Granite, grass and What Got Shot

Among the seventy gazillion jobs I have taken on out here in the bush, is a voluntary marketing role for a big (bovine) event in a couple of years time. This long-term project will require images... lots and lots of images. So guess what I did recently, with two kids in tow, and while Mr Incredible was off working elsewhere?

...

Yep. Have Nikon, will shoot.

Here's some of What Got Shot...

Red brangus cows grazing peacefully on a granite flat near our (non-running) river.

(You can almost see it in the background above).

Not a bad start...

Then I decided to 'go bush' with the Prado and get some more close-up paddock pics of some cows and calves... Dash and Violet thought carefully for about 2 seconds about whether they would like to come with me for a little walk in the grass.

They said "No thanks"...

And put their feet up...

Here is one of the reasons why...

This is spear grass - a native grass to Queensland.

And it has zillions of little wiry 'spears' tangled at the top of each tuft of grass... effective for spreading it's seeds...

Right into the fur - or skin- of whatever passes by...

Nice.
Not.

I took about half an hour shooting cows and calves belly-deep in spear grass ... only had to break up two sibling punch-ups during that time! Then drove some more. Then took some more pics of cows and calves belly-deep in sepia grass...

And eventually, of course, the kiddos needed to stretch their legs.

After a couple of hours of being cooped up in the Prado, they needed (apparently) to feel the granite beneath their feet...

My son has the longest toes on the planet.

Seriously, they are like fingers...

And they hang on too - he scaled this boulder like a lizard.
(That analogy sounded better in my head!)

Then it was time to ... well... run away, run away!

I'm not sure why.

An attack of the 'mad sillys' as my Mum would say.

Which of course ended in tears.

She often says that too!

These guys on the horizon helped distract the runaways on the drive home...

So you see?

I start off with a clear goal in mind, and what do I end up with?

Grass and granite.

Rocks and roos.

You see how easily distracted I get...

now...

was someone after cow photos??

A little terrorism humour

OK...I don't do this very often, but the following made me giggle.

And I reckon we could all do with a good giggle, what with all the economic crises casting their ugly shadows, our footy teams losing and personal challenges smacking us around.

It's from an anonymously penned email (definitely the brainstorm of an anonymous AUSSIE though) that arrived in my Inbox this morning.

It illustrates the laid-back-ness of my home country perfectly.

Not sure if it illustrates your home country - perhaps you can embellish?

(Personally I think it goes easy on the Yanks!)

So please grab your beverage of choice, put your happy hats on and enjoy.

Government's responses to Terrorism Alerts: the overview

.

The British are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross". Brits have not been "A Bit Cross" since the Blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to a "Bloody Nuisance". The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was during the Great Fire of 1666.

...
The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide". The only two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender". The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France 's white flag factory, effectively paralysing the country's military capability.

...

It's not only the French who are on a heightened level of alert.

Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout loudly and excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing". Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides".

...
The Germans also increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbour" and "Lose". Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual, and the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels . The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.

...
Americans meanwhile are carrying out pre-emptive strikes on all of their allies, just in case.

...
And at a local level... New Zealand has also raised its security levels - from "baaa" to "BAAAA!". Due to continuing defence cutbacks (the airforce being a squadron of spotty teenagers flying paper aeroplanes and the navy some toy boats in the Prime Minister's bath), New Zealand only has one more level of escalation, which is "Shut, I hope Austrulia will come end riscue us". In the event of invasion, New Zealanders will be asked to gather together in a strategic defensive position called "Bondi".

Australia, meanwhile, has raised its security level from "No worries" to "She'll be right, mate". Three more escalation levels remain: "Crikey!", "I think we'll need to cancel the barbie this weekend" and "The barbie is cancelled".

There has not been a situation yet that has warranted the used of the final escalation level.

...

Note: For my non-Aussie friends (if I have any left after this post!) I will go into the fully explanation of the Aussie barbecue (BBQ) at a later date.

Terrorism alerts permitting.

:-)

BB

PS If anyone from the aforementioned countries takes offence at the quoted email, please refer to this post to help you understand our strange and twisted humour. It's called 'taking the piss'. Or in the case of our dear neighbours, the Kiwis: 'taking the pus'.

.

PPS I notice Canada has been left off this list - c'mon my Canuck comrades... see what you can offer to insert on behalf of your fine government...

My friends, my heroes

Just a short one tonight - my internet is playing silly buggars and I am tired.

...

But I cannot go to bed without properly acknowledging the incredible interview my friends Toni and Dave did with the Sunday Night program, which aired on Channel Seven in Australia tonight.

