This tranquil moment was a couple of weeks ago now and I feel like it was the last time we didn’t have a ‘to do’ list a mile long! We had a fab evening with our friends from Callala Bay, he had been out fishing that day and caught a whole load of beautiful fresh Flathead for us, even cleaning, filleting and pin boning them for us to take home, thanks Nifty, they were delicious!! The next morning we headed off with the Choccy Drop to the local beach where it was just us for as far as you could see. I love early morning walks along the beach, nothing like some sand between your toes and the salt water on your skin to make you feel alive. It has been a busy couple of weeks but today I finally have a minute to sit down as I am awaiting a delivery that apparently could arrive any time between 8am and 8pm and which has to be personally signed for! This is unusual in these days of internet shopping as usually, if I am not here they just leave it on the veranda or take it to our local Post Office for me to sign for it there. Today however I am waiting for 2 sun loungers for the pool area which are a bit big for the local post office collection thus I am catching up with all my ‘inside’ jobs! What’s the betting they arrive at 7.30pm!!The pool is in and the tradies have finally left, now all that is left is to finish it all off with plants and furniture etc. Needless to say by the end of a project there is nowhere near enough left in the budget to do all you originally envisage but we are getting there slowly! Thanks to a Super Storm that dumped 4 inches of rain on us in 24 hours our new turf around the pool is now looking good and I have spent 3 days planting 200 gardenias around the perimeter of the fence where they should soften the boundary and add colour and fragrance to the mix! It was hard work, leaving me with raw weeping blisters on my palm until a knight in shining armour arrived in the form of Pat from next door with his fence post digger to dig the last 100 holes for me! I LOVE my neighbours!

The MOTH has been away in the depths of North Africa for the past week as he visited The Ivory Coast and the cocoa plantations who supply his company with all their raw products. It was a very long way to go for a week and demanded a lot of preparation with many, many vaccinations, yellow fever, rabies, hepatitis and cholera as well as a couple of weeks worth of malaria tablets. And Africa being Africa it also took tons of paperwork and expensive visas before being allowed to even set foot on African soil. As they had to refuel in Ghana a transit visa was apparently necessary and at $200+ and involving trips to and from the consulate to apply in person, they didn’t even end up getting off the plane! Crazy. It was a thoroughly unique and memorable trip despite a slightly fraught itinerary and trips literally through the jungle (no paths) in 4 wheel drives to reach the Women’s Co-op, remote villages and schools. The kids were SO happy to see them and receive the funny little gifts the boys had taken for them. As there is very little facial hair in Africa some of the kids were quite mesmerised with Wayne’s face and he had a little flock of kids around him just staring at him! White AND hairy!!!

When they arrived they were received by the Village Chief and in a little welcoming ceremony were given the gift of a live rooster, a bottle of rum and some local cava type drink that was passed around in a coconut shell to share! The rum got left behind but the poor rooster got chucked in the back of the van with all the luggage and sqwarked indignantly every time they went around a corner and a case landed on top of him! Apparently it would have been very rude not to accept it but I dread to think what ended up happening to him. Of course while the MOTH was over there playing Big White Chief I was here with the floods, 100km high winds which reduced my Jacaranda to a mere trunk – completely blowing the branches straight off. Also right on cue I had to deal with the obligatory dead chicken. I swear they wait until he drives to the airport before curling their toes up. That means we only have 2 chooks now, one of which has gone clucky and has had to be taken off the nest (where she spent all her time with her feathers all fluffed up and making little motherly clucking sounds)  and put into solitary confinement for a few days until those broody feelings disappear! We will get some more in the New Year, Wayne is talking about getting some Sussex hens. I really hope they will all get along this time….

The day before he left for Africa we drove to Wagga Wagga to celebrate his Aunty Joan’s 80th birthday. It was a 5 hour drive each way but worth it to see our extended family all under one roof. The biggest surprise for Joan was the unexpected arrival of her two brothers. They are the last of the 7 siblings and it was so lovely to see them altogether and celebrating a very special lady’s birthday. At 92 my Father in Law Col did very well and I loved seeing him chatting away to all his nieces and nephews and looking so animated. Many stories from the ‘Old Days’ were recounted and a good time was had by all.

