This image is probably one of my favourites from this year.
It incorporates some of my favourite things - black and white, unusual perspective, non-conforming portraiture, fun with textures and my niece!
The more dogs I meet the harder it is for me to choose which breed I like the most!
This Old English Sheep Dogge could be one of three!
Alley was born to one of my sister-in-laws cats and we took her on as company for my then 2yo shihtzu. She spent the first two days under the lounge creating thunder from her tiny tummy. To my dog's credit he never barked or chased, he just laid down, nose to the lounge, and waited.
Her first 4 years were spent as an inside cat but a move of house and a disastrous venture next door (big dog chased her back up the fence where she fell down and into the pool) she is now a house/yard card and never ventures beyond.
She is still a tortoiseshell however and is the most genetically unpredictable (goes on season out of season) bad tempered beartch of a cat that I have ever met.
But she loves the hand that feeds her so how can I not love her back!
It's been a shocking week and it's only Wednesday.
Monday night got things off to an exciting start with the 4 Corners program giving the Climate Change skeptics a full run. After all Malcolm's efforts to try and hide these characters the ABC has given them the opportunity to increase the size of the hole in the hull and they went for it boots and all.
Then something snapped in Joe Hockey who is supposed to be a future leader of the Libs. For some strange reason he has decided to play the God card, presumably because he thinks it will better his chances in Leadership ballots. Logic fail. Kevin 07 beat Howard in spite of his religious beliefs not because of them.
Aussies are always supicious of "God Bothering" from pollies. Yes, you can declare your hand if the matter is raised by others but to start the topic yourself is a very dangerous tactic. When you have another political challenger in your Party representing Cardinal Pell pushing a different God then things can get ugly mighty fast.
To add insult to injury, young Joe has also come out with the extraordinary claim that he doesn't lie. Perhaps he has already forgotten his part in promoting Work Choices but the victims of it haven't. It shouldn't be too long now before the Interviewers start reading back on his unhappy time as the Minister and start quizzing his pronouncements. Perhaps he should have added the caveat "from now on" but even that would be a struggle. His announcement that "People smuggling is in decline" though not an outright lie is certainly a dishonest presentation of the facts.
All this on top of Howard sticking his head up to remind the Voters of children being imprisoned with their asylum seeking parents.
The week can only improve from here.
After looking through old photos of myself and my sibs when we were kids, I have come to the conclusion that we must have worn the most ridiculous, daggy swimmers you could ever hope (not) to see.
Now I myself only saw my mother sew once, when she sewed my bridesmaid doll a dress and cape. But these definitely have a home sewn look to them. And we seemed to wear them for years.
Take me here for instance. Determined to get to the beach. And nothin', not even those baggy daggy swimmers is going to stop me. I mean mother, you could've taken in the legs a little. I bet if I keep looking I'll see one of my sisters wearing these before I got them. Probably both of them.
And one of my favourite photos. Emjay, the oldest, with our brother and sister. Sporting a very unfashionable blue suit with a matching home done fringe trim.
And here she is again, what maybe a couple of years later, still wearing it.
Move forward another couple of years and my other sister is now wearing it and Emjay has a much nicer, yet still loose fitting pair of swimmers on. As you can see I'm still wearing the same pair I had on in the beginning. Because I had penty of room to grow into.
OMFG. And I was right. Even though I was only half joking. Here is Min, wearing my baggy pink swimmers. I wonder if I ever owned a new pair.
I have this vision of my mother, searching through her wardrobe every year the day before we went on our summer holidays, pulling out a bag full of atrocious old faded swimmers and handing us each a pair. Mind you it wouldn't have been a very full bag. We seemed to last through our childhoods with three of four pairs between us.
We have always entertained the notion of having chickens running around the yard and finally we have the ability. The plans have been modified though. Anyone with a garden using wood chips as a water saving method will know where I’m coming from here.
Chooks live to scratch and have no concept of how a garden should look.
But behind a chook wire fence, they have made a brilliant addition to the yard. Got leftover veggies or indeed the scraps left over from their preparation? Into the chook pen. Pulled out a few weeds and want to turn them into compost? In they go too.
After having the chooks for just on a year, the sandy soil in their yard is looking a lot more healthy. Between the chook poo and the weeds, the soil has really built up. We even have worms in there although it’s risky for them to reveal themselves. Nothing gets the excitement levels soaring like turning over a few shovel loads of dirt and a worm or two turning up.