...

Put simply, they were magnificent.

Magnificent and brave in the face of the most unimaginable grief for the beautiful, healthy baby girl they tragically lost to whooping cough just a few weeks ago.

Talk about a tough gig - knowing that they are putting themselves up there for the anti-vaccination groups to target and try and discredit. Knowing that they will be (from this point on) the face of an immunisation campaign, in the worst kind of way.

That was something they never intended, never could have anticipated.

They know their lives will never be the same.

And yet they did - they took a deep breath and faced the camera.

For Dana.

For their own peace of mind.

As Toni said:

'The only thing worse than the pain we are going through now, would be watching it happen to someone else and know that we could have said something, and didn't.'

...

I admit I cried pretty much the entire way through the story.

I knew I would.

How could I not?

Watching my friend's face crumple as she described what happened to her baby...

Excruciating. Mind-blowing. Surreal. Awful.

I hope it has some effect...

on the people who matter.

On our communities at large.

On parents who can be logical about this debate and make rational decisions.

On governments to properly shoulder the responsibility to keep our babies (and the vulnerable among us) safe from preventable and untreatable disease.

And to remind all adults that they too need boosters to stay immune and help protect the 'herd'.

...

Apparently J-Lo is also pushing the pertussis vaccine in America...

whatever it takes, I guess.

But really, it shouldn't take a celebrity, and it shouldn't take a baby dying, to get people to act as a community to protect themselves and others.

...

I will climb off my soapbox now.

You know me, you know I don't get up there often.

But damn it.

My friend's baby died.

And someone bloody well needs to say something to make sure her voice is not lost in the low roar of everyday life.

Someone needs to dwell on the final words Toni said in tonight's interview, after footage showed them planting a tree for Dana on the day she should have been christened.

She said:

'I feel anger when I look at that tree.

I didn't want a tree.

I just wanted my little girl.'

Pooch Par-tay

Things have been a little crazy and hectic around here lately

(apologies for slack blog posting, for those who check me regularly)

But as we head towards Australia's biggest bovine convention - Beef Week in Rockhampton

(for the uninitiated is not just an opportunity for country folk gather to complain - well...not officially) - things get a little crazy and hectic at Granite Glen.

My head has been buried in my computer actually working and we have been away a lot with showing cattle. But of course, I have still been snapping away on the Nikon during our everyday stuff too... on things OTHER than cattle occasionally.
...

I believe one or two of you have been looking for more snaps of this little tyke...

Hello Axel.What's hanging Dude?
Holy Moly, look at those flying ears!

Axel was off and racing ...

to a little party we had for Dash's seventh birthday.

And let me tell you, the pooch can party!

He took quite a shine to Dash's Bumblebee transformer...

And then had a wrassle with the guest of honour...

(Sponsors note: no one was badly injured in the making of this photo)

And then there was the serious business of party hat mangling to attend to...

Nothing worse than a party hat that hasn't received enough loving attention...

Of course, all too soon the fun was over.

...

As Axel curled up under the towel we rubbed on his mum when we brought him home a week ago, we sent our guests on their way and packed up the party hats. There was a whole lotta sleeping to catch up on for one ten-week-old Great Dane puppy... but after an hour-long power nap he stirred and was immediately looking for a little more action!

Trouble was, the party had been packed away.

And this is the look I got ...

This face says: WHERE's THE PARTY??

What does it say to you?

Happy J Day!!!

Hey everyone... there is something you should know...

.

*hand to mouth, whispers dramatically*

IT'S JEANIE'S BIRTHDAY TODAY!

That's right.

The woman who nagged me til I blogged

should be celebrating today...

Instead she is working her butt off!!!

She's been so super busy she has actually threatened to postpone it!
I suspect that she's looking to avoid the issue because it's not just ANY birthday...

IT'S A BIG ONE.

Nice try Jeanie.

I won't say how many exactly,

but (ummmm) it does have a four in it somewhere!!

...

Thanks for being an amazing sister -

the best lil' sis (aka Poncho to my Sisco!)

a girl could ever have.

And thanks for standing with me when it counted.

I love you heaps.

I hope you get a moment's peace to contemplate the good things in your life soon!

...

So sneak over to Jeanie's place and give her a hug.

And tell her that her bossy big sister sent you!

*lifts a chardonnay in the general direction of Paradise*

Cheers!

BB

Gratuitous rear end photo

You know, I thought to myself tonight, if I am going to get googled for offensive words

- and trust me, I do* -

then I may as well go the whole hog.

*Note to self:

Think very hard about pseudonym before blithely posting up the first alliteration that comes to mind!

