Mother Nature – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

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November is the most beautiful month in our garden. In a good Spring we can enjoy the wisteria, followed by the roses, the gardenias, agapanthus and then the hydrangeas – all interspersed with salvias and lavender, gaura and lupins. The grass is green and a perfect backdrop to the flower beds. We always say that all the hard work is worth it in November and if we’re lucky it will all still look great at Christmas. But we live in Australia so of course there is always SOMETHING that is going to come along and spoil it. We had our first bushfire of the season last weekend, a timely reminder that things can and do get out of hand pretty quickly especially if there hasn’t been much rain. Of course, we only got 5 inches of rain a month ago but it was all in one day and then the westerly winds came and dried it all out again! The sprinkler is doing its thing most days now and I have to hand water the flowers about 3 times a week to try and keep them happy. Probably not the best time for me to have planted a new baby hedge but hey ho that’s exactly what I did!

Just as things were all starting to bud and look gorgeous we awoke to a back yard that was a seething mass of caterpillars. Hundreds of thousands of them. The army worms had invaded us. An innocuous moth that only lives for 2 weeks yet somehow manages to lay up to 2000 eggs had inundated the dairy farm surrounding us and when the farmers noticed the first of the worms they immediately sprayed all the back paddocks as the army worm can eat a paddock clean in 24 hours if left to their own devices. A natural phenomena that can bankrupt a farmer, golf course, wedding venue, turf farm or anyone else dependent on their grass for an income. Spraying made the worms advance quick smart onto our property and onto our immediate neighbours and soon there wasn’t a square inch that wasn’t full of squirming caterpillars. Indiana Jones vibes in The Meadow. Soon they invaded the pool area and kamikazied into the pool, oozing bright green as they died, creating more stains to be dealt with. I was like a woman possessed stalking them with my spray bottle of soapy detergent water if they so much as dared veer off the lawn into the garden beds. Overnight they nestled in my soft velvety lambs ears and climbed up blades of grass looking for all the world like the teeny tiny stilt fisherman of Sri Lanka, swaying in the breeze as they efficiently gobbled up every blade of grass in a methodical manner. Army indeed.

Social media revealed that people were experiencing them in all the surrounding towns too but how much easier is it to “treat” them in a small garden. 2 acres all of a sudden seemed huge and unmanageable in view of the numbers invading us but as with all things in the natural world, they come and they go and after a week we were relatively free of them. Our back garden is a dry straw rather than grass but the rest of the property fared better and we still have our plants thank goodness. I had a tiny inkling what it must be like for farmers when they are just ready to harvest and a plague of locusts arrives and decimates the crop, that feeling of having no control and just hoping for the best. Hats off to them – between fires, floods, droughts and vermin it is a miracle that they manage to produce anything!

Mother Nature also delivered beauty in spades this week when the stars were aligned for a magnificent showing of the Southern Aurora. Two nights in a row we were treated to a spectacle of beautiful swirling colours in our night sky. Getting the timing right is hard…people were saying 2 or 3am was the time to expect the best results so on night one when I set my alarm and got up at 2am I was informed that the show had been and gone at around 11pm! Second night I ventured outside before bedtime around 10.30 and got a bit of green and purple – enough to make me feel awed but nothing like these (mostly pinky purple) pictures witnessed locally….the proper camera no doubt helps!

In more earthly pursuits we had a quick trip up to Sydney for Grandparents Day. This has become an annual affair everywhere with Grandparents whizzing all around the country to be there for their little Grandies, not a parent in sight and a very sweet afternoon. They ‘performed’ a few songs, we ate yummy sandwiches and fairy bread, visited their classrooms where Ollie proudly showed us all his favourite things to play with and where he puts his bag etc. It was lovely as we obviously don’t see him there on a day to day basis and now we feel a bit more connected. He had the most grandparents there on the day I think, with all 5 of us turning up for the event! How cute is his little face grinning out of the group like a meerkat….!

We also enjoyed an outdoor concert at the Berry Showground in October when the Red Hot Summer Tour came to town headlining Crowded House who we have loved for years and have never seen live. Luckily it was neither 35 degrees or pouring rain (both of which it has been in the past for these events!) and we enjoyed an eight hour concert with some great bands, culminating in Neil Finn and the boys putting on a terrific finale with all our old favourites plus a couple of new songs. The whole showground was packed out and I think we are very lucky that such well known artists are happy to come to small rural communities like ours to perform and spread the love. Great to not always have to drive to Sydney for everything….

So here we are, roughly a month until Christmas and this year will be special with the whole gang being together (even our London boy is making the trip home) for the festivities in The Meadow. Apart from the gifts and the decorations we have to upgrade our sleeping arrangements this year as all our littlies are growing fast and all need their own beds! The days of plonking a mobile cot in a corner somewhere are over so I’m off this week to buy an extra few mattresses and bedding so they can all be comfy! Christmas this year will be a week of noise and chaos but also of love and family memories made. Bing Crosby or Michael Bublé, Champagne or eggnog, Xmas pudding or pavlova, however you celebrate it I hope you enjoy every moment. Bring. It. On.

Spring in The Meadow

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Well, the wisteria has come and gone in the big winds and now it’s the turn of the roses and the jacarandas to have their star turn in the garden. The hydrangeas and agapanthus are not far behind, there is a baby calf in the next paddock and the flies are back so I can affirm that Spring is definitely here. As the days oscillate between being 35 degrees and horribly hot to 20 degrees and quite cool we are already watering the garden and anticipating a hot dry summer. Everyone tells you to mulch to protect the plants but they forget to tell you that it might blow away in 80km winds and there is also a real and present danger in the form of our 4 chooks who LOVE to create hollows in the dusty earth to roll around in and they have a total disregard for my plants old or new, each morning reveals yet another area they have snapped off or dug up – and all for one lousy egg a day! They have been warned……………….

We have had a busy month enjoying a 10 day visit from the Tassie Girls which was lovely and went far too quickly. We packed in as many things as we could, a trip to the zoo in Sydney, trips to Huskisson, Kangaroo Valley and LOTS of art and craft. They helped Papa with the chooks, took Bailey to the park to throw balls, had morning tea in Berry and made wigwams on the beach at Shoalhaven Heads.

One of the best days was when Sam brought the boys down and the cousins had a fantastic catch up. It only happens maybe once every couple of years due to living in different States so it was lovely that they took straight back up where they left off about 18 months ago and had great fun on the Slip’n Slide on a hot weekend, enjoyed the monthly markets at Berry showground where they decided as a group to spend their $5 each on a slushy – the 1st one the girls had ever had! Pizza night went down a treat and the next day we celebrated Fathers Day with a ride at the Penwood miniature railway – a childish simple activity we could all enjoy together…they will all be reunited at Christmas for more fun in the sun.

The Crazy Cameron Clan!!

Luckily the MOTH was starting to feel a lot better by this time and was finally eating more normally. An FMT was booked in for the 22nd September and there was finally light at the end of the tunnel which made us both feel very positive. We are so lucky to live in a time and a place where we are offered the latest treatments and technologies (even if you do have to pay for them – the government is always very cautious to embrace ‘new’ treatments so until thousands of successes are recorded, they won’t cover them with Medicare!) A month later he is feeling good and has resumed real life and is currently on a golf trip with 7 of his mates in Hobart – something he could only dream of doing 4 months ago!