Egg production is a real eye opener too. The eggs are big. And the yokes so yellow. Nothing like their pale cousins in the supermarket. The laying process is a sociable event too. We have 4 chooks and they take it in turns to produce an egg. After one has laid an egg it comes out of the coup and loudly declares success. Then another will walk up the ramp and lay her egg right beside the first one. Out she comes and the process continues.
The actual chicken coup sits right in the back corner of the yard under a huge gum tree. It’s shaded from about 10 am so the chooks have cool conditions throughout the day. Never the less the curent heat wave has dropped production from 4 eggs to 1 per day. I don’t blame them at all. We have had such a mild opening to the warmer weather that the 100 degree F days have been a bit of a shock to the system.
So that’s how chooks have entered our lives. Even more fun than I thought they would be and great little recyclers to boot. A welcome addition to the homestead.
Are you prepared in case of a natural disaster? What do your plan and preparations include?
lol, what a strange question! Are we expecting one then?
I'm obsessive compulsive enough thanks. If I start worrying about potential natural disasters I'll be a nervous wreck.
Although, we are going to Thailand at christmas time, and I must admit that the thought has crossed my mind as I run on the treadmill each morning, that'll I'll be right to run a long way up into the mountains if a tsunami hits. Maybe even carrying one small child on my back. Which rules out my kids because they're all much bigger than me. Which is good because I won't have to do the Sophies Choice thing.
Remember when everyone was freaking out about the Y2K thing? I said to Daz, maybe we should stock up on food. And when the year 2000 clicked over with no problems I looked in the laundry and we had stocked one bottle of water and a 4 pack of baked beans. It was a pretty piss poor effort really. We'd have lasted a morning.
I think to be prepared for a natural disaster the best thing you can do is forget about supplies and just stock up on weapons. Lots of guns and ammo. Thats your best bet, because you're going to have to kill a lot of crazy desperate people to get to the supermarket and the bottle shop. Maybe even zombies. I'm not sure what sort of disaster we're talking about. Oh yes,there they are, I wasn't looking properly. No zombies, so that makes it a bit easier.
And nail polish. Stock up on nail polish. Because new nail polish always makes you feel better.
My new bottles arrived in the mail the other day.
I'm wearing blue at the moment. But I'm wishing I'd picked Calypso.
Have a crack at it. 24 out of 30 is regarded as a pass and plenty of Americans don't reach that level. It goes without saying that Aussies would struggle with an Aussie flavoured version of the same thing.
For the record I scored a paltry 16. I think a few family members who have travelled there regularly would breeze through it.
Independence Day Quiz.
By the way I selected Alberta Canada as my home state because the quiz doesn't know about the rest of the world. Sorry to those Canadians who's stats I have weakened.
Folks,
I thought I'd post this to give you an idea of the chatter that goes on as pilots join circuit on approach for landing.
For those who don't know, Oshkosh in Wisconsin is THE biggest aviation show in the world. And each year the Oshkosh airport is like a mecca for general aviation enthusiasts from all over the world. A tonne of these people fly in to the show and that truly makes Oshkosh the world's busiest airport for the one week festival. I'm told that Avalon in Victoria doesn't even come close to matching Oshkosh.
The tower guys have their hands full trying to keep the traffic flowing nice and safe for everyone to come in.
The interesting thing you will hear in the chatter is the ATC guy asking some pilots to "rock your wings" if they understand. And this is really important to pilots everywhere. Language, instructions and airport procedures all have slight variations, plus the fact that every pilot is trained and used to something that's a bit different to others. Good to know that the traffic controllers recognise this and use plain language to guide the planes in as they join the circuit to come in. And if something's not working out, they will not hesitate to ask pilots to go-around.
I'm not sure what "FISK" means - I think it's the US version of what we call ATIS (automatic terminal information service) in Oz. This is a regularly updated generic aerodrome flight condition status that's pre-recorded. Planes can tune into the ground frequency to check for things like wind speed, wind direction, which runways are for inbound-outbound traffic, QNH settings (altimeter setting specific for the airport) etc.
I've got an eye on being at Oshkosh next year and see the fuss for myself.
Ninja
I took a drive with my wedding photog buddy Julie up to Hillarys yesterday to view the venue for a beach wedding we're shooting next weekend.
We got caught in a traffic jame on the freeway due to a car that had caught fire up near Mounts Bay Rd exit but the worst was over and the traffic was still a steady flow and didn't slow us up too badly. Apparently the fire was caused by an electrical fault.
I hope the sky is as dramatic next week - we'll get some awesome pics! A wedding with groomsmen and bridesMATES - all boys!
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