Winner of the Calendar Contest...

And the winner of the Calendar contest is....

Comment number 5 - Jenni!!
Congrats, my friend - Jenni is actually one of my longest-term readers.
She is an American from somewhere in the vicinity of PW's place
(but not Oklahoma, right Jen? Something about Kansas?)...
and she came up with no less that 19 suggestions for my calendar images.
Gads Jen - how long did THAT take you?
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I really appreciate everyone's input in this challenge - and each and every suggestion has been taken on board. A theme has definitely emerged. I will keep you posted on developments and shall share some of the most popular images in a post very soon.
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I was actually dreading doing this draw in case Random Integer turned up one of MY comments, in which case I would have had a re-draw. But luckily it threw out a 'proper' comment number... yay!
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Jenni will have to be patient for this prize as I haven't even designed it yet. But there will be two calendars with your name on them when the printers do their thing, I promise!
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Thanks so much for taking part - I cannot tell you how blown away I am that you all took precious time to help me out.
Hugs
BB

Holy Moly - and Calendar Contest extension

I am astonished.

Astounded.

Gobsmacked.

Like.. Wow!

You lot have been FABULOUS.

I think you should all be editors, actually.

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Your choice of shots has greatly helped me narrow down the array for my little annual project - the Bush Babe calendar. In case you are new and the comments in the last post look like a lot of gobbledegook I asked readers to share the images they would most like to see on their walls. They copied the links from the explorer bar for me. Basically saving me about a thousand hours of time and headaches trying to decide myself.

Cause I am lazy like that. (Newsflash there!).

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And because it's such hard work, trawling through my mountain of photos. and because I love your work, and because I need a TAD more time to finish my latest little blog-project, I am extending the deadline for comment entries by 12 hours.

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I will set my random thingy up to choose the winner of the BB Calendar Contest after midnight tonight (Wednesday Oz time).

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And I will post up the winner Thursday morning, soon as I wipe the sleep from my eyes.

Thought I'd share another landscapey shot (which some of you seem to love so much) which I will be blogging about next week...

Purty hey?

Don't forget to enter the contest... click here!

Pre-change CONTEST...

CONTEST CLOSED!!!

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So here is the deal...

I'm not exactly BORED with blogging

And I'm not exactly SHORT of bloggable material...

And I'm by no means disheartened by my commenters' input here...

In fact those three things couldn't be further from the truth.

Each gives me a buzz that's hard to describe.

You need to know these things.

But something needs to change...

And I have decided that it will.

Soon.

VERY soon.
~

But in the meantime, I want to try something...

you remember my last calendar?

The one I thought no-one would buy

and instead went within a couple of weeks?

Well, I have decided to do another.

And this time I intend to offer them a little earlier in the year

(realising that late November was not an optimum time

for you lot to get your Christmas preps completed!)

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But I need your help...

I find it impossible to select shots from my massive archive.

If you were to hang something of mine on your wall,

any (horizontal) image from my archives that says:

Australian bush or

Action or

Fun or

Amazing to you,

WHAT WOULD IT BE?

Would it be something along these lines?

(Hello darling Yvette)

Or this?

Maybe something colourful and rainy-day?

Or perhaps THIS?

Heh.

~

Enter your suggestion in comments

- make as many suggestions as you like

remember that each entry gives you a seperate chance to win!

If possible, leave links in your suggestion

to either the post containing the photo you like

or the flickr address of the image itself.

(Note, if you click on my photos in the blog,

it should take you to my Flickr site -

except very old images which are Blogger-based).

~

I will do a random integer selection at MIDNIGHT Wednesday (GG time)from the resulting list of comments. The winner will get TWO 2011 Bush Babe calendars (including postage) - that's almost $100 worth of prize!

~

So what are you waiting for, my friends...

suggest away!

That was amazing guys - thanks for taking the time to trawl and find your faves...

I will do the Random Integer thing and have it up (as soon as the kids are on the schoolbus!)

Eye on the prize...

Okay - that's a slightly misleading headline...

(What can I say, I am an ex-journo/sub-editor!)

Kate and Pam let me know this morning (as I checked emails between making tuckshop for 20 kids and ironing uniforms and clearing breakfast plates) that my spur photo had made the Day 2 list of Pioneer Woman's photography assignment...

I was (momentarily) speechless.
Lil' old Bush Babe amongst all those amazing photographers?

A big thanks to Ree for selecting the shot and appreciation to those who let me know.

