Wet, wet, wet pretty much sums up our Autumn so far. So very tedious as we really needed a good 2 months to dry out after the LAST big wet! Also very annoying as a majority of the rain has fallen on the coast where we’re drowning and not inland where they need it – a typical Australian story. In the couple of weeks that we didn’t have any rain it was beautiful, the leaves turning all shades of yellow, orange and crimson and leaving puddles of colour all around the garden. The sun shone, we managed some tidying and weeding in the garden and sat on the veranda basking in the warmth until the sun went behind the escarpment and we moved indoors to the delights of the first wood fires of the season…..the best of both worlds! It’s usually one of my favourite times of the year but it has been very patchy this year and we are just about to order our 2nd truck of firewood and it’s only the first week of Winter!

I went up to Sydney to look after the little boys for a weekend and as I am very unused to being indoors with them (they are VERY active) I decided to take them on a day out to Darling Harbour and The Maritime Museum. We packed up their bodyweight in snacks and started the adventure by catching the bus! They LOVE this and the novelty of it more than outweighed the slight inconvenience of having to wait around for one to arrive. The simple things are always the best and they would have been happy even if we’d just caught a bus into the city, had a walk around and come home but I thought they would love to go on the various boats and have a new experience so off we went! The submarine HMAS Onslow and the HMAS Vampire, the last of the country’s big gun ships were a big hit and they loved climbing down the ladders into the tiny corridors and seeing where the men slept, ate and worked and Cooper could hardly believe he could see Centrepoint tower through the periscope when he was actually under the water!! The day could have imploded when (after walking them about 6kms) my phone battery died and we had to guess where to catch the bus home and the weather took a turn for the worse while we waited but they were little troopers and I was very proud of them as standing still and walking instead of running is not their usual modus operandi! They were rewarded by a trip to the bakery for a giant cookie and we were all exhausted but happy after our Big Day Out!

The next weekend was for us big kids and four couples made their way to Orange for 3 nights. Our fearless team leaders Dave and Anne had booked a great little Airbnb just a walk away from the centre of town and planned a terrific itinerary. The weather however interfered with a planned day of golf and we had to revert to Plan B which suited me much more as it was a day of retail therapy and wine tasting! I was very pleased with my purchase of an akubra style hat (for which I’d been searching for ages and had never found the right fit) until I came home to find the others had bought a lovely jacket, a horse saddle, a new lounge and a Ute!! No holding this crew back that’s for sure! As we are all food and wine lovers we thoroughly enjoyed our few days in Orange which has an increasingly good food scene and we particularly loved our long lunch at The Union Bank with its delicious set menu, terrific wines and great company. Our dear friend Mike joined us which was wonderful as I haven’t seen him in about 10 years. He now lives close to Orange in a little town called Milthorpe and it was a lovely bonus to be able to catch up with him this weekend. I always call him Dad as he gave me away at my wedding 40 years ago this year and was our business partner for many years too. We picked straight back up where we’d left off and we hope we’ve managed to talk him into coming South for a visit in the not too distant future…

It was a great weekend right up until the last morning when we woke up to a discarded For Sale sign tossed in our front garden and our Ute tarp open and the tray empty. A set of the MOTH’s custom fitted golf clubs and a slab of beer were gone and most probably sold down at the pub for a couple of hundred bucks. Sadly our car insurance only covers lost property to a total of $1000 and our excess was $1100 so that made for a rather expensive weekend.

We have loved having Tom at The Meadow for a couple of months, it has meant he could look after Bailey and the chickens while we were away in Tassie and Orange etc and he was a good help around the property. Cammo finally had a fellow footy lover to hang out with and we benefitted from his above average cooking skills on a weekly basis. The chess set came out and Bailey was taken on some great bushwalks. He has now moved to Wagga Wagga for a while to help a friend out who is involved in pubs and he is enjoying living out in the country. Bailey still keeps an eye out for him every evening, her ears pricked up hopeful that his car will come down the driveway…. it’s so sweet but also a bit sad!

So we’ve come to the time of year where we’re inside with the curtains drawn and the fire on by 5pm. The Cockies are devouring what few nuts and seeds they can on the trees before they are completely bare. They even had a bit of a chew of our chook shed roof the other day just in case it tasted good! The chooks have stopped laying which is bad timing as Australia is having an influx of bird flu which has already shut down some big egg farms and is likely to affect many more before it’s under control so eggs are more precious than ever right now. We only have four girls left now, having lost three in recent months – one was killed by the dog from a neighbouring property while we were overseas (my beautiful Peaches who would have been trying to protect the others and paid the ultimate price) one was taken by a hawk while we were in Tassie (our poor blind Frieda never stood a chance) and a perfectly plump and fluffy one we found a couple of weeks ago just lying in a patch of sunshine and still warm and we have no idea why she may have died. Its the absolute worst part about having animals and one I will never get used to. I can only imagine how farmers must feel when they have to kill their livestock because of disease, flood or famine, it must absolutely crush them…

I hate to end on a negative note but country living isn’t all about bonfires and homemade jam even though the good definitely outweighs the bad – at least for us most of the time. what I DO love about it is seeing the little kids next door create a dirt track with jumps for their little motor bikes and seeing them hand in hand coming down the lane after being dropped by the school bus every afternoon, their school bags bigger than them or cycling home on the days they tie their three bikes together to the bus stop at the top of our lane. Little Charlie aged 5 is always out on the ride on mower with his Dad and already knows how to drive a tractor and a motorbike. This sort of childhood is almost impossible in the city where there is less space and parents invariably pick them up from school. Not better or worse – just different!