Mustering scenes

I'm taking a moment out from my current obsession - the Willy Wagtail family in our laundry. I have new (fuzzy) photos coming up of the amazing wagtail babies (oh, what I would give for a REAL macro lens right about now). But to give us all a break from the small and fuzzy, I bring you something larger and, well, hairy!
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No, no, not SSB. My sweet, stern, silent, sexy hubby is rather large (at six foot two) and does have a hairy chest (or "shestez" as TLW might say) but it's really the cattle I am referring to. Mustering cattle, to be specific.

Mustering is of the most regular of the tasks here at Granite Glen. And undoubtedly my Dad's very favourite part of life out here. Riding horses (no motorbikes or helicopters here thanks very much!) under the wide blue sky, rounding up bovines from a paddock, and taking them to the nearest set of yards and doing whatever needs to be done. Dipping, inoculating, branding, weaning, drafting, weighing. Lots of maintenance is needed in a cattle breeding operation. Which means lots of mustering. I reckon it's Dad's version of yoga or meditation - an active exercise in mind relaxation which helps to put the world into perspective. And SSB is not much different. I used to love it, but rarely get to these days. I miss it. So with this in mind, I give you:

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A GLIMPSE OF A GRANITE GLEN MUSTER

This shot is taken about 9am - SSB has already gathered his mob of cattle to a dam, and is waiting on my brother and Dad to gather their mobs (from different parts of this paddock) to the agreed meeting point. (In the foreground are Dash, TLW and 'Salina - all wishing they were riding too, instead of just waiting with boring old Mum to have a paddock picnic). The cattle are young females (heifers) who were weaned a few months ago. They are kinda like teenagers - all cheeky and trying out the boundaries. Fun!

Hello there cows! Oh, heifers... sorry. Didn't mean to be offensive! My name is The Little Woman and I shall be rounding you up on Rob Roy really soon! Won't that be fun?

I love cracking the whip so you'd better watch out!

Hello hubby!

SSB is waiting patiently, holding his mob on the water (with his dogs, Cruel, Patch and Jet helping where needed). And there is my brother Pig, riding ahead of his mob down the hill...

SSB doesn't want his heifers to race up the hill (as they want to) to meet Pig's heifers. So he needs to stay in position between them until...

... the second mob get close enough ...

... to ensure they all stay...

..near the dam, and not racing all over the countryside and generally causing havoc...

it's kinda like a physics equation really... the force of the descending mob must outweigh the upward force of the waiting mob... or something like that! Physics was never my forte!

There! All the mob is now milling safely in the corner between the dam and the fence (near camera). Ready to walk through the shallow water to the gateway (to right of shot).

Well done Dad! Well done Pagi. Well done Uncle Pig!

Oh hang on... the 'teenage' boys decide they won't walk through the water to the gate. Blinkin' cheeky, frisky heifers. So they boys take them around the dam. Patience is a virtue much required (sometimes hard to come by) while mustering. Now SSB is staying this side of the water to make sure the little devils don't decide to head around the dam and cross back this way. They can be ornery like that.

So SSB and his steed get to paddle through the dam - and the dogs enjoy a bit of a swim.

Splish, splash, they were takin' a bath!

Pagi oversees the procedure. Through the gate now...

Job well done!!

Smoko time, boys...

Mother Nature and Me: the bird files

As you saw yesterday, I decided to give Mother Nature (and her little friends Mr and Mrs Willy Wagtail) a bit of a helping hand when that dastardly old Gravity started to get too strong a grip on their dainty cobweb and horse-hair nest.

And while I was perched atop the step ladder, adding my delicately-placed clear sticky tape around the pipe (running from the laundry to the house) and the nest, in an effort to hold the latter atop the former, something happened.

I'm afraid the journo/stickybeak in my rose to the surface...

You may well ask: What's with this angle?

The camera angle I mean, not the angle of the nest, which is much better than it was five minutes before this photo was taken!

The position of the nest, tucked up high under the rafters (cleverly chosen by Mr and Mrs Wagtail to stop other animals stealing tiny eggs) meant I could not get my head easily in a spot to see inside the nest. I held TLW aloft long enough for her to declare:

Dere is dis many birdies in dere!

And holding aloft one, then two, then one finger.

Two or one? asked I (very patiently).

Dis many! said she, holding two, then one, then two fingers up.

So I did what any red-blooded stickybeak/ex-journo would do.

I held my camera in a variety of angles up in the rafters of the laundry to try and get evidence of the exact number of residents in the rescued birds' nest.

And then, in examining one of the blurry shots, I saw something...

Can you see it?

Ah hah!

At least one (blurry) baby bird in the nest!

Ummm. OK. TLW was right.

One or two? Maybe more? Not sure.

I'll get back to you.

The Answer... and Bush Babe to the rescue!

Congratulations Pam (A Novel Woman) for her imaginative entry this week!

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And the REAL ANSWER is...

A bird's nest. (But you knew that already, clever readers!)

But it's not just any birds nest, its a WILLY WAGTAIL's birds nest.

These are tiny birds from the fantail family, who flit and flutter and flirt their way around the paddocks, alighting on fenceposts and cow's heads to do their little twisty dance before fluttering off again. They never sit still. Well, almost never.

In the past, we have had willy wagtail nests in the laundry of Granite Glen. The laundry is very old, semi-open and seperate from the main house. These delightful little black-and-white birds seem to like it there, as they are relatively unafraid of humans and it provides an ideal shelter from other predators. This particular nest is perched precariously atop the pipe taking the electrical cable from the laundry to the house (or vice versa?).