I don't expect to get any further than this (semi-final?) but this is far enough to put a massive smile on my dial. I am inspired to keep on trying and stretch that little camera even further, and really, that's the main thing isn't it? I don't even know what the prizes are - so no, I don't really have my 'eye on the prize'. That's simply a pun on the next image...

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I have added this photo to the massive melting pot of Ree's Depth of Field assignment

(we are allowed to enter one new photo per day).
Horse eyelashes.

Mmmmmm.

Those who read here regularly or have bought my calendar will know it already.

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Hope you have something happen to YOU today to make you grin like Luna Park.

Let me know about it in comments...

*skips off to do the mowing*

Quotes to start the year off right...

Pam at A Novel Woman had a lovely selection of quotes for the end of 2009...

It gave me pause and brought to mind a calendar we had received for Christmas from a stock and station agent filled with great Aussie quotes. In the spirit of a shiny new decade, feel I should share a couple (with brief explanation for my overseas visitors)...

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"Don't wait for the light to appear at the end of the tunnel...stride down there and light the bloody thing yourself."

Sara Henderson - a strong Aussie bush woman who married a successful, charismatic American, survived a tumultous marriage to him, raised her kids, ran a cattle station almost single-handedly, won many awards and wrote inspiring books. I met her a couple of times - she had a Great Dane at her side both times - and I carry with me an image of two strong imposing figures. I shall never forget either of them.

"Lead, follow, or get out of the way."

Edward 'Weary' Dunlop, iconic Aussie war hero. A courageous leader, a compassionate doctor, a champion rugby player and all-round good guy. Nicknamed 'Weary' for his enormous energy. I never met this amazing man, but I do admire his energy and ability to stay focussed despite the shocking obstacles he faced in wartime. )

"I am the proudest Australian bloke on the face of the earth."

Steve Irwin, much-missed madly-passionate nature-lover and all-round superstar. In the name-dropping vein of this post, a man I met numerous times when I worked on the Sunshine Coast. He really WAS the proudest Aussie you ever met. He was very real, despite his over-the-top manner. I believe he helped show Australians - despite our tendency to knock successful compatriots, a terrible habit known as the Tall Poppy Syndrome - that it was okay to be loud and proud.
So there you go...

These three quotes sparked my 2010 resolutions:

1. To be responsible for my own failure or success. And by extension, to get up out of my comfort zone and not be afraid to try new things.

2. To be whole-hearted, to harness my energy better, to take on board the lessons the success of others might offer.

3. To be a proud Aussie. I think I already am, but to wear Aussie-ness without self-consciousness is sometimes a challenge. I am also a proud country girl, a proud ex-city chick, a proud wife and mother. (I think you already know that last bit!)

So how 'bout you?

Would love to hear your favourite quotes, and your resolutions?

The Journey of the Calendars (and my Sweet Readers)

Disclaimer: I promise this will be the last calendar post for ... well... a while.

Pinky promise.

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My calendar project has been a lot of fun - a lot of fiddling and addressing and mailing out, but a lot of fun and joy also. The batch I got printed up seemed to fly out the door almost as soon as they arrived (I have clung onto one for me and a couple for Christmas gifts, but otherwise, they are GONE baby!).

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Among the amazing things about this project has been tracing the journeys of each calendar. I said originally how much it would tickle me to know where they end up - and some people (my wonderful readers mostly) have come up with the goods. Not only do I know where they are going (having addressed each one by hand) but I am getting to see where they landed!

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It's something I really didn't anticipate or expect... that people would take the time to let me know how they felt when they opened the package, or even take photos of the calendar in their home and with the person for whom they had bought it.

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This is where they (sort of) began ...

...pictured arriving at Granite Glen mailbox after printing, and thoroughly investigated by Violet. I don't have pictures of the chaos that ensued as I addressed each one. It was big and it was glittery and silver hearty. Messy. No-one needs to see that. Heh.

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The first image to land in my inbox was of our sweet Melbourne gent with his BB planner for 2010, given to him by his lovely daughter.

He won the contest for the first posted calendar to reach its destination. No prize I'm afraid... just a second run with your smiling mug in this blog!

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Then the fabulous Kate of Utah Zen shared shots of her copy in... well... Utah, USA.

(I kinda get goosebumps when I realise how far some of these things are travelling!)

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Apparently Kate liked it!

And she really liked her birthday month too...

Kate's a long-time reader and all-round nice chick. We need to find her a hot Aussie horseman to settle down with. (She hasn't asked me to do this, but she's a mad Jim-the-Man-From-Snowy-River fan and I thought I'd just put some feelers out in case any of you have a brother who needs a sweet girl!). She will possibly consider hot Utah horsemen at a pinch. Sorry Kate, I'll shut up now!