We are currently in the middle of Pink Up Berry month where our little town literally paints itself pink in aid of breast cancer. People decorate with pink bunting and pompoms, the crochet ladies are in full throttle decorating trees, seats and any inanimate object they can find! The whole town has a very bright and happy feel and there are SO many initiatives amongst the shop owners and locals to raise as much as we can especially as everyone seems to know someone who has been impacted by this disease. The cafés get on board with pink drinks and pink cupcakes, there is a trivia night and a barefoot bowling day where everyone dresses in pink and the annual race day at The Archer Racecourse donates their gate takings to the cause. This is how they have raised around $200,000 over the past few years, all in conjunction with The McGrath Foundation. For a tiny town we certainly do punch above our weight!

This month also brought us The Berry Garden Festival where 7 local gardens were open to visitors. From town cottages to rural properties, you can wander the gardens while enjoying workshops, refreshments, plant sales, and garden wares vendors. All proceeds from ticket sales are donated to charities in the local area and the town is heaving with people who for a mere $25 can have ‘a bit of a nosey’ at some of the houses and properties we may pass by on a daily basis and wonder what they look like on the inside! It was a great day with three girlfriends, and we saw something we liked at every garden. The last house was just a few kms from Two Figs Winery where we enjoyed an hour of wine tasting before heading home full of fresh ideas and inspiration!

Having been a bit confined at home due to a sore back I have been getting into some Spring Cleaning. Owning a house that is 129 years old means there are plenty of little nooks and crannies that need attending to and as we live on a dirt road and like to throw our doors and windows open there is NO shortage of dust as you can imagine, especially with all the recent winds that seem to blow all sorts of debris under our sash windows, so the time was ripe! It has been quite empowering as I gradually work my way through various rooms and corners where things had initially been placed for just a day or two and ended up still there months later! A throw out and a clean up and the place is starting to shine again. Although I am definitely not a minimalist I do like things not being cluttered and this is just the beginning! We have a whole loft full of old bits of furniture, a plethora of baby things no longer required and a whole load of pots, wire and broken bricks that seem to have taken up residence in a corner of the garden so a skip is really the order of the day – another addition to “the list” of things needing to be done.

It has been nice to create some order in what has otherwise been a rather chaotic time in the world order. The whole world seems to be either protesting or advocating for change, every weekend opposing armies of people walk through the streets here and throughout the world and you get a real sense of unrest. As my son likes to say, you can only control the controllable Mum, so as I seem to have a foot in several camps and I just end up feeling confused, I am choosing to “sit in the stillness” as I get very caught up in all the stories and end up feeling anxious! Stillness for me can be found on the veranda with a book and a cuppa or weeding and watering the veggie patch, walking the dog in the surrounding countryside, dead heading the roses or cooking up a storm on a rainy day listening to Andrea Bocelli and as the future is unwritten I am choosing not to overthink the things I cannot control. These sayings remind me of what I can ACTUALLY do ….


Back to reality….

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Let’s hope this perfect rainbow is signalling an end to the past few months of health worries for the MOTH. His new knee is fabulous, you can hardly even see the scar and it is doing everything it is supposed to do. The infection he picked up in hospital however has NOT gone away and has really become a huge nuisance. He has lost 15 kgs as nothing is being absorbed properly and he was getting to the stage that he felt he couldn’t go anywhere or do anything and he lost his joie de vivre for the first time since I’ve known him. Luckily one of the local pharmacists recommended a Naturopath in Wollongong who could look a bit more holistically at his situation and hopefully come up with an alternative to regular medicine, which could only seem to prescribe antibiotics which is how the whole thing started! To say the visit was enlightening was an understatement, and he immediately began on some targeted supplements to calm his gut. Together with a stringent diet that restricted all fermented foods and histamine rich foods he feels he is starting to turn a corner but a follow up test in about a week will determine whether or not the CDiff has actually left the building or not. If not, there is a plan B lurking in the shadows so we have everything crossed that one or other of the ‘plans’ will get rid of it once and for all and normal life can resume!

At the very same time that we started our very restricted diet our son started a pie business! We managed to get three of his pies into us before we started the new regime and they were delicious! He has always loved cooking (we all do in this family with the possible exception of Cammo who only does bbq’s!) and in a break in between jobs he has started cooking them to stay busy and make some money. 15 years ago we had a Harry’s Cafe de Wheels pie van in Newcastle and this family are all great lovers of a good pie so we were excited to try his beef ragout, chicken leek bacon and mushroom pie as well as the butter chicken pie – all seriously good! Our Pie Man can be found on instagram as @thepiman1 and on his website the-pie-man.square.site/ if anyone fancies all the enjoyment of a delicious pie with none of the work!

My best friend has had a weekender in Kangaroo Valley for over a decade but with retirement imminent she and her hubby have pressed the button on a big renovation to make it the perfect place to live all year round. Somehow despite being here a lot more than normal to oversee the build we have hardly been able to organise any catchups, but everything came together a couple of weeks ago when we met up at Silos Estate near Berry for a girl’s lunch with our mutual friend Kirsten. It was good to remind ourselves of the reasons we moved down to this beautiful part of the world, to forget about the weeding and the to do list for a couple of hours and just enjoy ourselves! A new chef has made it a great place to visit once more and we had a perfect winters day to sit out overlooking the beautiful view…..

The following day the little boys arrived for the weekend and somehow we got lucky with the weather (which had been very wet) and scored a dry, non windy warmish weekend! We had fun at the skate park and with a stone painting kit before dusk fell and we could light our bonfire! The boys were super excited to sit around the fire and once it had died down enough to find the perfect stick to roast their marshmallows! Some stories around the fire before bed made for a perfect end to the day.

The next day was deemed suitable for fishing! Uncle Tom had bought the kids fishing rods for Xmas so off we drove to Shoalhaven Heads and the pier to drop a line or two and try our luck. They enjoyed it despite no fish being caught and it was lovely to see the three generations of Cameron men together in such a wholesome pursuit!! Patience isn’t their strong suit but they gave it a red hot go!

Our 4 chickens are apparently on strike. They too are opposed to the constant rain and corresponding wetness underfoot. Mud is the name of the game on any well frequented path, doggy footprints (and the odd rabbit ones too) make patterns on our back deck, towels are in high rotation for drying off Bailey when she finally begrudgingly has to go outside for a wee. She sticks her nose tentatively outside and then looks back at me as if to say “you’ve got to be kidding Mum!!” We take turns in squelching across the lawn to let the chooks out and then shut them back up again at night. They are often looking rather bedraggled as they are happy to peck about outside as the upside of the rain is that they have a plethora of worms to feast on, but still there are no eggs! Our gardeners who have lots of chooks saved the day by gifting us a dozen last week and they looked so pretty in the carton with all the different coloured shells – I love how different breeds produce different coloured eggs and I look forward to when eggs on toast are back on the menu for us so we can use them – thank you Ethan and Sage.

