Mother's day 2014

I am oh so very fortunate to have loving daughters. Here's a photo of my Mother's Day 'card' from Yarrow ...

The bottom right hand panel alone reads as follows:

My beautiful mother, I know this is an unconventional

card, however, we are an unconventional family, so I think it fits …

You amaze me. You are always there, no matter what. I can’t understand how

you stay so strong – you are my idol. The way you do things is amazing. The amount of

effort you go to for me is incredible and I honestly don’t know to thank you so much

You are so beautiful and strong, the love I have for you is endless, never ever forget that. You taught (teach)

me the very best in life. Thank you. I couldn’t ask for a better mother. Happy mother’s day. I love you so much.

xxx Sparrow

I did particularly like the post-it (bottom left panel) in which Yarrow thanks me because she 'inherited my snort' (of laughter) :-D 

Elara and Ruby update

On Ruby's birthday last Thursday, Cathy E. (Ruby's Mum), Tanya and I went out to see how Elara was going with Cathy Ryan the trainer. Pretty fantastic!

On the long lead, Elara jumps the barrels. Her second ever jump.

Elara's the King of the Castle and everyone else are Dirty Rascals (except Ruby of course)

Stepping neatly up the embankment

In case you're wondering, yes, Ruby's riding Elara. But at the  moment mainly learning horsemanship and handling, so that they develop a safe and respectful relationship.

Trainer with her two pupils, who are listening attentively

That evening Cathy and Ruby kindly invited me over for a yummy curry dinner and we did the birthday cake thing :-)

Blowing out the candles

A lovely lovely day. Thanks so much Ruby and Cathy E!

And they're off! Overseas trip for Tess and Yarrow

Well actually, by the time I've gotten around to posting this, they're gone!! Tess and Yarrow left last Saturday for a two-month trip through Europe with Hans and Niki. This isn't their first trip around the world, not by a long shot: in 2010 they went to Portugal and the Netherlands. But this will be the longest that they've been away from home and I shall miss them muchly.

The day of their departure dawned in spectacular colours!

They were pretty excited to leave and had been packing and repacking bags for about a week.

You can see how much they've grown since their last Europe trip

Myself and the trusty Subaru were enlisted to take Hans, Tess and Yarrow to Coolangatta airport for the first leg to Sydney.

All that baggage, with 367,000 km on the clock and going strong. Good car!!

At the airport I waited with the travelling threesome until it was time to go.

A pensive moment

Waiting at airports is always slightly awkward ... there were moments of stillness and moments of silliness :-D

Horsing around:-)

 And then it was time to say goodbye...

Me 'n my Tess ...

Bye girls, have a wonderful wonderful time. I already know you're *loving* Paris :-)

Bouncy dogs and accidental injuries

Every Monday I teach in the Master's program up at Tweed Heads, which means I'm away from home all day. So usually I take Radha to visit my old neighbour Chris (she's not really old!) and her young dog Piccolo so they can romp together; and recently I've been taking Chicco for a calm rest day at my parents' place.

Yesterday though Radha was so happy to see my mother that she leaped up, and raked her considerable claws along my Mum's arm, accidentally tearing three large rents in her skin. It looked quite horrific at first - two of the tears were about 5cm long and had taken off large triangles of skin. On cleaning and dressing the wounds we discovered that there was not too much skin loss, though whether the flaps of tissue will adhere again remains to be seen.

A visit to the doctor ensued and a large bandage was applied, together with tetanus shots and antibiotics. So sorry Mam!! :'(

Here you can see my Mum showing her sadness about her arm:

Though of course, being Mam, she was able to joke about it too!

Radha, however, thereafter played all day with her friend Piccolo and gave my poor Mum not a thought!! Insensitive soul ...

Look out behind you Piccolo! There's a subtle ambush about to happen ...

Being dogs, romping in the water. Yay, MUD!!! om nom nom nom ....

Briony

Beautiful Briony ... on John's birthday (at the Eltham "Not Quite Folk" evening)

Good old fashioned fun: happy kids

Going back a few weeks now, but here's a lovely short clip of Esmée using the rope swing to join Yarrow in the river. The kids built this swing themselves when we were camping at the Clarence River down at Alice Flats. They spent most of the days in and out of the water ... Well, who wouldn't?