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Kate shares the month of birth with Mr Incredible. Which is why I used this shot of him mustering in the rain for June - it's an image that brings back nice (wet weather) memories. Cause boy do we need the rain now! But this is not a weather post, so I'll leave that stream of consciousness right there, okay? (Man, I'm rambling today, no?)

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A little closer to home, Wendy from Southern Queensland felt the urge to share also.

Here is her calendar posed gorgeously with some amazing roses.

Her own blooms, I assume? I can almost smell them from here... mmmmmm.

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I know the calendars have also made it to Paradise, Canada and Alaska and Arizona and Switzerland too. If you have one and are happy to share, send me a pic. Your smiling face would be nice, but if you want to be incognito that's fine - maybe a backdrop of snow or desert for contrast?

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Of course I have had a failure - two calendars were returned by Australia Post with a 'not known at this address' note. Email me please Accidental Housewife!! And Bill, it's in the mail I PROMISE... that dastardly hairy, smiling ears pony held me up. Naughty thing.

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So that's it folks.

The Calendar report for 2009.

They're all gone.

But I suspect there could be a 2011 version in the pipelines.

I'll leave you with the Christmas image for 2010...

Thanks again y'all. You make my day, daily.

I have the best darned readers in the universe!

Clouds, Calendars and Gratitude

It's been just 5 days since I posted off a big batch of my BB calendars into the outside world.

I took over the local Post Office, drove the staff there all nuts because I wanted stamps instead of those awful grey printout prices on each envelope, had myself a minor conniption over the price of overseas postage, then sat back and had a quiet breakdown over whether people who had spent their hard-earned cash on my project would actually like their purchase.

It's what I do.

Despite there being a weekend jammed into those five days since The Great Post Office Visit, and despite the fact that the calendars all dove into the mail way out here in the sticks, at least two lots have already found their way to distant buyers. Go Australia Post!

In fact, by Monday one batch had arrived in MELBOURNE (at the other end of the country!) to the charming gentleman pictured below.

A photo of him holding the BB calendar arrived via email, with this message from his daughter:

Thankyou so much...

(and some other nice stuff that made me blush)...

Attached is a pic of Dad opening his first Xmess pressie for the season.

Aside from the smile I got from the "Xmess" reference, it really hit me that my little publication was actually going to be on walls - other people's walls. And they would very likely be actually looking at it regularly... Like wow!

What an honour...

Anyhow... I just wanted to say a big THANKS to those who have ordered their first edition BB calendar. And to those who have enquired but not yet placed an order, there are just a couple left. If this is you, please email me here: bushbabeaustralia at gmail dot com.
(Yes, Theresa I am talking to you here!)

And I also wanted to thank the NINETY NINE of you who 'follow' this blog, and the dozens of others who subscribe to me via RSS and other means. I think you are all just slightly crazy but love you for visiting me and encouraging my photo-heavy ramblings. It's really nice to know I'm not talking to myself out here!

And to all my real-life friends and family who stay (mostly) silent but visit this blog regularly - I love that you come, even if you think you are being sneaky!

I haff my ways of no-wink*taps nose*.

You all 'ride with me' in my adventures - and I do love a good 'mustering gang'!

To sign off, I leave you with some word imagery.

My twitter word imagery to be exact.

I am a sporadic twitterer but admit that it is fun when I get excited about something and want to share...

I think this TweetCloud says more about me (and possibly my air-headedness) than anything.

It also says I like Robbie Williams just a LITTLE too much.

And I have allowed the word 'dang' to enter my vocabularly.

And it also say that I kinda like clouds...

They are purty...

You want to know what ELSE I am thankful for?

The clouds outside my window.

The ones dropping fat, delicious, juicy drops of H2O as I type.

.

What's your weather doing?

Please share... I love a little weather.

(Oh, and THANKS for just being here. Did I say that already?)

The Mail Run - by BB and Violet

We get mail twice a week here at Granite Glen.

Our lovely mail lady (who travels hundreds of kilometres each run) pokes our bundle of bills and papers into this old red cream can about one kilometre from the house.

It sits beside a little green shed - a multipurpose venue for parking bikes in (ours when we attended primary school a couple of decades ago... OK three decades ago...) for larger parcels, for calves seeking shade while their mothers forage, and even resting the occasional resting snake (yuh-huh!).

(I wonder what on earth is Violet doing in this shot?)

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Anway, yesterday the shed was housing something pretty exciting, discovered when Violet and I did our bi-weekly mail check.

No not the dog food - well, okay, Axel was probably excited about that delivery.

