Royal Melbourne Show

A few snaps from the RMS yesterday - we got to catch up with some lovely peoples, snuggle a MOST lovely Aussie puppy and fawn over the Petite Bassett Griffon Vendeen some more.

Laurent was really keen to go on rides and particularly wanted to go on "big slides, ponies and scarey "ollea coasties"! He got to go on all that and a ferris wheel which he thought was really cool. Immediately after coming off the pirate ship rollercoaster type ride he did say he wanted to go on a more scarey roller coaster but he was given away as Jodie told me he'd refused to let go of the lap bar the entire time! LOL



Lily was LOVING the ferris wheel and being up so high! She had her little face pressed to the windows and giggling hysterically!


Unfortunately the pony ride has only doubled the request for riding lessons so that "when I get biggered, I can have a pony of my own mum"! Of course, he also requests I get him a Rough Collie (blue and black and white with gold cheeks) like one of my team-mates and a small poodle.

Little Big Girl

Little Big Girl is growing up so fast - I know it's horribly cliche and all but I swear I looked at her one day a few weeks ago, blinked in surprise and realized seemingly between one night and the next my little baby had disappeared and my toddler had officially arrived!

She tries to be tidy and loves to clean, pick up and sort things. She is also obsessed with doors, drawers and gates - chiefly in ensuring they're CLOSED. I'm being roundly scolded here because the gate is open and Gates Must Not Be Open! ;p

In and out, in and out, in and out... a girl and her dog!

Little miss with a tennis ball and with her best girls!

My little flower girl... she loves to pick the tiny daisies on our lawn.

and in case anyone is wondering - here is the difference between La and Lily summed neatly up!

First comp :)

Our first flyball comp was Saturday. You could definitely tell it was her first comp but she did manage to pull out 4 nice runs and our Hastings Hit and Fly team ended up scoring 2nd in our division by the end of the day.

I snapped this one of miss Chilled Out Chickiebabe, who had fun along with her brother running cheerfully amok. I do have some footage of one of Hopies runs but I can't get it to upload to youtube at the moment! Our next comp is coming up in a few weeks at Yarram and then we'll go up to Euroa and later to the Nationals! :)

"Hussshh upppp!!!"

Rin, the crazy little nutter that she is, has developed the ability to jet off which has led to the installation of a long line she can be clipped to when she needs to go out and I can't be right there watching. Rin also has a long standing issue with.... well, let's be polite and just say she is VERY vocal and is frequently told to hush up because she's making everyone's ears bleed with it's sharpness.

At any rate, Nic let her out tonight without putting her on the tie out and sure enough off she went. He called me to come over and whistle her up, which I did. Little Lilypillie toddled along with me out onto the porch. As I shouted "Rin!" and whistled, Lily joined in, mimicing my stance. Only instead of calling out "Rin!" I hear her shouting, "Hush up! HUSH UP! HUSHHHH UPPPPP!!!"

The furkids

It's been a bit crazy lately... okay, who am I kidding? It's ALWAYS crazy here, it's been MORE crazy!

The fantabulous news in it is that Emi, my foster kitty, left for her new home today and they are thrilled to bits with her. Honestly it couldn't be a better match it seems and it's very reaffirming after having waited all this time to find the perfect home for her to see her go there and the beginnings of a lovely new relationship!

One of the odder developments is that Tim Tam the orphaned lamb has decided the dogs are acceptable substitutes. The dogs for their part figure he's pretty cool too. As usual, everything that lives here is just a bit odder than usual!

Other than that we've just been practicing as Miss Hopie has her very first flyball comp coming up this weekend! So exciting! We've got several more comps coming up in the next few weeks so stay tuned for further flyball reports! This weekend it was the VHA's Duck Clinic with Frances Smith, which was good fun. Hope was not so sure those quackers were something she should work, as she knows she's supposed to leave my ducks alone at home. (In fact they can crawl all over her, steal food from her bowl etc)


Little Miss Rin had no such qualms... the Pointy Black Dog saw ducks and went into instant stalky-staring-slinking Border Collie mode. For such a wild child, she did pretty well... especially given a few people who've seen what a manic little bit of monkeyshine she is probably figured it'd look like a game of skittles with a mad teenage BC bowling ball and ducks for pins! It looks like some of my "you only get what you want by being calm, listening and doing things mum's way" is starting to sink in... a bit, anyway!

Not from the clinic - just one of Pointy Black Dog after she's had a good bit of fun running around my muddy paddocks! The ones below are from her first introduction to duckies. The pictures were taken by Mandi who deserves big kudos for putting on the clinic, hosting us, ensuring all her duckies were ready for us, asking Francis down and generally working her bum off to ensure we had a nice day! :)

(And look, PointyBlackDog DOES have a speed other than ZOOM or SPLAT-LAYING-FLAT!)

Poor Sisi is feeling a bit left out... agility is her gig and thanks to the metric crapload of rain and storms we've had the agility grounds have been too soggy to run on for the past MONTH AND A HALF. Literally the week after we got promoted! DOH!!!

Playing catch up and sharing bits and pieces of things I'd meant to blog but slackarsed on.

New favorite feeding-sleeping baby photo.... she is such a sweetie, when I rolled back over she wrapped her arms around me, snuggled against my shoulder, gave me a perfect little kiss and said "wuf 'oo". Ladies and gentlemen, this is what refills the well of mummy's tollerance of the times they're crazy little ratbags... sometimes, every once in awhile, they make you melt into puddles of warm-n-fuzzy goo.

These are three shots from Verity and Cami's Rainbow Bridge Garden. Slowly coming together.


And last but not least, after not having touched oils or acrylics since I was probably about 14 I decided to get a little set have have a dabble in it. I sketched this little fellow the other night and got to rough him in over about 15 mins of breakfast. Hopefully over the coming week or so I can find a bit of spare kids-free time to work on him! Not sure if I will keep the background one as artificial halo and take it all over or as grass and fill in the 'sky' after.

Fathers Day

Obligatory cute photo warning:

Nic with Bunny LaLa and Lilypillie

We decided to go to Healesville for the day, despite the temperamental weather and visit the Beechworth Bakery. Very, very yummy stuff there! Lilypillie got her first bit of bee sting which she was much impressed with!

La of course was chuffed not to just get a doughnut but a CHOC glazed doughnut and one with GREEN SPRINKLES... totally rocking!

On our walk back to the car we got utterly drenched when the heavens let loose and we were all caught out having parked far away and wandered up to the bakery. The upside? Well, it takes rain to make a rainbow!