You’ve got to love a country wedding….

Just about everything country was epitomized in the weekend wedding of my dear friends Leigh and John. It was truly a magical day in front of 85 of their nearest and dearest and in beautiful Autumn sunshine. They exchanged their vows on the grassy slopes of their Kangaroo Valley property The Old Koonabulla Dairy and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house! The bride and groom couldn’t take their eyes off each other and John (aka Mr Romance) left us hankering after some more romance from our hubbies of 30- years!! A lot of fun was had and one of my lasting memories is of Leigh tucking her beautiful satin Carla Zampatti gown into her knickers and hitting the dance floor with gusto!!

I’m pretty sure that lots of the Sydney based guests have gone home hankering after a country existence and as we sat under the beautiful Pin Oak trees eating our recovery breakfast the morning after I was SO GLAD to call this beautiful part of the South Coast home!

Walking to the wedding

   So much love….

 

 Husband and Wife!

 The Brady Bunch

 Yummy food thanks to Simone Logue

  The beautiful bride

 Congratulations Leigh and John

 The hub…

 Magnificent Dessert Table

Lots of chat around the fire in the dairy as the night went on….

How beautiful was it? They were truly blessed with the weather and the whole day was perfect from start to finish. I love them dearly and wish them a lifetime of happiness together.

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On the home front we have been experiencing extremely strong winds that have literally lifted our furniture from the veranda and blown it half way across the garden. Wicker chairs and cushions, gumboots and peg bags, torches and dog toys have been scattered to the four winds and apparently the real wind doesn’t start until August…….yikes!!

Bailey has been growing before our eyes and has the funniest personality. She has started going into town with me and loves everyone she sees, they mostly love her too and it takes a long time to buy a pint of milk with everyone stopping to pat her. She hasn’t attacked any more shoes (mostly because I have them off the floor now) but I thought of her when I saw this…..

      How can you stay cross with them???????????

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I went to a great dinner at Silos on Thursday featuring local food producers. Their food was cooked in 4 courses and they gave presentations about both the good and bad bits of being a small producer trying to stay true to their ethics. It was a fascinating night and I was very encouraged by the enthusiasm and passion of these mostly young people trying to make our food “good” again. We had local pasture fed chooks, local unprocessed milk, grass beef producers who are trying to improve the life and death of their animals and a biotech company harvesting seaweed and using it in food and also as ‘food as medicine’ which essentially all well produced and unprocessed food is. There were about 200 people there supporting the evening which was promoted by the slow food group here on the south coast. Many of them were local farmers and we heard many stories of share farming and innovative ways of sharing the burden of debt that often accompanies small farms. We left feeling encouraged that our little part of the world was in good hands.

Our veggie patch has been planted up with all the winter veg – cauliflower, brussel sprouts, cabbage, broccoli and silverbeet and the roses have been pruned back (rather severely to get their shape back after a few years of neglect) and the Jetmaster fire is being used and loved most nights. The cows are enjoying the paddock adjacent to ours which was planted with rye grass a month ago and provides them with some extra goodness coming into the cold weather.

 Those trees are in our garden!

I am heading to Hong Kong today to stay with my daughter so I’ll see you all in a couple of weeks.

With love from The Meadow  xx