Happy Christmas Everyone!

Well here it is, and I’m sure that you have all been waiting with baited breath for this newsy-Christmas greeting to arrive!  We both hope that you haven’t been sitting by the post box waiting for your paper version with illegible writing to arrive because I’m afraid, that once again, time has gotten away and it’s just too darn late to post it!!

So this is about as good as it gets! 

Pikey

Go get yourself a cuppa, a piece of Christmas Cake and sit back and enjoy!!  The gentleman up above of course is Pikey, dressed up as a Christmas elf… what can I say??   I had planned to get some photos of Evan and myself and the canines, equines… but, you guessed it – time has beaten me and you will have to wait and read the blog site after Christmas where I plan to put up some photos of us, the dogs, the horses etc etc.

Like everyone it seems, 2011 has been a very challenging year for us.  Evan had a life changing experience with June of this year by suffering a heart attack – not a serious one –  I mean he managed to get out of bed and feed the horses, cut wood, sort out the water to the horses before going to hospital …  but it certainly made us both stop and look at our lives to find out what was important and what we can do without.  It also showed the strengths of our many friendships and the love of the people around us – a simply amazing experience for both of us and one we will never forget.

Ruby

2011 was a year of finding my voice when it came to the travesty of Coal Seam Gas Mining in the Darling Downs of Queensland – Australia’s Food Bowl – mind you its not restricted to Queensland in any shape or form.  As a result, The Black Cockatoo Blog (and FB page)  was born  to communicate information to the people. It keeps me very busy …  as well as working locally as an Office Manager, looking after Crazy Horse Marketing clients and the Massie Lodge residents: leisure time is often sitting on the lounge with my trusted laptop … working!!    It was also a year of finding my passion for photography…finding the beauty in our surrounds and trying to capture it through the camera. Adding fuel to the fire was some success in a couple of shows…so that has also fuelled my love of picture taking.  I have come to the conclusion that if I could make a living out of taking photographs, I would be in heaven!

Evan continues to run Gallopers which has evolved from a bloodstock site into something completely different – a one stop website with all the racing information that you would ever need to follow the races. Gallopers also has an ever growing popular presence on FB. Evan’s knowledge of horse racing is outstanding and the “Gallopers Good Thing” is running at 50% winning strike-rate  this month.

Matilda

Evan continues to represent successful senior Jockey - Damien Robinson (based in South Australia) and Victorian Apprentice, Chris Pace – who is currently out of action injured.   Evan still gets up in the middle of the night to watch his beloved Liverpool FC – you know, there are something things that will never change!!

So, there you have it in a nutshell… we’re both hoping that 2012 will be a year of new endeavours and a year  of following our passions and hopefully making a living out of the things we love to do.  There will still be dogs and thoroughbreds – hopefully Jimmy is on his way to a comeback after injury and a very long spell and Harry will go out into the racing world and show us the potential that we think he might have. Remembering that there are never ever any givens when it comes to Thoroughbreds – that is one lesson that we both learnt very quickly when we moved to Massie Lodge.

Bessie Merle (minus Christmas getup!)

So, from Evan and I, we wish you all a very happy and family-filled Christmas Day and may 2012 be the year that realises all your dreams and wishes!