The boxes on the little bench.

Let's see what's in 'em...

Look familiar?

They ARRIVED!

The inaugural Beauty of the Bush calendars.

In boxes.

In the hot dusty old bike shed.

Near the calf poop.

Doesn't the ROMANCE of it all just knock you out?

Violet didn't care - here she poses delightedly with December.

I am pretty happy with the product - its printed on really heavy paper which means it shouldn't curl while hanging on your wall next year. I hate curly calendars, don't you?

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So I am about to attack the posting out side of this project.

Why don't I let Violet take the last few photos of our parcel-pickup while I get organised?

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Violet-view of the mailbox...

Oh dear...

Violet-view of Mummy picking up the boxes.

(Sorry bout that!)

And Violet-view of the well-stacked, half-opened calendar boxes.

Oh, and here is what Violet was doing beside the shed earlier:

Weekend Updates

Well, it's been quite a week.

Random updates to follow.

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Update #1 - The Ongoing Poddy Saga

As you may already know if you have read the comments from yesterday's post, we lost our little redhead poddy last night. We think pneumonia may have claimed her - whatever it was, antibiotics and sugared-up, egged-up milk weren't helping her.

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It was a bit heart-breaking, as she was a lovely little heifer and seemed so strong when she first arrived here on Thursday. Violet seems to have taken her passing reasonably well (lots of lead-up warning may have helped) while Dash was just very curious about the carcase this morning after he and I discovered the still, stiff body early this morning.

Lots of poking and furrowed brow action.

I took no photos of her at any stage.

I still struggle a little with this side of things.

I'm such a sook sometimes.

.

The fact is that we hardly ever have poddies here -

our cows are pretty good mothers and rarely have calving problems.

So that, combined with about two decades of city life,

means I have a lot to learn about caring for them.

It's a learning curve that darned near gives me whiplash sometimes.

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I still have the little black bull calf here - he is gradually gaining strength after his shaky start in life and is quite a cuddler. Of course he gets pretty overwhelming attention from two little humans so he has no fear...

He is very keen on drinking from an (unwilling) milk donor rather than from the bottle. I am trying not to feel rejected - honestly, the look on this kid's face when I hold the teat in his mouth to tip the formula in is pretty unmistakable.

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It's a little bit: "Are you completely serious woman?"

It's a tad: "Ugh. Brussel sprouts AGAIN?"

and it's all Crocodile Dundee:

"Well you can DRINK it, but it tastes like sh**!"

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Update #2... The Sheeky Shetland on Probation

Rob Roy has just come out of the naughty corner.

After raiding silos and behaving very badly at Pony Club,

our resident Bad Boy did penance in the yards for a few days.

Animal activists should remain calm.

He got far more attention there than when he is in paddock.

I hope he remembered a few manners, and I suspect he

MAY have lost a couple of centimetres round his ample middle

but is not up for any Jenny Craig awards just yet.

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Update #3... The Amazing Mates Department

Let's talk calendars.

The first run is *deep breath* pretty much sold out.

I know. I am gobsmacked.

If you have not ordered and wanted to, drop me a line via email

and I will see what I can do.

I doubt I will do a second run (unless someone orders 40!).

I am more than happy to attempt to get the orders I have correctly into the post.

(If you know me at all, you will understand that paperwork is not my strong point).

I would REALLY like to thank everyone who has supported my

by buying the Beauty of the Bush calendar

and/or placing a button on their blog for me*.

I am speechless at your generosity.

A shot that didn't make the calendar - much to my chagrin - I needed a 13th month!

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Another one that ALMOST made it.

This fabulous pony - chosen as a favourite subject by many -

survived a bad case of colic recently.

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I am not making much financially from the calendar venture,

but I am shamelessly revelling in the satisfaction of knowing people

actually like my stuff enough to look at it year-round.

It's very humbling really.

So thankyou.

I know I am a very lucky girl.

Signing off in heartfelt gratitude,

BB

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*HONORABLE MENTIONS

My wonderful blog buddies who buttoned up for me:

Debby from Life's Funny Like That

Jayne from Our Great Southern Land

Kate from Utah Zen

Tracey from Trace Elements

and thanks to

Rhu from Rhubarb Whine

Kate from Chronicles of a Country Girl

for the mentions.

It's a goer...

OK. It's done.

The calendar has been wrested and wrangled and sorted, and is off to the printers this week. While I had a little bit of an idea of the fininicky work behind this kind of endeavor (thanks to my fundraising efforts for Heartkids when Dash was a littlie) it was still kinda painful working out my apostrophe's in holidays for three different countries. '

Gads.