Coolangatta

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For those of you that live overseas you probably don’t ever think about Australia being anything other than warm and sunny, but let me assure you we DEFINITELY get a winter here! Not the kind of really low temperatures that the Northern hemisphere gets but it’s all proportionate to what you’re used to right? Also, our houses are not made for the cold weather – they are more about keeping us cool in the long summers – so unless you have reverse cycle air conditioning or preferably a wood burning stove, you are going to feel the chill. I remember when our kids were little and we had a rather cavernous lounge with one tiny gas heater that we would all huddle around, how cold I always felt. We did have a wood fire but it took ages to get going and wood was expensive so it was always more of a treat when we used that. So mostly we tend to heat just one main room and then pop our electric blankets on about half an hour before bedtime so that we can slip into a warm cocoon and fall promptly asleep! The further south people live the harsher the winter and the desire to escape it becomes stronger! Increasingly people in Australia are travelling to escape the cold and whether that is to the northern hemisphere with its promise of European summers languishing on the terraces of Italy amongst potted lemon trees, Aperol spritz in hand, sailing the azure waters of Croatia or heading to Queensland, the perpetually sunny state, to feel the sun on your skin and enjoy an ice cream on the beach, people are attempting to break up the cold weather with a Winter Escape. Nobody feels this more than Tasmanians who endure a decidedly much colder winter than the rest of us (they are the last stop before Antarctica after all) so rather than visiting our Tassie Crew in Hobart we all decided to have a week on the Gold Coast instead!

Its an 11 hour drive from our place to the Gold Coast so we are very lucky that our good friends Wayne and Kathy live in Forster exactly half way up and they very kindly offered to mind Bailey for us while we were up north. They are dog people and miss their lovely old dog Gus, so they were happy to have her and as they live on the beach and walk every day Bailey was also in for a treat – her own little beachside holiday! She was very cosy tucked into her bed on the back seat on the drive up and for once when I waved her off I didn’t feel guilty leaving her behind! We arrived in Coolangatta in time for a beautiful sunset, a glass of wine at the surf club just opposite our apartment and got everything set up for the family just in time for their late evening arrival. There was much excitement when they arrived, exploring all the rooms and checking out our holiday food in the pantry! By the time we woke in the morning watching the little dots of surfers bobbing in the water on the beach opposite we were already feeling relaxed.

Papa is always very sought after when we get together, they just love being with him with his off beat sense of humour (and his many little packets of jelly snakes and smarties!) and it warms my heart when I see them snuggled up with him in bed or on the lounge or hand in hand as they walk along chatting gaily, seemingly without a care in the world. I love seeing the world through the kid’s eyes, their excitement for the simple things and with no idea what sort of world exists outside of their beautiful little bubble. It’s very soothing and we absolutely love being part of their childhood holiday memories.

Loz and Berry have some friends that lived about 15 minutes away rfom our apartment and their little girl was 3 so they quickly became a little girl gang and as her Dad was an avid surfer he lent Loz a surfboard to enjoy for a morning. It was great to see her introducing the girls to the surf and seeing them all hand in hand jumping over the waves. Myla was determined to ride a wave into shore and she gave it a good go! Loz managed to show them how it was done standing up on the waves long enough for the girls to be impressed!!

It wasn’t all about the beach though, we enjoyed some long walks, an afternoon of barefoot bowling and a visit from our Nephew and family who live further up the coast. It was great to see them and for them to reconnect with Loz and the girls and for us to see our great Nephew growing up into such a nice young man. The girls were mesmerised by a bag of Polly Pockets that I had saved of Laurens from when she was a little girl and happily played for ages with them, buying us some nice adult time – win win!!

Part of the fun of holidays is eating out and obviously the surf clubs are the easiest option around here but we did get a bit over their rather humdrum menus and found family friendly restaurants a bit slim on the ground too. The girls however just thought dinner time was the best thing – getting dressed up and walking to dinner, having different food from normal and if they were lucky an icecream to enjoy on the walk home. Once they were in bed, drinks and card games were the order of the day for the adults and of course our favourite – the quiz from The Australian newspaper which we always do when we get together! The boys had their sport to watch, the girls had their books to read and it was a lovely restful week. Nothing beats reconnecting in a neutral place where no one feels they have to be on duty, worrying about menus or laundry or entertaining people – a break is ALWAYS a good idea!

So our last day came around rather too quickly for our liking, we were just getting into the groove when it was time to pack up and go. They had time before their plane to visit the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary which finished off their little holiday perfectly and they took off back to Hobart, reality and WINTER! A few more memories in the bank though and we loved it. Apparently the strongest memories of childhood come from the odd week of holidays taken between the ages of 5 and 12 so I’m hoping we will live on in their memories long after we are gone….

Cam and I were lucky though as we got to prolong our holiday feeling by driving back to Forster for a few nights. Baz swims in the ocean every morning with a group of people and it was so lovely to walk Bailey along the beach watching the pods of dolphins swimming oh so close to them and then enjoying a coffee and bacon and egg roll on the beach once they finished. The beach life is certainly appealing. Daily walks, lovely dinners , a couple of catch ups with local friends at the One Mile Surf Club and reading our books in the afternoon sun made for a relaxing few days before we could no longer delay our return to The Meadow. To be honest I wasn’t sure about returning to reality after such a wonderful 6 weeks of various holidays – what a lucky girl am!


Touring with Tom

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After my lovely two weeks with the girls I bid them a fond farewell and headed into West London and Notting Hill to meet up with Tom. He moved to London last September and I was itching to see him and where he lived and to spend a few days with him showing me HIS places and me showing him where I lived and worked over 40 years ago! It was perfect as we both knew a few places that the other would enjoy so our road trip came together easily. Firstly though – Notting Hill! I LOVED it right from the first moment. It was a beautiful sunny day and the famous coloured houses just popped against a bright blue sky. Portobello Road was setting up its stalls for the coming weekend and there was a pleasant buzz of people enjoying the summer weather and eating alfresco in the many eateries that lined the local streets. The rows of high end white elegant Victorian townhouses were pleasing to the eye (many with their EV vehicles charging in the street or front garden – they were literally everywhere!) and the whole suburb was thriving. It became famous after the 1999 film but even when I was a teenager I remember catching a coach up to London to go to the Portobello Road markets to buy a leather coat which was a big fashion statement in 1976 and thinking how cosmopolitan it was even back then. Fast forward 50 years and you can imagine how the mix of cultures, music and food has made it one of the most enjoyable places to live. Needless to say it comes with a price tag but you can live the dream in an (expensive) rental at least! Tom loves it – with its proximity to Kensington Gardens for a bit of green space and a direct tube ride into the City of London where he works. I stayed at The Premier Inn, about a ten minute walk from Tom and I spent the afternoon wandering around exploring, I felt at home there within hours and when we met up at 5pm he took me on a mini pub crawl of all his favourite places. Of course they all knew him by name which I hope is due as much to his friendly nature as his drinking habits! The weather was gorgeous and as it is so temperamental in the UK most of the time, when it IS nice everyone really makes the most of it and we were all vying for a coveted outdoor table! To top off our night we ate at a superb Japanese restaurant and caught up on the last 10 months since he left Sydney. One happy Mummy.

