Huge waves this morning

They probably dont look as big in my photos but there was a very disturbed sea, lots of sand moving and some of it back onto the beach. White water all along by the shore. We walked the cliffs at Petrels cool but not much wind. A lovely walk and the purple mallows were in flower, not liked by the local greens as they are not local but such a lovely thing to see. I am trying to do a sort of spring clean in the house, I feel very back achy and when I look at what a couple or more hours of work has produced, it doesnt look like much. My great grandsons seventh birthday tomorrow so I am making a chocolate slice, low fat but probably full of sugar which seems to be the latest no no. Would like to sit and rest my back but still lots to do.

I have been away

Still recovering, we left at about 5 am on Monday morning and drove 11 hours across Victoria to Upper Lurg to stay with our friend Mark Bullen, tired but arrived safely. A lovely dinner party that night with old friends we dont see very often any more. Tuesday was a rest day, sort of, I wandered Marks garden and took some photos of the views, Mark has the most lovely ponies and we were there to pick up a lovely Section B stallion we have on loan for we hope 2 years, he is such a lovely boy I cant believe we are so lucky. We went to have lunch with another friend Sally, at her lovely Nilton Park Stud, I havent seen those ponies since her mother died quite a few years ago, a lot of them and rather fat but a beautiful house and property. We had a fun lunch with her son and grand children and then out to see the ponies, the paddocks run down to the River Oxley. Home to Marks for a rest and then out to the Glenrowan Pub for dinner, Tuesday is $10 night and we had a very nice meal.Caught up with friends again but home relatively early as an early start the next morning. Some chat and I fell asleep on the couch. Up and off by 5 am again, dropped off and picked up a pony along the way and another 11 hours to home. We were both quite exhausted by then. Thank goodness John made dinner and I fell asleep in my chair. We had Popped the new stallion in with 4 mares when we got home, he looks lovely and at least 3 of his mares were in season so that worked out really well. We had also had a foal while we were away but I didnt see him until the next morning. I was disappointed in the pony we had picked up(not the one from Mark, he is a beauty) but with a mane trim he now looks less depressed and if he will put on some weight might end up ok. The bloodlines are good. Thursday ponies came and went, a colt arrived from NSW, payment for a stallion we leased out, he is very small but again good bloodlines and he is only a yearling and a late foal to boot. We will see how he will go. two geldings went as well.It is Agricultural show time here and Sarah is washing ponies for one tomorrow, then we have a few but these are ponies under saddle. We did so well at both the Royal and Champion of Champions with ponies bearing our prefix under saddle, it is a credit to Sarah and I suppose me too as it was our home bred ponies of several generations, all credit to them.Oh and the last photo is of a pony I bought, I dont often buy these days, from Mark a few years ago, awaiting her first foal, she is gorgeous and I am so pleased with her. John is off fishing, I hope to do a bit of house cleaning, but it is a lovely day infact the whole week end, blue sky and warm, Hope yours is as good.

George and I

Not sure about me, somehow I do think think I look like this but I suppose I do. George is finding the oddest places to sit, and purr. Sarah and I are off early tomorrow morning to northern Victoria to visit friends and possibly swap a pony. I will be back late Wednesday but as it is a 10 hour drive, at least I think it will take most of the week to recover. I will be back eventually.

Not one collage but two

With spring, and hayfever and foaling mares I seem to have been out and about a lot but not doing a lot. Yesterday I met P in Hahndorf to exchange eggs and have a coffee and a chat, an outing! about an hour and a 1/4 drive for me, probably a bit more than 1/2 hour for her. I just didnt feel like driving down into the city. The drive through to Hahndorf was lovely, new growth on the trees and green paddocks.We also managed a couple of galleries which was fun, loved Robyn Finlay's tea bags and I was home by early afternoon to find John panicking as he couldnt find George who the minute I called came sleepily out from somewhere. The top collage is a walk we did earlier in the week on the cliffs at Petrels cove and down to Depp's beach and the second is one I did a few minutes ago of George, on my chair, the big native dendrobiums in flower and the wisteria just coming out. The big denim fish I saw somewhere and thought it would be fun to do, I think maybe he needs some beads and perhaps a bit more embroidery, sorry whoever the fish idea belongs to, but I am a bit unreliable with my memory these days and cant for the life of me remember where I saw it. Get a grip woman.

the last few days

double click to enlarge. Finally a sort of decent photo of George, around the garden a new foal, born this morning so pretty scrunched up, a filly from one of our best Welsh mountain lines, a couple of walks. I am full of hay fever and it haws been quite hot and windy so doing my rounds of the mares twice a day is a challenge. With this warmer weather I am pulling the odd weeds in the garden, when I can and then getting over it inside with a very busy kitten roaring around. He is a delight but does have sharp claws.I am also having fun potting up some odds and ends, have to have things to look forward to.

A abit of this and that.

A mad parrot I made from a Jill Maas pattern, he was fun to make, nestled in some orchid leaves. Our walk this morning, a cool breeze but after days of drizzle the sun was out, so nice to feel a bit of sun on ones face. A bit of hand stitching I did using left over cloth from my Gisella Warburton class, so nice to do these bits of hand stitch although with George it is not so easy to do, as he is often sitting on my lap and batting things with teeth and claws. He has settled in well but is almost impossible to photograph as he is a busy little boy. Very sweet and learning how this house works. So far on the whole I have managed to keep him in the sitting and kitchen area and out of dangerous places like sewing rooms, but for how long? I am also walking around the mares in the late afternoon, ok until they put the cows out where I walk and then it became rather a mine field of cow pats and slippery mud. Max has been enjoying it though. Sarah and our Rivington ponies had a wonderful Royal Show, we only had one pony there but there were a heap of our breeding that other people either own or have on lease and it was a great thrill to see that our prefix won all the height classes for the small show hunter pony classes and go on to be Champion and Reserve. This has been the main aim of all our years of breeding Welsh ponies. I will try and get a photo from the Rivington Stud website if I can, but I am not terribly good at doing that so we will see.

Adelaide Royal Show

I went on Friday to see one of my ponies compete, no photos!! but there were some lovely ponies with our Rivington prefix there and a lot of them did very well, I wandered for 3 hours, about as much as I could do and here were a few of the things I saw, the plants were lovely. We had hair cuts and home to a very lonely kitten, he is a delight, but does have sharp claws and wants a lot of attention at this stage. He is going to be an inside cat so I need one who will eventually be a sit on lap cat, at this stage he wants to sit on my lap, but also to bit and play, so not much will get done I think. I am already having to move things around and he complains bitterly if I shut him in his area. Wet cold and windy this morning, there was a fire, they say deliberately lit a valley over from us in a house, I heard a loud boom in the middle of the night and couldnt work out what it was. I guess we will hear more tomorrow. I hope I can get some photos of the ponies when Sarah comes home from the show, so exciting and Isabelle (grand daughter) who is in the west did very well riding a galloway ( our horses are graded into different height ponies, galloways 2 heights, and then hacks) for some friends so all in all an exciting week end.

Meet George

9 weeks old, our new kitten. He had worn himself out. We had been out all day and he was so pleased to see us. I only got him yesterday, he is sorting out us very well.