Yeh grab yourself a cup of tea, this is another big post from me!!
Seems that I have a bit of a busy life!
You may be wondering what the above and below photos are, well if you turn your head to the left, you will see that they are reflections of logs in the water. I was obsessed with them as you will see!
Just love all the creatures that you can see. So inspiring.
This has to be one of my favourites... "Elephants Rest"
We got to go on for a family holiday this month. A group of our friends normally venture to 1770 for the week prior to school starting, but with the ever looming threat of a certain virus that we shall not speak its name, everyone opted to go to Byfield and we stayed at the Ferns Hideaway.
Justin and I treated ourselves to a cabin, as when we booked we weren't sure about the weather and our camping set up is not very waterproof. It was absolutely lovely.
My dear friend Sheree brought her kayaks along and we were able to go for some early morning paddles. The water was so still and it was the most perfect way to start the day. With my camera in tow I managed to get a couple of great shots.
There were lots of these guys.
Sheree decided to pick some berries and I was prepared to photograph any potential mishaps. I wasn't rewarded.
Normal people probably take lots of family snaps of people and sunsets on their holidays! Not me.... fungi!!!
So cool but!
Sheree in her happy place.
Lots of these too. I think we had our own resident for our cabin that came and ate all the food scraps everyday.
The kids had a blast and were rarely out of the water. Some of the bigger kids found some jumping platforms in the paper barks and swung from ropes in trees. My pair got extremely game with the pool noodles, believing themselves to be far better swimmers than they are.
Aunty Mango
Aunty Mel
I hate that the world we live in makes me question posting this image. Too damn cute though!
Bethany
I don't know that this is the correct way to execute a dive Keith!
Uncle Greer has all the form.
Zane full of cheek before his jump.
BJ walking on water.
I don't know much about falling Greer but this doesn't look very good to me.
Better.
Went for a walk early in search of this little guy and we found him straight up. Heard him first. He is a Wompoo Pigeon or Fruit Dove. So pretty.
More Fungi.
And ferns of course.
The scale of what these little guys do just amazes me!
We were meant to go to Stoney Creek for the day but with the road closed, plans changes and we ventured to 9-mile beach.
Initially we let our tyres down to 20psi, but then after having a significant amount of trouble in the sand and having to reverse a number of times and then only to finally get through but then have to stop behind someone else who was stuck..... so we had to reverse all the way back to the start again. So Justin rechecked the tyres and they were back up to 30psi (one of the other guys said it was cause it was the middle of the day and very hot and the air had expanded). Sooooo, once we actually got down to 15psi, our travels were much less tense and we made it without further drama. I am pleased to say that we had not one domestic disturbance in that time, despite the kids being quite concerned and when the car started to beep at us (over-revving with the diff in I think), BJ goes "is that beep for good luck aunty Fox"? "Damn straight it is love"!
So the Nissan made it, which we were quietly pleased about, being the only one in the convoy.
How cool are these patterns.
The crew
Loved this one of BJ.
Aunty Mel and Coby
Ben writing on Mango's car.
Who's that stud?
Spotted this little kingfisher and his catch. I was so annoyed that I didn't have my zoom lens as he let me get really close to him. I wanted to go back the next day but it was raining and we had to go home.
And that was our holiday week. The first couple of days seemed to go very slow but then all of a sudden it was over.
Not long after new year we went to visit Justin's parents and saw this mob. I couldn't resist a few photos.
Nanna and Justin taking the kids for a walk around.
Miss kaka was a bit scared to climb the log, but made it with some encouragement.
I know I know it's a weed.
I'm a sucker for some old cars.
What would summer be without playing in the rain.
Poor Justin, some afternoons he must just think, "where did that woman go?" But when the weather is doing its thing, sometimes you've just got to go.
I'm not sure if my offsiders are going to grow up to be keen photographers or if they will be over it.
Still waiting for this guy to have his babies. I haven't check for a couple of days so I might be in luck. Seems to be taking forever.
Hiding from the kaka wolf that was coming to get them.