...

'Bush Babe' seemed like a kinda sweet name when I first penned it just over a year ago - I am from the Australian country (The Bush) and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing with my blog (Babe in the Woods). The worst I thought might happen was that someone would think that I thought I was a bit of hot stuff... a bit 'up myself' as they say round here if you are getting a little big for your boots. And I thought, 'heaven's I can cope with that'. It's clear to anyone who knows me that I am no hot babe, that's for sure!

...

So, you see? You see how innocently begotten was the title Bush Babe? Never occurred to me that people would deliberately click on my link after googling up "Demi Moore's bush". Yar. Shudder. It's my mother's influence. I am a woman of the world, I have met many 'interesting characters' in the course of my life and my work, and I should know the connotations.

...

Thankfully none of those veering mistakenly onto my blog expecting soft porn seem to hang around long - or so my Stat Counter tells me, anyway!

...

Anyway, where was I?

Oh yes, Gratuitous Bottoms.

Hello boys!

The three bovine butts on the right of this pic belong to our little show team.

Aren't they lovely and shiny and clean?

Very un-bull-like really!
They have been parading around like complete show ponies (cough, cough, oh look, there's one in the background of this photo)...

Now there are a nice pair of stud animals...

And here is another of our little bulls, with 'cattle fitter' Jeff. He prepares our animals for showing - breaking them to halter and grooming them and feeding them.

He's very experienced in this field - and having stepped off the Big City train for the Bush rattler only two years ago, we lean on his experience heavily as we take on the perils of the show ring.

Of course, there are those who like to show up their more experienced (or just older) elders...

Like this little muffin...

Can you believe the size of her?

This tiny little girl leading a bull weighing hundreds and hundreds of kilos around like he's a puppy dog?

And if THAT wasn't enough, the dear little upstart goes and BEATS us,

taking home the blue ribbon for her family's stud.

Can you believe it?

Actually, I know her pretty well (Hello Bree... you are a star!) and I think she's an absolute sweetheart - I was so excited when she won I kinda forget she had just beaten our boys. I couldn't get over her calm ability and sheer fearlessness. I am not game to do what she is doing - I would be ill, or let go at a vital moment, or not remember to tickle them in the right spot with the stick, or something...

What a little woman!!

Seems my life is full of inspirational women this week...

So... who has inspired you lately?

Yes, Mr President

Dash and I were waiting at Violet's bus stop this afternoon, after the kids' first day back at school and Kindy after the holidays. He was chattering away, filling in the three minute period of stillness we get between the pickup-at-his-bus-stop, drive-13-minutes-to-her-bus-stop, pick-Violet-up-and-head-the-20-minutes-home routine we do on Kindy days.

To distract him from the latest bit of war-literature he had nabbed from school, we were flipping through a women's magazine admiring the dresses (I like to keep him well-rounded). After deciding that Jennifer Love Hewitt was wearing the nicest frock on the red carpet, we chanced upon the token 'serious' article in the glossy publication.

.

"Mum?" Dash asked, brow furrowed.

"Hmmm," I responded absently.

"Who is that pretty lady?"

"That's Mrs Obama, Dash. Isn't she lovely?"

"Oh yes! I like her smile...

And who is that man beside her?" he adds as an afterthought.

"Why that is MR Obama darling - he's quite an important man, you know."
"Really? What does he do?"

My son stares hard at the photo of the most famous face in the world.

"Well, he's the President of the United States," I explain.

Small silence.

"But what does that mean?" he asks intently, eyes unwavering on the page before us.

"Well, he leads one of the biggest, most powerful countries in the world."

Dash's eyes go quite wide (and if you know Dash, that means there is very little room for anything else on his face!)...

I wait with anticipation for his reaction to this announcement.

He doesn't disappoint.

"You mean...

You mean, everybody in the whole 'Nited States has to, umm,

like, tidy up before the clock chimes when HE says so?"

"Yep, mate," I said with barely a quaver in my voice...

"That's pretty much it."

She's the Voice

A funny thing happened eight days ago, on the other side of the world...

A few minutes of something special was recorded, giving the world a clip that should inspire people from all walks of life, all backgrounds, anywhere.

...

This woman happened.

Have you seen her yet?

If so, you are probably among the more than 30 million who have watched her on U-Tube. I don't actually watch that much TV anymore - a few hours a week really. But I caught this clip from Britian's Got Talent about four times on various talk shows this week, and then searched for it today on U-Tube. And every single time I watch it, it moves me.

Alright, I admit, I cry.

Every. Single. Time.

Why?

