Harvesting on the farm

I'm currently in Western Australia on the farm spending some time with Mum until we fly back to Melbourne where she will be having a holiday and spending Christmas with us and my siblings and families.

It's harvesting time on the farm, almost at the end of it with only a few more paddocks to do.  Late yesterday afternoon I hitched a ride with my big brother on the harvester and did a few laps around the paddock with him.  Here are a few photos taken while on and off board.

Big brother approaching on his harvester

Filling up the field bin.  The grain is loaded onto my cousins truck and taken to the wheat silo in the local town.

My nephew on his harvester.

The big brother.  He's an AWESOME farmer.

I crouched down to take this photo of this wheat yet to be harvested.

So good to be back in wide open spaces, big blue skies and plenty of sunshine.

Anne  xx

Late afternoon walk

A few days ago late in the afternoon I went for a walk with camera in hand.  The the light was beautiful, the cloud formations gorgeous.  It was lovely to get out in the fresh air, to do some thinking and revisit the spot where I helped Dad cut up an old dead tree in August last year.

I sat on the stump and shed a few tears, remembering how Dad would love to have a roaring wood fire going, so much so that we would have to strip down to t-shirts in the middle of winter.

I said hello to this lovely Gum tree he planted some years earlier to replace others that had died.

A lone Kestrel was sitting in one of the dead branches of the tree below.

The dam water was tranquil with just a few little ripples made from insects.

I found beauty in simple things like old fencing posts and rocks from the farm.



This silhouette of of wild oats on a darkening sky caught my eye.

These old Palms were planted by my Grandparents way back in the mid to late 1920's when they started farming the property where my Dad grew up.  The same farm he worked and lived on all his life.

We do get some lovely sunsets in country Western Australia, this one is no exception although my camera doesn't quite do justice to the intensity of the colours.

In the last few days we have had a little rain and my nephew is out in the paddock planting oats this afternoon.  It's nice to hear the rumble of the tractor as he works in the back paddock behind the house.  It reminds me of when I was growing up, I use to love hearing the tractors working away at night and you could see the tractor lights dotted out on the surrounding farms.

I hope all is well in your world.

Anne xx

Home again

Hello, I'm home again in Victoria and back to cooler temperatures of 26C instead of 39C.  I actually feel like doing something, I had forgotten how much the intense heat saps your energy.

While I was on the farm I bought Mum a new bougainvillea plant.  She expressed a desire to look at the lovely blossom while doing the laundry in her outside wash house and I had so much fun creating an easy care patch of garden for her to make this possible.  My big strapping nephew very kindly cut down and grubbed out a dead privet shrub making space for the new garden.  I used whatever I could find including an old discarded 44 gallon drum, wire from some chicken netting, an old piece of trellis, some garden tie wire, stones from the farm, other pot plants from Mum's garden and a white pot for the bougainvillea. 




Mum and I both love the rusty drum although Dad thinks it needs a paint.






On the last Monday I was staying with my parents, my brother came over in the morning to deliver fresh milk, have a cuppa with us and was then on his way to move some sheep.  I hitched a ride with him so I could watch his amazing sheep dog Jessie in action.

It was an absolute joy to see her working and my brother says she is very mature for such a young dog.

Late Monday afternoon my brother took me, my nephew and the two dogs to Lake Baandee for a swim.  It is a salt lake which rarely has water in it due to the low rainfall in the area.  There has been water in the lake for the past two summers although previously it had been dry since about 1999.
My brother swimming with Bonnie.


 My nephew with his snorkeling gear on.  There was nothing much to see except a few mosquito larvae, he had fun anyway.
Gorgeous Bonnie with a salt and sand encrusted face.

 After swimming for a bit, Jessie decided it was time to go home and sat in the back of the ute.  She had to wait for us as we were having too much fun.

 Sun setting over the water.

 
 

 This is my favourite.


We came out of the water very crusty with salt but as I managed to float on my back for the very first time due to the saltiness of the water, I didn't mind. :)

I had a good flight home to Melbourne from Perth and passed over these salt lakes, one in the shape of a heart which I thought was rather lovely.

Flying over the township of Esperance.

Beautiful coastline along south eastern Western Australia.

So now it's back to the routine for a few months and then hubby and I are off to Europe for a couple of months.  There is a lot to do between now and then, so I had better get cracking.  Thank you for taking time out of your day to catch up with my blog.

Anne  xx