After a rather fraught start to the day when the car rental place didn’t accept Tom’s digital license and I had to do it all instead, we finally set off for our first destination – Bath. I have spent quite a bit of time here over the years and have always loved it. What’s not to love? The Georgian architecture and the town built around the River Avon is very picturesque and on a 32 degree day we were happy to arrive at 3pm and enjoy Aperol’s on the banks of the river in the shade of Pulteney Bridge after a 3 hour drive. Our little hotel room was 300 years old and on the top floor of a pub with the NARROWEST set of stairs I’ve ever seen, we could barely fit on them and had to carry our cases ahead or behind! No lifts of course!

It was in a great position though with a short walk to just about everything and we enjoyed exploring the town before dinner in a bustling square full of happy weekend people! Bath Rugby had won the Premiership just two weeks before our visit and Tom is thinking of coming again next year with some mates on the train to enjoy the footy as well as the town. It is famous of course for its Roman Baths which are a disturbing shade of green but nowadays you can also enjoy the same warm mineral rich waters up on the roof overlooking the city. It wasn’t what we fancied doing on such a hot day but my sister did it in winter overlooking a city laden with snow and said it was quite magical.


After a morning coffee in the Square we set off for our second night’s destination – Bourton on the Water. We have been watching Jeremy Clarkson’s Farm on TV and as his new pub was en route we thought we’d play tourist and stop off for a look. Apparently several hundred other people had had the same idea (it was a Saturday) so we felt more like we were attending a festival than a country pub as we were directed into an adjoining field with parking attendants complete with orange batons overseeing our parking to squeeze in as many people as possible. I felt like a lemming about to follow the others off a cliff as we wound our way through the field and across the road to the Farmer’s Dog where there were several more queues of various lengths depending on if you had a reservation or not. Blow-ins like Tom and I had no chance of getting into the pub so we made do with the adjoining paddock surrounding the Farm Shop. The queue for the shop itself was insane but the bar serving beer and cider was ok so we enjoyed a couple of those whilst people watching. They had it very well set up with tables, chairs and brollies as well as country games like toss the horseshoe etc and some piped music giving it a nice ambience. Again we were lucky with the weather as if it had been bad we would have had no chance getting into the pub. Nice work Jeremy….


Tom knew about Daylesford Organic because he had visited with his friends when he spent Christmas in The Cotswolds. It was like a beacon of loveliness in the middle of nowhere and well worth the stop. We had a delicious lunch, lusted after homewares and gorgeous food products – tomatoes from the Isle of Wight, local asparagus and flowers, small goods from local providores, amazing cheeses, wines and more to choose from if you had the money and the ability to store it all! Locals must be thankful to have something like this nearby and it was worth negotiating the odd tractor in the narrow roads to visit!

Nothing really prepared us for our arrival in Bourton though. The entire place was teeming with people and our overnight lodgings was bang smack in the middle of it all! Tom dropped me and went off to discover a park on the outskirts of town (thank goodness for overnight parking rates!) and I discovered that the hotel had allocated us a double room instead of a twin! The poor girl on duty nearly had a heart attack when I told her but she was brilliant and unzipped the adjoining beds and remade them in a jiffy despite the heat and the huge queue of people downstairs wanting to eat in their restaurant. The overtourism was so apparent and quite overwhelming for all concerned. It wasn’t until after 8pm that the hordes departed and the little town became what I remembered from the early 80s! Obviously we are tourists too but I am concerned about the huge families that visited but brought their own food and drinks and did little to contribute to the town’s income – just literally swamped it until it was time to take the kids home…very sad ….


Luckily once everyone went home we had a delightful walk around the town and equally the next day really enjoyed it’s true colours until the coaches started to arrive circa 10am….then it was time to move on! En route we swung by what used to be Barnsley House when I lived there, a National Trust House and Garden which I drove past daily but never went in to. Tom had heard it was now owned by the Pig Hotel Group and came highly recommended. As it was Sunday lunchtime we weren’t hopeful of lunch without a reservation but we got lucky! A table for two outside overlooking those beautiful gardens and we timed it perfectly as a light shower started just as we finished our meal. Armed with the hotel’s brollies we explored the gardens and the humungous veggie patch, gleaning ideas for The Meadow as we went! A wonderful few hours indeed….

Today’s destination was Bibury – a very small village that has become incredibly popular with visitors. However our reason for visiting was that I had lived and worked there in 1978 as a receptionist at The Swan Hotel. I absolutely loved both the place and the job and back then it was a popular destination but pre social media it was just literally a word of mouth thing and apart from having a booked out restaurant for Sunday Lunch each week it had a laid back feel and a gentility that I felt was lacking this time around. Our beautiful restaurant that used to be full of well dressed people laughing and the tinkling of glasses and cutlery on beautiful crockery is now only used for coach tours which made me really sad. The hotel restaurant is now more of a bistro and although we enjoyed a well cooked meal there it wasn’t what I had wanted to show Tom. Times move on unfortunately. Our room was gorgeous and comfortable with a huge bathroom with wall panels and beautiful toiletries, a piece of the past that they have kept thankfully. I’m glad I got to share it with him but I think that maybe that was the last time I will visit. I enjoyed an early morning walk before the tourists arrived and saw Arlington Row, a tiny higgly piggly line of houses built in the 14th century and renovated in the 17th century and still lived in today. Tom was flabbergasted at the amount of people taking photos of what he deemed to be nothing special! Apparently William Morris declared it the most beautiful village in England back in the day and people still come in droves to see it. Again we were lucky to see it outside of the regular coach/tourist hours. I do feel really sorry for those people that live there all year round, parking is a nightmare in such a tiny town and people are very intrusive taking photos of literally everything!

So back to London we went, stopping off in Oxford for a couple of hours to look around. Tom’s flatmate studied at Oxford Uni and Tom was keen to see where Connor had spent his time. It is the oldest university in the English speaking world and the sense of history and knowledge just emanates from these gorgeous buildings as you would imagine. They are beautiful golden stone, built around a quadrangle 9 times out of ten and the town is built around the different colleges with loads of pubs and cafes, and people riding bicycles everywhere – students of all ages enjoying all that this beautiful city has to offer.

Back in London we dropped the car off and separated to pack/organise ourselves after our week away. I finally got to see Tom’s flat and meet Connor and now I can fully imagine him in his everyday life which is comforting. Our last evening was terrific with a pre dinner drink (prink!) at The Pelican before joining the queue at Canteen – a no bookings, flavour driven Italian restaurant run by two ex River Cafe chefs on Portobello Road. The menu changes daily and is full of delicious, well executed dishes. We snagged some stools at the kitchen bar and it was great to see the chefs in action. The hype of this place means queues are often down the road but it’s definitely worth it – one of the nicest Italian meals in recent history for me!

We had a last walk back to my hotel together before we said goodbye and Tom hopped onto a lime bike to get home. Six months before we are reunited at Christmas in The Meadow but a week of memories we wont forget….

