Busy Birdy

 

Another month has flown by. Here is what we have been up to. 

I have been photographing this emu with his two babies, as he has taken to living in our house paddock and even coming up onto the lawn, which is so awesome. 

As you can tell, I just love them. I have so many photos and I've not even shared them all. I just think they are the coolest, quirkiest dudes. Crack me up. I must say, I was kinda shitting bricks when daddy bird did walk all but 8m from me and only the electric fence to separate us. I was thinking that my only bet was for him to coat-hanger himself as, I know that I cannot outrun. 

Just having a rest on our back lawn. 

Aren't they just dudes lol..

The incident ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha 

This dude is called a Spotted Bowerbird. He is the most unreal mimic. The number of times I have been caught out thinking that the cats are fighting, or he will do happy jacks and all sorts of other weird noises. See the little bit of pink at his crest. 

So it's been a month of bird photos. Although I have been out and about a bit this month, as you will see. 

From my phone 

In reverse order because that's how we like to do things! I officially turned 40 a couple of days ago. 

I spent my 40th driving the truck home from Gayndah. 

A few days before my 40th, I had decided to travel down to Gayndah to spend a couple of days with my mate Hayley, whose father had recently passed away. As I couldn't make it down to the funeral, I thought it would be nicer to spend a couple of days with her, once the crowds had subsided. 

It was lovely, although never long enough. We spent the time prepping her horses for a Campdraft at Munduberra. The kids did school with their govie which was a bit novel and spent their afternoons in the pool. It was meant to be a personal trip, but Hayley suggested that coming all that way, I should bring my mare down, to try and get her to go in foal again, so it became more of a business trip, with the mare in the truck and decided to take the two kids horses for an outing also. 

Returning home from Gayndah we found the garden to be bountiful. 

Someone missed me. 

She also nearly died a couple of days ago. Working cattle in the yards and she got kicked. I heard a yelp and turned around to see that she was all bunched up to the side. I picked her up and she was shivering, by the time I got her to the house, she was full-on shaking and I thought that was the end, so I just sat with her and prayed. She stopped shaking and was still breathing so, I collected her up and jumped in the car to head to the vet. About 15 mins into the journey, she sat up on my lap, so I stopped the car to take her for a walk and see how she was doing...... she was fine. Perfectly fine. Didn't even seem sore. So I took her home and she's been fine ever since. 

Talk about 9 lives. 

Since it was my birthday, I decided that I could have an extravagant breakfast at the cafe on our way home. 

G man, Kaka and Harriet all having a ride together during our visit.

Kaka thinking she was very cool drinking from a wine glass on her horse. 

We did attempt to do school to and from Gayndah, however, the starlink mini let us down and we were not very successful.

More garden rewards. 

The view from my dinning table. Love them. 

The weekend before, we had our local Alpha gymkhana and as we were in the club, I felt particularly obligated to go. With numbers down, Julie convinced me to take the wild brumby and compete. 

The family actually did very well. 

G man won his age group, got team of 4 and won the highest points Alpha rider which was this beautiful "above" prize along with a perpetual trophy for the Hayden Johnson memorial. Very special, and he did pretty well for himself considering that he wasn't even on his horse. As Rosie was a bit lame, he borrowed Kaka's horse Bobby for the day. 

Kaka won her age group and also got team of 4. 

And I won my age group and got a new Yetti. 

Turns out he's not that useless after all. 

Poor bugger, he was pretty wild at the beginning, which was when we did our rider class, but as the day went on, he got better and better. I think he might have been picking up on my nerves. I don't compete much. 

The lolly race... ha ha ha ha ha 

That's icing sugar. 

Only the 3 of us in the seniors, so it was nice that we all got a prize. 

Julie and I gave the girls our phones to get some photos and videos. Cheeky buggers. 

Julie rode her big thoroughbred and he did soooo very well, considering his history, he was so well behaved. 

Kaka and Carlos have definitely got their cantering confidence, and they are growing so beautifully together now. She even got first in rider class which was a bit cool. 

She slept in her clothes the night before. 