I love the wink and the thumbs up ... and that confident little wiggle, yes ... :-) :-) :-)

Sister

My loved sister Anoush (Ana-mir, Anna, Auntie Anana ... a rose by any other...) is visiting from Melbourne on a rare and welcome long visit. Today we took a wee break from family stuff and Anoush went for a ride on the good cob, Emu, who is now owned by Hans. She has overcome a good many health problems to get back in the saddle and as you can see, has done so admirably! Our dear old dog Chicco ambled along (though she kind of went adrift every now and then ... but hey, at 13 she is fairly ancient).

Emu's got his ears forward and was obviously enjoying the ride with Anoush. 

The adventures of Nick and Esmée

My niece and nephew, Esmée and Nick (my brother's two eldest from the Netherlands), have spent the last three weeks here enjoying the Australian summer. Here are some of the many many photos (click to enlarge).

Arrival at Brisbane airport after a tiring 24 hour flight, but they're still smiling!

Both Esmée and Nick spent time learning to ride / improving their riding skills. Es rode our young Arab/Brumby cross, Rascal, and Nick rode the trusty bay horse, Emu.

Nick and Esmée both had a driving lesson in the Subaru ... Good fun on Peter J's 60 acre river flats!

Esmée celebrated her 15th birthday with elegance and fun ...

Home-made flower necklace courtesy of Ongel (Oma)'s pink frangipani

All the cousins did a fair bit of hanging out: John's daughters Briony and Bella, Bella's fiancée Tim, John's nephew Rian and his fiancée Nadine, Tess and Yarrow ... here they are all hanging out at Claudia's place.

Of course we went to play at Killen falls. Nothing quite like standing under a waterfall and letting the water cascade down your back on a hot summer's day ...

New Yea: a bonfire and dancing at the Grange. Here are Esmée and Yarrow ringing in the new year ...

Nick spending some quiet time gaming on the computer, supported by Inkling who was obviously mesmerised by the cyber entertainment ...

A highlight: Camping at the Clarence River (Alice Flats). Sleeping in tents, cooking on the campfire, swimming and canoeing in the river, body surfing down the rapids, afternoon massages ...

Crocodile Nick approaches Yarrow who had been reading in the Canadian canoe

Cousins reading and chatting

Just hanging around the campfire

Nick receives a massage from Auntie Anana

Nick giving Yarrow a massage

Home again, and time to relax in the bath and soak all the camping dust off!

Esmée reading in "a bath with a view" ...

We spent a day at the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary where there are not only marsupials and monotremes, but monkeys in the trees ...

Nick going down the longest flying fox, 18 metres above the ground

Tess negotiating the high stirrups. I found them really hard to do!

Esmée with a friendly kangaroo

Auntie Anana and Esmée chilling out in the shade with the roos

Who says wombats can't do yoga?

Esmée in the terrifying grips of a large python ...

House guest

We are very lucky to have a lovely house guest in the form of Teun from Venray in the Netherlands. Not only is he very likeable and exceedingly helpful around the place, he loves animals and is also a Trekkie!! And he's a dab hand with the camera ...

Yarrow, Teun and Tess November 2012. The cowboy and his Clunes sisters :-)

Happy birthday Marc!

Well, it's still 9 October in Europe ...  so here is a happy birthday card for Marc, my much loved and much-missed brother!

This is a sketch / doodle Marc and I made together in the kitchen at Crieve Lodge (RMB 602B, Goulburn NSW), while my mother was on the phone, back in 1981 or so, and which I have treasured and kept all these years. I'm wondering how to explain the context of this drawing, but I've decided I can't ... Suffice to say, we were pretty much rolling on the floor, helpless with laughter. I know, I know, you kinda had to be there ...

The drawing is called "Schoft"

Happy happy birthday, Marc. Thank you for all the merriment, humour, and laughter that we have shared. I love you! xxx Mieke

A short but lovely family visit

On our three days off John and I headed North to Queensland to visit various McAdam-esque relatives.  I love the drive: it's beautiful country and we while away the time nicely with music and reading. On our first stop we had a delectable roast meal and spent an engaging evening with John's stepbrother Peter Morfee and his wife Roselle; and the next morning were treated to a guided tour of Peter's marvellous garden.

Peter Morfee's garden: check out the awesome veggie garden there on the left

Loaded with various wonderful treats from Peter and Roselles garden and kitchen in the form of chutneys and pickles and other yummies, the next day we visited John's much-loved Mum Tuffy and her husband Tony Morfee (Peter's father), who has sadly been unwell. It was lovely to hug dear Tuffy again... and we do hope Tony gets better soon! 

