Life Always Looks Better Through the Ears of a Horse!

No matter how bad things are.  No matter the challenge or stress. No matter the shitty bits of life.
Everything looks and feels better, when looked at between the ears of a horse!

PS: we had galloped up that long lovely laneway an hour or so previous to this - here, we are heading back across country to the homestead, dinner and a glass of red wine.  :)

Invigoration

Isn't life interesting?  You just never know what it is going to throw up at you.  It's all part of the journey I reckon.  The challenge is not the difficulties we face, but how we choose to respond to them.
I am now studying and have a new job.  I've ditched the 'career' and profession that I have worked in for over 20 years and am trying something new. Being a Human Resource Manager when you really don't like most people was getting just too difficult.
So now, I'm studying a Bachelor of Equine Science via distance education and am enjoying being a part of a team again - this time as a Medical Receptionist/Administration Officer. 
A new challenge?? Tick!
All that means more time to spend doing the things that please my soul - reading, riding, cooking and being with Paul and the dogs.
Here are Toby and Darcy at Coningham Beach Tasmania enjoying a trot along the sand.

That Some Things Are Still Done the Old Fashioned Way

Oaten Hay Stack - Summerhill Farm Cambridge Tasmania - February 2012

The Joy of Cooking

I reckon I probably inherited my love of cooking from my mother....my 2 brothers and 2 sisters all love cooking too! And eating of course.  They are all great cooks. 
There is something wonderfully pleasing about preparing a meal from scratch and serving up and having it enjoyed by others.
Friends of ours who come to our place for dinner regularly say it is their favourite restaurant.
I grow almost all my own herbs too and just love going out to the garden, scissors in hand, picking the herbs and sticking them straight into whatever it is that I'm cooking.
Tonights dinner was a fish tagine - Trevalla with capers, cinnamon and cumin.  I put some preserved lemon in as well (home grown and home made) and served it with a couscous and chickpea salad - with toasted almond.  Paul really enjoyed it!  I thought it was OK....fish isn't my favourite really, but I will make some changes to the sauce next time to pick it up a bit....nothing like playing around with a recipe to suit your own tastes.
I'm grateful that I have the skills to cook (thanks Mum!); can eat fresh food everyday and can grow and use my own produce.
I am ever conscious that so many squillion people in the world don't have these luxuries.

Ahhh, the Bliss of Endorphins.

I joined a gym today.
I didn't mean to - I was only going to the hairdresser.
But whilst she had the clippers (yes, clippers!) to my hair, she told me about how much she was enjoying her time at a new gym she was going to.
Well one thing led to another and I joined, got on those scale things that pump out a whole lot of bad numbers - like body fat percentage - had my waist and hips measured (seriously, she read the figures out and I couldn't believe she was talking about me) and then did a quick warm up and circuit to show me the workings etc.
I left there feeling quite happy with myself.
Now all I have to do is stay motivated and see some of those figures go down week by week.
Endorphins are nature's wonder drug.
I'm grateful for them.

Soothing Sound of Rain on an Iron Roof

There is something quitessentialy Australian about the sound.
This afternoon a rather robust cold front came over after we have had days and days of lovely warm to hot weather....but the garden and fields were definitely starting to show for the heat without water.....so the heavens have opened up obligingly and we are now been well and truly soaked!! I feel blessed, thank you.

Getting Lost - In a Book!

I love reading.  I always have a book on the go.  I have rather eclectic tastes in books.  I have put up a list on the right hand side of the blog of the book that I am currently reading and the most recent past reads....
I love finding a book that takes you along with it.  My current read - The River of Doubt is doing just that.  I find I keep wanting to turn the page.  Who would have thought that a past President of the USA would be so interesting!
I am grateful for the ability and desire to read and to authors who write great books!