R&R - Day 1

It has been a glorious day...

Sitting out the back over looking the garden ... Three or four different bird species simultaneously fossicking about, chortling and chattering ... Spinning luscious fibre ... My shweetie measuring, oiling, crafting away at his reloading press ... Knitting podcasts ... Tasty snacks ... Movies to watch tonight ...

It has been such a balm to have an entire day of relaxation - no appointments, errands or 'should's.

Touching Base

It is so awesome busting in through the door, finally home on R&R, dropping the bags and ferreting delightedly through the mail...

SUBSCRIPTIONS!!

We realised on the taxi ride from the airport that this time around we have been away for THREE. MONTHS. A long time to go without seeing family, close friends and fuzzy wuzzy doggalogs.

Bogged!

Our lovely block of land is near beautifully running water - so in this waterlogged time of year the low paddocks tend to get a little soggy - which we discovered while driving across one!



As you can see - we got out in the end!
We had driven across this same paddock several times already, and since the ground was so soft we decided to take a slightly different angle so as not to etch an ugly track in the one place we had been driving.

Bad move!
That innocent looking grassy patch for a sneaky veneer over incredibley soft, dark, rich and SLIPPERY mud!



Here I show how deep the ruts were that we became stuck in - right up to the axel almost!
Also - as you can see, neither of us were wearing our gumboots since we were just popping out to town, and had no expectation of becoming shin deep in mud!



The textures were so delicious - the mud was like melted rich dark chocolate and contrasted so beautifully against the textured grass.

Thank goodness for the shovel, our healthy strong bodies and my shweetie excellent skills!
Very unconventionally - we put the car in to reverse (it was already in low range) and both ran to the front to push. Since it's a diesel car it didn't stall with no one in the seat to feather the clutch and with MONSTER effort (we both had headaches afterwards from the strain) we pushed the mongrel out!

The problem had been that the mud was SO bloody slippery that even with no obstacles behind the wheels, we had dug out the mud to a nice smooth surface for the tyres to turn on, the wheels would simply spin on the spot as the tyers couldn't get any purchase!



We met another friend from all of this however, a GIANT earthworm must have been disturbed by all our efforts in the soil and was inching his way across the grass looking for a way back down. We helped him back to an earthy opening he could push in to, lest he be gobbled up by a bird.

D90 excitement!

( Isn't it odd - I apologised for the absence and then disappeared again - then it felt awkward to jump back in again so I procrastinated until I finally realised how absurd that was and here we are..!! )

While away on our last R&R - our trip back to our MAGNIFICENT block in Tassie - I picked up a liddle somethin'-somethin' that I am exceedingly excited about...



.. my very own fancy pants Digital SLR camera!! Wooooot! :D

I am miles away from knowing what on earth I'm doing with it - so thank goodness for 'auto', hey? I bought a kit lens with the D90, it's the 18mm - 105mm and I'm finding it very nice indeed. I love the idea of a very super ridiculously long lens for wildlife shooting (that way I can go "hunting" wildlife on our block too, but a different type of shooting than Sir Shweetie!) and I am desperate to get a delicious macro lens. But the reality is that the DSLR world is a fancy pants from france world with expensive accessories!

For now I'm thrilled to bits with the D90 (yet to be officially named) and I'm sure it will keep me very busy learning how all the bells and whistles work!

p.s. those woolly looking sleeves in the photo are my malabrigo Toasts! Absolutely perfect for the cool Tassie climes :)

Absence Explained

There has been flying, driving, ferrying, walking, fence fixing and all manner of wonderful things.

It has been very difficult to return to our current lifestyle - but it's necessary for the moment, so we are compensating for now with planning, researching, drafting and there's even been a little swatching!