A walk in the paddock

   Today was lovely, I went for a walk through the paddocks.

Crow Planet

There are a lot of crows on the farm, usually I dread them at lambing time.  They seem to lurk around new borns, waiting for the boon of fresh placenta.  I sometimes wonder if there is something more sinister and that they wait for an opportunity to pluck the eyes of said newborns - I am yet to witness this.  They do however have a merry feast over dead lambs.  For this reason I began to loathe them where before I hadn't. Oh, they also very cannily spy out the chickens fresh laid eggs and nab them if I'm not quick.  Bloke went on a bit of a crow rampage at one point and we dubbed him the crow cowboy.  But now I'm not so sure that my venom is warranted.  I enjoyed reading this and did take the time to check on a fledgling crow squatting quite calmly and naively on the drive eying me as keenly as I eyed it - all was fine.  The other day I spotted a pair ripping up old carpet presumably for nest building purposes. Perhaps a more considered Naturalist in the making, in the looking.

Holidays are here!!

And this is my view - so happy.

Cheeky Chickens

Today bloke started clearing out the shearing shed, decades of really important stuff that might come in handy - as you can see. And what did he find in the corner?

Acres of brown and WIP's

We are in the full flight of summer though the weather here has been behaving rather strangely.  A day of 40 degrees celsius with hot driving winds followed by two days of downpour with the temp dropping to 20.  Needless to stay it has wreaked havoc on the drying of some new girls and I am not looking forward to the humidity to follow as it heats back up to the high 30's.  So we are indeed surrounded by acres of brown that challenge my perceptions of beauty so much.  Bloke and I went for a walk accompanied as always by the funny black dog and sat in one such brown paddock for a while.  It is beautiful and if you sit for long enough the sheep forget you as threat and wander closer until a movement scatters them again.  This is hard to do accompanied by the funny black dog who is always on duty and so very hard to photograph especially when there are sheep around.  She is always wanting to organise them somewhere!!

We live a few kilometres out of town and on the morning after the big rain I happened upon this red balloon, imagining where it could possibly have come from. 

Even though I am on holidays and these shortly to end I have endeavoured to be productive, these are the clay girls I am currently working on.  I am having a mighty difficult time with feet however, they are my least favourite part.  Sometimes I think, stick a piece of dowel up them dress them in long skirts and be done with it. These dolls will all be in my Etsy shop shortly - weather permitting (with the clay anyway).  One of my holiday goals was to finally put something in the shop, one week left.  It will be achieved!!

I so enjoyed making Indigo that I have started another - Indigo ll and a couple more using the same pattern, they are smaller than the usual cloth dolls that I make.

One more week of sleeping in drinking a leisurely coffee looking out at acres of brown.  As always though I am looking forward to returning to the classroom, three days a week this year and two for dolls - yay!!