I Have Seen the Emu in the Sky

Have just noticed that it is some days since I last wrote a post. Not sure where the days have gone at all. The weekend before last was spent mostly on the road as I went to Geraldton Sat and Sun. Sat I went in with our DP as I needed to return my massage chair thingie - it had ceased to function. I had tried it in most plugs in the house but no luck. There was no problem at the shop - they handed me a new one and I was all good to go. We had a late get away from here so by the time I had done my job and we had got groceries it was after 3pm and time to head back to the Ponderossa. Sunday was a very early start to the day as I did the Nana thing and went to footie to watch the WM's boys play. They played at different grounds at the same time so watched one till half time then zoomed to the other footie ground and watched the second half there, remaining while the WMH went back and picked up first child while they did the team finish up where I was. I had gone better prepared with thermals, and parker type jacket and was still freezing - next time I will be taking a blanket to wrap around me, lol.

Sunday night went back to work and for the next three days pretty much stayed up at school where I was helping the WM finish an assignment for uni and helped put together a whole pile of invitations for our Cook's mother's 90th birthday.

We had another two days of rain - nearly 20 mls. What I have realised is that I am not prepared for wet weather anymore. I have no umbrella, no raincoat and no drier to manage the maybe 14 days of wet weather we have a year, lol. I got to my days off - had a heap of washing to do and only just scraped in with some feeble sun on Friday, to get enough clean clothes together to come back up to school.

With the rain, came another soup making day - vegetable and ham bone and I particularly liked the flavour of this one that I made. I used a leek and celery with carrots and butternut amongst other things and it was delicious. Had two days eating it and then shared the rest with the WM's family.

Back on duty this weekend, we went to Geraldton yesterday to take the students in for a game of 10 pin. Saw yet another new bird on the way in which was a Chicken Hawk. We were going too fast for a photo and for the other staff member who was driving the van, a Chicken Hawk was not a novelty for him. I had to laugh as I only thought chicken hawks were in cartoons usually beating up on some other poor hapless creature. Most exciting however, was seeing a white owl perched on a gum tree at the back of the boarding house the other night. I intrepidly sidled round the corner of said house and with my mighty 20x zoom camera, tried to take a photo, but to no avail. I have got a white smudge if you squint your eyes on a black background. I WANT an infra red or what ever it is, camera, to be able to take night photos well - or I could still get around to reading the instructions, lol.

With the almost 60 mls of rain we have had over the past weeks there is a total greening of the landscape ( I know I have said before) that is nothing sort of miraculous - I wax lyrical on such matters. I took the girls for a drive to the shearing shed via the cemetary and the sheep graveyard over the weekend, and could not believe there was so much growth in paddocks that were dirt this time last year. I think I have mentioned the cemetary before - three boys are buried there, two who died in the 40's and one in the 50's. The sheep graveyard is where, according to the girls, sheep are taken to have their throats slit if they are unwell. The girls went hunting for skulls and bought two back with them.

Had a good weekend. On Saturday night the boys came down and we lit a campfire. I had to take two panadol as I had done something to my back while 10 pin bowling earlier in the day, and I had a thumping headache. I may have used too heavier a ball, and I think my glasses need adjusting to as they keep slipping down my nose so not sure if I had eye strain as well (the joys of aging!!!). Anyhoo, as everyone was sitting, talking and just generally hanging, one of the indigenous staff asked me if I had ever seen the 'Emu in the Sky' to which I replied no. He then showed me how to see it - I thought initially I was looking out for a star pattern but it is like a negative and the spaces between the stars in the Milky Way that outlines an emu. Because there is no other lighting out here, the Milky Way is magnificent as are the night skies at any time. I looked at the Southern Cross (that diamond thing in the sky as I initially called it, lol) and the head starts to the left of that with the body further left and down. Apparently at different times it either looks like it is sitting on a nest or is walking and it also changes as the night goes on. Our indigenous girl told me it was part of the Emu Dreaming which is a Dreamtime story of the Emu. When you see this in the sky, it means that the emus are laying eggs and it is time to hunt for them. One of our staff has found over 20 eggs in the last few weeks. They usually lay after the first rains come. I feel very privileged to have seen this and wonder if I will ever be able to see it from NZ in years to come.

I had an email from No 1 grandson last week asking me if I was still enjoying Australia and if I had seen any kangaroos. I have been taking my camera out with me each time I have been in a vehicle, just in case and wow, on Saturday evening as we were coming back from 10 pin bowling we saw upwards of over 15 kangaroos over the space of about a mile. Several were grazing in paddocks, a couple bounced across the road and some were on the other side of the road. I tried to get a couple of photos but they moved quickly once they saw us. I believe the other staff member was going back to try and get a few once he had finished work (get as in kill for tucker). There was one big red that was in the distance and the others were mostly smaller greys. None of us had seen that bigger mob before at the same place at the same time.

The girls and I did a campfire dinner on Sunday night after going out getting wood for the inside fire and our trip to the shearing sheds earlier in the day. The best wood to get is mallee root which lies on top of the ground and has a distinct driftwood look about it which I have mentioned before. We came across a heap of it in the one place which made things very easy and then just picked up small pieces of branches that lie every where on the ground in the scrub that would fit the fire box. Some bits are crawling with ants but have learnt to brush them off - as long as they are the little ones and not bull ants which can bite. Mallee roots burn hot and take a good amount of time to burn. I can spot a piece lying on the ground now while zooming along in the ute and feel very hunter and gatherer when out and about, lol. Apart from access to water, the bush pretty much provides everything you need in one way or another although I watched some programe on TV one night that showed you how to collect water overnight in the outback - all to do with collecting the dew that falls during the night.

It is an unsettling time here at the moment as we have the holidays in two and a half weeks and I have no idea whether we will have girls back or not next term. At this stage I have made no plans for the holidays - I am tempted to go to Sydney to catch up with friends but could go to Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth or Katherine as well. To go to Katherine to catch up with rellies would cost the same as going back to NZ and then there is the swine flu - which has reached Geraldton so maybe I should just kick back and stay here, poodling about on the farm and environs. Watch this space. We got news yesterday that one of the Primary schools had closed in Geraldton because of the swine flu. It has been declared a Pandemic by the World Health Organisation I believe and I think Oz has one of the highest counts so far and it is sweeping through Melbourne and Perth that I know of. No one out here has it yet but the WM's boys played footie against a team from the school that is closed in town, on the weekend.

I had hoped to add photos to this post but Windows is having a hissy fit and I cannot upload them off the computer. It has taken me nearly four days to get this written as the blog people were doing an upgrade on Monday, Windows did an upgrade today which took over an hour and I have had intermittent connection over the weekend. I am having a lot of trouble staying connected with Windows and may need to take my broadband/wireless doohicky in to be looked at. Am going to stop and have lunch instead. I cooked corned lamb last night - used the same method as corned beef using the Edmonds cookbook recipe and it was beautiful. Did a real NZ boil up with kumera, pumpkin and cabbage all in the one pot and it was very yummy. Going to have left overs now.