It seems like forever since I have sat down at my computer (or my iPad) and written on this Blog.  To my regular readers I'm sorry.  To begin with I guess things just seemed to be sailing along so nicely that I almost forgot about writing.  Or at other times I think just keeping up with everything meant that I was wasn't devoting that 30 minutes or so most days to writing.   However in August it became apparent to me that all wasn't well with me.  For someone who's always been well, and the only 2 times I've been in hospital was for the birth of my two children, this came as a bit of a shock.  But then I guess "The Spanish Dancer", or "The Big C", or pure and simply cancer, is always going to be a shock.  I think it's one of life's real cruelties that a girl had to get cancer to get loads and loads of really beautiful and cool flowers. I won't go in to too many details here, but suffice to say that I have been extremely fortunate...

Yesterday I spent the afternoon out at Chris Waller's stables concentrating on a couple of their stable stars Zoustar and Boban.  They are one of 10-12 horses I will be tracking this autumn behind the scenes and then of course on the racetrack.  I had a lovely play with Haylie and Lucy who are great girls.  They really got into our shoot. The timing of my project beginning was perfect for me.  It has given me something to focus on and enjoy this week.  And I've needed this.  Late on Tuesday afternoon the excellent staff at RPA worked out that my Mum had not had a stroke after all and that the problem was in fact heart related.  They put a temporary pacemaker in that night and then last night the proper one was put in.   I can't begin to say how relieved we all were that it wasn't a stroke.  Somehow strokes seem intimidating.  They remind of things I'd rather not think about.   So it was with some relief that I g...

I'm sitting finishing this post at Canberra Airport, waiting for my flight to board.  I'm flying down late on the Friday night, instead of getting up to catch the first flight out.  My attention tomorrow will be the Australian Cup and Newmarket Handicap meeting.  It's not a meeting I typically do every single year, like Blue Diamond Day.  Young children and operating out of Siberia, err Canberra, have meant that I've tended to juggle it a little bit with other racedays. But as I prepare to photograph the 2013 renewal of this meeting, I pause to reflect on the glory days of 2 former champions.  See, this is how long my Ponies have been able to make me feel better about things.  And today, as I wait to return to Melbourne, is no different. The two horses I write of are father and son.  Both were Horse of the Year.  Together they won a staggering 21 Group 1 races.  The father won 10, the son 11.  And they both won an Australian Cup, ...