Misty morning

I shot these pictures from the car after dropping Nic off to the train station in the morning, lovely misty hills disappearing into the fog and everything looking soft and faded as a departing dream. I love mornings here...

Ghosts (and chook photos!)

We had a visit from the previous owner today, who is a lovely guy, to help show us a few things around the place regarding the water tanks, electric fencing (for the livestock) etc.

The previous time we'd met him, he'd talked to me a little bit about the houses history and one of the things mentioned was that this place was a very tranquil one spiritually. He'd also said that he didn't mean just in the sense that the surroundings were tranquil but that the energy from all the happy families who'd lived here for all the many years still resided. After enquiring if I was a spiritual person, he also mentioned that a number of psychics had come to the house and commented on the spirits that were here. I had a bit of a hard time hearing him as he was speaking low, thinking that as Nic's surname is Italian he might be a strict Catholic and not inclined to want to hear such talk. However he'd mentioned something about a psychic and a lady in the garden. I wasn't sure if he'd meant that specific psychic was a lady and had been in the garden at the time she'ddone the reading or if he'd meant there was the spirit of a lady still haunting our garden. So when he came back today, we queried him about it further and he clarified.

Apparently, three different psychics have come in and all have commented on the same things very consistantly.

First that there are a *lot* of spirits who are still in this place and they're all lovely ones. They're all friendly and very warm and want to protect the place. They're quite active but peaceful, happy, warm, welcoming souls and we shouldn't worry if we hear or see them as there is absolutely no malice in them. It's their energy, their love for their happy lives here which makes the place feel so warm and welcoming. Two psychics said specifically it was the warmest, welcoming place they'd been.

There are three specific spirits that have been seen a number of times:
1.) There is the ghost of a lady who appears in the front gardens. (Remember, these gardens were planted in the very early 1900's and the family lived here since the 1800's, staying until the 1950's with much of teh garden not changing much since then.) Apparently she's been seen a number of occasions and simply likes walking around the gardens, enjoying doing what she presumably loved in life. My personal feeling is that this would be Katherine, the wife of the original owner of the property in the 1800's who was Scottish.

2.) There is the spirit of a little boy who runs to the bus stop in the early mornings. Apparently there used to be a short cut from the properties behind us through our front garden on the right side of the house to the bus stop. There is no bus stop there any more and hasn't been for years but he is sometimes seen in the early morning dashing along the lawn, disappearing where the bus stop would've been.

3.) There is the spirit of an old fashioned minister in his garb in the rear room, who sometimes also walks up the hall. The room was built as the husband was Catholic and the wife Anglican which just was Not Done in those days and neither could worship at the others place of worship. There was a piano in the room which was played for Sunday services and it was the area where the local services were held, so effectively it was the local church.

The other thing he said is that you quite often hear people talking and the sound of voices chatting amiably in a small group nearby you. This is most frequently around the area where our garage is, up the hall from the back room (where the people would presumably be leaving from Sunday services and where the minister walks) and in the side of the garden where the entry to that area of the house is.

The funny thing is both Nic and I have heard voices at various points but had always both assumed our neighbors must have been the ones making the noice despite never seeing anyone around when we went to look to say hi to them. (We still haven't met 2 of our neighbors so hearing them thought to introduce ourselves.) I haven't seen anything yet but I kind of want to and I really like the idea of our house being looked over by guardian spirits who loved it so much in life they never left. All in all pretty cool!

On a semi unrelated note, here's some recent photos of the place:

"Our" kookoobura. As anyone who reads knows, I love them and am happy to have our own personal one I see most mornings!

I've got the chooks run mostly finished! So they can go in it during the day but have to go in the hutch at night until I build one in the run. They are busy clucking, scratching and enjoying new greens and as many bugs as they can stuff in their crops!

Since they're obviously in such dire danger of starving though (with both what they hunt up and the feeder full of pellets) they also get a treat, which I've got them to the point of taking from my hands and allowing brief petting by me.

They're still not quite sure about La and I have to hold them and tell them it's okay. He's pretty gentle, touching her topknot and saying "fluffy chook chook, cluck cluck cluck".

And of course, La's favorite bit... tossing them food and watching them come running pell mell to get the choicest bits!

Well, we're back from our weekend work-shop and BOY what a weekend! I think I had about the best time in recent memory, certainly the funnest and most relaxing!

I'd planned to mostly work Hope as she just has much more and much better natural instinct and talent for herding. We worked her a dozen times over each day and had a nice time doing so. She is turning into a very nice little dog and will definitely be my chore dog. She was balancing nicely, a bit of casting, taking directions to turn, keeping a moderate distance etc. It was a great little work shop with a lot of good humor going around, some good natured razzing, a good dinner at the local pub and I enjoyed the laid-back teaching style.

