Onto the next one...

What a weekend we've had!  I'm a tad late with this blog post because I spent the weekend buzzing around like a blue arsed fly... or like a one-armed fan dancer.  (I know a bloke with one arm, and to my knowledge he's not a dancer, although if he could be persuaded it would certainly be worth a look, with, or without a fan.)

Nebo Cutting Show ran 10 herds on Friday, 9 (and the Bareback Cutting) on Saturday and 8 on Sunday, and while they were smaller herds they were enough to keep me moving to (try to) stay on top of things.  Nominations were slightly down, but it was a fantastic weekend, and so good to be back on the sand.  Technically, I wasn't on the sand... I was on the concrete.  (I really like how the pen is set up at Nebo, with the fence right at the edge of the concrete steps, with the judges sitting on the outside.  It means that I don't have to watch multiple directions and be prepared to take evasive action should a frantic beast decide to run me over.  I've had a few near misses with cattle making for the gaps, including one that came underneath the judges' stand with me at Comet, having been undeterred by the potted palms that were also "out of the way" under there.  It's lucky that all the Skeet shooting has honed my reaction time.)

I got back to Emerald on Sunday night, tried to catch up on sleep, then had 2 days work at the florist in Blackwater around trying to sort out my photos and get all packed up and ready to head to Mount Isa.  I feel like this week is a bit of a whirlwind and I have so much to do that it’s exhausting just thinking about it.  On the plus side, they say that if you do something you love you never work a day in your life.  Well, obviously I'm really not working this fortnight at all… except for the driving.  Not loving the driving.  If I had a driver I could sort photos and edit on the passenger side while the driving was happening.  I don’t, so I had best just concentrate on the road and arrive safely.

I have recently downloaded an app onto my phone to record my voice notes as text, which I'm hoping will save some time and I can just do a bit of a brain dump and the app can do the typing.  I also have articles to write from this fortnight as well, and need to find the inspiration to write two different articles about the same thing.

I was a bit worried this morning that I wasn't going to get this blog post up before the next one was due but then I remembered that this is my own show.  I make my own rules, and no one's marking me on this or taking points off for being late or whatever.  I have to say that the talk-to-text app is fairly accurate, and seems to understand what I’m saying.  If I could only get it to upload directly to my website that would save even more time!  On second thought, I just read through what it recorded, and it’s probably best that it doesn’t!

Part of my preparation to leave was to drop Bo at the kennel. He was super excited to get in the car.  He rides with his face out the side looking forward.  I wonder if he thought we were going to Normanton?  He likes it there.  He was beside himself when we got to the kennel!  While he was excited to get to where the other dogs were he wasn’t stoked about me going in the other direction.  I resisted the urge to wave to him.  I did that when I left him at the Vet to have his tooth pulled out.  I couldn’t believe that I did it! 

Something else I couldn't believe I did was remember that my windscreen needed cleaning BEFORE I got in the ute and started driving away!  I even used glass cleaner - you could almost put your hand through it.  So impressed with myself.  I usually realise as I'm heading down the road, try and wipe the inside with my sleeve and content myself with whatever is in the washer bottle until I stop for fuel.  This time I even topped up the washer bottle and added Bars Bugs.  I'm still trying to work out what I forgot that allowed me to remember this...  

Another job was watering the garden.  I don’t think it will come to much harm while I’m away, but I will be disappointed to miss the first home grown Stock flower that’s beginning to bud. 

The surviving Geraldton Wax is beginning a stunning display (I hope I don’t miss it completely), but the Ozothamnus diosmifolius is pretending it’s just rice, and not flower, and showing no sign of ever doing so.  Each time I walk around with the hose I promise myself that I will make time to spend in the garden – it desperately needs a tidy!  The cherry tomatoes have engineered a coup and now control three sections of the yard… where I didn’t plant them.  Similar story with the rosellas that I didn’t get to do anything with before they were overrun by aphids.  I have proven under assessment conditions that I am capable of planning a garden, but in practice I seem unable to do so.  When the tomato seedlings appeared I couldn’t bear to pull them out.  I suspect that had I grown something intentionally it would require more care than I currently am lavishing on my garden.  Gardener guilt is real!

Week 30 of 52Frames was “Single Focal Point”, and I brought some poppies home from the shop and had a play.  I love the dynamic line of their stems, the fuzzy outer pod and the way they "pop" open and display papery textured crinkly petals.  So much whimsy!  This vibrant orange tone is quite eye catching against the black, so I feel it fits the topic well.

I raced around madly one afternoon to get something for Week 31, which was “Choose a Colour” before we headed to Nebo, and this week’s topic is “Night Photography”, so Thursday evening’s Indigenous Rodeo Championships will provide me with lots of opportunities to get the shot before I get run off my feet during the main event.

For the next few days I’ll be operating on coffee and sarcasm, but with a smile on my face.  After all, I’m heading North West, which you will remember is my favourite direction.

It's been quite a party, ain't it

Purple Fairy