communing with animals

how i missed this! my neighbor (who makes the amazing meals and brought me freshly made cookies this afternoon - i am so spoiled) took me out to meet her RFDS nurse friend and her family. they own a 5 acre plot just outside derby town and have all manner of animals; cats, dogs, cows, chickens, geese, baby birds, frogs in the toilet, etc.  they even let the massive spiders live on the porch.  the neighbor next door has three gorgeous and well cared for horses. all of her animals are rescues and i had the most amazing time! we played with all of the animals, chased the calf, kissed the horses, cuddled the kitties, and then had cake, tarts and cookie dough with tea! yes yes it was a perfect afternoon. it started to pour while we were having tea and gathering our freshly lain eggs to take home. my idea of a perfect sunday.  miski would have been in hog heaven :)  a few more photos here Derby Farm Visit

miski's beautiful new collar

courtesy of her grandpa raymond! it only took three weeks and several wallabies to get the post to us and the collar and leash set he thoughtfully sent for miski is gorgeous! i can't wait for her to grow into it and in the meantime i will find a leather punch so she can wear it a bit sooner.  suits her perfectly! thanks raymond! woof

we've got wheels! and...healthy food

yep we finally got some wheels here in derby! well not ours actually...courtesy of good friends of ours who just embarked on an amazing trip of america, canada, and europe for 5-6 months! so excited for them! we've taken over care of their car and fishing rods and are excited to make use of both :)  also, slightly less exciting...i'm trying to cook healthier food for us so I made threadfin salmon with ginger and soy marinade and roasted potatoes with roasted asparagus.  it was pretty good, but i think i have a bit of learning to do on the cooking front :) yay cooking school in ubud when we are in bali!  our amazing neighbor made us the most ridiculously amazing dish on friday night. we went over at 7pm and she had everything ready - lamb shanks down with an amazing vinegar and butter sauce in the pressure cooker with roasted, smashed, seasoned potatoes and steamed broccoli.  then sorbet and berries for desert. wine throughout the evening....just wonderful!

my two cuties

how cute! jose has really taken to miski and now says he loves her at 98%...this might sound mean but it started off below 80 and has risen steadily the past three months. she has really grown on him and though she does irritate him at times when she is naughty (that's what babies do), i can see how much he loves her.  thrills me to no end, especially knowing where he comes from and how animals are viewed, treated, and eaten there.  yay! also a lot of shows about animals and their power to heal and reduce stress have lent themselves well towards assimilation into my world of animal worship. here's hoping the other 2% come along swiftly.

jetty walks

well it's officially the wet season here. most days we have rain in the afternoons and big storms at night.  this, plus the cyclones, plus the king tide schedules has flooded the marsh across from us. makes for beautiful and interesting walks. miski has really been enjoying this and on our last jetty walk miski finally started playing in the water! big step for her because she's been really afraid of the water until now. i know i am an obsessed puppy mum but she is so cute! she waits for her food until i tell her ok and then she'll go get it. now i just need to get her to come when i call her on the marsh. anyway i've destroyed my sandals and my feet are stained red now....seemingly for good.  we've had to say goodbye to two sets of really good friends this week which is incredibly sad. luckily we still have lots more friends in town! only one month until Sarah comes to visit us too! i can't wait!  See the Derby 2011 album for more photos

miski's new toys!

special delivery courtesy of amazon.com  how i miss the ease of internet shopping in the US...it takes forever to get stuff here and even then most stuff isn't available here. got her a kong rubber toy, a squeaky dog toy (of course they sent her pink, bleh) and a great rubber ball to play with in the puddles here. yay!

Gibb River Road flight to Mt Barnett!

Yay! my very first RFDS (royal flying doctors service) flight up the gibb river road. we went to mt barnett (kupingarri) to see the kids in a remote school there. The trip was amazing and though i am scared of flying i managed well. we first got to the derby airport (pull up, open the sliding garage door and there you are...hilarious) and saw a beautiful RFDS plane.  Not for us sadly, that one is the air ambulance. got a pic though; check it out in the GRR Album. walked outside and saw the teeniest plane i've ever seen. yep that's the one we're on...8 seater. sweet. a few bumps on the flight but otherwise it was so breathtakingly beautiful that i didn't notice for long. on the way home it rained a lot and that was also spectacular. long day but very exciting!

flooded fitzroy trip and suprise backyard visitor

last week was my 4th fitzroy trip. it was very busy and very productive. had a blast!  on the way there (we'd had a bunch of rain recently) we went through quite a bit of water and had storms every night. one was so intense that it was impossible to sleep. even with my eyes closed, the curtains drawn and my head turned away, the lightning was so bright that it actually hurt my eyes. unreal.  then on the weekend jose and i had an adventure with a goanna who happened into our backyard. silly thing couldn't find its way out again. we helped shoo it along after a few minutes though.

fishing on the jetty in derby x2

went back out to the jetty for take two that afternoon and although there were many fewer bites overall, jose did manage to catch two more sharks.  the first one was about 10 inches and so cute! second one (in photo) was bigger and angrier.  miski wanted the bait but wanted nothing to do with the sharks which is good.  we had fun fishing again and left to drop off puppy and head over to a friends place for dinner! it was amazing, we had fantastic green chicken curry over rice with sauteed asian veggies and fried tempeh with sweet chili sauce. yum. dessert was amazing - chocolate puddle pudding with vanilla bean ice cream. it was so rich and delicious. i made a pig of myself. we were so tired from the week and fishing that we went home kind of early and on sunday we had a really lazy day spent doing laundry and cleaning the house and napping. great weekend!  Many many more photos and some videos under Derby 2011 Album

fishing off the jetty in derby

we had heard that fishing off the jetty here was a waste of time. how wrong that was!  got up at 5am to go out today and though we didn't pull anything up, jose hooked 4 sharks, one that was almost 6 feet long! they all broke the lines but it was amazing. we have a very short video of one on the Derby 2011 album.  we're going back out this afternoon for another try as high tide goes out again. super fun! plus last night we had a ball! we went from POETS (piss off early tomorrow's saturday) for a few drinks with colleagues to emmetts place for dinner with brooke, gen, and matt. we had amazing tacos and wahu wine.  tim tams for dessert and a game of taboo was the perfect end!

hanging out with the pup

I was totally exhausted on Thursday. I could barely peel myself off the couch to take the dog for a walk. Turns out Miski felt the same way.  Jose thought this was hilarious. we did eventually make it out to the marsh with the soccer ball and had a kick around with the pup. She's such a good player!  It's been hot here again these past few days :(