My last day in London was a long one as I didn’t fly until 9pm so I literally walked EVERYWHERE! 27000 steps as it turned out! First was Kensington Gardens for a coffee and croissant before exploring the park, then a long walk to Holland Park and millionaires’ row to check out where David and Victoria Beckham live (very nice indeed) and a trip to the ‘supermarket of dreams’ (real name) in the main strip of Holland Park – you can just imagine the delicious produce they sell and the calibre of the locals that buy them! Back to Notting Hill for a lunch on the pavement watching the world go by before winding my way back to the hotel to change for the long journey home. Thankfully Tom had given me a lounge pass so the last few hours were spent in relative comfort with free food and wine at Heathrow which meant I pretty much could go straight to sleep once the plane took off. No horrible delays on the way home and before I knew it I was freezing on a train platform at 6am in Wolli Creek!!!! Back to reality I go folks…..

Goodbye England….until next year!!

UK with the gals

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We all know it’s a long flight to London, even longer when you have a 2 hour train journey prior to even arriving at the airport, so it’s very annoying when you start taxiing (finally leaving five hours since you left home) and everything comes to a grinding halt. Apparently one of the brakes failed and we had to return to the gate but as we had already cleared customs we had to stay in the plane. They jacked up the plane and busied about, only to discover something else was wrong that they had to replace. They gave out water and cheese and biscuits (but unfortunately couldn’t serve any alcohol) and I felt for all the poor parents of little babies who had all their best laid plans of feeding times etc thrown out of the window! 3.5 hours later we took off – a great start to what was already a long journey! Once I got to London I had to whizz across town to Paddington to catch a train to Wales (another 2.5 hours) until I finally collapsed into the arms of my Mum and Sister waiting for me on the platform. Of course it was all worth it once I was with them but I always forget what a mammoth journey it is for me door to door until I actually do it again!

I had a few days to adjust before we headed off on our little side holiday to Jersey. I caught up with my lovely Niece, had some great food, walked every day with my sister and watched on rather horrified at an unexpected escalation of things in the Middle East. You feel a lot closer to everything in the northern hemisphere – our usual life “at the other end of the earth” seemingly elusive and very far away. Needless to say we adopted a very British attitude to the whole thing and decided the only way was to carry on as usual and enjoy our holiday together!

A quick 45 minute flight (on a rather scary small prop plane) took us from Bristol to Jersey in the Channel Islands – a small 9 x5 mile island located between Cornwall and France and sharing traits of both. Within an hour of landing we were settled into our beautiful Somerville Hotel and had made it onto the terrace for a late lunch of prawn sandwiches and French rosé in the sunshine – all overlooking the turquoise water of St Aubin harbour. Any thoughts of war and danger immediately disappeared as we soaked up the atmosphere and congratulated ourselves on making such a good decision to visit Jersey!

The hotel had an air of faded grandeur, from a gentler age and was positioned to capture the view mid way up a steep hill. Mum was a real trouper, stoically attacking the hill several times a day despite being nearly 89 and we thanked the powers that be every day for the little sandstone wall that we could perch on half way up until we got our breath back! The staff were so lovely – mostly from South Africa – and so smiley and friendly. Nothing was too hard and they somehow magically appeared just when you fancied a drink or needed some advice! Some guests just bunkered down with a book by the pool but we wanted to explore the island. This was made very easy by an amazing bus service. There were just 4 routes and they seemed to stop every 10 minutes or so to whisk you off to all the local sites. ‘Le petit train’ pootled along the pavement from St Aubin to the capital, St Hellier, with an accompanying audio telling us the history and folklore as we passed by. A plethora of restaurants, cafes and wine bars made eating out a dream and our days passed in a whirlwind of loveliness!

What had attracted me to Jersey was the fact one of Laurens very best friends from Hong Kong days came from Jersey and she had always talked so passionately about her upbringing there and she planted a seed with me to go there one day as it was so close to the UK. The Somerville Hotel was her suggestion and her delightful parents came and picked us up and drove us on a guided tour around the entire island. They were 4th generation Islanders and their stories were so interesting. Jersey was occupied during WW2 – the only part of Britain that was – so this is a big part of Jersey’s history and a fascinating visit to the war tunnels proved a great day out.

Nicky and Gerry showed us lots of the various structures used in the war and after our circumnavigation of the island we had a delicious seafood lunch under the watchful eye of Gorey Castle before returning to their beautiful home in La Rocque for a tour and some bubbles! They were very generous with their time and we very much appreciated their local input. I’m hoping they come out to Australia sometime so I can return the favour!

After visits to St Brelades Bay, La Corbiere with its lighthouse, shopping in St Hellier (Mum found her special emerald ring that she had been searching for) and walking Mum up hill and down dale our time in Jersey came to an end. Jersey definitely punches above it’s weight with beautiful sandy beaches, great food and warm weather all contributing to our wonderful time there. Happy chappies all round!

The second part of our time together was special in a different way. My Grandmother was killed in a car accident in 1940 when my Mum was just 4 and as you can imagine it caused a lot of sadness, chaos and upheaval for her (especially as it was in the war with all its additional unknowns) and she never remembers anyone really explaining it all to her. She was sent off to her Grandparents in Cornwall for a year or two and when she came back her Dad had met and married again so the subject was never really raised again. Over the years it niggled at Mum’s mind – wondering who she was and what had really happened that fateful night. Fast forward 84 years, my sister met a friend of a friend who was one of the investigators on the program ‘Who do you think you are’ – a program where genealogists investigate stories just like Mums. She agreed to privately look into Mum’s story and as a result at Christmas Sandy was able to present Mum with a beautifully curated history of her family tree and the story behind the accident all accompanied by the original various certificates authenticating the story. After 84 years she finally knew what had happened. As a result we decided to go on a trip down memory lane when I visited this year. A trip to London, where we followed the story from my Grandma’s Christening, to where Mum grew up and joined her Church Youth Group (who she is still in touch with today) to the pub where Dad had a drink of courage before marrying Mum and the church where they tied the knot and finally to the cemetery where Grandma’s ashes had been scattered all those years ago. SUCH an emotional day and a real sense of closure finally as we laid flowers accompanied by notes to our Mum/Grandma in the Garden of Remembrance. Needless to say there were tears and hugs all round, our Grandma is no longer forgotten and Mum finally has some answers and some peace in the wake of her loss. Best present ever Sandy xx

So our girls trip came to an end and so much fun had been had. From experiencing new horizons in Jersey to walking the local beach to playing games after dinner EVERYWHERE to catching up with family and FINDING family, we had the best couple of weeks together and I am so very grateful that I get to see them despite living so very far away…

Next year sees Mum celebrating her 90th in Australia! Cannot wait for the next adventure girls xxxx

Normal Life Resumes….

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After a challenging couple of months (and a 2nd bout of the infamous C Diff) things are on the improve. The MOTH is walking really well after his knee replacement and even managed to kneel down the other day to fix something in the pool – a task I thought would be impossible – so he is feeling pretty good and is finally starting to resume normal life. He has lost 10kgs (and discovered a whole new wardrobe) but finally has his appetite back so who knows how long that new wardrobe will actually fit him! I now feel that I can happily get on the plane to the UK on Tuesday knowing he is in good hands here with his team of doctor, pharmacy and friends all there for him if things go off the rails again. He would have to be really unlucky to get a 3rd bout of C Diff but he knows what he is dealing with now at least and can recognise the early signs and get straight on to it.

