Honey, we're hoooome!

Well our intrepid young travellers, Tess and Yarrow, have returned hale and happy from their exciting sojourn in Europe (to see pics of their trip go to http://crystalcadenzas.blogspot.com/). They had a fantastic time: thank you Hans and Niki, Anjes, Lisa, Marc and family, Denise, Cees, Bertie, Peter n Trix, and everyone else for making their time so memorable.

I've returned from a very interesting field research trip to central NSW (I'll put some pics up soon).

When we got home (simultaneousy) we found that Briony had festooned the house with delightful 'welcome home' signs. And John had arranged a surprise welcome home social event, inviting our much-loved Gales family, as well as Teagan and Bonnie, over for a relaxing social afternoon. We had a lovely lovely homecoming ...

The photos show:
- the largest of Briony's many welcome home signs, above the door to our bedroom. You can see where Marc, John and I have removed the plastic 1970's panelling to reveal the original wall boards. We've yet to restore and repaint the walls: a job for much later.
- Tom Gale, cat whisperer extraordinaire, relaxing in the hammock with Sunny, in the afternoon sun.
- A gathering of olives from our olive tree in Julie's basket. Kel climbed to the top of the tree to collect these. In the meantime I was telling Julie about the latest book I read, which she's going to borrow. Hope you enjoy the book, Julie! And we look forward to tasting the olives when they're ready!

Away in Wello

I'm going away till Wednesday 20th, on field research in Wellington ... that's Wellington in country NSW, not NZ Wellington or British Gumboot Wellington. I'll be there with Kevin (K1) which is really nice :-)
Kevin tells me there is no internet in Wellington ... so I'll have no updates till Tess and Yarrow are home from their travels again!

Fridge poetry

While I was in Parramatta doing the hospitals research, I bought the family a new set of magnetic poetry. Briony especially has been having fun concocting some creative language events :-). Some of them, Briony being Briony, are NSFW (he he) but here is a lovely poetic message ...

More snakes!

We like snakes, we do. They complement our jewellery beautifully.

Tess and Briony model the new models ... :-)

Thanks, Kel and Tom!

Morning all

Here are two pics of this morning... view from the back stairs.

In a state of bliss ...

What a hard life he leads... ::sigh::

When I reincarnate I think I want to come back as one of the Grange cats...

Body art

Denise's Christmas present from Briony was the promise of some body art. And here is the result! Lovely to watch this art take shape. After the show, Briony doodled on her own leg, too ... while I did her foot ... Body art is good fun!!

Horses at home

Some of our horses here at the Grange, enjoying the shade of the small-leaved fig.

The bay (left, facing camera) = Gandhi, John's tall and fiery steed;
The pinto (side on) = Rascal Darius, playful two yr old son of Duchess the brumby mare;
The bay closest to the tree = Saturn, Stock horse mare, rescued from a future as dogmeat, and possibly the best horse I've ever had the pleasure of riding;
Just visible behind Saturn are the golden colours of buckskin Elara, also one of Duchess' get;
Off to the right is gallant strong Emu
Not in picture: sweet Blue, as he was asleep elsewhere, and Nova, who is still in Billinudgel with the stallion.

Click for bigger.

Denise found a little snake ..

In the tree at the Myth, just a tiny lil' snake-let ... (Seriously: how gorgeous and healthy, hey? A beauty of a python!). Denise, to her credit, was totally unfazed and took several beautiful photos of this lovely visitor.

Remy is S.M.A.T!

'Cos he can do the crossword too.

New Year at the Grange

Remy would like to wish you a contented New Year

World travellers

On the 28th, Tess and Yarrow set off for Portugal to have a holiday with Dad and Niki, a journey that took them about 40 hours (a working week!). They went from the Grange, to Lismore, from Lismore by Rex's Saab turboprop to Sydney, then on their own across the world by Jumbo jet to Hong Kong, Amsterdam, then finally Lisbon. Here's a picture of them as they set off. For piccies and news of them in Portugal, see Crystal Cadenzas.
Travel well and come home safely, my loves!