So I believe I mentioned in previous posts that G man and his team, won the readers cup competition at Rockhampton and this meant that they had to go to state to compete. This meant that we ventured to Rockhampton and stayed the night with Grandma, so that he could fly out early this next morning. Sydney and her mum Stace stayed with us also, which was so lovely to catch up. 

The didn't win, but they did really well and they tried very hard and that's all that matters. We were down a team member, which didn't help either, but I was so proud of our little bush school making it all the way to the big smoke, pretty special. 

Anyhow, the above is our driving home lunch, from Comet Hotel as we always drive past but never stop and it was pretty tasty, gotta love a parmi.

 

Both Emerald and Rockhampton Distance Ed Teams, made it to finals which was cool too.

While we waited for the plane to return, we went out for dinner at the Thai Taste and we had to have the obligatory fried ice-cream. YUM.  

So nice to have Stace stay with us. 

G man on his first time in a plane. I think that was a highlight of his trip. 

These poor kids were so busted. We had to be at the airport at 5:30 and then the plane was delayed and didn't take off until 8. Then on the return trip they were delayed again and didn't get in until 8. So it was a very big day. Then to drive home on the Friday and compete at the gymkhana Saturday was a fair effort I thought. 

A couple from the garden

A gift from my dear friend Ange. She knows what to get me lol. 

Back in time again, before we ventured to readers cup in Rocky, I was fortunate enough to have a girls weekend with my friends at Airlie Beach. Mango also turns 40 this year and while her actual birthday is still a couple of months away, we all got to celebrate together for a weekend. 

Interesting to reflect on what 40 means for our little group of friends. Compared to 20 or even 30. Takes a while before you start to figure it out, but it is interesting how things change. We rise early and go for a walk or do some form of exercise. We drink earlier and are in bed well before 9.... I mean that's just sensible right. I think a late night would roll me more than anything else. 

We ate beautiful food and drank beautiful cocktails at happy hour... because we are all too cheap to pay full price! Spent time with beautiful friends! What a cracker weekend. 

Had to hold up the halo as it seems to slip a little. 

We all went on the ferris wheel... so fun. 

We all had massages which were AMAZING

More of my vege patch... I just love growing things that I can eat. I think I need to move back to the coast where I can actually grow things! I'm so despondent about my orchid, it's soooo sad. 

Who knew shallots flower. 

Back in time again... G man had sports camp! 

I think he enjoyed it, although I can't say that I've heard a lot of feedback except for an incident with a toilet lock. 

We chose to go and visit his friend Ben for the weekend prior to camp, as they are only just north of Clermont where the camp was. More importantly I got to visit my friend Megan and share some of her birthday cake. I love it there so much, it just has the best vibe, just the most easy family to fit in with. 

I think the kids saving were burning a hole in their bank accounts and as I won't let them spend it on crap, it was decided that they would buy themselves some cameras. So we found a couple of tough cameras on ebay and now we have to stop everywhere to take photos while on our horse rides. 

Cruise being a menace. 

Missed these photos from my last blog post, but there were from mini school, while Garrett was at camp, Kaka got to go to Cooberrie Park. 

Driving home from mini school... miss Betty likes her little spot on the console of my car. 

And that's a wrap my friends. 

I have just finished reading "Handmaidens Tale", a recommendation from my friend Julie and I must say that her recommendation rights have been revoked for a little while.  OMG, do not bother reading this stupid book! It was definitely not a page turner, but I persevered because I was invested in the outcome, which I never got. I got to the end of the book and was left with more questions than answers, to the point where I'm still thinking about how dumb it was and I even had to ask chat GPT, "WTF".  Needless to say I will not be reading the sequel which is supposed to give me the answers I desired. I mean I get that it was a portrayal of actual travesties that have occurred throughout our history at one point or another, but I still think it was dumb. I'm still shocked that they have made a series out of it, when there are books like "The Women", that haven't.... sorry... little rant.   Sorry Julie... not a fan. 

I have however, just started reading Ben Crowe's book which I feel might be pretty good, although sometimes when you're in a good place mentally, maybe some of those self help books don't help you as much. Or maybe, I am now enlightened and no longer need them... hahahahahahhahahahahahahh 

My song on repeat at the moment is "I would say Yes to you" by Nash Blackwood.

On that note, I will leave you dear readers. 

With Love, as Always.