I took the Choccy Drop along the beach today for a last walk before I leave. It is her very favourite place to be (apart from in front of the fire on a cold night) and we had a lovely time watching the big seas and checking out all the driftwood, sea plants and shells that they have brought onto the beach, it was especially nice walking in the sunshine after a couple of weeks of rain and wind. 21 degrees here today which isn’t bad for the start of winter and probably warmer than it is going to be in the UK next week in their summer! It’s always lovely to go back home though, no matter what the weather, but this time we are incorporating a side trip to Jersey in the Channel Islands into our itinerary and it would be fantastic if we had good weather there – eating outdoors is an essential part of a summer holiday if at all possible!

Driving to the beach this morning I felt like I was in a painting. The cows were shrouded in a light mist that hung over the fields, some baby calves lying at their Mums feet in the morning sunshine. The Shoalhaven River was like a huge silk ribbon with not a breath of wind to send ripples across it – just a perfect reflection of the trees and a few boats bobbing on it’s surface. The trees are still showing the last of the Autumn leaves, copper, orange and red, and they line either side of the road as I drive through them – an arched tunnel of vibrant colour that made me feel especially happy to be alive! Autumn is a beautiful season around here.

We had a lovely few nights away last week with 3 other couples in beautiful Bowral. This is a town in the Southern Highlands about an hour inland from here and it is as close to being in England as you can get especially at this time of year. The cold climate means dressing up in all our warm clothes and having a wood fire going 24/7 whilst eating yummy food and enjoying some big reds. We had a great few days with lots of laughs and quizzes and card games. We had a lunch in one of my favourite little places – Harrys on The Green where you feel as if you are in someone’s home. The walls are lined with books and plants and the room has chandeliers and an open fire, a perfect spot to enjoy a lovely little menu and a wine or two before braving the outdoors (it poured that day!) It is attached to Dirty Janes with all its treasures and perfect for a snoop about and perhaps a purchase of that one thing you didn’t know you needed??

We enjoyed a lovely lunch at The Briars on our last day, it’s a bit of an institution and I remember coming down from Sydney in the old days for lunch here in winter and it’s still great!

Old friends are certainly a perfect tonic and was just what the doctor ordered for our patient. We did remark that the recycling bin was far less full than when we normally go away, not sure if that is a sign we are all getting older and more sensible or that the MOTH and his reduced drinking has perhaps influenced the rest of us?

I spent one of the mornings with an old friend from Sydney that I haven’t seen in about 25 years. It was a miracle that we ever reconnected, but a couple of years ago I was enjoying reading an article in Home Beautiful featuring a gorgeous home in Bowral and there she was – my friend Judy and husband Mike – looking exactly the same and sharing their new home with us all! Luckily I was connected with her son via Instagram and he gave me her phone number and so finally as we were in the same town at the same time we managed to catch up! It was seriously as if we had seen each other just last week – we picked straight up where we left off all those years ago and it was lovely.

Yesterday saw 16 of us venture up the mountain to enjoy a wonderful lunch at Mount Ashby Estate – a winery with a lovely restaurant in a beautiful setting. The day couldn’t have been more perfect with bright blue skies, sunshine and just a nice little crispness in the air to mark the first day of winter. We feel so lucky to have been recent inclusions in this group of fun people – met through golf – that are mostly all in a similar phase and stage of life. We have kids roughly the same age, properties roughly the same size and have nearly all come from Sydney in the past 10 years! This means we have a commonality and shared experiences which cannot be underestimated. A few of the group are particularly gifted with organisation which means there is a rare week that there isn’t something on – trivia or happy hour at the pub, a gathering to watch a footy game at someone’s house or an all in lunch or dinner like yesterday. It makes all the difference to life in the country where it’s easy to become isolated if you live out of town. It’s also good for me to know they are here keeping an eye on the MOTH while I’m away. So as you can see, after 2 months of being on the medical treadmill we have come out the other side and are enjoying life again – hallelujah!!

A Medical Month

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As I write I am surrounded by the detritus associated with recovering from a knee replacement. Crutches are propped within grasping distance, a table is wedged against the lounge with tv controls, water, mobile phone and tissues. The lounge has warm rugs and pillows of varying sizes for maximum comfort whilst watching TV, reading or snoozing. A large icepack is on constant rotation on the knee or in the freezer and the packets of various drugs are ready to portion out at the allotted time. The knee itself is doing great – very early days the MOTH was walking without help, off all painkillers and able to bend past 90 degrees and also press it flat to the floor. He was ahead in rehab and felt pleasantly smug at his quick recovery – something he had actively aimed for prior to the op by cycling and doing strength exercises for his legs. All in all we were very happy with his recovery. Until last week when things went downhill.

The culprit was not his knee but his colon! Whilst in the hospital getting his knee done he was put onto antibiotics which have triggered a rather aggressive case of C Diff (C. Difficile Colitis) which made him extremely unwell with pancolitis. Things deteriorated necessitating a trip to the Emergency Department which lasted 36 hours. The staff were amazing. The fact it was a holiday weekend made things somewhat tricky with a full waiting room and an overload of ambulances offloading people and therefore a very full ED. It was the most enlightening 36 hours I’ve had in recent history and I have a newfound appreciation for our medical staff and all that they have to put up with. They approached everything with calmness and kindness and, where possible, some humour. Our boy was severely dehydrated so the IV drip helped restore his body somewhat and once diagnosed he could finally start on the ONE antibiotic that is left to treat this condition. We couldn’t wait to get him home to his own bed once he could tolerate a tiny bit of food and all his obs had improved and boy oh boy did they need that hospital bed!

The human body is truly amazing – when it’s not happy it most certainly lets us know and also once conditions change for the better the body starts to respond pretty quickly too and we’re hoping that in 10 days he will be feeling a whole lot better. We are grateful for modern medicine and for the wonderful local doctors and nurses who work in such hard circumstances for very little compensation. It was an eye opener for both of us – seeing what they have to deal with and that somehow they can still show compassion for everyone – even those with self inflicted issues. It also made us acutely aware of the societal issues that people are experiencing and we are profoundly grateful that neither ourselves or our immediate family are going through these types of things that can so negatively impact the lives of both the individual and their partners and families.

We also felt rather aware of our mortality and how quickly things can go wrong. Despite us not feeling “old” we are supremely aware that time is not our friend and we really need to make the days and months count and to respect our body and all the amazing things it does by looking after it as much as possible. Good times with family and friends and experiencing things you’ve always dreamed of all contribute to “good health” and help us feel happy. Life is short – make it count!

Before things went to hell in a handbag, we had Easter! Sam and the boys came down and we had a nice couple of days with them despite the MOTH being couch bound a lot of the time. Sam mowed for us and the weather was beautiful so we could make full use of the pool and our neighbours trampoline and toy digger while they were away! Coops embraced painting ‘au plein air’ and made Papa a lovely birthday card. We visited a little pony “Sam” at the local farm, had a lovely walk on the beach collecting shells and Ollie had his first drive down the lane.