Our local village is starting to look very festive with many of the trees wrapped in candy cane red and white and the Xmas Tree taking pride of place in the shopping centre. The shops are all participating in Xmas specials and we have the much anticipated Santa Race as the highlight of The Berry Merry Christmas on December 13th. I won’t see it this year as I will be up in Sydney collecting Lauren from her flight from Vietnam. She has finished her 3 month stint with the U.N in Bangkok and is happy to be home with her hubby and planning for their little baby. She is half way through her pregnancy now and I can’t wait to see her and her bump and spend some special Mother/Daughter time together. I have invested in some floating pool chairs with drink holders for our two pregnant girls to float around on over Xmas, if the sun ever comes out enough to get in the pool that is!! The weather has been very strange and quite cool but apparently that is all going to change any minute now!

Despite cooler temperatures my veggies are still doing their thing and we are so happy that our tomatoes are ripening and providing us with the deliciousness that only home grown ones can! At least the bugs haven’t discovered them just yet and neither have the parrots noticed my beautiful little baby apples but you can bet your bottom dollar that the minute they start ripening and sweetening up they will be all over them like a rash!

So I am going to enjoy the next few weeks in the lead up to Christmas, we will miss Tommy of course who is LOVING his time in London and getting right into the Christmassyness that they do so well over there. He has embraced his inner Brit and is enjoying the wool coats and scarves, pub lunches and log fires that come along with the winter weather and he, Max and 20 of their Aussie ex pat friends are going to have an “Orphan’s” Christmas together, no doubt with lots of celebratory food and wine and stories reminiscing about Christmas at home which is a very different affair! We will toast each other from afar and next year we will all be here together (with two very new small people joining The Cameron Clan) and Christmas will be magical once again but in a totally different way!! Merry Christmas everyone!

 

I have finally turned the corner and am starting to feel like my old self again! It’s been a long 5 weeks but it has really made me appreciate how good I usually feel!! And guess what? While I have been feeling sorry for myself and hibernating indoors, Spring has finally sprung! It’s definitely a bit late this year, a direct correlation I think to the glorious Indian Summer that the northern hemisphere has been enjoying, but the tide is about to turn both ends of the world and I’m pretty sure that in another few weeks we will be basking in more normal temperatures and sunshine. The garden has blossomed despite our very dry winter, the roses are bursting with colour and blooms are everywhere you look. The hydrangeas have doubled in size and are flowering beautifully just in time for me to cut bunches of them for the guest bedrooms and the trees are in full leaf, hiding at least 4 different birds nests. We have baby peewees, top notch pigeons, wattle bird babies and baby magpies just to name a few. Baby bunnies scurry out of the hedges when we water them, tiny little adorable balls of fluff ( at least that’s what I call them, the MOTH describes them somewhat differently!!) The fields are full of little calves and the jacarandas are in full throttle with purple puddles of gorgeousness everywhere you look. Even the saplings I planted last year have one solitary panicle of beautiful indigo flowers which is a good sign they will really come to the party next year and eventually provide some decent shade for the hydrangeas.

After nearly 4 years in The Meadow the garden is finally starting to fill in and mature and it is a real pleasure to wander around, cuppa in hand and enjoy it! Of course with all the work on the pool our lawn is looking decidedly dead/trashed/ruined around that area and we are very much looking forward to seeing it transformed later this week with some new turf. As usual with a renovating project there is no money left at the end for all the fun decorating part! I know exactly what I want but it will have to happen gradually. Thank goodness we have lots of different chairs scattered around our wrap around veranda that can be ‘borrowed’ for the pool for a while and at least we have already made the very important purchase of the ‘chilled beverage fridge’!! Now we just need some summery weather….

As I propelled myself back to full health we made a few trips to Shoalhaven Heads where we can walk the Choccy Drop guilt free on the beach as it is an official leash free zone. She loves nothing more than running off into the shallows chasing a ball or just sniffing all the interesting things that get washed up on the beach. She comes home bedraggled, exhausted and very happy to sleep the rest of the afternoon in the sunshine on the veranda. A dog’s life indeed!! A new venture has just started up at The Heads, Bangalay Villas and Dining, a well thought out eco friendly retreat right on the beach and it’s lovely to be able to go there for a coffee or some breakfast after our walks! It’s a step up on the local eateries and I hope that people embrace it as The Heads will be an even nicer destination with a few more options for dining.