Then we headed over to John's brother Peter McAdam and Peter's wife Bronwyn. I love visiting their farm... good company and a lovely location. One of the highlights for me was that Bronwyn offered to take me out in the sulky with the Australian Champion carriage horse, her very own Monga Park Whiskey. Bronwyn (champion trainer and driver in her own right of course) let me take the reins and showed me the basics of driving: what a treat!!

When I played Bronwyn, Peter and John the clip, Whiskey the pony showed great surprise and looked around for the trotting horse he could hear! Smart boy ...

Camping at Alice Flats

One of my favourite pasttimes: camping with the family. Bush camping, that is: not in a caravan park, away from roads and other people. The weekend after Easter John and I, with Tess and Yarrow (and Chicco our dog) set off with our dear friends Willa and Andrew (+ Myki and Liam), plus old friends of theirs (James and Mitti, and their two young sons) to spend four days camping in the wilderness on the banks of the Clarence River, some 30 km south-east of Tabulam. The locality is known as Alice Flats.  John and I put our gear into the horse float, which doubles as our "tent", and headed off cross country, well off the beaten tracks.

Yarrow and Tess in the foreground, Liam and Myki just visible in the tree behind. These are big old Callistemon trees, by the way. Check out the moss!

There is gently sloping sandy access to the river, which of course, is the focus of most of the activities: swimming, stone skipping, surfing (you tie a rope to the tree, and 'surf' the rapids on an ex-camping-mattress), fishing for yabbies, and generally lounging about.

John practising for the big stone skipping competition :-)

 

Chicco loves coming along ... and is not only good company, but keeps the campsite free of cattle and the odd brumby who might come wandering through, with her loud warning woof at their approach.

Evenings brought lovely campfire, music, and superb campfire meals ... delectable.

Here's a clip of Yarrow singing a campfire song written and accompanied by Myki on guitar (inspired by The Waifs). Just listen...

Mind you, some of the creative cookery done by the kids was a tad *interesting*. Here Yarrow and Myki have made salted crackers with melted chocolate and marshmallow fillings, toasted on the camfire hotplate... Do we say yum? No? What do we say?

 

The return journey was exciting indeed, as we had to get the Hilux (plus heavy horse float attached) through some deep sand and rock terrain, and got bogged well down to the axles several times. Some solid spade work by all of us helped, as well as John's excellent 4WD skills. I know, horse floats aren't meant to be 4WD vehicles... never mind. There was a *particularly* exciting bit which involved sliding the Hilux plus float down a large, 45 degree sand dune ("there's no way but down"). We finally got the to 'main road' (a dirt track leading away from the river); and when John said "Well, that's it ... bye, river!", Yarrow piped in with huge overtones of relief  "Oh...Hello, ROAD!!!"...

Yarrow does some modelling

... for Rodney Deane Photography.

Mind you, she still wants to be a paediatrician when she grows up ...

The Grange girls ...

A fetching foursome ...

Clockwise from the lollipop: Bella, Briony, Tess and Yarrow

John's birthday present

John loves motorbike riding, and he's a good rider, but what with work and family commitments he doesn't get as much riding time as he'd like. For John's birthday last year I bought him a voucher to spend a day on Eastern Creek racecourse, on the outskirts of Sydney, riding the racetrack on his own Triumph (a Sprint GT 1050).

Getting two (full-time employed) people plus bike 1600 km there and back, turned out to be harder to organise that we thought. But, just in time for John's birthday this year, we managed it: we borrowed a trail-bike trailer (thanks Trevor ...) and with the help of local Bangalow palm fronds (totally pliable and totally tough!) re-shaped the wheel slots to support the fat tyres of the Triumph. And so we set off to Eastern Creek: we took two days to get there and had a lovely time (great meals en route in the most unexpected places). 

John and I both had a super day at the track. I enjoyed the novelty of watching 'live' bikes on the race track; chatted with all sorts of people; and took lots of photos.  John was given a couple of advice sessions by a "California Superbike" instructor, and had six sessions on the track; each a maximum of 30 minutes long (about as long as ultimate concentration will last).

Here he is enjoying a corner at fair speed. His top speed, by the way, was 219.8 kph (and no radar traps to issue a speed infringement notice...).

The trip back was good too: Lots of ABC Radio National, reading out loud (me to John that is), good spicy meals en route, and the wonderful Australian landscape unfolding before our eyes.

What a lovely adventure it was! Thanks John for having a birthday! :-D

Happy Birthday Briony!

Eighteen summers young :-)
And of course, what Briony really wanted for her birthday was an authentic Indian headdress. Which she received! Here she is larking about with Yarrow, who is resplendent in her white dress (a present from Sinterklaas).

Happy birthday darling Briony!