A gentle warbling wakes me at first light, it’s slightly apologetic as if the magpie knows it’s silly to be talking this early but “hello the day has begun and surely you want to know?” As the light gets stronger around the edges of my curtains other birds join in the morning chorus, some melodious and others not so much (yes Mr Kookaburra I’m talking about you) Our rooster Atticus can be heard joining in and sometimes in the distance a huge flock of local Corellas can be heard with their loud screeching as they fly en masse to a nearby paddock, resting on the fences and overhead wires as they search out some tasty morsels in the surrounding countryside. While we potter in the kitchen making that first and most wonderful coffee of the day we can hear a clear call – like a bell, which is then repeated from another tree and we know our feathered friends the King Parrots have dropped in to say g’day. They are the most magnificent colour and with the cutest little faces which tilt to the side as they check us out through the window. They are so friendly and unbothered by our presence we think that someone must have been feeding them but we have offered them chopped fruit and also sunflower seeds and despite flying down to check it out they haven’t ever taken anything. One morning we literally had four types of parrots walking around on the grass – King Parrots, Crimson Rosellas, Galahs and Rainbow Lorikeets so they obviously like SOMETHING in our garden!

I was very proud last week to share my part of the world with my Book Club girls. Our intrepid travel gal pal Carolyn found a fabulous house on the top of a hill at Foxground overlooking Gerringong. It had an amazing 180 degree view and was luxuriously appointed yet comfortable with lots of different areas to sit either outside in the sun or shade or inside around a huge table or curled up on the deep squishy lounge. A glorious pool made for sipping aperol spritz around was just a tad too chilly this early in Spring but was perfect for an afternoon chat in the sunshine. As we are all avid cooks we decided we would self cater and we all contributed various dishes and ended up eating like Kings! Beautiful French champagne and cheeses at 4.30pm started the ball rolling and flowed effortlessly into a delicious Ottolenghi baked chicken with amazing salads and sweet treats on day 1 and a meltingly slow cooked mediterranean lamb with braised greek beans and fetta, roasted kipflers, med style salads and a peach and frangipane tart dolloped with thick cream on day 2. Who needs to go out? The Sydney girls walked early every morning discovering the beauty of the south coast before a banquet brekky where I learned a healthier variation of the Cornish breakfast my Mum adores (a nice tangy marmalade topped with thick clotted cornish cream on toast) which was Leigh’s homemade cumquat marmalade topped with thick greek yoghurt on toast – equally delish but considerably less calories! Do yourselves a favour and try it folks….

The value of a friendship of over 25 years was evident in these couple of days where we all just slotted together working seamlessly in the kitchen and chatting – sometimes all 8 of us simultaneously!! True skill! It was soooo good just to take a break from routine, no chores to do, slob around or walk, dress up or stay in your pjs, read your book in the daytime, have an afternoon nap….you get the gist. The simple things but good for the soul.

So from the ‘do whatever you like whenever you like’ set up at Foxground I raced home to prepare for the imminent arrival of the kids and grandies for Fathers Day Weekend. We are equidistant from both Sydney and Canberra so about 2.5 hours driving for both families which is about the maximum an 18 month old can tolerate! After being cooped up in the car they were happy to run around exploring all the wide open spaces and hugging Bailey and generally reacquainting themselves with The Meadow. We had booked breakfast at a nearby winery to celebrate Fathers Day and also Lozzys birthday which fell on the same day this year. Indoors is a no no with the bubs so this was a perfect location where they could run amok outdoors and we only popped them in the highchairs when our meal came which meant we were all happy! We attempted a family photo but it is nearly impossible to get us all facing the same way….this was as close as we got !!

We packed so much into the next 24 hours, the boys played golf, the babies had a play on a make shift water slide, we had a lovely visit from my god daughter and her 2 year old Indi, we enjoyed a bonfire at dusk before the cousins shared a bubblebath and snuggled into bed exhausted, followed by the people’s favourite – pizza night! Sam prepped everything beautifully, slicing things into separate bowls – salami, olives, pear, artichokes, sun dried tomatoes, chicken, mushies, roasted capsicum, fetta, buffalo mozzarella and gorgonzola – a mix made in heaven! Full but happy we tumbled into bed – another day done well in The Meadow!

Spring is definitely here, the wisteria is in full throttle, the fruit trees are blossoming and the birds are nesting. You can’t drive down the road without seeing baby calves or goats and we have a few new babies too. The MOTH has always wanted some Plymouth Rock chickens and when he was buying some firewood recently old Reg mentioned he had 30 eggs in the incubator, lots of which were Plymouths so he bought two and we collected them last weekend. Sadly only 3 hatched successfully so we couldn’t leave the other one behind and therefore are now the proud owners of 3 new chicks (PLEASE don’t be roosters) who are happily ensconsed in their separate accommodation in the chook shed away from Atticus and even the hens just in case they get attacked. They will stay here until they are at least a few weeks older and ready to take their chances with the others.

So as we come into the season that most represents hope let’s pray that we can start to get back to some sort of new normal and enjoy the world around us again. We were supposed to be in Italy this week for the start of our holiday to celebrate my 60th but instead we shall maybe have a week in rural NSW, still beautiful just different, and there is certainly a lot to appreciate in our own backyard here in Australia, especially once the borders open up again. The dollars usually spent overseas are being ploughed into the local economy and that my friends is most definitely good!