Rainy day blues, reds and roos
It’s sometimes hard to drive around the roads here…
especially when I am in a bit of a hurry.
(And if you are up to speed at all, you’ll know this is pretty much always!).
…
You see, I have this hungry camera sitting beside me in the car, and well, there are distractions around me everywhere.
One day it’s all dust and rich reds and azure skies and snowy clouds…
The next…
Muted hues, fleeting mirages of speckled silver, soft-focus hills and rain-darkened wood…
And then, when I get all fanciful and arty-farty and carried away with my own imagination… Mother Nature throws in a little something to make me sit back on my heels.
And then, when I get all fanciful and arty-farty and carried away with my own imagination… Mother Nature throws in a little something to make me sit back on my heels.Like when I was heading home from town last week. I took the photos above as the rain dribbled over the windscreen and TLW snored gently in her carseat.
And then, when coming down the range towards Granite Glen, I met Old Man Roo…
This old guy is huge – a big Eastern Grey Kangaroo standing over six feet tall.
I have no idea how heavy he would be, but he would be formidable in a physical encounter.
After all, he is old. And he has survived.
He has seen droughts galore and the odd downpour.He seems to have seen the odd fight or two, if that raggedy ear is anything to go by.
He is a little wary of me and my clicking black box, but doesn’t flee. A younger roo would bound over the fence and high-tail it to the hills. But this old fella ducks under a wire and he cannot be bothered to half-hop, half-limp too far. His old joints are weary, and his bulk slow-moving in the soft misty rain.
He ponders me calmly, then turns slowly and shuffles away again…
I reluctantly pack my Nikon away again, glance at my watch and put the car into gear. And as we drive away, I know he will stop his shuffle and stare again.
Not at the blues or magentas or greens.
But at me, disappearing over the hill.
And for a moment, he will wondering what the bloody hell this particular queer human was up to! But then his flight of fancy will vanish. And he’ll get on with the business of just staying alive.
Me? I’ll wonder about him every time I drive by this stretch of road. And Ill probably be running late. Again.
10 Comments
Alison
What a gorgeous and amusing story. You have me wondering about Old Man Roo, too.
Love the photos, as always.
Jayne
Love Old Man Roo !
Fantastic photos as always 🙂
Pencil Writer
Jealous. Me. To get to stop and snap pictures of everything. I hardly ever keep husband’s camera except when we’re traveling together. (It is HIS, afterall!)
Nice pics, as always. And I’m jealous of the rain, too. We’re having your kind of summer right now, I think. Hot. Hot. and More Hot. Our humidity has been REALLY exceptionally low here–like in the 27% range!!!! That’s unheard of around here! Swap the numbers around (72% and that’s more normal, if not higher!) Nonetheless, I enjoy the lower humidity–particularly when we have temps at 100 degrees or higher (something like 37-38 + degrees C.) Our plants are trying to crisp on us and I hate to think of the water bill coming next!
But, enjoy your rain. I know it’s essential to life and all. And I’ll just enjoy your stories and pictures. (I’m smiling. Truly.)
Debby
You know what I love, BB? I love that I look at pictures of the everyday things of your life and think, “How remarkable” but then I begin to look around at the details of my own life and find ‘remarkable’ there as well. I liked old man Roo, myself.
Bush Babe (of Granite Glen)
Thanks kids!! THe thing is I missed a lot of ‘remarkable’ in my life as a city girl… I’ve just rediscovered it here… glad you all ‘got it’ too!!
Hugs
BB
Callie
Awesome photos! Just awesome! Love the “Roo”!
steviewren
Amazing views!
Iris Flavia
Well that old guy is sure worth running late! Very well written! Great pics, hopefully he´ll be there staring in wonder at you for a while!
Karen
That’s great, to be able to pull off to the side of the road and take a picture of a kangaroo! When we lived in Africa, it was the wild pigs we had to watch for. In fact, my mom ran over one with a moped once (didn’t damage the pig, but gave my mom 3rd degree burns on her leg).
Ian
Sorry to be a bit off topic here, but I run a blog (completely and entirely non-commercial) called http://www.farmblogs.blogspot.com
At Farm Blogs I am trying to gather in one place the very best of global blogging about farms, farming and rural life.
You can find the blog roll, sorted by country (and a General Interest section).
My posts are made up of the blog recommendations from farm bloggers and I also post regular stories about world farming.
All blogs have been recommended to me by other bloggers or identified by me during my occassional browsing.
You were recommended by Raising Country Kids (http://www.raisingcountrykids.com/)%20recommends ):
(If you’d just like to see recommendations please use the label ‘Recommendations’.)
I have a pretty broad definition of farming – if you’re producing food, you’re a farmer, to my mind at least.
So blogs range from ranches to part-time smallholders, and resources for them.
Once recommended, I add them to the blogroll and then contact the bloggers (just as I am contacting you), asking them to send me a few words about their farm/small-holding and their blog and, critically, to recommend their favourite farm/farming blogs (just as Raising Country Kids recommended you).
And so it goes and grows.
So, I’ve added you to my blog roll and I would very much appreciate it if you could please consider:
a) writing to me with a brief description of your blog along with permission for a once off only use of a couple of photos from your blog, so that I can make a posting about you;
b) writing to me with your favourite farming/rural blogs recommendations;
c) add a link on your blog, if that’s possible, to http://www.farmblogs.blogspot.com
d) please feel free to send me the odd photo, both now and on an on-going basis. The blog tries to pick up different seasonal activities in different parts of the world at different times, so any photos would be much appreciated – they also help drive traffic to your site.
I am very short on good farm/rural blogs from Australia and none from New Zealand, so particularly interested in your recommendations for these two countries.
Very much hoping to hear from you,
With kind regards,
Ian
http://www.farmblogs.blogspot.com
http://www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
http://www.ianwalthew.com
P.S My wife is Australian so I’d love to get some more good Aussie blogs for the family to look at together.