My goal for the weekend was to get some "homework", ie some basic skills I could take back home to work on to get her started on being able to move sheep for me so I don't have to chase them up and down our paddocks myself! So I was quite happy we achieved that and can't wait for my sheep arrive so we can continue. Need to build a round-pen and other things so we have somewhere to herd into instead of just back and forth between pastures.

Hope also got to go on the cows, a dozen poddy calves who hadn't been worked with dogs before and got her first exposure to them. We didn't want to push her too far and let her take a kick, so we stopped her after a short time but Paul reckons she ought to do nicely with cattle. Turns out this picture, taken when she was a fluff-puff at Toora and decided she could handle the little cow there was a bit on target! ;-) LOL That tickled me pink to hear, as while I'm not planning to run cattle here, I wasn't sure what to expect from her with cattle as she is a soft dog in terms of being sensitive to approval, it doesn't take much to correct her - a very mild 'ahhh' is all you want to use with her but she's also a tough little nut in her tasks, without being (as many Aussies tend to be) prone to being heavy-handed in their approach to sheep since they're often used as cattledogs historically. I'd worried she might not have enough "umph" for cattle work so to speak when things got gritty.

We also got to work her on Runner Ducks and she did a good job with them, keeping more moderate pressure on them, going on the outside, going a bit wider, not scattering etc too much. She had a moment of just buzzing them about, I reckon at first she figured they were the same as the wild ducks she buzzes off our dam but she settled in and gave a nice bit of work. I was real tickled to hear he reckons she'll work ducks nice.

All in all I had an absolutely great time and wish it could have been a week long! LOL So many people say Aussies aren't a working breed any more, so it's pleasing to see her do as nicely as she did and starting to 'get it' when I wanted her to turn or come off balance back toward me. One thing that it did point out to me was that I've neglected her obedience more than I should've as I know we can do better in that area than we did this weekend. Not that she was bad per se but it was bad for US as I know she has a wickedly fast response time when I train her and is quick and smarter than she showed. However, after a month in a kennel and me ignoring training since I was all focused on moving and finding a new place previous to that she didn't do horrible and was affiable about doing what I wanted despite it.

I naturally have reams of photos but it'd be photo-overload if I did them all at once so instead here is a few of the first week in our new house and I'll do our herding ones tomorrow.

Noir in the bird-cage.

Our new backyard.

La having fun charging about throwing leaves around! ;-)

And picking ones to bring to mummy.

Hope attempting to stare Nic down as he's holding a tennis ball. (Throwdaballthrowdaballthrowdaball!!!)

Sierra was laying on one side of the fence, Hope was on the other, so she slid under the barb wire and laid down for a rest.

Here's WHY they needed the rest... this is what they spend the majority of the first day, second day etc doing.

These pics were literally shot within a few seconds of each other on the first day, as soon as we let them out of the car. This is the rather low dam.

Chhharrrgggggee!!! (Could they look any doofier?)

Having gone up one way, time to go up the next.

Sierra tiring before Hope is going at non-warp speed.

Finally sitting still and looking sweet... Hope always has such kind eyes and expression about her.

Finally this is my tree... I knew I had to have one and this place has three big ones!

I live! Pt 2

We're still unpacking so I don't have photos up yet (have to find the cable to hook the camera to the computer) and we're already off again - this time to Welshpool for a herding workshop with Hope and Sierra for the weekend. So we'll be back Monday.

In the meantime I'll try to recap what's been going on since I posted last. The biggest bit would be that I've got all my babies back with me again! I picked up Hope and Sierra the first thing on the morning we were moving in. I got there and found out both of them hadn't had a bath, which the lady appologised for and warned me I might not want to hug them. I told her they could have been covered in pig muck and it wouldn't have mattered. After enough pats to make me smell as strongly of kennel as they did, away we went to the vets for a nice hydrobath... after a month in a kennel, they needed one! Then home for me to get a bath too! LOL Both my girlies are happy as clams if vibrating from pent up energy and a bit out of shape from not being able to hoon around all day but training... um... what training? They ever had training??? You'd never know it, the little monkeys!

After that we picked up Noir (who is a butterball of purring bliss) from my vets and took our VERY packed car and dog float home! I am also sporting a nice limp to go with this as when we took the float down from the top of the (steep!) driveway where we were staying, Nic lost his grip, the weight was too much for me alone and in an attempt to prevent it from becoming airborn (yes, seriously) I got a nice bit of skin scraped off the top of my foot and knee. :rolls eyes:

