The joys & sorrows of Spring

| August 28, 2010

Prince Edward has a full tail again, and his and son Luka’s early morning calls for their mates have become more urgent. A reminder that Spring is almost upon us. With it we’ll get warmer days, shorter nights, apple blossoms, Tweet

How old do you feel?

| August 27, 2010

Working in the health profession puts me in touch with a huge array of people whose ages are by necessity always prominently displayed on the screen, right after their names. And not uncommonly I meet people whose appearance is discordant with their chronological age. Whenever that discord is great I usually ask, “How old do [...]

When to give up?

| August 21, 2010

When do you give up on an animal? Or perhaps better worded: When do you help an animal to move on? And why? It was Dawn Watch pointing me to an article in Parade magazine titled Can you teach a bad dog new tricks? that got me thinking about it. In the article Jim Gorant discusses [...]

Water, water, water …

| August 15, 2010

Living in a 120 year old cottage on the bank of a major river was always going to be filled with some tense moments. Wednesday night was one of those. More than 150mm of torrential rain in just 36 hours. Over 100mm in less than 12. The river rose … and rapidly so. After ensuring [...]

Queen Sally heads out again

| August 7, 2010

What this simple photograph of Avondale shows is a goat who’s made a remarkable recovery. Near the centre of the photo – in one of the distant paddocks – is a diminutive chocolate brown donkey and a once very sore Saanen goat. Queen Sally is the goat on bended knees munching hay next to Charlie. [...]