We also ventured to The Heads Pub for a fun Melbourne Cup Lunch, it was a lovely relaxed day with a few wins on the ponies, a nice lunch and some great chats with friends old and new on our table. A big thanks to my friend Leigh for lending me her lovely fascinator and earning me a best dressed prize and to Maryan who went above and beyond with organising the day….

In the continuation of this years proclamation of news in The Cameron family, I am very excited to share that we have an engagement in the family! Liv and Sam were on holiday up on the Sunshine Coast when he proposed and she actually said yes!!! Doesn’t she know what a crazy family she is getting into??? Hahaha!! We are all thrilled and very excited to welcome her into the Cameron Clan and to have yet another wonderful event to look forward to. Our cup well and truly runneth over…Isn’t love grand!

The gorgeous couple, congratulations guys ♥♥

Struck down by a fast moving mystery virus that seemed to change on a daily basis we set off from Hobart in our hire car thankfully unaware of what lay ahead and optimistic as always that it would “just be a 24 hour thing” and a few hours later we pulled into Coles Bay in the beautiful Freycinet National Park. I spent a couple of days here about 7 years ago and absolutely fell in love with it and was keen to show Sandy all the area had to offer. Our little cabin in The Big 4 Caravan Park would normally have sufficed with us being out all day exploring, walking and eating our  way around the Bay but it ended up being like a prison as we succumbed further into an acute tiredness and hacking cough/sore throat/nausea. We had no appetite which meant my very favourite Marine Bay Farm with its amazing oysters was given a big miss as were all the local restaurants and their delicious local pinots….sigh. Determined not to miss out on all the area had to offer we dug deep and walked up to the Wineglass Bay lookout. Up through beautiful pink granite and amazing rock formations we went, enjoying the view from the top and capable of no further walking we were happy to trundle downhill and call it a day. Our walking friend from The Three Capes arrived that night giving us a perfect excuse to attempt dinner but even a shared pizza was just too much and all we wanted was sleep! Annie had gone downhill after the Capes Walk too but seemed to bounce back much faster than we did which was just as well as she was off to walk The Tarkine! A chance encounter with a wallaby with not one but two babies in her pouch made us feel grateful for this chance to immerse ourselves in nature despite our bodies not coming to the party.

Feeling rather grim we were happy to set off the next morning to Cradle Mountain where we had splashed out and rented a lovely cabin complete with a log fire. The amazing Peppers owned Cradle Mountain Lodge was a mere 2 minute walk away on a raised boardwalk where we passed wombats and pademelons galore, all completely oblivious to us and it was an absolute joy to be able to get up so close and personal with them. The huge roaring log fire, leather armchairs and delicious food were all very welcome and the rain only made it feel more cosy indoors and a good excuse to snuggle up and have a few afternoon naps. After not eating for about 5 days we were starting to feel hungry even if we couldn’t manage much (and in Sandy’s case, she couldn’t taste much either!) so thankfully on our last night we made it to the restaurant and actually enjoyed our meal. We had forced ourselves to go to Dove Lake where you can walk the 6km circuit through many different environments, lush green woodland, exposed stone tracks (mostly going up, always up…) and finally you arrive at the iconic boatshed which is such a well known picture immediately associated with Cradle Mountain. It had rained for 3/4 of the walk and we were cold and soaked through, but quite chuffed with ourselves for doing it nonetheless. You can knock The Bradley sisters down but not completely out thank you very much!!!

 

We drove into Launceston absolutely pooped and despite previous thoughts about walking The Gorge we literally collapsed into a heap, ordered some take away which we mostly didn’t eat and fell into bed. We were SOOOO looking forward to heading back to The Meadow where we could see a doctor, go to a chemist and just recuperate. Our last week together was mostly spent on various verandas sitting, chatting and sleeping! Wayne would leave us sleeping in the morning and come home to us sleeping in the afternoon and even then we could barely make it to 9pm before crashing out again for 9-10 hours! We did manage a few drives, spending a nice hour at Hyams Beach on beautiful Jervis Bay with its whiter than white sand and turquoise water which helped rejuvenate us. Also an hour sitting in the shade of the deep veranda at The Cambewarra Lookout, watching colourful parrots flit to and fro. The owner was concerned enough at my appearance to ask if I was feeling ok which gives you an indication of how well we were going! Luckily all this sitting around gave us many many opportunities to chat about everything under the sun which was what the holiday was primarily all about and despite everything we did have a really lovely time together!

