Gunalda Harness & Draught Horse Carnival 2007

Gunalda is a very very small town just north of where we live and it is the venue for our Carriage Club's Annual Carnival. Our Club has been planning this for months now and finally all our hard work and fund raising came to fruition on the weekend of June 30/July1. To add to this Alan had decided to try our new pony Sam (aka Jacaview Mr Barnes) in some of the events. Sam has only been broken in to harness in the last few weeks and as he is only 3 we decided to take things very calmly and slowly with him on this weekend. Well to cut a long story short Alan driving Sam excelled in the `Show Driving Classes' which are a test of skill and presentation for both Driver and Pony. Alan and Sam came third in the `Pony in Harness' Class and then took out a first in the `Gentleman Driver' Class. I am so proud of both of them. This was also a proud moment for Neville and his wife Julie who broke Sam in to harness. A very tiring but a very enjoyable weekend.

Our special dog Bella

It is now almost 12 years since we did our first `farmsit' on the Sunshine Coast and decided to make the move from city unit to country acreage. When we did in December 1995 we also made the decision to buy a dog. We decided that we would really like a Blue Heeler Cattle Dog, ideally a female `bluey' and just at that time Alan's sister had a friend whose Red Cattle Dog or more specifically a Smithfield `stumpy tail' (born with no tail) had just had a litter. The father was a Blue Heeler and the mother only about 7 months old when the pups were born but we saw her and loved the look of her. There were only 2 females in the litter and one was spoken for so we had no choice and took the other one (who luckily had a tail) and named her Bella. Bella, born on October 28 1995, has been perfect from Day 1 and has been everything we hoped for and more. She is now my shadow and will sit beside me where ever I am, inside or outside. Everyone loves Bella on sight and now she is getting older we are spoiling her quite a bit - she deserves it!

Monday Driving

Today we were off to visit our friends Neville and Julie who train horses. They have one of our Ponies `Sam' who they have been training for harness driving for a few weeks now. After we had warmed up the ponies Nev suggested we all head off to the local Pub for lunch, a distance of around 3k. This sounded like fun so off we went. Alan and Julie and their little daughter Jess were in front driving Sam while Neville driving `China' with myself and his son Ben as passengers followed on behind. The weather was fine. We set off at a trot and we walked down hills and trotted up. We are so pleased with how well Sam is doing and he performed really well. I took a photo while were on the road so it is a little out of focus but gives you some idea of our journey. Our destination was Theebine Pub which is a beautifully renovated `Queenslander' style Pub with lots of atmosphere, we had an enjoyable `pit stop' and returned home without mishap. Altogether a perfect day!

Perfect Winter Weather

Finally the cooler weather has arrived and we are loving it. We have cool nights and beautiful sunny days when we can get lots done in the garden. Today the temperature range was between 3 and 23C although thanks to insulation we don't drop much below around 16C inside the house. It also means that we can enjoy our slow combustion heater at night and be really cosy. On Friday evening when it was wet and cold we sat in front of the fire enjoing a good bottle of wine while a pot of Minestrone bubbled on the stove and our dog Bella slept at our feet. We felt like millionaires. Even better the timber is from our block and was felled by a storm last year.

A Fun Programme

I have found a fun programme to play with for making digital art, it's called Art Rage and is great value for money at only around $20.00 USD. To use it properly I really need a graphics tablet so that will be my next purchase and I am currently researching this. I have pretty much decided on the Wacom Graphire 4 6"x8". Thanks to the rainy weather of the last 2 days I have been able to sit and play and this is what I have produced with a mouse, inspired by a line from one of Patti's poems.

Wet Wet Wet

Morning Stretch

Here is my latest piece of Art, a sculpture titled `Morning Stretch'. I bought it at a recent Art Show at our local Gallery. The artist Lee is a friend of mine and she is very talented. Lee works in all mediums and now in her 60's she is even experimenting with Digital Art, but sculpture is what she does best. I found the perfect place for him on our recently refurbished wall unit. I first bought this in about 1983 and it was showing its age but now it's repainted white and looks just right for our light and bright living area. Lee will be here for lunch on Tuesday so I hope she thinks he looks just right here too :)