Gathering of the clan.

So it's raining again, seems like it's a reoccurring theme in my blog posts, but I'm not complaining. Gives me a good opportunity to do some blogging and not feel guilty about jobs outside.

Garrett got better acquainted with the black mare. 

Yeehaa!

And Moolabell 

Now I have a storey for you!! This turtle attacked me!!! I'm serious! It lunged at me, I couldn't believe it, I nearly died of fright! I was trying to nudge it, gently, with my foot so it would move for bubba to see him and he attacked me! Maybe it was a she. I couldn't believe how quick it was.

 A similar thing happened to me once, when I went to grab a huge big black headed python on the tail. I said, "Crikey, look at this big beautiful specimen" and just as I grabbed the snake, he spun around to get me...... couldn't believe it, pythons are supposed to be placid aren't they? Apparently not. Anyhow, I don't think I'd make a very good wildlife warrior. 

See the evil eyes!

Last weekend, we made the journey out to my grandmother-in-law's place for her 80th birthday and a bit of a family reunion. Was lovely to see some of our aunts and uncles and cousins that we'd not seen for a long time.

It's such a blessing to be a part of a family with such wonderful people. I will never forget 6 years ago when I was pinned against a rail by a heifer, subsequently splitting my pancreas in half and lacerating my liver, I ended up in Brisbane having to have the half of my pancreas removed. I won't go into the details but I was pretty knocked around and came out of the surgery with 7 tubes going in and out of me. My aunt and uncle (in-laws) that I think I may have only met briefly, once before, came to visit 3-4 times over the 10 days I was there. Offered any assistance they possibly could, including the loan of their vehicle for my mum and Justin if required. Such kindness is a rare and beautiful thing and as I said I feel very proud to be a part of this family.

I woke around sun rise and went to capture the sun rising between the mountains, but no sooner had I caught these few rays than it went behind the clouds. These images were taken at my father-in-laws place 'Birtley Station' just outside of Springsure.

Bow, the very spoilt, very special old girl. Eric's favourite working dog who I think may now be enjoying a well deserved retirement 

My boy Chief breaking ranks to come and say good morning to me. 

While catching up with family, we went to visit the Old Rainworth Fort and an old family friend out there. Was a lovely little heritage spot to see and well worth the visit. I had the opportunity to get some photos and test out my lenses.

One of the categories at the Marlborough show this year was 'still life' and it's never really been a subject that I've focussed on, but I thought this was a good opportunity to get some.

The lighting in the old building was great. 

Nanna and Garrett having a play!

Check out the clouds in the background. How weird.

This is Lorna, a lovely lady and family friend who runs the fort. 

Cousin Ben, who is normally on the otherside of the lens. 

But all too soon we had the long drive back home. I'm not sure whether it was the pregnancy or what but I was pretty exhausted after the long drive and I was only a passenger. G-man got to sleep for the most part which was good. Slept for 2 and 1/2 hours, so he must have been exhausted too. 

Other than that I've been taking photos where I can. 

Giving my saddle some much needed love. 

Doing some gardening. 

Getting some, not-so-helpful, help. (Especially when he pulls out the plant I just planted.)

Thirsty work 

And growing! I think I still look as though I've eaten too much. But there's definitely a baby in there, I'm 18 weeks now and I can feel the kicking mostly at night. 

Are you getting some of this rain? We've had an inch today so far. While I was writing this blog I was interrupted but a bit of a paint drama, I didn't get photos because I wanted to contain the situation, but there was black paint everywhere!!! All over the floor, door, walls and not to mention hands, feet, clothes and face! A quick, 'just in case', phone call was made to poisons, who reassured me that it shouldn't be toxic and that it would likely come out the other end the same colour as it went in, although I don't think he had much! How reassuring! 

Well it's smoko time, time for some carrot cake and cup of tea and to watch the rain tumble down. 

Fortunes of the fortunate.

 So... I dipped into my saving and bought yet another lens a canon L series F2.8, 24-70mm, it's pretty schmick!! This will be the last for a while now though! But so far, I am pretty impressed with the results. I couldn't decide out of these 3 which I liked best. My darling husband, wasn't a fan, but I thought they were alright. I haven't had much of a chance to get out and about with it, but it has been miserable and raining on and off today, so I thought it a good chance to edit some pics.

For some reason I really liked the above photo, but I can't work out why, something relaxing about it perhaps. 

Horses are feeling fresh! These were with my other new zoom lens. 

Talking to our babies.  

"Come at me! I dare ya!" Luckily dad was right behind.

And the pyro dynasty continues, a third generation pyro. Maybe even fourth but I'm not sure about his great grandparents. 

Heart of fire!

 

Had a bit of a play too! 

So, I was crook with Whooping Cough for 11 weeks and I was just about over it, only to pick up some other dogs disease and start all over again (fevers, aches, sore throat, no voice, green boogers) YAY! So yes, I have been feeling a little sorry for myself this week. Hopefully I don't have another 11 weeks to go, I have some antibiotics that seem to be helping a little. Also poor bub has an ear infection, so we are both miserable together. 

So I got a bit of mummy rest time while dad took bub to do a lick run. 

  

"This looks interesting"

"Can I touch it"

"I'm not doing anything dad"

"Ha ha ha"

Dad's heaps cooler than mum at the moment. 

Last weekend, we went to Rocky for the Nitro Circus. I'm disappointed that I didn't take my good camera, but I didn't really realise the layout and that it would have been so easy for me to have done. These guys were amazing! Crazy!! But amazing! I was pretty impressed with their efforts. The biggest problem was, from where we were sitting, you couldn't see them land, so you watch them take off and jump and then look sideways to the screen to see them land. 

We were actually pretty lucky to even make it because J and I both thought that it wouldn't be on until 6 or 7pm. So we planned to spend the afternoon at the Caves Show as I had entered some of my photos (I got a few places, so I was pleased). While we were there, we told a couple of people that we were going and they both said "oh, I heard that was supposed to be finished by 6". So J checked our tickets and sure enough, it started at 4. So we did a quick change over of the child and vehicles with mum and left only to arrive with 10 mins to spare. Talk about lucky!

Another stroke of luck, or bad luck, depends on how you look at it, I choose to say luck! The Friday that J was coming to town, he realised that our freezer-room was struggling. So he moved all our meat and anything else that would fit into a small chest freezer, our engle and the fridge to make sure it survived the weekend. Just as well because when I got home on the Sunday, the freezer was completely carked it! 

Above is some lovely pin wheels that mum had made and were in the freezer, but we had no room to keep frozen, so these got eaten for smoko. Luckily again, that we were near the end of our killer and the freezer-room wasn't full. 

Have you had any stokes of good fortune lately? Is it raining where you are? It always feels as though, if you are getting rain, that everyone else should be too.