Friday On My Mind - 2

It's Friday again, which means the lovely Rhonda from the Down To Earth blog is having her Friday Photo Feature - 'On My Mind....'  I enjoyed tripping round blogs listed in the comments on Rhonda's blog, and have bookmarked quite a few to revisit.

So what's on  my mind this lovely Friday?

My dad trained racehorses when I was a kid, and I don't remember a time when I didn't have horses in my life, so it's no surprise really, that one of my favourite photos is of me, probably at 2 or 3 sitting on one of dads racehorses, apparently I would get very cranky if anyone tried to put a hand on me to make sure I was safe up high on their backs.

The horse I'm on was a 2yo filly, she held a track record at the Gold Coast at one stage, very fast filly, she was my favourite.

I promise next Friday's photo won't be horse related!!

Till next time,

Grape Picking in 40c heat, what were we thinking!

On Sunday, Mr Mel and I ventured to a local vineyard, Ernest Hill Wines, to partake in their annual members pick.  We had received the invite about 10 days earlier, and accepted, before we knew that we were in for 10 days of 40c+ days.

So Saturday rolls around, and Mr Mel pops his already dodgy knee, and can hardly walk on it. We give it till 7am Sunday morning, he thinks he'll be ok, and I make him promise to let me know if it starts hurting more. He agrees, moreso because he doesn't want to let down the Ernest Hill guys by piking, when they'll think we're just pulling the pin because of the heat!

Off we head, for our 7.30am start, there's a crew of about 30 other members, armed with water, sunscreen, hats, secateurs and buckets, so we join the brigade.

By 8am we're half-way down our first vine, and loving it, feeling the weight of the warm grapes drop in your hand as you snip them off is very satisfying, and not long after my first bucket is full (see pic below), and a 'bucket boy' comes to swap full for empty.

Proof - my first bucket of grapes

By about 9am we've done 3 rows, and the seat is pouring out of us, it's very humid and warm, luckily Ross the vineyard owner comes round with waterbottles, saviour!!

We chugg through another few rows and before we know it, the whole block has been picked!  5 tonnes of late pick semillion that will be used in the deliciously decadent Lunar Spark by Ernest Hill.

Let the picking begin

Red faced, sweaty, sticky from grapejuice, we make our way up to the tent, and collapse onto seats, grab a beer, and have a chat with other pickers. One couple are wanting to move up here form Sydney, they pick our brains, and we rave about the lifestyle, we think we've converted them, wouldn't be surprised to see them round town soon!

Ross & Jason of Ernest Hill put on a great brunch, rolls with bacon & egg or sausage & egg, with drinks, and complementary bottles of vino.  We partake in all aspects, delicious.

Then Jason tells us he's setup a traditional stomping case, where a few buckets of grapes will be put in for us all to stomp, then he'll turn it into wine, the traditional way, and send us all a bottle.  Having done similar when they established the vineyard, he warned us it may not be drinkable, and after seeing some of the feet and much going with them into the case, I don't doubt it.  It will be a bottle that tells a story rather than gets drunk!

We shall call it Chateau de Feet

All in all, a terrific day, hard work, and we were absolutely knackered, but have already put our hand up to have another go in 2012.

On arrival at the kickoff point

Can't wait to try the 2011 Lunar Spark and our dodgy Chateau de Feet bottle in the coming months!

Luna Spark - the end result of our efforts

Till next time,

Friday On My Mind

The lovely Rhonda, from the well worth a visit blog Down to Earth has a Friday Photo Feature called 'On My Mind...'  after reading through the comments, where visitors leave links to their blogs of what's on their mind, I thought I'd join in.

So what's on my mind, this lovely, if not stinking hot, Friday!

A racehorse working on the beach at sunrise - Warrnambool Vic

When I was a kid, I used to help my dad work and swim our racehorses on the beach at Warrnambool, I have dreams of one day getting back to living by the beach, and high on the list will be riding our horses at sunrise in the water.

Sure it was dangerous, we often saw sharks, but it was just bliss, you and the horse, bareback through the waves, we'd ride them on the sand, then swim them in the ocean behind a rowboat, I'd ride them out till they started to swim, then hold on around their neck floating behind them while they swam.

