Salon and Service

Goodness gracious another month... and what a month it has been. I shall just do as I always do and have you follow along on a photographic trail of what life has entailed since my last instalment. 

Anzac Day with the Alpha Pony Club marching in the street parade. I absolutely love this! I always miss my mate "Dick" on these days and unfortunately due to some personal circumstances, they won't be coming to visit us this year, so we shall have to hold out until next year.  

How cool do they all look! This is about the only thing that I bother to wash and groom the horses for. Luckily we had Grandma on the job, because, as you will see I was elsewhere. 

We really need to work on her resting ..... face. 

After the ceremony, we went to the Showgrounds and did some time trial practise. 

Love this little duo. I'm so glad they are getting along. 

And the girls got to have a play. Definitely not the neatest of riding, but they did have a lot of fun. 

I've also been to Maroochydore this month for the Salon of Excellence, photography convention which was hosted by the Sunshine Coast Camera Club. 

We had the most fabulous guest speakers, including Peter Eastway (love, love, love his work); Esther Beaton (who has had a very fun life), Adrian Donoghue (who is inspiring for his fabulous composites and story telling) and Mark Galer (who makes me want to hop on a plane and venture to far off places). I also did a few workshops; John Doody (who I hadn't realised, but I had done before and so he covered a lot of the same stuff as the previous workshop), Steve Parish (whom, while I've always admired his life and his work, he was a bit of a salesman and his life's direction at the moment, isn't like his original work so I wasn't as inspired as I thought I would be) and Esther Beaton (while she did had a bit of a ditsy persona, I did take a few little key things away from her workshop, and got a few nice images so can't complain about that.... also made some new friends, which is always cool). 

This was just a little bit of fun I was having, playing with an image from the convention and an old image of mine that I had. I'm not too sure if I got the lighting quite right, but I liked it anyhow, 

Esther, was trying to find us the perfect place to take some photos and got herself up in the sink in the toilet... which was interesting lol 

Monette, so very photogenic!! 

I liked this reflection shot too.

I grabbed Sue as my subject, as I just liked her aura and she has the most lovely hands. 

Below are the images that I entered in the the competition at the conference. Out of 28 entries between print and digital I got 7 acceptances and out of those I received 2 thirds and a first. So that was pretty cool I thought. Will be my last year, as next year I will likely go up a grade and be competing at a Masters level... and I'm definitely not in their league. Perhaps my trip to Iceland will help. 

Open Print - Acceptance

Street DPI - Acceptance 

People DPI - Acceptance 

Nature DPI - Acceptance 

People Print - Third 

Mono Print - Third 

Street DPI - First 

And I might just comment, that this was such a throw away image for me. This was taken in Egypt on my honeymoon, and I'm pretty sure I took it with a dodgy tough camera out of a bus window. I only entered it because it was one of three images that I had, that fit the category. 

From my Phone 

Going back in time again a little... start of the term, mum was scheduled to come out here to Green Valley while we were meant to be going to Paradise campdraft. However, it got postponed, due to the fuel expenses and so we had a week where we had someone to teach school and Justin made the most of having an offsider to get some work done. 

Sadly, the new date for the campdraft means we don't have a babysitter and will miss our second year in a row as the mustering camp and I'm worried we will lose our job. I really enjoyed going and hanging out with our little crew. I think we've lost of few of us now with the date change, they might get a whole new team. 

Day 2 and no one had murdered the other. He was thinking how well we were working together to build something and I was thinking of all the shit that I can build now that I know the formula for the cement mixer!

Least we had a nice smoko spot.

Would you look at that. Probably not make the best carpenters, but we got there. 

Check these pair locking heads would ya!! What a crack up... I wasn't coming into it!

My garden edging had not been finished for about 15 or so rocks and it was obviously driving grandma batty, as she finished it off for me while she was here! Looks so good now! 

Safety first, safety first... we should send this to JCB and see if we can get a free bobcat.... or a cap, whatever. 

I can't seem to rotate my images... you'll have to turn your head on the side!

And... just like that... one week later... we have a structure! Hopefully the bore doesn't have any issues, as that was my contribution and I'm already getting in trouble for having the cord too tight and the cable too loose! God help me if it leaks! 

I still think this chair was the best investment... instantly relaxing... only problem is that people know how to find me.  

Must have been something this truck was driving past that the steers liked... maybe they could smell some sorghum or cottonseed. 

Oh Yes and THIS happened!!! Garrett and his team won their regional readers cup and now they are going to Brisbane for the finals. They had to read 5 books and then answer questions relating to the books. He was very fortunate to be part of such a diligent team, they are all so clever! 