I can't say how much I looooooovvvve this place! It's such a pretty place and such a pretty property! I also can't say how much I love being in a place that's OURS instead of a hotel or temporary stop again. LOL We found out some history on the place... apparently it was bought in 1897 by Arthur Tinkham who lived in a bark hut until 1911 when he finished building our place. He was married to Elizabeth Chisholm and as she was Scottish she called the property "Inverness". As Elizabeth was Anglican and her husband Catholic, they weren't able to attend the same church so one of our "bedrooms" was built originally to hold their Sunday services in at home! The front gardens were designed and planted by Baron Bonmula, the gentleman who also designed the Melbourne Botanic Gardens. (Yes, it has my big white gum that I knew any place I was going to get HAD to have.) There is another tree here, a big pine, that was planted in 1911 when the house was built, next to our bedroom window that is in a picture of the property from way back then. (Photo is a gift from the previous owners.) Until 1950 the property, along with surrounding properties were apple orchards. The property remained in his family until 1946 when a family named Taylor bought it. The guy we bought from actually had kind of a neat story... he sort of approached me aside and asked if I was spiritual and believed in pyschics or not. I could hardly hear him as he was talking low, thinking that Nic's surname being Italian, Nic was probably very traditional catholic and not inclined to spiritual matters. However when I said I was he was talking about a white lady in the gardens and psychics coming here and that's what he meant when he said the place was tranquil, not just that the setting was tranquil (although it is) but that it exhudes a spiritual tranquility. I'm not quite sure, but I think what he was saying is that we've got a ghost of a white lady who liked our garden so much she never left!

The first thing Hope, Sierra, Cade and Laurent did was start running in big circles exploring every nook and cranny at top speeds! (Albeit top speeds for La are a bit slower than the others.) Running in big circles around the place has been a "thing" every day since. I think probably 99.95% of photos I've taken since we got here feature dogs at full tilt with bubby in hot pursuit! LOL The other ones were ones of La with a feather wand playing with Noir. While I still wouldn't leave them alone together, supervised they're disgustingly adorable together and La is remarkably gentle with Noir... most of the time. (There was one attempt to rough house with Hope and Noir which Noir was distinctly unimpressed with.) The only bit that's slowing them down is that Laurent has a nice full blown cold, complete with the grumpies and a snotty nose.

It's also been interesting to see Nic adjust to country life. Our neighbors on all sides have cows, specifically beef cows. Our one neighbor has a dozen cow and calf pairs and a big bull in the paddock next to us... Angus. The other neighbor has a bunch of young calfs being weaned from their mums next to us and their mums and some others across the road. They also have a trio of horses. The other neighbors have a mixed lot of cattle of various ages. At feed time, there gets to be a lot of mooing going on at any rate. And if you go out at night, someone sounds the alarm and you hear a cow bellow out the alert to the rest of the herd. We're in a bit of a valley and the first time it happened, it scared the living CRAP out of Nic who reckoned the were-cow was out to get him!

Our other "interesting" happening with the cows has been with Cade. I let him out our back door to potty and he dashed off after some ducks that were in our dam. (These are wild ones and flew off well before he arrived.) That game spoiled he took off like a rocket and cleared to pastures before I figure out what he'd locked in on: the neighbors BULL. The neighbors seriously big, muscle-bound, strapping heavyweight bull. That fool dog was bearing down on him and I could just hear him thinking, "It's bigger than a bunny or pheasant but by gawd I can TAKE 'EM!"

We're busy unpacking now... mostly going good with that. Most of it I packed myself and having moved as often as I have and owning as many breakables as I do, I pack things so that nothing is going to get broke short of a comet falling from the sky and mooshing it into pieces. The only thing I didn't pack is the paintings and frames as our moving company was SUPPOSEDLY antique/delicate experts and would only insure what they'd packed (iow could vouch was packed "correctly"). Well the only things that have been damaged have been the things THEY packed. La's cot has a nice dent in the wood on the backside. (Not visible but not the point.) Nic's TV stand has a big chip out of it. The key is missing from a wardrobe. And the Very Expensive Pictures we got of Laurent's first birthday that we had framed professionally have a big GOUGE IN THEM!!! So freaking steamed! They didn't even wrap them in paper or bubble wrap or anythign, just jammed them into boxes together where they could clang against each other! I am absolutely terrified to open our art collection and see what has become of our delicate old French paintings.

All in all though, this has been one of the best weeks in recent memory! I'm also stunned at how much older La seems all of the sudden. We've got so much more verbal communication going on and him understanding how to manipulate his environment (tools, guiding me to what he wants to see or have named, using stools and remotes to get specific responses, counting (even if it only one, two, un, deux) etc. etc. He really wants to help at whatever the task is... cleaning, sorting, unpacking, taking care of the animals - he's watching, making mental notes, reproducing behaviour he sees etc. We're also discovering more of our "boyness" as well and are obessessed with work trucks, tractors, cars and dinosaurs - particularly ones that roar LOUDLY, and pounding things (his hammering bench and anything he wants to use as one, drumming etc.) His vocabulary is stretching out and new words are popping up literally every day, quite often as soon as I tell him the name of the thing and he's half the time ASKING for the name of an item he doesn't know the name of, then repeating it in toddlerese. (Apricot = pwe-caw, grape = gay PUH, chicken = ticken)

At any rate, since I've got to be up EARLY it's time for me to go to bed!