the cow died

22Jan10

Our place backs on to the top paddock of a small farm, and we can see over most of the three or four fields that comprise the property.

Mostly, the farmer seems to breed cattle, although he seems also to provide agistment for horses taking a spell from whatever they have been doing during the year – racing, possibly.

The year started down here in Australia with the birth of this year’s calves. There was one around Christmas time, now there are five. Here’s one of them.

Fine little thing, isn’t it?

A couple of days ago, we heard the mooing and bellowing that signals another cow going into labour. Then yesterday afternoon, the beast in question was up at our end of the field, obviously having difficulties giving birth (we are familiar with the normal process by now, having watched several appear each year).

This is distressing to watch, an animal and her calf obviously in trouble and nothing we can do. She would collapse exhausted from time to time then get up and move around, clearly having trouble giving birth.

This went on all afternoon and now and again in the evening we would hear a strangled bellow – oh dear. We went to bed feeling very distressed.

This morning, the cow was lying in the middle of the paddock, still, not moving. I had to find out so went next door to the farmer’s house. The cow had died in its struggle to give birth.

I wish we knew that all that could be done for the animal was done. I wish we knew that she had had some care and that the farmer did try to help. But if so, we saw nothing.

The farmer’s wife was pretty off-hand about it – “yeah, it died”.  Maybe you get hardened to these things. We would like to think they did all they could. It had a dollar value apart from anything else. But, seeing nothing, we can’t help fearing that the farmer was fairly callous abut the whole thing … what would we townies know?

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Tags: birth and death, calf, calving, cattle, farming, sad story, the cow died

discovering Julie Fowlis

03Jan10

I was excited a short time ago to discover Julie Fowlis from North Uist, a singer  of Scottish Gaelic songs. A recent (Australian) ABC radio prgram featured her work and I have since had a bit of a poke around her Web site and MySpace page.

She’s wonderful! Such a light and clear voice and a wonderful singer with a great personality. Judge for yourself here, then go and find some more!

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Tags: gaelic music, gaelic song, julie fowlis, north uist, scottish music, scottish song

the burnt cake

31Dec09

I made a fruit cake again over the holiday season. And burnt it so that it is uneatable. How can you do that one something so simple, you ask? Beats me but I did.

I used the same – very easy! – recipe earlier this year and made the best cake ever. This time I ruined it.

I think I had too little moisture in it.  Sharp observation, eh?: too dry > will burn.

What was different was that I soaked the ingredients in the juices overnight like you’re supposed to do, but then didn’t get round to making it the next day like you should. Instead, I had taken it out of the fridge to get on and make it, but got side-tracked, didn’t then have the energy to do it and in the meantime other family members (you know who you are) had stuffed left over Christmas goodies in the fridge, no room for my poor cake.

So it stood another night, this time out of the fridge. Not good I think.

The next day I got the flour and mixed it all together and put it in a tin (nicely prepared for me by the assistant baker).  This was the point of no-return – I am sure an experienced cook would have stopped and thought “this does not look right” but, oh no, not me, I do not have the experience for these things. So in it went into a pre-heated oven, 2 hours at 150 degrees as per instructions. (I think that is Centigrade.)

Two hours later – disaster. It was like these shots you see of lava running in Hawaii – black, hard crust, charred, carbonised. I tried a bit but no, not edible, even when I get rid of the crust, it is tough to chew, a bit bouncy, chewy … ruined. So I will throw it out today.

I think I need some time to get over this scarring experience, but I will then try again. Watch this space.

Filed under: around home, my story, who i am   |  1 Comment
Tags: baking failure, burnt cake, cake, cooking, cooking failure, disaster, fruit cake, total failure

variety show

29Dec09

I’ve loaded some new pictures to my Picasa Web Albums – a random miscellany, no sort of order to them. They might make an interesting slide show for you. Click the image below then select “slideshow” when my Picasa Web albums load. There’s a timer for the slideshow at the foot of the screen, sets the time the shot is in front of you. I’ve got a slow-ish Internet connection and need to add time to let the individual slides load. You might want to do the same. Enjoy.

variety show

Filed under: around home, australia, beach, flowers, my habitat, my story, new south wales, photography   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: photographs, slide show

nin – the way out is through

29Dec09

We cater for a bunch of musical tastes here, no problem.

Here is NIN with The Way Out is Through. Whatever that means. I do not have the lyrics. Go Google if you like!

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Tags: nin, nine inch nails, the way out is through

falling down (tom waits)

29Dec09

Just ‘cos I like him, here’s a Tom Waits number selected from YouTube at random …

Pretty nice, huh? Here’s the lyrics:

I have come 500 miles just to see a halo
Come from st. petersburg, scarlett and me
Well I open my eyes, I was blind as can be
When you give a man luck, he must fall in the sea
And she wants you to steal and get caught
For she loves you for all that you are not
When you’re falling down, falling down
When you’re falling down, falling down, falling down

You forget all the roses, don’t come around on sunday
She’s not gonna choose you for standing so tall
Go on and take a swig of that poison and like it
And don’t ask for silverware, don’t ask for nothing
Go on and put your ear to the ground
You know you will be hearing that sound……falling down.
You’re falling down, falling down
Falling down, falling down, falling down

When you’re falling down, falling down, falling down

Go on down and see that wrecking ball come swinging on along
Everyone knew that hotel was a goner
They broke all the windows, they took all the door knobs
And they hauled it away in a couple of days
Now someone yell timber and take off your hat
It’s a lot smaller down here on the ground
You’re falling down, falling down, falling down
Falling down, falling down, falling down

Someone’s falling down, falling down, falling down
Falling down, falling down, falling down

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Tags: falling down, song, tom waits

nothing to blog about

28Dec09

What’s worth blogging about these days?

