I’ve been in Australia 40 years in October and I am still incredulous that I have an orange tree growing in my garden. It seemed so very exotic when I was growing up in England – something I associated with the Mediterranean or Morocco – of warm evenings perfumed with the scent of orange blossom or a beautiful French Chateau with orange trees potted in Versailles planters in equally beautiful orangeries yet here I am in a country farmhouse in Australia with a tree that is in full fruit in the middle of winter!!!! Weird to say the least! As we have so many oranges I love to make an orange and cardamom cake I saw in the paper years ago that has become a favourite…the recipe is in the kitchen section if you are interested!

It has been very chilly here the past few weeks – well from 4pm to 9am at least, the days are gorgeous with huge blue skies and lovely sunshine to warm our bones. It is warmer to sit outside on our veranda than in our house (unless we have the wood burner going of course) so it is a pleasure to walk the dog or work in the garden until the sun drops behind the escarpment at exactly 4pm and we are forced inside to rug up and get the dinner going! By 5 we are plunged into darkness – a blanket scattered with stars thrown over the property, chickens snuggled up against each other on the roost to keep warm and the hound curled up in her bed oblivious to the time but responding to nature. Winter – a time to rest, relax, recuperate and enjoy the lethargy that comes over us at this time of year. We eat our dinner earlier and sleep longer – making the most of the later sunrise to snuggle under the doona and the cooler days mean we can spread out our activities instead of having to cram them in early because of the heat so in spite of it not being my favourite season it is actually a lovely time of the year!

Our little town of Berry was voted Best Small Town in NSW this year which was a nice pat on the back for our local shops, cafes and wineries that work tirelessly to bring a lovely experience to the jaded out-of-towners from the big smoke! For a small town Berry seems to be known far and wide. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat on a plane from a far flung place to have my fellow passenger know of Berry! It’s reputation is bigger than it is! It seems people have always loved coming down to the South Coast – even back in the 1930s when the road was slow and winding and the cars just pootled along, people came down here. Artists that went on to be famous such as Arthur Boyd, Brett Whitely and John Olsen all painted the South Coast in some form or another whilst holidaying down here, bringing it to the attention of the city folk.

I recently discovered some old photos of Seven Mile Beach from the 1920s and 30s when the beach was known as the Gerringong Speedway and where it apparently played a significant role in the history of the motor car in Australia. Horse racing had been popular on the straight flat beach from the 1860s right up to when the cars started using it in the early 1920s. In 1925 Don Harkness (1890-1972) an automotive designer, driver and engineer set the Australian land speed record on Seven Mile Beach. With an estimated 2,000 people cheering Harkness on, he reached a staggering 104 miles per hour, or 167kph. The media lapped up the story at the time, extolling the virtues of the sea-scape environment and referred to it as ‘the greatest beach in the world’ for racing.

And in 1933, the long, smooth hard beach was selected by Charles Kingsford-Smith for his maiden international voyage to New Zealand. At Low tide at 2:30am on the morning of January 11, more than 200 locals lit flares and turned on their car lights to help ‘Smithy’ see the runway. It’s hard to believe this all happened when nowadays the beach is virtually empty except for the now ubiquitous beach cabanas that seem to be populating all of our beaches and the odd beach fisherman. I can’t imagine people getting dressed up in their Sunday best to view a land speed record or inaugural plane flight on these same sands!

Last weekend we had our little grandsons to stay – their first solo visit without their parents and we had a lovely time! Apart from the usual fascination with the cows and the chickens we made the most of our fabulous park in Berry – Boongaree – where there is SO much to do. We spent 3 hours there with them and they absolutely loved the skate park. There is a small one for the littlies but they tired of that quickly and then progressed to the BIG guys ramps which freaked me out but gave them an enormous amount of pleasure! They really are fearless on their scooters and I loved watching them work out the best ways to get around as some of the ramps were really steep but they did it with no help from us and the bigger guys were pretty patient with them when they got in the way a bit. Ollie is amazing at just over 2 how he gets around dropping his body when cornering and whizzing around just a tad too quickly for this Grandma!! We stopped off at the Fairy Garden on the way home so that Cooper could look for his namesake rock! The lady that started the garden had painted a load of rocks with various local families’ names and Coops had the best fun looking for his. It is a wonderful spot to spend an hour as the kids love playing with all the toys there – dinosaurs, trucks, dollhouses, musical instruments and rota tennis all provide a break for kids and parents alike! It’s also a great place to donate any unwanted toys, the kids get a real sense of donation and sharing with others which is a valuable lesson.

The dreaded Winter Westerly Winds have arrived, last night was the first big one of the season and we woke up to branches strewn everywhere and furniture blown off the veranda. The whole house shakes and rattles, the old sash windows no match for the ferocity of the wind and the eerie whistling of the wind down the chimneys makes you think the whole house is going to blow away! It is however very reassuring that the house has stood here since 1896 and withstood many years of this kind of pummeling. Luckily, this time of year also brings the most beautiful sunsets, everything from the palest peach to bright vermillion and sometimes a sky full of pure purple. It’s a fact that no matter what happens and how wonderful or awful things are, the world continues to turn and show us it’s magnificence. It never fails to make me feel super small in the scheme of things and remind me that we are only here for a nanosecond and also to make the very best of every single day that we are lucky enough to witness!