 

The final night arrived and Sam caught a train down to share the last supper and a bonfire with his Aunty before she set off back to the UK. Due to our circumstances she had hardly bought anything to take home but was very pleased to find that our supermarkets sell pink Himalayan pouring salt in 1kg containers and this was one of the very few things she had packed to take back. Sadly and in complete keeping with the rest of the holiday, security at the airport deemed a kilo of salt was 500g too much and confiscated it! Even more sadly, when she went to freshen up in Dubai after a 14 hour flight she discovered that the burly security officers had forgotten to replace her toiletries bag into her hand luggage after rifling through its contents and it contained all her contact lenses and some very expensive items totalling about $400!!! On phoning the airport I was told “the computer shows that nothing was left behind”….grrrrr! I suppose it was a fitting end to a slightly wonky holiday and in true Bradley fashion we laughed when we could easily have cried! Luckily we have a UK holiday planned next year (to see London’s latest mover and shaker) and I am planning a nice trip to Cornwall together with my Mum and Sister so fingers crossed we will have better luck there! It’s always much easier to say goodbye when you know you are going to see each other within 12 months. Bye Sis and thanks for being you  xx

 

So, three weeks later and I’m still not quite right but life is vaguely back to normal and busy again with the pool house coming along nicely although it’s mostly a game of one step forward and two steps back as the builders and the landscapers dance a waltz of whose turn it is to do something next. We do have progress but it’s taking its sweet time. It will all be worth it when it’s finished and we’re enjoying time with our friends and family in that cool blue water…..

 

In even more exciting news there will be yet ANOTHER family member to enjoy it with as I am very happy to announce that my daughter is also expecting a baby next year. She is 9 weeks behind our 1st little grandie with the babies due in February and April!!! How lucky am I??? As my sister says, it’s like waiting for a London bus, there are none for ages and then two come along at once!!! We are super happy and very excited for our growing family. She will have the baby in Vietnam and stay there for another year before heading back to Australia so it looks like we will be regular travellers to Ho Chi Minh City in the next 12 months!! I love the thought of the little cousins growing up so close in age and hopefully being good friends, just like our kids (we had  3 under 4) who have turned out to be such close mates as a result. Very Happy Days Indeed!!!

Our little Grand Bump ♥♥♥

 

If, dear readers, you’ve been wondering where I’ve been, I basically went to Tasmania on holiday with my sister who was visiting from the UK and fell down the proverbial rabbit hole…!! Life has been somewhat on hold for the past few weeks as both us girls battled a tenacious and everchanging virus that was bestowed upon us by a fellow walker who arrived amongst us on Day 2 of our visit and left 10/12 people struggling by Day 5!! We were a small group of 12 walkers thrust together for 3 days of exploring The Three Capes in a wild corner of Tassie. We loved the idea of the trip as we only had to carry day packs and every night we had a comfy bed in a lovely villa at beautiful Stewarts Bay Lodge with a nice dinner and a couple of wines before being whisked off to the next walking location the following day. Sheer luxury in comparison to our last walking ‘holiday’ together when we walked the Portuguese Camino de Santiago and carried our lives on our backs and stayed in Pilgrim Albergues with up to 40 other walkers, so exhausted that we didn’t really care about our bunk bed style accommodation with complete strangers! This was going to be different and we were excited as we landed in Hobart with a spare day before the start of our walk.

We stayed down at Constitution Dock in the middle of happening little Hobart which we LOVED. Our first night was dedicated to meeting up with a girl we went to boarding school in England with 40 years ago and who now lives in Hobart! It was a lovely evening full of local pinot noir and endless conversation about where our lives had taken us in the intervening years and the next day Jenny drove us up to the top of Mount Wellington which looks out majestically over the entire Hobart area and is well worth the drive. We took a ferry to MONA (Museum of old and new art) which in itself is the most amazing building and thrust ourselves into a rather Alice in Wonderland-esque world where nothing is quite as it seems. Some of it was fantastic, others a little weird but we had a great day, including a lovely lunch outside in the sunshine. We were optimistic about what lay ahead…..

