I spent a few days down at Hopetoun, (south east coast of WA) to give myself some writing time while the kids enjoyed a break during school holidays. As it was, I had to spend half the day cutting branches off a fallen tree and dig out gutters full of rotten leaves. Fun, not! But the excercise helps balance the rest of the day sitting on my backside writing. (Not the most physicall of jobs being an author!) I love the white sandy beaches here, perfect, but HATE it in my car. Kids brought heaps home in their pockets by accident!! Don’t let them do this, the morning before you head home.  When we got home I took the kids out to Buckley’s Breakaway. A place we went to lots as kids for birthday parties and fun (and my dad even had a few parties out there when he was younger), so I couldn’t believe I hadn’t

I was invited to talk at an event called the Narembeen Ladies Long Lunch on Saturday and I knew it would be something special.  The flyer read ‘Posh in the Paddock’ as we were to wear our fancy clothes and our boots. It took me an hour to get to the secret location, which was just up the road on the way to Narembeen, and it was on a farm, in the super shed to be exact. (The guys were just putting the large bales along the opening of the shed to keep the breeze out.) As I walked around the bales, in my Redback boots and dress, my jaw dropped seeing the gorgeous set up shed. I kid you not, it looked perfect for a country wedding. Splashes of white, matched with red gingham and hessian looked awesome. There were little plant boxes full of growing strawberries, glass jars full of red and white lollies (yum)

I am someone who see’s beauty in almost anything. Its always a half glass full with me, and why shouldn’t life be looked upon so fondly? When I’m in the city, I see beauty there, from the lights, rivers and fancy houses and when I’m home in the country its everywhere I turn.  Take this morning for example. I go out to feed the chooks and let them out just as a thick fog rolls in. So I grabbed my new camera and headed out to the lake to take some snaps. Only problem is, when you see beauty in everything you look at…how do you take a really good photo???  I just wanted to take a photo of everything! When I was up the rock the other day I took photo’s of the moss as it was shimmering in the sunlight. No one else may see it, but to me it was just awesome.

Not that long ago I blogged about the film crew that was in Pingaring, doing a doco for Penguin. Well it’s finally finished and Andre Sawenko has done a fantastic job putting all the shots together. (Especially my parts…I didn’t give him much to go on lol) So here it is, I hope you enjoy seeing where I live. After all, it’s what inspired me to write.    

Another year and I was back at Wagin for the Woolorama. If I thought the Friday was hot, then I was wrong because Saturday was even worse but it didn’t stop people from turning up. It helped that my site was in the Wool Pavilion, with nice cold concrete floors and an air con right above me.  We also have the fashion parade in the same shed so we had tunes all day. It was fantastic to be able to spend both days meeting new people who brought my books for the first time as well as fans dying to buy the new one.  Last year I’d met a farmer and he helped me with some idea’s for The Road Home, so it was nice to meet up with him again. On the first day I had a bit of time to duck off to the nearby shed where the sheep judging went on and my

Disclaimer: The following may give you the heebie jeebies. (It certainly freaked me out) It must be the year for spiders. They are everywhere!! I only ever had one golden orb spider in my chook pen, but today I counted 14 big fat ones. There were two in this corner and the blossom from the flowering gums nearby had been caught in their webs. Actually looked really cool. But everytime I went in there to get eggs or water the trees I hated knowing they were above my head. I think I would scream my guts out if one ever dropped to my head or shoulder. (Probably never would have happened but I wasn’t going to take the chance.) We don’t like to put any sprays near our fruit so I found the biggest stick I could…believe me it was MASSIVE. It had a V at the end and I used it to scoop through the web and catch the spider.  Yeah, I

  I have been walking in the mornings at 5.30am with my mum. Sometimes we walk  around the paddocks behind our house and up to the rock. It takes us about an hour return trip walking fast. But as much as I hate getting out of bed it is so worth it. The air is so fresh and clear, the kangaroo’s are out and so are the birds.  We take the dogs with us  and they also walked to the top of the rock. One moment was rather scary when we were at the top watching two big Eagles float in the air as it rushed over the rock as one of the dogs spotted it…and this dog isn’t mine, its our neighbours dog.  Even scarier when it darted off after it.Typical. Now years ago we went up the rock as kids with our little Jack Russel, Patch.  He chased a lizard and ended up rolling over the edge of the

So a couple of our locals came up with a competition to get everyone in the Christmas spirit. A notice went out to everyone, come and join in our Farm Gate Lights Competition. By friday night we gathered under the tree, our five house town now thriving with people. We fired up the barbie, cooked a few snags and fed the hungry mass as we waited until it was time to load up the bus! 7.3o we climbed aboard! All the seats were full! (Yes we were a little surprised at the great turn out) So then we were left in our wonderful drivers hands. Thanks Tess for the use of your bus and being our driver…we were louder than your average bus run!! On our way we had a rough floodway to navigate but lucky our bus-hostess, Mark, guided us to the exits, our crash position and where the gas masks would fall from.

Meet our two new pets. We were given these two ducks with some extra hens. I’ve got small bantoms, so the new larger hens are trying to rule the chook pen. Bossy things they are. These two ducks I’ve put in our fruit tree area which didn’t have a water source. For the time being my sons toy truck will have to do. I found a duck egg under the grape vine this morning…can you spot it? I’ve just started picking some of the ripe apricots and a few peaches. The poor tree is loaded. Yum, just love summertime when all the fruit is ripe. And here’s some other things we have been busy at. With lots of full lakes around we now have a place to take the kids for a swim. My dad sold his boat years ago so lucky we have great locals who are happy to tow us around the lake for

  Here is just a few more photo’s I took while driving around.  It’s just amazing to see so much water. Silvie, the boarder collie, checks out the water. This picture is of the driveway to my uncles farm, which we call Kate’s.   All the water makes for some nice pitures. On Burngup Road, you can see the fence on the left which has been swept over the road. This is what is left after the water drains away. This is just one section of washed out railway. I went walking this morning with my mum down past Bakers to Byass’s where the water has ripped up all the bitumen across the road, swept all the fences on both sides of the road away and turned the wheat crop to mud. I wanted to go see how the wheat looked up close but it was still soaking in water and I was worried i’d