I was met at LAX by an old buddy from Australia who works in the film industry (of course).
John whisked me up the road in the truck (2.5 hours north in to the Sierras) to check out his cow ponies. He seems to think that polo ponies are a silly passing phase for me so was keen to show off real horse skills. I watched with great interest as he trained one of his horses with Russell Dilday, who was twice named Horseman of the Year, Russell had a lazy easy way with him that was totally charming and there was no doubting his skill with the horses as well. John was working night shoots but quite happy to facilitate with my search for culture daytime and insisted we visit
the Gene Autry Museum to which I acceded with some doubt. What a great
museum! Add it to your list of things to do in LA, their exhibition on How Women made the West was enthralling, informative and very hands on. Cudos to the designer who used corn husks and tin cans as wall
enhancements and hand embroidery on hessian as signage. We ventured down into the Wild West area - lot of wonderful examples of spurs and saddles, you know, but really it was interesting as they have the best of the best there. I had always been told that LA was made up of small villages and this time I saw first hand the
Shadow Hills area - specifically this is a horse suburb where standard house blocks have horses living in their backyards and only 10 minutes to Burbank. The whole area is linked with bridle paths
so the access to parklands and the public horse grounds is easy . I
watched with amazement as a Hollywood style blacksmith
arrived with a tinsel town truck to shoe the
pampered pedigrees. Then off to the Getty Museum, with its
severe architecture and throngs of interested folk wandering the exhibits. We were entranced to see the
Florentine drawings and wanted more of the extaordinary
documentary photographic exhibition and the spectacular
art of Gerome, quite a day. But there is nothing like stepping onto the late night Qantas flight home, ahhh. This is John's suburban tack room,
somewhat of a collector! and my favourite photo from the Getty
Sculpture Garden with the glowing bronze matching the sunlight glancing from the new shrub sprigs.
breakfast, as you can see I am all rugged up. Melbourne in the middle of winter is no-one's idea of fun so you have to have reasons, for me : 1. Visit my 97 year old grandfather, who although having regular hospital visits (everytime he goes in he says he's coming out feet first!), still lives at home in the company of his foxy 'Lily' Not a great pic of him as they took his teeth out and he's chatting to his sister on the mobile. 2. The invitation to be the honoured star guest for the opening night of Up Close an exhibition at the Heide Art Gallery and
Museum, which 
centres around 3 photographers one of whom took one of Australia's top iconic p
hotographs (Vale St., Carol Jerrems) with yours truly at its centre, albeit some years ago. 3. Pick up my 
mother for the trip to Bali to finally get some down time.
Seen here on Alphington Railway station (note Mexican Shopping Bag) and feeding her pet cocky on the balcony of the penthouse.
