Early Autumn means warm days and cold nights creating amazing morning mists across the paddocks. I love waking with the first light and pulling the curtains to see a rosy sky and a thick mist blanketing the surrounding countryside. Cows lumber out of the mist as if they were in a movie, taking their place in The Meadow to munch happily on the damp fresh grass. This early change of season is always pleasant, a different set of clothes to wear and different menus to enjoy. Not yet that crazy “throw all your clothes off in a hurry and leap into bed before you freeze” scenario that comes later in winter. We’ve had the odd fire at night but just to take the chill off the room and for cosiness rather than anything else.

We have had a lovely couple of weeks celebrating the MOTH’s birthday across the space of 10 days, making up for last year when it was the day before the big wedding and kind of slid under the radar a bit. As we start getting to the pointy end of things it’s hard to buy great gifts, it’s often the small things or the experiences that become the most meaningful so I went with that theory and arranged a trip to beautiful Tasmania for my beau to play golf with his brother at a course he has had on his bucket list for quite a while. Barnbougle in the wild North West of Tassie is a destination for golf lovers the world over. Created in the Links style and with the fresh Autumn temperatures we could be in Scotland or Ireland. Wild and with a rugged beauty that took your breath away. The colour of the grasses, almost orange in the morning sunrise but then bleached like the sand on which they grow later in the day, bending in the brisk coastal breeze that created havoc on day 2 but made me feel vital and alive, taking me back to my days at boarding school in England when we had to go for 5 mile walks at the weekend in the bracing English weather.

While the golfers did their thing I had the best time exploring the local area. Everywhere you looked it was a photographer’s dream with a colour pallette unique to this part of the coast and the moodiness of the clouds all contributing to a visual feast.

The beauty of Tassie is that you don’t have to go very far to see something completely different. Verdant pasture land scattered with little white dots of sheep (testament to the amount of rain they get here as opposed to the grey Aussie sheep!) one minute and then beautiful wide white sand beaches the next. A tour of the wineries showed us beautiful Autumn colours, the cold local weather making it much more colourful than on the mainland.

The Birthday Boy was in his element and despite losing MANY balls and being totally exhausted walking these big courses in a 30 knot wind he had the best time and actually did pretty well golf  wise too. A big thanks to Rod and Heather for coming along for the ride and for helping tick a much wanted box!

We also celebrated at home with No 1 son enjoying a lovely weekend together planning upgrades to the property, measuring and drawing all the possibilities. The men folk also got stuck into gurneying the house, washing off the accumulated dust from our dry summer leaving it fresh as a daisy and looking like it had had a new coat of paint! A walk along the beach with the Choccy Drop and we were more than ready for a delicious dinner at our local restaurant South on Albany who always manage to give us beautiful dishes created from local produce and make them shine. http://www.southonalbany.com.au

So now we’re back to reality and busy tidying up the garden before those pesky westerly winds make themselves felt. Cutting back the summer flowers and a bit of trimming and pruning but mostly planting the winter veggies. The garlic went in this week, it takes a while before harvesting but is SO WORTH IT! We love having our very own organic garlic hanging in our shed to use over Summer and as we use it in just about everything it is one of our most useful crops. The spinach and eggplant are still in full swing and now we have broad beans, green beans, brussel sprouts, cabbages, broccoli, carrots, onions and leeks all planted with the last of the warm soil and hopefully off to a good start ahead of the cool weather. So we are at that perfect junction of sunny days (but not hot) and cooler evenings (but not freezing) that encapsulates Autumn in Australia, no wonder we love her.