Love the look on G man's face. 

I was so proud of them, they did amazing! 

After the slight hiccup in our accomodation at Maroochydore with their not being enough bedding or the beds set up correctly for the 4 kids.. we managed to settle in and find the TV remote worked! 

My gorgeous cousin Jess came up with her family and the two husbands got to babysit the kids while we attended the conference. 

Evy, Kaka, Louie and G man.... they are all getting so big! Love this bunch, so much!! 

Grandma's birthday and we went to the Spirit House for dinner!! Yes it was rather extravagant, but it was so tasty!! And I think the kids liked it, it's the prettiest surrounding. And yes, I may have purchased a couple of these glow lights while we were having dinner!!! 

Day one they went to the Aquarium.. which I haven't got photos from, but they had loads of fun and got to see a seal show. 

Day two, they went to the Barra farm and Kaka caught this massive Mangrove Jack. The funniest part was watching the videos back that evening, listening to how excited the two big boys were...

And of course..... I got LOTS of photos of the fish!! 

Why don't they live closer!!!

That night Jess and I went out to the Gala dinner. Which was lovely food and it was so nice to meet a lot of the members from my club, as I have been a member there for a few years now, but this is the first conference I've managed to make it to since I joined. 

And it's nice that my old club in Rocky still loves me and talks to me even though I've moved to QCG.

My lovely buddy Anne wanted a photo LOL.... this is what you do isn't it.

Two years appart.

The following day after the gala dinner, Jess and I were exhausted, so we had a very steady day with the kids and skipped out on our last workshop. Just swimming and beaching and miss Evie stole my phone to look at horse photos... I think she's a bit horse mad. 

I could take her home with me!!! 

Back home and .. Omg guess which one is pregnant!! 

The photographer for the conference was Ty Fox and he took the next few shots, which are so lovely to have. The last conference I attended in Rocky, I didn't have any wins, so it was nice to be there when I did for once. 

My camera club "Queensland Camera Group"

These are some shots that Jess took from our dinner at Spirit House... isn't she just the cleverest! I love them! 

In other news, my father in law Eric has been fighting for his life in hospital this past couple of weeks. I know that probably sounds a bit dramatic... but it really was a bit dramatic! Justin flew home early from Maroochydore to go and see him in Rocky hospital and then continued on to their block at Springsure to take care of things. I came home a day earlier than planned, with the intention of calling in to see them, but with G man being rather unwell, I decided not to stop and risk the contamination and to drive the whole way home. Made for a bit of a long day, but it was nice to be back home and to unpack and try to get everything sorted. Plus the kids didn't miss as much school.. 

Anyhow, I'm rambling on about me, when I know you want an update about the patient... I am extremely pleased to say, that he is on the upper.. 

The saga has been going on for a few weeks, with him initially having flu like symptoms and then gastro symptoms and then bad headaches. They eventually did a lumbar puncture and determined meningitis. With another week going by and testing for everything under the sun to try and determine the cause, meanwhile his condition deteriorated significantly to the point where they were considering ICU with a respirator. 

They eventually went down the road of autoimmune suppression and after a couple of days, he went from not being able to communicate or recognise his family, to sitting up in bed and having conversations. As you may imagine, it has been such an emotional rollercoaster and we are all so relieved to see some significant improvement and I imagine it won't be long before he returns to his usual cantankerous self and they discharge him post haste. 

This saga has meant that mum has been hosting my other mum and sister at her house in Rocky and I know that she's enjoyed spending the time with them and having some company. I was grateful that Fooz could take my mum out for breakfast on Mother's Day. This was the day after they had started Eric on the immunosuppression pathway and they started to notice a few subtle improvements which I think was a nice Mother's Day present with him phoning her from ICU the next morning, which was a bit of a shock to everyone I think. Despite having a few doubts, I have been telling everyone that he's a tough old bastard and I'm very grateful that he's proven me correct in this instance. 

And on that note I will leave you. It's cold and windy here and a bit bleak to be honest. I'm busy planning all the stuff that I can build and mess with while my husband is away and can't stop me... so that's exciting! 

Just finished reading "The Cry of the Curlew"... yeah I know it's graphic and gory and doesn't leave any subject tabu... but it is so well written and eloquent and I will be reading the next one... although I might need a bit of a break for a little while. 

Hope you are all above ground. 

And on a little side note... no matter how busy my life might appear to be... I always have time for friends and family and I will fit you in... no worries! 

Signing off now

With Love