Welcome to Matillda "Tilly"

Life as we know it has ended.  A little bundle of energy has arrived and there's no stopping her.  In retrospect we probably should have held off for a week as she came with antibiotics to clear up some diarrhoea.  What a battle to get half an antibiotic down her throat twice a day.  When you are hanging out for a meal you don't want to be bothered with an antibiotic tablet do you?  She is as cute as a button, but also a little terror when it comes to play time.  Nights are spent in a crate beside the bed, so it's like having a small baby.  Every time she wakes up and starts whining I leap up and take her outdoors for toileting.  She seems fine with this, but I'm completely worn out.  It has only been 5 nights so far and already I'm praying for the day her bladder gets a bit larger and she can sleep through the night.  Of course everything else has been put on the back burner.  No housework getting done at all and this is the first time I've been able to sit down at the computer for days.  Of course there is a little pup gnawing on the heel of my shoe as I type.

The other toys are interesting but I love the thong the best

Gotcha!

This bear is more feisty than I thought!

Love at first sight - Tilly and Catherine James

Safe spot for me to hide

Exhausted - at last!!!

Vale Rosie 1999 - 2011

I have spent the last week recovering from the celebrations for Catherine's 60th birthday.  Phewwww!!  What with the trip to Sydney and then all the preparations and cooking for the party, followed by much cleaning up and post party brunch on the Sunday, by Monday I was completely exhausted.  I even had an afternoon nap a couple of times last week. 

In between snoozes I've been looking for the perfect puppy to replace our darling German Shepherd Rosie, who died last November at the grand old age of 11 years and 11 months.  Not bad for a dog who was given a life span of 4 to 6 years by the Vet because she constantly suffered from skin and gut problems and bouts of pancreatitis.  Initially we planned to take a 2 - 3 year break from dogs as we believe no new dog could live up to Rosie's vigour, spirit and intelligence.  Unfortunately the reality is we are missing our "pup" too much - there's a great big hole in our lives and our hearts where she used to roam.  So I've taken the big decision (and thankfully Catherine agrees) to find a replacement for our beloved Rosie.  Naturally we are looking for another German Shepherd and I'll hear tomorrow if I've been successful in my bid for our first choice in pups.  If that bid fails it's on to Plan B where there are 2 female pups up for grabs.  So this blog is soon to be plastered with photographs of the new puppy.  Before that happens I'm going to post a few more photographs of our wonderful old girl Rosie - from puppy to seniority.

Leaping Lizards

Well finally back from Sydney.  Good Friday today - and we were at my sister's house for Prawns, Chilli Tuna Bake and lots of wonderful salads.  What a beautiful day it was in Brisbane.  Sun shining, birds singing - good company, good food and wine and laid back music.  I realise I'm not writing nearly as much as I thought I would on this blog - funny thing is usually I've got lots to say, but once I set up this blog I seemed to get lost for words.  However, I am still taking lots of photographs, so will keep posting those.  Dalveen is beautiful at the moment.  The Autumn chill has arrived.  As soon as dusk arrives it settles in and we have to get under cover quick before it seeps into our bones.  Unlike others who visit us at Dalveen, I don't believe its cold enough yet for a roaring fire.  Give it a couple weeks more I say.  But being a good host, I have been stoking up the fireplace in the lounge.  Everyone sits close while I take up a chair almost in the next room to get away from heat.

The cooler weather has finally brought some respite from the ever growing grass.  Once mid-April arrives I can usually do a final mow and then settle back on my laurels late September or sometimes even mid October before I have to launch into the grass mowing activity once again.  But there's no rest just because the grass has stopped growing.  Once I've completed the final mow of Autumn, I have to start cutting into usable lengths all the fallen branches and trees that have accumulated since last winter.  The chain saw will run hot for a couple of weeks.  I also have to get the brush cutter out and slash back around the dam face and into the thickets in and around the trees.  This year the blackberry has reared its ugly head once more so that will mean lots of mean and nasty slashing and in some places a bit of blackberry poison to try to halt its progress.  I probably should have done it a lot sooner than this but the blackberry crop was great and I was just happy to snack on the berries during my afternoon walk around the property.

Springtime at Dalveen 2011

 

Haven't been back for a few days - it's time to put up some more pictures of Dalveen.  Springtime in Dalveen - September, October 2010.  The wisteria was in bloom on the chook shed, the tea roses were sublime, and the cottoneaster was attracting all sorts of bird life.  Hope you enjoy.

Some pics of the house and land at Dalveen might be called for I think.  That way you can see why I love it so much, although it is getting to be a bit of a handful these days.  When we were looking for a little house near Stanthorpe almost 10 years ago, I fell in love with this one at first sight.  Stanthorpe and vicinity were suffering from a drought at the time, and this house had been on the market for a couple of years with subsequent price drops.  Built around 1916 by an ex Brickee from Sydney it is unusual for the area - a cavity brick - usually you'll find timber houses from this era in Queensland.  The house and land were bought and built for Mr and Mrs Coomber's retirement - to be a Fruit Orchard - stone fruit in particular.  However, the fruit trees would not mature for a few years and the Coombers took in boarders while they waited for an income from fruit.  At the beginning the boarders were returned soldiers from World War 1 who had been gassed and came to the mountains for the fresh air for their damaged lungs.  Consequently the house became known in the area as a bit of a convalescent home for these returned diggers.

Last time we were at Dalveen we had a few visits from a very friendly King Parrot.  I'm not sure if he has been hand reared, but he was definitely the most inquisitive King Parrot I've ever had the good fortune to come in contact with.  As I talked to him, he came closer and closer and in fact at one stage I thought he was going to land on my head or my shoulder.  He was very beautiful and seemed to be accompanied by a juvenile King Parrot who was much more cautious of the humankind and stayed well and truly out of range in the nearest gum while his friend came in to have a chat.

Just back from Dalveen - unfortunately the grass was as high as an elephant's eye up there.  Spent about 10 hours all up on the ride on, mowing in and around the house, sheds and dam.  It all looked perfectly coiffed as we left for Brisbane yesterday.  When will the warm weather leave and the autumn chill arrive.  Once that happens I can finally forget about mowing and get stuck into some other chores around the place.  There's a lot of brush cutting to be done, the blackberry bushes need to be dealt with, and the chain saw needs a long workout in order to store in some wood for the fireplaces which will be very necessary once winter sets in.

On a brighter note, our Satin Bowerbird has returned for the 5th year in a row and rebuilt his bower.  Actually, I can't know that he's the same Bowerbird, but I like to think he is.  For the first time this year I actually saw a female near his bower.  I wasn't lucky enough to capture a photograph of her, but I did get a couple of the male when he came closer to the house to feast on a fallen persimmon.  I went down to take a couple of photographs of his bower and he was most put out, emitting a few harsh churrs to send me on my way.  I left him half a broken blue peg in payment for the photographs.  I placed it on the grass well away from his bower and when I peeked in the next morning I saw that he had placed it with his other blue treasures near the bower.  I often wonder if they collect these "blue" treasures because of their violet blue eyes.  Perhaps they see the colour blue as a stimulant for romance - a sort of "come hither and look into my eyes" but with the bowerbird it is a case of "come hither and look into my bower and see all my beautiful blue ornaments I have displayed for you."