Narelle Hunter RURAL LIFESTYLE

My brother and his two little children are visiting again. We find a turtle in the pool as soon as they arrive. The rescue takes the trip to the country off to an exciting start. Once the old turtle is relocated to a nearby creek they check how much the chickens have grown, collect the eggs, meet the new kitten, have a jump on the trampoline and go for a drive to see the new lambs. Howard is selling sheep, cleaning oats, spraying a crop, registering his truck and doing some maintenance on the machinery in preparation for harvest. He tries to have time with my brother but it’s hard to stop. Another load of straw is prepared for delivery and the crops need checking. Howard spent Sunday doing a course with the Rural Fire Service so he knows how to use the new fire equipment. We meet him in town and have afternoon tea with friends. I am very relaxed and our girls are having a great time playing with their little cousins. Later my brother and I s

We are on our way to meet the girls for breakfast at a bakery in Sydney before heading on the highway again. The sun is rising over the ocean and I just cant miss the opportunity to drive to the end of the street and get my camera out. A storm is coming in and the sea looks deep and wild. It’s a great start to the day.  This week my intention is to ' be enthusiastic' . I am already very enthusiastic about my photography (as you have probably noticed). The things I  photograph are inspiring and interesting to me. Time slows down and everything is put into perspective. I love it! It is fun to think about how I can express enthusiasm about other aspects of my life...parenting, farming, travelling to and from Sydney, grocery shopping, bookwork, housework, enjoying friendships and family.  Enthusiastic people are cheerful, they are excited about what they are doing, they are fun to be around. Enthusiasm can be found in a conversation or ac

Howard had an extra man to help this morning with the sheep work and he asked me to put our lunchtime appointments in town back to later in the afternoon. I was left with some space to tidy the house, write up a few invoices and put some washing out. In the back of my mind I was thinking that this would be a great opportunity to go outside and plan my yoga classes for next week. It is a glorious day but I had my ‘busy hat’ on and thought that housework and bookwork needed to come first. Then ….I just decided to stop and go outside for an hour. There is a lovely spot on the lawn, under the lemon-scented gum trees. I sat the yoga mat out and put on my straw hat, then settled into the ‘extended child’ yoga position. I could hear the birds and the wind. My breath lengthened until I felt ready to begin a yoga practice. It is always interesting to note how you feel at the beginning and at the end of each yoga session. That sense of needing to do ‘something im

I have just returned from helping with the sheep work this morning. 2000 of our lambs are being marked this week and it was my job today to do the needling. This is not a nice job but it prevents the sheep from getting sick. It’s a six in one vaccination. The lambs were all separated from their mothers and the sheep yards were full of bleating lambs. They do all manage to find their mothers again at the end of the day, don’t ask me how, as they all look exactly the same to me. We tried to move one group of 300 little lambs from a large yard to a small one but they scurry in all directions. Howard is kicked in the mouth and looses count of the sheep. It is a hard job, lifting the heavier lambs and sorting them all out. The men joke with each other to make the day go a bit faster. Our conversation swings from the latest news, to why we are not mulesing the sheep. We all compare stories about the swooping magpies that have started protecting t