Rain = Mud = mucky horses

This horse is usually a nice pearly white colour with slight peach tones underneath. Really, really truly.
All I can say now is "Well at least she washed her face before tucking into dinner"    :-D

Goodbye, Remy

A small life cut short by a speeding truck on the road.

We loved him and he gave us much joy.

Goodbye Remy, our loving and loved little grey cat.

So sad.

Simple steps to stop your house falling over

In keeping with Queenslander building style, The Grange is held up off the ground by a series of tall 10cm square poles (called 'stumps' even though they don't look stumpy). One of the stumps had been shifting over the course of years and we thought it was time to put it back where it belonged before the side of the house started to sag ... 

John procured a very smart device called an acrow prop from his friend Peter C and in no time flat we had propped the side of the house up;
(see photo below)...

and repositioned the stump. See bottom photo. (Phew, that looks better!!) 

The whole exercise took about five minutes.


That's all I've done this week on the house / farm front as I've been quite ill with fever and flu and even walking to the chook pen was uncharacteristically arduous!

Shrooms ...

(... As Briony would call them :-) ).


Lovely though these are, I think they look slightly alien, somehow!

Rainbow region

The advantage of all that rain we've been having is that one occasionally gets some great rainbows playing onto the farm.

Here are two rainbows that came visiting us this week.



Quite nice!!

At last ... combustion (convection) heater ... YUMMMMM ....

After decades of cold under the previous owner, the Grange has once again a working wood fire ...

And let me tell you, the warmth is so, so, so welcome ...

(John's lounging here on the armchair in his *shorts*!!)

Cheerio from a toasty warm Mieke ...

Befriended birds in the backyard

The old big frangipani is outside my study (sunroom) window. This morning a kookaburra came and sat for a while ... and then soon after a blue-faced honeyeater came to the other side of the tree. The honeyeater kept hopping closer to the wary kookaburra, and then flitting away, and then closer ... and then deliberately hopped right up to the kookaburra and cheekily kissed him on the beak!

After that they were friends.

Happy birthday Yarrow

All of a sudden, it happens: you wake up, and there's an apple cake and candles and strawberries and family and presents and cards ...

And you're thirteen years old.

Just like that, it happens.

Happy birthday Yarrow love! Welcome to your teens...
x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Nose

Like this...

Pre- and post-puddle

It's been raining rather a lot. Here are some photos of our young brumby/arab x horse Rascal Darius ('THFKAR') before, and after, a very satisfying encounter with a puddle.

We might re-name him "Crusty" ...


:-D

PS it was *very* hard to take the photo because he's so curious and affectionate he tends to put his nose right on the camera when photos are being taken.

Various family graduations and completions

In Europe the academic year has drawn to a close, just about. Here are some updates on my European family:

• Tess and Yarrow's sister Anjes passed her diploma as a beautician; which is fantastic news! She worked very hard for this. Great achievement, Anjes!

• Tess and Yarrow's other sister Lisa has submitted her Master's thesis on social psychology and is celebrating by holidaying in the tropics with her partner Milan. Way to go Lisa!

• My niece (their cousin) Esmee has finished primary school and has been accepted into the VWO (= HSC stream in high school). As you can see Esmee and her parents (my brother Marc and Karin) are pretty happy! Lovely flowers, Es ...

• My nephew (their cousin) Nick has passed high school: you can see him signing his high school diploma in the photo on the left. He has been accepted into the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht (= The Utrecht School of the Arts, which offers bachelors and masters degrees in fine art, design, music, theatre, media, games and interaction and arts management). Excellent achievement to get into this competitive university, Nick! Well done!

Congratulations to all of them! Hugs and champagne and kisses and cheers ...