One middle-aged woman making strangers on the other side of the world weep with emotion - seems bizarre. I guess she touches me because she utterly transforms from ordinary, from so-called 'ugly duckling' - as seen through the eyes of a critical audience whose reaction to her was recorded - into powerful, beautiful woman. Because, Lordy Lord, this girl can SING.

...

She bursts forth with this unexpected voice from heaven ... a voice I always wished I had, kinda imagined I might have had with all those hours of practice in the hairbrush and behind the wheel of the car. But alas... my darling husband always wonders aloud who is standing on the cat's tail when I try to get melodious! (I am hoping my talents lie in other areas!)

...
But back to this amazing amatuer singer who has so gripped the world. The Britain's Got Talent clip is amazing for the shift in attitude that happens in an instant.

This single 47-year-old from a small Scottish village, with barely any singing training

wiped this nasty eye-roll from Simon's Cowell's face...

And replaced it with this slightly gobsmacked look...
And halted this unkind mimicking of her dancing ...
Into this shocked appreciation...
If you have not yet seen Susan Boyle in action...
Do yourself a favour:
click here.
You MUST...
And you will do this...
I promise.
On her already-erected Wikipedia page, Susan is quoted having no idea who twittering supporter Ashton Kutcher was, before going on to star beside him on American TV show Larry King Live. How refreshing! (I wonder if Ashton thought so too?)

...
She is also reported to have observed
(referring to BGT audience's initial reaction to her on stage):
Modern society is too quick to judge people on their appearances. ...
There is not much you can do about it; it is the way they think; it is the way they are. But maybe this could teach them a lesson, or set an example.

Well I think she looked beautiful...

especially when her confidence rose alongside that soaring voice...

and I hope she never gets a makeover.

What a marvellous gift she has.
Her voice, her story.
What a woman.
What an inspiration.
Wouldn't it be great if all the Susan Boyles of the world find their voice, their gift, and share that beauty with us.
We should be so lucky...

Cutestuff #1 gets a name!!

Well ... it took quite some time to trawl through the deluge of fabulous offerings from my amazing readers who so willingly gave up their precious time and brain cells (well, lend them at least) to help us find a handle for our little colt.

I DID manage to get the elusive (and rather tired) Mr incredible to actually sit here at this very office chair tonight to read through the entries (he was a bit bamboozled by the amount of people having a shot at this)... the following got honorable mentions:

Heather: Nelson (very clever and a personal fave of mine)
Wendy: Admiral's Star Trooper (except we already have a Trooper!)
Diane: everything you suggested (the explanations made my head spin, and then blame the chardonnay!)
Gem: Char-do-neigh (oh you know me too well! Bonus points!)
Marty: Captain Jack (brings to mind Pirates of the Carribean! Ahoy!)
Wrensong Farm: Admiral's Larrikan (oh the shoe fits!)
So hard to choose, so many to pick from... but we did love and lean towards the military and naval connections from his Daddy's side of the family. When we first started talking names, we kinda liked General (which I think Debby suggested originally?) and then someone (I cannot recall who now, and if it was in person or via email) suggested Brigadier which we love - I think it had something to do with one star in the navy being a Brigadier? I'm sure one of you will correct me if I am wrong.)So in a roundabout and convoluted way, the winner of this competition (who kinda came close to that last choice of name in spirit) is....
Lydia: with her offering of Private Star
(I think Mr Incredible just like the connotations of 'Private' - something he'd like me to be more of!)
So email me Lydia! And start choosing your photo.

I wonder what Mama Jill thinks of all this?

Did you notice her worried muzzle in the above pics of Private/Brigadier's most recent handling? She is a gentle soul (you can tell by her wonderful soft eye) but a great mother...I think she'd be proud of the outstanding names you guys have come up with here.

They are all certainly better than Cutestuff #1.

Your time and brain cells have been appreciated.

Signing off to go and regenerate the latter.

BB

While you are waiting, waiting, waiting...

Life is overtaking blogging here at Granite Glen.

(How rude!)

My apologies to those waiting with bated breath to see who won the Name the Foal contest... my excuse in the delay is that Mr Incredible has been home a grand total of 42 minutes today - none of which he devoted to choosing a winner (and this is all about making HIM take the heat!).

Bah Humbug!

We have a show to attend all day tomorrow but I promise I'll print out the list of names and shove it under his tired nose when we get back. Or else I will just make up a winner. You never know. Heh.

...

So to appease,

before I tackle a terrible mountain of housework,

pack up Salina's bag ready to return to Jeanie

and iron nice country show clothes for three kiddos and moi,

I leave you with this...

D'ya love me again?

:-)

BB