Easter Sunday coincided this year with the MOTH’s birthday so after the Easter Hunt in the garden we went to an afternoon shindig at one of our friend’s house with about 10 other people which made for a lovely celebratory day. Funnily enough 2 of the other people there had also had knee replacements at the same hospital in the same week so they were all hobbling around on crutches swapping stories! Their house is in the most beautiful location and we had a great afternoon with some delicious food and interesting conversations and it was a lovely reprieve from our recent incarceration at home!

The previous weekend we had celebrated his advanced knee recovery by venturing to Milton for the night to stay with our lovely friends at The Altar Bar. An hours’ drive was about the maximum he could tolerate but once we were there it was lovely to be able to chat and have a laugh with old friends all whilst enjoying the beautiful food, wine and music at the Bar and it was as good as any medicine! Even Bailey was invited and she had lots of fun with the other dogs although she was a little confused as to why she had to stay outside!! (She also found a bag of dogfood unattended in one of the sheds which she hoofed into and then paid the price) Thanks for the invite guys xx

We wanted to thank the ED for all their care over the weekend and so I popped in with two boxes of our local delicious Espresso Boy Doughnuts for them to share and they were SO chuffed. Obviously it’s their job but they go above and beyond and it was nice to have that acknowledged I think…they were quite shocked!

So a month of ups and downs and a timely reminder to make the most of every day as much as you can and plan fun things to do, to look forward to and STAY HEALTHY. So treat this as a public service announcement – if you go into hospital and start having these symptoms after taking antibiotics hopefully you will remember this little story, as despite being quite common we’d never even heard of it! Sadly you often leave hospital with something you didn’t enter it with! The upside is that as he lost 6kgs with the colitis he can now have whatever he fancies to eat as he recovers! Always a silver lining somewhere folks……….

Changes….

/ susiecameron / 3 Comments

The day has finally come for the MOTH to get his knee replacement and we are READY! I’m writing this as he is in surgery, nervously awaiting the call to say all went well. There has been a very thorough pre op protocol – I think just about every facet of his body has been checked out – so I am not expecting any nasty surprises…

As we knew things were going to be rather stationary for a while post op we squeezed in a lovely trip to Tassie in February which happily coincided with my birthday. Nowadays, unless its a special decade birthday, the day seems to come and go pretty much as usual so it was nice to celebrate it. The little girls LOVE birthdays and all the joy, cake and gifts that come along with it so I felt very lauded and loved on the big day! Loz had rented a gorgeous little house in a village called Orford, about an hours drive from the CBD with a resident population of 700. It is situated where the River Prosser meets the ocean and is very pretty. The house was dreamy and, having featured twice in Country Style Magazine, was decorated beautifully with coastal country charm.

The weather was fantastic and perfect for a languid day at the beach. The girls LOVED the rockpools and have a never-ending delight in looking for little crabs and fishes lurking in the shadows. Papa was in high demand for reading duties and we enjoyed a show “performed” on a stage that the girls found in the garden! A trip to nearby Mayfield Estate was enjoyed with a bottle of bubby followed by pizzas and pinot overlooking Great Oyster Bay on the East Coast which went down a treat. I love Tassie, you never have to go very far before you stumble onto a winery, cidery, distillery or beautiful little cafe restaurant somewhere picturesque!

Back to their house in Margate and we had a lovely week together. It is a joy to walk the girls to school while they skip and pick flowers and sing along the way and then we have the day to ourselves until it’s time to collect them. We met up with our friends Paul and Sharon and had a lovely lunch down at Muirs on Victoria Dock overlooking the boats and caught up on their new life in TAS – next time we see them we may be going out on their new boat! We celebrated my birthday with a chocolate cake in the theme of a paint palette – SO creative and delicious to boot. We had a meal together in Lozzy’s garden overlooking the D’Entrecasteaux Channel with the breeze running through the trees and the sun shining – so lovely! The girls are at a great age, happily playing together for hours and Myla enjoying playing marbles with Papa every night before bed! They are great sleepers and most mornings we have to wake Myla up as she sleeps through EVERYTHING! Even opening the curtains and taking the blankets off her doesn’t wake her! On our last afternoon we attempted to go fishing down at their local park 2 minutes down the road. It is such a pretty spot, with shelters and bbqs as well as a huge playground and all surrounded by water! No luck with the fish but it was fun trying! As they were starting a big kitchen renovation the day after we left, there was a lot of unpacking of cupboards and setting the laundry up as a temporary kitchen to be done but also much excitement in the air at the prospect of a shiny brand new kitchen and appliances! I can’t wait to see it!

We got home to March and Autumn …the trees are already starting to shed their leaves and the roses and salvias are having their last hurrah before the turn of season. As the MOTH will be out of play for 6 weeks we spent a lot of time tidying the garden and getting firewood ready etc ahead of him recuperating at home on crutches. One very exciting advance is that we have hired a lovely local young couple to give us some help in the garden. Our friends in the ‘Wednesday Whackers’ use them and they came highly recommended and we can see why. They work really hard and made some huge changes in just a few hours. We are going to have them weekly until the garden is tamed and then on a fortnightly/monthly plan in winter. It has really renewed my love of the property knowing I have some extra hands to whip it into shape. They also understand plants and what they need and when – something I have neglected terribly, I have hardly ever fertilised anything other than my pots! All in all I am feeling much more positive about things and will be pleased to see it looking back to its best in a few weeks time! To top it all off we have a beautiful new front fence – the previous one was put up in 1974 and was falling apart so it was definitely time!

We flew back from Hobart and we were straight into babysitting and partying with the other side of the family as we celebrated Cooper turning 6 and Ollie turning 4. It was such a good idea to have a combined party as they share lots of friends and to hire a venue, entertainer and make the sort of magnificent cake that Liv does every year is much more viable if it is halved! For those in the know it was a Sonic the Hedgehog party with Coops being Sonic and Ollie being Shadow – his offsider! The entertainer was worth every dollar as he led the kids in games and kept them fully amused for close to two hours while the adults sweated in the 38 degree heat up on the veranda! His nylon suit was drenched within minutes and apart from taking the kids into the shade of the trees he kept his whole gig true to form despite the heat!

So much fun with Sonic the Hedgehog!

They spent the next few days working their way through their gifts – plenty of Lego and magnetic tiles to keep them engaged and lots for them to play together with as well – very lucky boys!

Another sort of change that has become a pet peeve of mine is everything going online. I am a fan of the wonders of the internet and can totally see how convenient it is etc but some things are just better in the flesh. I am an avid reader and am in two book clubs but I am finding it increasingly difficult AND expensive to buy an actual book. A book costs upwards of $40 nowadays and all the popular ones also have a waiting list at the library but guess where I can get it IMMEDIATELY and CHEAPLY? As an audio book or on kindle – neither of which I want! In other sad news this week my very favourite magazine Delicious (which I have bought every month since its inception in 2002) is finishing its print version to go totally online. I’m quite devastated as nothing makes me happier than seeing it arrive in my mailbox every month and then taking a few days to read it with a cuppa on my veranda, turning over the corners of things I want to try and sometimes being swayed by the look of something I would never normally attempt. A magazine does that plus I can take it on a plane or a train and I can tear out the pages and put it in my folder of things to try. Now I’m going to have to look at yet another screen to get inspiration and I can’t take it with me on holidays and unless you have a printer you can’t put it in your special folder! Not a good change as far as I’m concerned. Rant over.