So in what can only be said was a state of “not as fit as we thought we would be by now” we turned up at our collection point looking the business in our hiking boots and brandishing walking poles like pros. That’s about where it started and finished as we realised we were probably the weakest duo of the group and could potentially hold these people up on the trail. Luckily the company we booked with ‘Life’s an Adventure’ had 2 guides especially so they could take a stronger AND weaker group at a slightly different pace, ensuring that everyone got something out of the walk. Day 1 was the EASY day apparently and we did complete it despite struggling on the uphill stretches. Our fearless leader Barry was a mine of information and pointed out all the flora and fauna along the way and stopped frequently for photo opportunities. It is certainly a beautiful part of the world. So wild and craggy with huge black sheer granite cliffs with massive waves smashing against them but also inland forests of trees covered in moss and lichen, a fairyland where you wouldn’t be surprised to come across a gnome sitting on a toadstool!!

That night after a hot shower we bundled into our van and had dinner overlooking the historic site of Port Arthur, all lit up and a living reminder of how far we have come since those initial years of settlement. It really is a beautiful part of the world with a special quality that you can’t quite put your finger on. We were all tucked up in bed by 9.30pm anticipating another full day ahead. We had already opted for the shorter walk so that we could visit Port Arthur in the afternoon and the weather was shaping up to be just perfect. The day dawned as predicted and we enjoyed a beautiful walk along to Fortescue Bay showing us more woodland hugging the coastline and many different flowers and evidence of native animals, in particular the Tasmanian Devil. We never saw one but followed their trails. Dappled sunshine and a slower pace meant we really enjoyed this walk and thoroughly enjoyed our tourist status at the Lavender Farm and later on through the now very serene grounds of Port Arthur which was right next door to our Lodge.

This was our favourite day and as the first ominous signs of a tickly throat and cough made themselves present we didn’t think for a minute it was going to affect us adversely. Day 3 dawned and we set off in a Shotover style boat to explore the 3rd Cape – Cape Pillar. Thank goodness we did as we were told for once and donned about 10 layers of clothing as things really revved up once we got out of the Bay and we were zooming at wharp speed towards some of the most awe inspiring cliffs. Hardcore climbers like to climb this vertical pillar and walk along the spine of the cliffs but we were content to stay in the boat and appreciate their sheer vertical-ness and magnificence from the water! It was FREEZING though, a couple of tough German guys had turned up in shorts and tee shirts and I can only imagine how cold they must have been!

Then the final walk, wending our way up stone stairs up and around the cliffs, up and up and up! It was tough and a few people had either stayed in the van or turned back and by the time we got back there were people asleep all over the van, a bad sign of what was to come as it turns out…. Unfortunately the very nature of the van hadn’t helped as we were basically hermetically sealed within it, no windows opened and we had to rely on aircon for “fresh” air as we bumped along the track. This meant we all shared Lyn’s germs,including the tour leader and full grown men with most of us gonners by the time we made it back to Hobart. The final insult was still to come. As we all fell out of the van, so keen for a shower and a comfy bed Barry informed us that we had lost the door to our trailer on the bumpy track and that 2 of our cases were missing. Two guesses as to who they belonged to! Actually we were lucky that Sandy still had hers so we could at least share some clean clothes and toiletries but until I heard a few hours later that the cases had been found I was definitely a bit down in the dumps! A lovely Belgian couple came across the cases looking very out of place on the track and took them back to the lodge (luckily we still had their labels on them) where they managed to track us down and by 10.30 the next day we had them back, a little worse for wear but much better than the alternatives!

So we went to bed thinking tomorrow would be a better day, the start of our more relaxed stage 2 of the walking trip, self guided and looking forward to all the amazing local food and wine that lay ahead for us. Onwards and Upwards and all that jazz we muttered with British optimism……

Sadly this sums us up perfectly……

 

 

Nope, not the chooks. The last of the kids. Our baby. He left the nest several years ago but now he has flown 12000 miles away to live in the country I left 35 years ago to come here. Ironic eh?