This is the view from one of the hills near us. Shows all the paragrass banks that were put in, that you can see from the satelite and also some of the army camp that is being built below.
From my phone
As always they load in reverse order, so this is going backwards in time.
Car loaded after our holiday.
My three babies strapped in.
The two gingers.
Some of our crew. I'm not much of a water person, never really have been. I think everyone thought I couldn't swim. I can swim, I just choose not to.
Brooklyn and Kaka
The twisted sisters.
Uncle Greer got a tad bit more stuck than we did.
It's and interesting dynamic being a non-drinker amongst a group of drinkers. Felt a little bit socially retarded. But to be honest, it was really lovely to have a holiday where I could come home actually feeling rested and recharged after not having any late nights and not having any wretched hang-overs. Plus I had my other non-drinking buddy Sheree to keep me company..... although... she doesn't even really drink coffee which is a little bit of an issue.
'Stella and Jules.
One of our friends came up for a day trip and she initially said hello to me in passing but then afterwards said "Kerrie, I'm sorry, I said hello you before but you're so fit and little I just thought you were one of the kids!" Ha ha ha got to the be the best compliment I've had... I'll take it! No idea why she would have thought that though.
The nissan making tracks!!
How good are the group shirts!!!!
This is what you get when you ask uncle Greer to take a photo with your phone.
I reckon I've got this selfie thing down! See how I managed to even get the iconic Byfield fern in the picture!
My little miss.... Funny Storey.
Sitting on the couch talking to Sheree. Behind us, miss Kaka goes “get out you f’ing fly”. Not terribly loud, but loud enough for me to ask that dumb arsed question that all parents seem to find themselves asking at some point, “what did you call that fly?”
“I called it a f’ing fly mummy!” And she really annunciates it for her poor deaf mother, so there’s no mistaking what she said right! And then goes “but I wasn’t talking to you mummy I was talking to the fly.”
Now my brain has just shut down, because at this point half of it is laughing hysterically and the logical half is going “you know what mate, she has you on a technicality because she was just having a private conversation with a fly and you were eavesdropping”!
Yeh send help I’m so screwed!
Pocahontas with her berries.
Turning out.
With the heat and the rain and xmas, our babies had plenty of opportunity to get rather big. Luckily our friend Mitch came to give us a helping hand for the branding and another friend of ours, Hayley, is now contracting, so we got her help to do the mustering and branding.
Running the fences for the paddock they were going back into. Has a pretty good view.
Missy goes "thanks mum" when I put it in the back... "It's not for you mate!"
They wanted to walk!
Didn't last long though.
I got to be the buggy driver for the muster of our heifers. Me and the gremlins. Grandma came out and did some baby sitting for us for the last couple of day, which made us a bit more efficient.
Justin and I did the muster and branding of the herd around the house here which was a pretty good effort I thought to muster them with 2 kids, draft and brand 175 calves.
Kids commandeered my phone and took thousands of photos to occupy themselves while we were branding.
Yep, lots of these!!! Snot and all!
We mustered in the worst humidity and my horse was an absolute lather of sweat. I watched this big storm front and felt certain that we were going to get it, but it held off right until the very last second as we got the cattle into the yards.
Need to teach G man how to take some better photos lol.
Yeh, it was hot!
Aaaaand the week before we did our branding, I got to have a week with my ponies!! Was so awesome. Except that day 1 I got dusted and subsequently was very sore for the rest of the week, but as I was a bit time poor, I just had to persevere. Was good to get them all under a saddle again.
We did become friends again, after he very unceremoniously aided my dismount!
Soooo that's a wrap!!! Guess what???!!!! My prints are finally framed!!!! They are going to be auctioned off at the end of next month between the 21st and the 27th. I am very excited. You can find them at this website www.32auctions.com/smoko and I would love for you to check them out.
Hope you are all keeping well and healthy and that you've had a great start to the year. I am grateful for the extension of the school holidays as it has meant that I can get a few more jobs done before we are back in the school room.
Sending lots of love to you all. Happy Australia Day.