This is Mrs (or Mr?) Wagtail keeping an eye on me. Let's assume it's the Mum. I'm sure someone out there can identify the male and female of the species, because David Attenborough, I ain't. Anyway, she is a bit concerned and twittering at me, as I have been pointing something black and strange at her nest. She hasn't debunked completely as nothing terrible seems to have happened, but she is nervous.

So she swoops in to check on the contents of her tiny nest. To put it in perspective, she is a bit smaller that the size of a woman's fist, and has eggs the size of thumbnails. As Dash would say: Cute as!

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We have been checking the comings and goings of our new neighbours for a few days, then yesterday, I noticed something happening...

something that falls into the "not good" department.

The nest was definitely leaning more sharply to the side.

Whatever new weight or movement in there was causing problems in the engineering... Ack! I held TLW aloft to check in the nest, and she reported that there was an egg (or two, she couldn't be sure!).

So I did what any self-respecting pseudo-bushie/ex-city girl/soft touch would do...

I grabbed the sticky tape dispenser.

There. Just call me Mother Nature.

Heh.

OK, It's not the neatest job in the world, but I'm hoping it'll do the trick and hold things in place long enough for the job at hand. And I'm also hoping Mrs Wagtail will overlook the new scaffolding of her nest, and sit atop her precious eggs (however many there are!).

Pray tell, what on earth is going on down there???

Hmmmm... something looks different here...

That strange human has been scratching around here and she is is still looking... there will be trouble if anything is missing here!

Everyone OK in there? One, two... hmmm.

I'm keeping an eye on you, strange human creature!

Thank goodness..

That'll be Ms Nature to you.

Heh.

Mystery Photo Winner!

And the winner is ...

PAM!

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The Novel Woman (from Canada) really tickled my funny bone with her entertaining rendition my lightening trip to North America to capture footage of her dust bunnies (clearly a woman after my own heart and cleaning philosophy).

The real answer, of course, is not dust bunnies.

It's something else.

Check back in an hour...

And if you haven't checked out all the fabulous answers to this week's conundrum, then click here! Oh, you guys crack me up!

Thanks...

BB

PS Long live dust bunnies!

(Email me Pam!)

Mystery Photo time!

It's that time again... when you get to put your thinking caps on and answer a little mystery for me...

This week's mystery pic is something very close to home.

Something I have kinda posted about before.

But not really.

What is it?

Where is it?

And what will happen next?

As usual, the accuracy of your answers is not all-important.

The entertainment value is.

Winner gets choice of BB photo for their lounge or loo wall!

Looking forward to your inspired offerings...

with bated breath!

BB

Before and After (the fires)

The landscape around Granite Glen is ever-changing.
Do you remember how there had been some planned burning 'round here recently?
It's something we do when we need to clear some of the old dry grass from the paddocks, and let the new growth burst through... it's a carefully considered move. If you burn too early, it doesn't take hold properly and get much cleared. If you burn too late, you might miss the rain and end up with black countryside going into a hot summer. This season has been reasonable so far (after many years of drought) with some small falls of rain encouraging the new sweet growth. It's a sight for sore eyes... with so many on the land almost despairing of ever seeing a green landscape again.

Wanna see what they see now?
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It is a study in contrasts:

Immediately after burning the old grass.

The same scene, a couple of weeks later.

See those white cattle - they are my uncles, and they are happy. You can tell, as they graze contentedly over the new shoots, tails flicking the occasional fly away. Those are some happy Brahman bottoms there!

Remember this gate?

Yes, this is a gratuitous shot of my husband being firefighter... forgive me!

But I was talking rear ends, and happiness, and this particular hiney makes me smile...

And that same place yesterday ... the gate still works!

And the grass... sweet and lush and good enough to eat!

Last night we had another 13mm (half an inch) of rain. Sweet music on the roof!

I can't wait to go for a drive to see the new calves and check out how the landscape has responded to this last little drink.

There should be plenty of happy cow bottoms around!

I'll drink to that... charge your coffee mugs (or wine glasses, depending on when you read this!)

*chink*

BB

Sunset Yoga

I'm not much into alternative therapies. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy a bit of mediation music with the best of them. I've even done Yoga on occasion and thought it was great. Very stretchy. Invigorating even. But that was pre-Great Dane. Pre-one totally bung knee. (Another story. Another time.)

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These days I find my stress release in other ventures. Chief among them is chocolate-nibblin'. And chardonnay-sippin'. These pursuits, while being enormous fun and instantly satisfying, are slightly detrimental to my derriere. Luckily I have another stress-relieving, soul-soothing activity. Can you guess what it is? Really?

It's photography. (If you've been here before, I do hope you are saying "Duh!" about now!).

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On my trip home from our bull sale this week (and before I knew just what awaited me at home!) I managed to relieve a little of the pre-and post-event tension. My way.

With a little snap of this...

And a little shot of that...

And a series of these...

It took only a minute to stop beside the highway and grab these shots from the window of the Prado...
But the serenity of this vista, with Mother Nature flaring up and dashing the best of her fiery paint palette across the sky, transfixed me.

Stilled me.

And in lifting the camera, setting the frame and clicking the shutter, I felt this sunset work its magic. Soothing the frayed edges of my mood and seeping into holes in my soul.

And the real magic of those amazing moments that take us from day into night is that we all get them.

Daily. And they are free.

Have you stopped to let YOUR sunset work its magic lately?

If you haven't got a camera to help you focus, you can borrow mine...

(the sunset, that is. The camera stays in situ!).

(Let me know if it helps!)