We get so excited about Trams. We are currently on the 112 Tram going down St Georges Road to meet our friends Samantha and Rod who are here from Canberra with their 2 kids Tilly and Oscar as well. Tilly and Jessica are best friends. We are meeting in Southbank i think. I haven't been there since Melbourne Cup week. It was nice catching up with my friends at Caulfield yesterday. Our move to Melbourne is beginning to rush up on us and it is beginning to feel more real. Lyn and I had another talk about our riding plans this morning. We are both so excited about that. She has a great little horse for the kids to ride too. Happier Days? We like to think so... Postscript: We all decided to stay in for dinner. We stayed outside to watch the fire gas thingies when they came on at 6pm. The kids were wild with excitement. I've seen them before, on Melbourne Cup night. I liked that night, with my friend Saskia, after her horse Green Moon won the Melbourne Cup. During ...

We are at Murchison.  We've had the most wonderful afternoon and evening with my dear friends the Clarkes.  The kids and I are sleeping in Marg's renovated and restored Tram.  Yes.  It's an actual Tram!   Yes, it feels dislocating to not wander down last thing at night to say goodnight to the horse I grew to love so much.  There's a horse with a great name currently living in "Her" paddock...  His name?  Halfblood Prince..  Fantastic!!!  We of course love Harry Potter.  My sister also thought it was cool, when she phoned to check up on me, thinking we were arriving today, and wondering why she hadn't gotten my usual 'we're on the road, dang it, we're later than we hoped' , or the 'just finished a stop, took longer than hoped, on our way again' kind of messages.  The Clarkes of course called Black Caviar "Princess", so it's sort of cool that a horse called Halfblood Prince is currently in her paddock. We've had a...

The road trip to Melbourne usually involves stopping at the same places each trip. Each and every landmark on the way comes its own memories and triggers.  For example Bookham reminds me of my Dad.  Holbrook reminds me of The Castle. That's an actual castle. Not the film!!   Jugiong reminds me of the purple fields. Filled with the evil noxious weed Patterson's Curse. My family know all about this weed. It nearly killed my old thoroughbred Tickles. Lucky for him he had a tough constitution and the death of my friend's horse alerted us to the danger and the epidemic sweeping the paddocks of Canberra. My Dad was largely responsible for getting the weed under control in Australia. As I've said, he's one of the smartest people I know. He and his legal team fought the bee keepers who were only thinking of themselves, and not what the weed was doing to the country, and successfully fought off their challenge in Court so that CSIRO could continue to introduce the weevils t...

At approximately 9.58pm this evening (because who really thinks about the G1 race being run at 10pm???) I remembered the Group 1 Moir Stakes was about to be run at Moonee Valley.  I'd wrestled with how I could possibly get there to cover the race, but had eventually decided it was too difficult.  So it was with the slightest hint of relief that I saw it was raining quite hard in Melbourne just before the field jumped, which didn't make me feel so bad about missing the race.  As the field swung for home though, and my eyes followed that pretty dark brown mare on the outside of the field round the leader Buffering (poor old dear) up and run away from the field, I felt a pang of regret.  The mare is called Samaready.  She's by "My Boy" More Than Ready, and is owned by my friends at Vinery Stud. I first saw her race, and win, on one of the Blue Diamond Stakes lead up races.  I liked her immediately.  There are things about her that can make me wince f...

I feel like I haven't stopped all day today. Actually. That's not true, because I did stop for a couple of hours to get my hair done. It's the first time in over 5 months. I'm sick of cutting my own fringe. It was pretty wonky. Thank goodness I don't attempt the rest of it. I can still feel myself fighting off the impulse to feel guilty about getting it done. I'm sure there are woman out there who NEVER go without a hair cut and never feel guilty.  I'm not one of them, alas. I've bought supplies for Maxie. I've bought new feed for Freelance. I still need to drop it down to her paddock. I've done the chemist and managed to get some all important forms signed and lodged. And I managed to get the kids' book club orders in too. But although I've begun rounding things up, I haven't packed a single thing yet. And we want to be on the road early too. These short turn arounds are always hard.  My friend rang today though and I have ...

I'm trying to concentrate on photos that I need to get processed and out this evening.   As I work, I have on in the background (yes, I have a habit of putting the television on behind me as background sound, you may have gathered this by now) one of my favourite movies from ages ago.  It's got Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in it.  "You've got Mail".  It's probably a bit fanciful, but there's lots of little things I like about the movie.  There's some funny parts and lines in the movie, and some poignant ones as well.  I just always liked it.  "You were expecting to see someone you trusted and met the enemy instead" "People are always telling you that change is a good thing. But all they are really saying is that something you didn't want to happen has happened...   but the truth is, I'm heartbroken.  I feel as if a part of me has died..  and no one can ever make it right". It grows late, Maxie feels heavy on my lap, and I ...

Today is my last day at Arrowfield Stud and in Scone.  It's not a tough day, with just tidying up of loose ends and trying to nail that final photograph, and I'll do some family photos at the end of the day too.  I slept terribly last night, and so am now wondering whether my planned very early assault tomorrow morning, involving a 4.30am start, is indeed wise, given I have the 8 hour return drive home to negotiate as well tomorrow.  I don't know what to do about that now, I want to do it, but given that I bolted awake in a panic at least 3 times last night, I'm not sure..  My neck is twinging again, and that pinched nerve is there nagging at me, saying "look, I'm nearly trapped, can you feel it??" .  The answer is yes, I absolutely can, and it is making me move cautiously and carefully. It's all over the news and on my friends' Facebook posts that this weekend is AFL Grand Final weekend.  I'm trying not to think about.  It's ironic th...

I spent the day today with Animal Kingdom today.  He likes the peppermints that I brought for him.  My shoot here has only one day remaining.  We've covered good ground.  And today I managed to slip into Scone very briefly to catch up with the friend, and to buy another bird mug.  There's a lovely little gift shop that sells the tea cups I like.  They feel nice in my hand.  And aren't too large.  And I've made a habit of buying one on each trip. Animal Kingdom at Arrowfield Stud

What a long day.  I am just in.  I've spent all day shooting and editing.  Had a lovely dinner with Vicky, Virginia and Amy...  Just finishing downloading, and putting everything on charge, and doing a little bit of overdue 'housekeeping'..... Alinghi.  Catching up with an old friend.  Her Snitzel foal is gorgeous Alinghi's new foal by Snitzel.

It's the most perfect weather today.  There is not a hint of the wind that had whipped up so strongly by this time yesterday.  It's clear, warm, and still.  Alas this is my quietest day.  That would be right...  Arrowfield have no stallion staff available, so I can't make a start on the boys.  Instead I hope to make the most of the light by wandering around the farm getting nice mare and foal images and just nice general farm imagery. There's a bit to like about this little sequence of Big Brown this morning.  What's the only thing I don't like about them?  I can't see his white spot...  Love this horse. Postscript: Would you like to know the end of the story? I can only just admit to it now. I ran my bath and walked away. My distracted and tired mind decided the taps were off and I say down flicking through pictures thinking the water would need to cool a little bit. A little later I walked down the long corridor and in dismay realised...