It was a hard few weeks building up to his flight on Sunday with so many conflicting things going through my head, the biggest of which was how very much I was going to physically miss him. He has a big personality with a tendency to make everyone smile which will be greatly missed. His relationship with his siblings is very close but that with his brother is closer still, the yin to his yang and I know they will really miss each other . To be honest though, this era is SO MUCH EASIER than 1983 when I left the UK to live in Australia. Back then there was no internet, no email, no mobile phones, no Skype, no Facebook or Whatsapp. Just the good old bluey. An airmail letter that took about 6 weeks to get anywhere and was yesterday’s news by the time it plopped onto the floor of the porch at Mum’s place. A phone call meant a trip to Martin Place and the GPO to book a 3 minute call to the UK. You paid in advance and waited until your name was called to a phone booth and then the longed for call to hear your families voices ensued, with beeps every 30 seconds to alert you to the impending END of the call which made everyone a bit twitchy and didn’t really lend itself to any deep and meaningful conversation but was a highlight of our week/fortnight or month nonetheless!! So in this instance times have definitely changed for the better! He even had wifi on the plane so really it wasn’t so different from him being 2 hours up the road!!

Luckily we had an amazing 10 days together before he flew off. A wedding where he MC’d for one of his best mates in the middle of it but plenty of time to just do the simple things that The Meadow is famous for, waking up to the views, the cows and walking on the beach or up the country lanes with Bailey. A visit to his nearly 92 year old Pop was special, then he packed his life into a suitcase, did some job research and the odd online interview and before we knew it his last weekend was here. A request for Beef Wellington and a bonfire seemed easy enough (but by goodness that is one hard sucker to cook perfectly!) and several gorgeous bottles of 20 year old wine from his brother and Dad made for a memorable last supper and then on a sunny Spring day he gave us one long last hug and off he went! Now he is living the London life in Fulham and starting a wonderful adventure for which I am wholeheartedly excited for him. We have plans to meet up with him over there next June which makes it a bit easier but I am however starting to think this is my default setting, forever saying goodbye to the people I love who live in another country. Thank goodness for Sam, Liv and the peanut who remain a mere 2 hour drive away!!

In the meantime the pool project continues. More trucks, more mess and still no end in sight but we do have a lovely sparkly pool which was christened by the London bound son despite the freezing temperature of the water! We await various builders and landscapers to complete their side of things before trucking back in the soil we dug out, this time to back fill around the pool and then re turf to make it all look pretty!! As usual my mind is surging ahead to the time I can decorate the new Cabana, keeping a picture of our entire family enjoying it next Xmas firmly in my mind to offset the current devastation of the lawn!!! Of course this week decided to also bring about the demise of my washing machine, the septic tank alarm was relentless for 24 hours as the pump had a spac attack and on top of that when my new washing machine finally got delivered I needed a plumber to come and move the connection tap as it couldn’t accommodate the new tubing! Aaaaaarghhhh!! It doesn’t rain but it pours as they say!!

These are my finished inspiration pics to keep me sane!!

Meanwhile the garden is bursting into life despite the lack of rain. Nature really is quite amazing isn’t it? My apricot tree is blossoming ahead of it’s promise of fruit for tarts and jam, the trees are coming into leaf and the wisteria is delighting us with it’s perfume and purple flowers. The roses are already starting to flower and the bees are in heaven in the lavender and flowering sage and rosemary. My hydrangeas are leafy and some even have small flowers forming but unfortunately we woke up yesterday to 2 huge hares chowing down on them as a breakfast treat. One very annoyed chocolate dog chased them to the boundary rather incensed at their uninvited visit to HER property! We really need some rain and you can bet your bottom dollar that it teems down the minute the builders or landscapers arrive or even worse the day my sister arrives here from the UK next week! Murphy’s Law……Onwards and Upwards folks!

 

Well what a few weeks we’ve had. From the bush fires and gale force winds of a few weeks ago to balmy Spring days which hoodwinked the trees and flowers into blooming and now cold and finally WET days! Needless to say this coincided with the day all the men and machinery arrived to dig the hole for our pool!!! Just call us the drought breakers! Ironically it was also day 1 of water restrictions brought in to combat dwindling dam levels. All round it’s just the best possible time to be putting a pool in…..not!! It has been amazing to see everything happen so quickly, the huge hole was dug in one day, the pool was hoisted in from the back of a huge  truck on day 2, all the plumbing and pump installation was done on day 3 and by the end of this week the concrete surrounds will be in and ready for the landscapers! I can already imagine some hot summer days luxuriating in the cool water …..

