Steam rises from the cows as they lie on the dewy grass, the remnants of the morning mist hangs low in the dips of the hills like splodges of fairy floss and the leaves are falling from the trees creating a crunchy golden carpet underfoot. This is Autumn in The Meadow. It’s been quite a chilly one this year with an early start to buy firewood, unearth the electric blankets and generally cosy up. It seems crazy that just a few weeks ago the weather was warm enough for us to be in the garden in tee shirts and even to enjoy a meal outside! Luckily this coincided with a visit from our Tassie girls, Lauren working remotely meant she could work from here as long as I could provide childcare which I undertook gladly. We had some lovely days together with Miss Myla making me MANY cups of tea and toast in the cubby house, walks down the lane to see the cows and the horses, art work of every possible persuasion (I now have playdough of various colours inserted into several rugs!!) She absolutely LOVED feeding Bailey every night and her little face just shone with pride as she made Bailey sit and wait before she gave her the magic instruction to eat! Such power!! Her other favourite thing was waiting for Papa to come home in the afternoon and for her to help “drive” his truck, occasionally leaning out of the window and singing “la-la-la-la” rather operatically to the cows as she passed by! It was just so nice to spend some consistent time with them and do the simple every day things together, it helps us cement a bond with her that she remembers even if its a few months in between visits. Facetime certainly helps too, we even managed a call to Gigi in England so they could see each other in the flesh! Wonderful technology indeed and we’re so lucky that at 85 Mum is embracing of all of it!

On the weekends we managed a couple of trips to the beach, some local walks and playgrounds and a particularly lovely trip to Kangaroo Valley where we ate a picnic next to the river while Bailey swam and did her happy dance filled with the pure joy of it all. While she was here we also managed to celebrate that they bought a house! They have been looking for a while but the housing situation in Hobart has gone completely mad in the past 18 months and things were selling within hours of going on the market and for up to 20% more than the asking price, all of which was a bit nightmarish for our 1st time home buyers! After several very ‘close but no cigar’ moments they saw this house online and Berry had to go and see it alone, videoing it all for Loz to see and then ultimately becoming the lucky winners without her even having set foot inside! It’s a very exciting time for them after more than a decade of living overseas in furnished apartments to finally be able to furnish and decorate their own home. They will rent it out for a year as it’s all a bit too hectic now with the new baby arriving in 2.5 months and it will give them some time to work out their plans to renovate it. It’s hard to believe that this was their last trip to The Meadow before the new baby arrives and things will no doubt be slightly more hectic next trip with 4 kids under three joining us for Christmas!

We enjoyed another night in Sydney with Sam and Liv before she caught the plane home and the little cousins had fun together dancing around the lounge room and playing musical statues as well as plenty of joint artistic endeavours! Baby Ollie was again the star of the show, being the first thing Myla would request to see in the morning! He is 2 months old already and a good little bub, luckily very happy to eat and sleep and is starting to become his own gorgeous little person. I am looking forward to them coming down to stay for the June long weekend, this is the longest we have ever gone without them visiting but now that he is starting to sleep through the night hopefully they can relax and enjoy some time away and a change of scenery and Cooper can be reunited with his bestest fur friend Bailey.

Apart from the family fun we have been kept busy with our new baby chicks who are now getting rather confident in the manner of teenagers and are brave enough to mix with the other chooks but still run to Mum’s side and answer her clucking if they sense she isn’t happy. They are big enough to do nearly everything now and are 3/4 feathered but they still snuggle up under Peaches wings at night in one of the nesting boxes. They are safe and warm in there with her and it will still be another month at least I imagine before they roost with the whole gang. We haven’t had any eggs in weeks but today there was a freshly laid egg for us when we went out to check on them so fingers crossed they will all steadily get back into the habit as it has been most strange to have added eggs to my shopping list lately!

The next job on the to do list is to prune everything back in the garden. Once the leaves are finally off we can prune the fruit trees, wisteria, hydrangeas and attack the mulberry tree. This involves sawing it off at the top of the trunk before it branches out, leaving a totem pole from which new supple branches will grow which we can tie to the trunk forming a lollypop type shape which means the fruit will be available to us and not the birds (the inside part anyway!) and make it much more manageable. My roses are still blooming despite the cold end to Autumn although they are looking a teeny bit sad and leggy so I am hanging on until July to cut them right back. The gardenias are happier than ever and they have been joined by the camellias of various colours so there is still a bit of interest in the garden for now.

With Winter’s imminent arrival my thoughts are turning to slow cooked meats and curries, oozy cheesy bakes, home made pies with flaky pastry and hot puddings with custard! A salad just doesn’t seem to cut it at this time of year and after a few hours working in the garden there is nothing better than a bowl of hot soup with some fresh bread from the bakery. Thank goodness we live in a climate that has 4 distinct seasons so we can enjoy all the different foods at the appropriate time meaning we never really get fed up with any of it! After a summer of barbeques and chilled rosé it is so nice to come inside, light the fire and enjoy some more substantial food with a nice glass of red! Vive la difference!