I’m going to miss you!

In good news, the MOTH has come through his knee replacement op with flying colours. I cannot believe the difference that 24 hours makes and the synergy between science, surgeons and the amazing ability of the human body to accept such interference all make this a viable option for people nowadays. Apparently his knee was completely worn out and the surgeon was surprised that he’s been able to continue for as long as he has, doing what he does on it, considering what he was dealing with. All in all we are happy with the progress so far but once he gets home in a few more days the rehab begins and that’s always hard work. Worth it though to get full mobility back and something the MOTH excels at so I have faith it will be a total success as long as we can keep infections away. We’ll have to wrap him up in cotton wool a bit for a while just in case and as he gets bored very easily he’s probably going to be a painful patient but as long as I keep him plied with good food (plus the serendipitous timing that it’s footy season for his television viewing) he should be fine! He has however suggested having a bell to summon me if he needs me (only to be used for something important supposedly) so pray for me folks!

My bionic man!

Country Life

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Whilst we have a postcard pretty white weatherboard house complete with pink climbing rose wrapping the veranda, life in the country isn’t all freshly laid eggs and homemade jams. Life and death is much more obvious when you have animals and when you are surrounded by them too. Whereas it’s easy to buy steak when it’s all cut and packaged in the supermarket its much harder when you see the young steers that have been grazing in your back paddock for the last few months being rounded up to take to market. The reality is making me feel more and more guilty about eating beef as cows have to be one of the loveliest animals. They are so quiet, gentle and curious and often playful and they have the most divine eyelashes – none of which helps my meat-eating dilemma!

Our lane is surrounded in a horse shoe shape by a farm, previously a dairy farm, and now more for grazing the young cows to get some good fodder into them before they become Mums (or steak). For the past few months we have been driving up and down our lane where there is a mature bull on both sides, each with their own ‘girls’ to look after. They make me laugh as they both stand right at the fence opposite each other pawing the earth and stamping their feet and letting out the odd bellow. Just typical male bravado I’m sure as they both seem perfectly happy with their lot. They may even be brothers just doing what brothers do? Or perhaps they are akin to human neighbours just hanging over the fence gossiping about what’s happening in the lane! Their whole life is about eating and reproducing and hanging out with the herd – no deep philosophizing or goal setting for them, although I’m sure there is a basic sense of being happy or unhappy especially when the weather is revolting. The farmers are good, checking on them and always one step ahead of us if we notice something wrong and let them know. Farmers mostly all really love their animals and try to ensure they have the best possible life.

Today we woke up at dawn to the strident crowing of a rooster. It was prior to 5am and NOT my favourite way of waking up. It also sounded VERY close and as neither us or our immediate neighbours have a rooster we were perplexed. Then around the corner swaggered a HUGE rooster crowing to all and sundry to announce his presence and we realised we had an interloper! After checking with all the people in the lane to see if they had lost a rooster it seems apparent that he may have been the subject of a “dumping”. Our neighbour saw a car come down our end of the lane last night at 9pm with no lights on which is always concerning but it seemed to leave within a couple of minutes so she didn’t worry until this morning with the arrival of Foghorn Leghorn and she put two and two together. Sadly there are always a surfeit of roosters in our area and people are always trying to give them away. Unless you want baby chicks they are far too much hard work as far as I’m concerned. The noise is the number one factor and also they can become a bit aggressive (as with our Atticus back in the day). This chap was bigger than the little one year old next door and she was understandably scared. He was very friendly, running up to us and even climbing up the stairs onto our deck! Poor bugger has no idea what has happened to him, there are little groups of rogue chickens and roosters up and down the coast and in the odd paddock or park that somehow seem to survive but it’s all a bit ad hoc and not very kind if they have always been fed by humans and then just left to get on with it in the outside world. A quick message to a few of my chook lovers but no one was up for a new rooster so we’ll just see where he ends up in the next day or two which may govern his fate…..with chickens and cows it is always best to be born female…..

One of the loveliest parts of being in a country community is the local agricultural show which happens here at the beginning of February every year. A chance for the locals to show off their equestrian skills, their best cows, sheepdogs and poultry as well as their woodchopping skills and the perennial favourite with the kids – the petting nursery full of the cutest baby animals. Of course a show wouldn’t be complete without sideshow alley with its games and rides and fast food treats and plenty of scones and jam, tea and beer to keep everyone else happy! The Pavilion gives everyone a chance to show off their produce – flowers, cakes, fruit and veg and art. For the second year running I entered a couple of art pieces (seen at the top right) but no luck this year, however I enjoyed the challenge and the two winners were worthy recipients (bottom right).

The weekend prior was Australia Day and as we had the grandsons down for the weekend we went BIG – proudly wearing Aussie tattoos and flags big and small as we trotted off to the Showground where Rotary were putting on an Australia Day breakfast. The band played and there were some great old fashioned games – hoopla with horseshoes, gumboot throwing and the old ‘throw the balls into the clown’s mouth’! Fun for young and old before heading home for a swim and an icecream – how much more Aussie can you get?

The week prior to that we had Cooper to stay as he was finally deemed old enough to stay with us solo and we had a wonderful week together! Having the grandkids one on one is so different when they are not vying for attention with their sibling or in cahoots with them or fighting with them! He was the best little house guest and we had lots of adventures together. Beach trips, feeding the horses, Lego and playing Mousetrap (who remembers that game from being a kid?) fishing and driving with Papa, movies with Rara, swimming in the pool (the side breathing is coming along nicely) and bathing and walking Bailey, the skate park and icecreams and pizza all made for lots of fun and we look forward to having each of them here solo at some stage.

A couple of BIG birthdays were celebrated and we love that Sydney is now coming down to the coast rather than the other way around! Some Sydney friends rented a great house in Gerringong and we had a lovely dinner at Bangalay at Shoalhaven Heads to celebrate our girls 70th.We are grateful for friends where you can just pick up from whenever you last saw them no matter how long ago that was and grateful that we are all still here to celebrate together!

The other birthday was celebrated at our friends lovely house with people from all their different eras bound by a mutual fondness for the birthday boy and family. Looking across the fields as the sun went down listening to good music, eating delicious paella and enjoying new friends was another moment to savour – we are so lucky to be living this country life!

So it is that the summer of 2024 is coming to an end. We’ve had a lovely mix of travel and family and friends and enjoying our little part of the world. Its been hot, then wet and then hot again so the poor MOTH has been kept VERY busy mowing his lawns and we’re quite glad that things should start slowing down soon as Autumn approaches. Good timing as he is having a knee replacement in a month and will be out of play for a while. Despite being in the country we have a couple of wonderful hospitals near us and many Sydney doctors do a couple of days down here a month giving locals lots of choice and a relief that we don’t have to go to Sydney and be away from our familiar things and animals to receive treatment. We really do have the best of both worlds!