maybe the cubby and the couch... and of course I left the pegs on the line, but I think that had been remedied before I even left.
We were so caught up in what we were doing, we didn't even get a photo together, next time.
Weekend before I left for Springsure, the big fella had gone to help Greer and Mango move house, so I decided to take the kids for a long overdue trip to the beach. Was a lovely day out and spent the afternoon playing cards. I think I lost the game for my team, but was good fun anyhow.
Kaka loving her new horse!! Bobby's the favourite and I'm no longer allowed to lead her because she can do it herself.... I think my mum thinks that's karma.
Dream team.
Out taking photos!! My poor kids, they are constantly being told "get behind me, get out of my shot" lol
Missy and her make-up and I was held against my will to have some put on me as well.
Feel like I can't pick a football team.
How good are storms.
They also mean that we get a rare sleep in.
Some videos of what we have been up to. Horse riding, the fete, eating ice cream, the flood.... a little whoops in the flood..
Oh and this is Chubba!!!! Isn't he just adorable.
So that's a wrap for me. Another mammoth post, but as you can see we haven't really slowed down much! We are off again this week to mini-school which will be nice to catch up with all the other mums, maybe even have a cuppa.
I just finished reading "The Empowered Woman" and while the audio version kinda made me wanna punch her (I think it's the accent), she had some useful advice, so I guess I would recommend it. If you can't read the book and you have to do the audio, like I did just try and ignore the way she talks. Some of it get a bit much for my feminism, but like all things, you listen to it and you pick some bits out of it that you want and you move on.
Hope you are all well and getting under some of this beautiful rain.