I’m sick of the new Rudd that we got as Prime Minister a while back. He’s all too smarty pants by half and I find his emotionless word-tricky little announcements very condescending. Show some humanity, man!  A bit of personality would be welcome but you can’t give it if you haven’t got it.

But that’s just me and as Tom Waits said “I gotta live with me”. (He was talking about living with himself, of course, not actually living with me . Per se.)

The polls say that he is still pretty popular (Rudd I mean). But then I saw an astonishing poll that said most Australians believe in God, which frankly I don’t accept. Beer, or fishing or whinging like I am doing now although not being too serious about it – yes, but God? I don’t think so.

So quite frankly I don’t believe what I am told any more so I try not to watch or listen. For what does catch my increasingly cynical attention makes me feel more and more jaundiced. LIke our (“our” – @&^$!) Queen – I hear that in her super special Christmas message that she solemnly churns out every year – what about a bit of personality here too, I wonder – she went on and on about the troops killed in Afghanistan – how sad. What about all the innocent people killed there and in Iraq and families ruined by these same troops, I ask? Not a word for them.  But then she is not supposed to dish out uncomfortable thoughts at festive, fun Yuletide, while we have happy family gatherings and dazed late afternoons in front of the telly. Not what the people want to hear.

And on and on about global warming, the petty politics that it lights up – all this political bickering to score points off somebody else so as to advance one’s self – hey, Rome is burning here you know!

I think we need to do away with democracy, it wastes too much and gets bogged down in “how important am I?” while everything goes to hell in a hand basket. A benevolent dictatorship is what we need.

“… to hell in a hand basket …” – “Its first use recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary is in a historical work of 1865 by I. Windslow Ayer entitled The Great North-Western Conspiracy in All Its Startling Details“. Now that’s the sort of stuff I think is worth knowing.

Happy holiday times to both my readers. And if not having a holiday – happy times anyway. As Dave Allen used to say: “May your god go with you”. (Even if your god is (an increasingly illusive) win by the Wallabies. Or even a win by Scotland.)

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Tags: blogging, christmas, disilluson, grumpy, holidays, news, politics, rudd

another digital painting

07Dec09

Anyone who has dropped by recently will know my obsession with the digital painting program Corel Painter.

Here is my latest little piece – this is Birdie Beach, quite near home. One of the many many photographs I have taken of it, worked over a bit in Corel Painter.

I thought I might do a Renoir next and see where I can pass it off. Only joking, folks.

I have at the same time been looking for the best program to use for the drawings I like to do from time to time. I won’t bore you with the pretty fussy features I was looking for, but, from the several drawing and painting programs I have, I chose – guess what – Corel Painter. This program allows me to do such a huge variety of marks that it was no contest, when it came down to it.

So look out for a drawing next post, guys.

Filed under: around home, australia, beach, new south wales, photography, software, the beach, the sea, water   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: corel painter, digital painting

hot, hot, hot!

20Nov09

It has been just too hot recently. And we are set for more, the forecasters tell us. I tried to do some housework today and nearly melted into an oily puddle. Late this afternoon we had heavy grey clouds come over and rumble at us but that is all we have had. The State has invented a new fire category – CATASTROPHIC ! We have had little rain and now it is topping 30 deg C every day, expected to go higher. Too hot!

Filed under: around home, australia, drawing   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: catastrophic fire danger, fire category, hot weather, weather

trip to Newcastle (New South Wales)

19Nov09

 

We had a good trip to Newcastle today. (I always need to explain that I am talking about Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia). It is about 50 minutes drive north of here, call it an hour for comfort.

We had seen a review of the new Coen brothers’ film A Serious Man last night, checked it out, saw it was on at a good time in Newcastle, so off we went.

We have enjoyed previous Coen brothers’ films and their quirkiness, focus on detail, quality of scripting, subject matter … all these fall into place so well that their films are just so enjoyable.

A Serious Man is set in middle America:

A black comedy set in 1967 and centered on Larry Gopnik, a Midwestern professor who watches his life unravel when his wife prepares to leave him because his inept brother won’t move out of the house.

The locale and times are typical of those in which the brothers grew up, so I felt it was pretty accurate and representative. It was a great little film, very funny, with a black, but benevolent look at Jewish beliefs and way of life.

But my point today is not to review the film.

We don’t go to Newcastle much and each time we go we are surprised to remember what an attractive city it is. There are still many of the old colonial-style buildings left, as well as run-down premises, old street shops, and some fine new buildings. It’s a great place to photograph, so I made a note to go back for a photo-shoot as soon as I can.

Here’s a quiet spot in the middle of the city. The cinema is at the back of the shot, across King St.

 

Filed under: australia, new south wales, photography   |  2 Comments
Tags: a serious man, australia, coen brothers, newcastle nsw