Passion Flower

I caught the image of this Passionflower early this morning while thr dew was still on it. It seems the Passionfruit Flower is so named because it resembles the crown of thorns worn by Jesus. Hence `the passion'. So Easter week is a good time to post this image on my Blog.

Horsin Around

I enjoyed capturing and viewing these images of 2 of our Carriage Club members having a ton of fun with their horses so much that I just had to do a LO. If you look closely you can see more images hiding in the leaves :) I found the gumleaf in our driveway recently and I loved the colours so much I had to scan it to use as an element. I scanned an old horseshoe this morning to add a bit more horsey atmosphere. Initially I had it upside down - with all the luck running out so I quickly turned it up the right way :)

Another Heritage LO

Here is another of the photos sent to me by Patti. This one is of my Father Philip and brother Philip and was taken in Hastings Victoria in 1966. Phil senior is about 43 and Philip junior about 3. It reminds me of what a little cutie Pip was at that age, and now he has a son almost the same age and just as cute :)

Easter Games at Gunalda

We have just returned from a great Easter Weekend at Gunalda (a very small town about 50k N of here - one shop, a Pub, a school and a Showground which our Carriage Driving Club hired out for the weekend. We put Lewis the cat in the Cattery, took Bella the dog with us, loaded up the Chooks with food and water,
loaded our horse Bobby in the Float, loaded our Sulky onto the Ute and off we went in convoy with 2 Utes, a Horse Float, a Camper and loads of `Stuff'. Took us all day to pack - LOL - but it was worth it :) It doesn't take long to get there but when we arrive it feels like we are a million miles from home. Here you can see Alan enjoying `Happy Hour' watched by Bella and Bobby who was right next door. On Saturday we all harnessed up and did some Dressage practice followed by games in the afternoon. Our friends Brian and Bev came up for the night and Bev was able to join in the games after lunch. In this photo Bev is unravelling a toilet roll while Alan drives Bobby off - the object being not to break it. :)
On Sunday everyone harnessed up for a pleasure drive - a 13k trip down to the Mary River and return. Once there we unharnessed all the horses so that they could have a swim in the river and they loved it. We had a picnic lunch there and then drove home. I was lucky enough to hitch a ride home with Del who let me drive her horse Connie all the way home - I even cantered up a hill, Woo Hoo, felt a bit like Wells Fargo :) You know - `the mail must go through' :) All in all a wonderful and relaxing weekend.

Blog Tag

I have been Blogtagged by Robyn Gough so I would like to highlight Lauren Bavin. http://create4u.blogspot.com/ Lauren is an amazing and very creative designer and just a very nice person I think. I really love each and every one of her kits. Lauren had major surgery in February but was back at work really quickly - she is an inspiration :)

Now I am going to tag Lisa - and then I will have to think of 2 others :)

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to all my Blog Readers, I hope you have a wonderful relaxing break, eat loads of chocolate and other goodies and come back with that sense of renewal which I believe is the true meaning of Easter.

An Interesting Book

I have just finished reading `The Family' subtitled `The real Story of the Bush Dynasty' by Kitty Kelley. A fascinating read, especially for the insights it gives to the U.S. political system and Ivy League College Culture during the 60's and earlier. For me the standout character was Dorothy Walker Bush, George W Bush's Grandmother. A very strong and very influential woman. From the beginning it had me racing off to Wikipedia to find out what various abbreviations stood for and this certainly helped. For example a search for GOP led to the knowledge that it stands for Grand Old Party which is the traditional nickname for the Repblicans. The official symbol is the Elephant. This certainly helped as Kelley refers to GOP often, without the `dots' which would indicate an abbreviation. Of course everyone in the U.S. would know its meaning but I would have loved a glossary to save me work ( v. lazy I know). I finished up with an 18 page printout of info. on the party. :) This will I think lead me further into U.S. history, a subject which has always fascinated me, especially the Civil War era, but about which I know virtually nothing.

My favourite quote from the book was attributed to Mark Twain who said ` Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves - and how little we think of the other person'