Nothing like it, and I'll do it again, one day!

Till next time,

Cape Bridgewater - VIC

After Christmas with Mr Mel's family in Sydney, we packed up the pug and hit the road to Warrnambool, to spend a week with my family.

After a couple of days catching up with friends and family, Mr Mel & I headed over to Cape Bridgewater for a drive, I hadn't been there since school trips back in the 80's, so it was great to visit again.

Cape Bridgewater is around 100km west of Warrnambool, around 20kms west of Portland.

The bay is actually an old extinct (please stay that way!) underwater volcano, which is why the bay is surrounded by high cliffs.  We didn't have time to do the walk, but you can walk around to a fur seal colony, we could spy quite a few tourists there clicking away with their cameras.

Cape Bridgewater beach

A short drive from the main beach is a petrified forest, freshwater springs, and a blowhole.

The Blowhole at Cape Bridgewater

The Cape can be very very windy, which makes it an ideal spot for a windfarm, and I was so happy to see that a local co-op had got together and funded the erection of around 30 wind turbines, merrily zipping themselves around.

Wind Turbines at Cape Bridgewater

Have to mention the lovely coffees we had at the cafe on Cape Bridgewater beach, while they were slow coming, they were worth the wait, a good barista there, woohoo.  Now if we could only get one here at home!

I've been a bit slack getting the rest of our trip photos online, it won't happen overnight but it will happen!

Till next time,

Cyclone Yasi - North Queensland

Thoughts to everyone in North Queensland, with reports now that impending Cyclone Yasi will probably be the most life threatening cyclone in Australia for generations, with expected winds of up to 320km per hour. Due to reach land around 1am Thursday, at Cairns. More than Cyclone Tracy where 65 people were killed, and close to Hurricane Katrina proportions where 1,833 people were lost in New Orleans, and where, almost 6 years later the city and her people have still not fully recovered.

30,000 people are being evacuated from Cairns, with a storm surge of up to 7 metres expected, much of Cairns could go underwater.

Some details below for people who could be effected, or who have family in the area:

For cyclone preparedness and safety advice, visit Queensland's Disaster Management Services at www.disaster.qld.gov.au

For emergency assistance call the Queensland State Emergency Service (SES) on 132 500.

For those evacuating, they are asked to register their whereabouts by ringing 1300 993 191 or by visiting www.redcross.org.au

Cyclone Yasi evacuation and relocation line - 1300 993 191

Stay safe everyone,
Till next time,

Bushfire Season

Yesterday at work around 1.30pm I was on the quadbike and noticed some weird shapes clouds above the trees, I went up on the hill and saw that there was a bushfire on the mountain behind the farm.

While I could see it was 'only' small, the awful sick feeling you get in the bottom of your stomach, which is probably the age old imprinted 'fight or flight' response showed up.

We called the Rural Fire Service, they had only just been advised, and trucks were on the way, so they didn't know how big or bad it was.

From the farm the fire was around 3kms as the crow flies, not very far on a windy day, but thankfully there was hardly a whisper of wind.

We got the pumps and firehoses out, and had a firedrill, pumping water from the top dam, after much swearing at the pump it finally kicked over and we felt a bit more at ease that we had water at hand.

As a precaution we placed the irrigation lines around the house & barn, and ran the sprinklers.  Then worked out what documents we'd need from the house & office if worst came to worse, and backed up the important files onto an external drive. We worked out where we'd move with the horses, and where the best evacuation route was for them.

By 5pm the RFS reported they were bringing the fire under control, they had revised the size from 50 hectares down to 30, and the fire was going up the mountain rather than down towards us.

They had 7 trucks and 2 choppers working on it, as the mountain is covered in dense bush, the access isn't good, so the choppers dumping water helped.

By late last night the RFS reported it was under control. Thankfully.

With the temp today to hit 40 again, and between 36 - 40 for the rest of the week, as Steve Liebman says, we'll be alert but not alarmed.

Just have to hope there are no firebugs around, the Valley is an absolute tinderbox at the moment.  But I won't get started on my view of firebugs, that's a tirade for another day.

Stay safe everyone, Australia's a hell of a place, floods, fires, cyclones, all within a few weeks, but you have to love her regardless.

Till next time,