Here is a sample date page (requested by Gemisht)... please note it is unedited (apostrophe disaster) and I have fiddled with fonts since this version. But it gives you a feel for the layout.

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Orders are now being officially being taken - some earlybirds are in already (thanks guys and gals) and will be first cabs off the rank. (Wonder how many more metaphors can I jam into one sentence? Heh.) The order instructions are here (its easy) for those keen on a enjoying some bush magic on their walls over the next year. (Mr Incredible wants to know how many loo doors it'll end up on. I have promised to run a poll once they are all out!)

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GOOD NEWS: I have managed to keep the price below $30 per calendar which I am kind of excited about. If I was ordering 10 000 of the them I could make it a tad cheaper, but I have to say, I am NOT mailing out 10 000 envelopes before Christmas. Even if 10 000 people wanted them. (Which is a crazy idea anyway!) But the mailing...the addressing, the checking, the sticking down of hundreds and hundreds of parcels... oi! I would have to call in reinforcements and Mr Incredible has made it clear he's not licking piles of envelope flaps. *pouts*

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So instead of cheap, you get limited edition, personally signed calendars.

For just $29 on some really great heavy paper (no curling down, mid-year!).

And you can know it will have been carefully guided into an envelope by my own 'delicate' hands, and handed to my fabulous mail-lady at the red cream can mailbox.

Which I kinda hope looks a little more like this...

Sing with me: I'm dreaming of a WET Christmas...
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To be serious for a nanosecond, I wanted to share the note I penned for the back the 2010 calendar. To share how passionate I am about the images it contains...

This calendar is a reflection of my enduring love of the Australian bush - its unique landscapes, its amazing animals, its action-packed sport and its resilient fun-loving people.
I grew up in the bush, and wherever I travelled, wherever I worked or lived, it has always called to me. I hope you get a sense of this incredible place- even if you cannot experience it first-hand - through this calendar, in 2010.
(Bush Babe)
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I must've had a chardy* before writing that!!

Leaving you with a couple of images that didn't quite make the calendar cut.

Maybe the 2011 could be the Love Licks edition?

*furrows brows in deliberation*

BB

*Chardy = Chardonnay in Oz speak

Calendar Girl...

I have been a wee bit distracted with a little project over the past week or so...

my folding basket is erupting like Vesuvius

and my garden is crispy at the corners

and my patio is ankle-deep in leaves

to prove my level of distraction.

Sometimes my life just like totally gets in the way of my 'art'...

or, as my hubby likes to call it:

'are you still on that computer?'
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I asked a little while ago if readers thought I should put together a calendar of Bush Babe shots - images of some of the strange characters, amazing outlooks and breath-taking action from my life here in rural Australia. And apparently you thought I should.

All 25 of you... heh!
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Now I am not expecting to do a Pioneer Woman here, and hit the New York Times best-seller list (*applause, applause*) but it would tickle me to know that someone, somewhere, is enjoying a 'Bush Babe moment'.

Perhaps they might find themselves smiling at a cheeky goanna, as I did when I shot this fellow (with a Nikon) on a drive through the paddock one day.

Or gazing in awe at a massive wedge tail eagle slowly lifted

from the burnt-orange dirt road,

as I did when travelling with my family late one afternoon.

Or even admiring the saturated hues of a red-fruited cactus

against a vivid blue sky,

as I did while exploring with Mr Incredible one day.

In my (overactive) imagination, this calendar might infiltrate

some corners of my home state (Alpha or Redcliffe or Atherton),

trickle through some mailbox elsewhere in my country (Adelaide or Perth or Tassie),

and maybe even find its way into some far-flung wall of a home

in Pennsylvania or Paris or Tulsa or Montreal.

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How utterly COOL would that be?

(Heck, I'll be stoked if Dash's teacher comes good on a order for one!)
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I admit that I have been a little obsessed with this project (those around me here will testify to this unreservedly) and I managed to chose most of the month's images based on those you suggested here and here.

(Thanks so much! What the heck would I do without you?)
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The front page has caused a little more pain -

and a whole lotta earache for my long-suffering hubby,

and random family members and hapless visitors to Granite Glen -

having morphed from this:

to this:

to this:

And then ...

Mr Incredible (who bills himself as the 'concept man')

came up with this cracker idea:

He suggested I take a snap of my trusty battered Nikon

and add one of the favourite images from this blog.

It took some fiddlin...

but here 'tis:

You like-ee?

I reckon I married a keeper.

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It's being sent to the printers this week...

Any more advice peoples?

Lord knows I cannot make a decision on my own!