Despite it not being the best conditions for us personally, we are very happy to see the rain, especially after being away the past 2 weekends in The Tablelands which are SO dry that you only see about 3 colours of the spectrum no matter where you look! A uniquely Australian landscape but one now scattered with skeletons of the animals that were a bit too small or weak or sick to manage walking miles and miles to try and find some feed. Salt licks packed with nutrients are now being used by the farmers that can afford them. At around $150 each they are yet another drain on their rapidly dwindling finances.

We stayed with our friend Craig who lives on 50 acres in a house he built himself in one of the coldest parts of NSW but with his wood fire pumping out the heat and a lovely home cooked meal it was easy to forget the outside world for a while. In the morning when I took Bailey for a walk I could hardly see her as she blended into the burnt orangey brown landscape like a shadow and thankfully for once in her life she didn’t venture into the icy cold water in the dam, it would have taken hours for her to warm up if she had!

Spring (despite recent days) is starting to arrive. The blossoms are out, the wisteria has long fuzzy buds which will soon burst into flower, I have gazillions of baby mulberries forming on the tree and small limey new leaves are unfurling on some of our trees. Baby birds are in evidence, one little crimson rosella who was obviously a learner flyer got trapped in the garage and it’s little chest was heaving with panic and anxiety as it tried to get out through the back window. I managed to settle it down under a towel and gently slide the window open until it could escape. It sat in our tree for an hour recovering before it flew off to find Mum! As we drive down the road we can see little tiny black bundles in the bleached grass as calves arrive to Mums who hardly get enough food for themselves let alone another mouth to feed. Fingers crossed things turn around soon.

It has been a busy time on the family front with our “you-only-live-once” daughter moving to Bangkok for a four month stint to work with The United Nations. This has been a long held dream of hers and she is absolutely loving being in the midst of so many passionate people who are all trying to make a difference to the world in some way. She turns 30 tomorrow and will spend it by herself at work (not quite as bad as her last birthday when she was in hospital in Ho Chi Minh City with Dengue Fever) but her hubby and close friends are all planning trips to visit her in the next few weeks and I’m going to plan a few days in November so she will have plenty of mini breaks to look forward to over the upcoming weeks and months.

The long farewell continues for Tom as he packs up his Sydney life to move to London. Work here is now officially over and he is down in The Meadow getting last minute paperwork done, new UK bank accounts and updating his passports, drivers license and phone before launching himself into his new adventure. I had a lovely farewell lunch with both the boys on a perfect sunny Sydney day last week and I’m sure that Tom will think back on it fondly once he is in grey old London!!! We’re all going to miss his happy personality very much……

My Boys!

What a couple of weeks it has been for our South Coast community! We were already very much aware of the plight of our local and not so local farmers during this endless drought and everyone had dug deep to contribute money/hay/food/clothes as well as time and petrol to deliver everything to the hardest hit areas when the seasonal winter winds decided to make themselves felt and make things even worse.

Large branches of huge gum trees were snapped off in the 100kmph gale force winds, falling onto power lines and sparking fires in the crisp brittle undergrowth, flames starting in mere seconds and spreading like the wildfire it was. The combination of drought conditions and high winds meant that embers were flying up to 6kms ahead of the fire front, starting several other grass fires and spreading way too close to houses and farms. Schools and businesses were evacuated and we were warned by the rural fire service to action our bushfire evacuation plans and “watch and act”. Despite the fire coming within 5kms of our property I was never really convinced it would affect us as the wind was blowing it directly past us at 100kmph and towards the coast. A change of direction could have made things tricky though and we do live in a wooden house! So we have now added to our to do list to make an evacuation plan – just in case.

As is usual in country areas, everyone banded together to help and it was so gratifying to see offers of accommodation from nearby guest houses and wineries for rescue workers or evacuated people with nowhere to go, offers from safe properties to take livestock from the danger area, local cafes and bakeries relaying coffees and burgers to the wonderful Firies and people with dams and swimming pools spray painting large X’s in their backyards for the water bombing helicopters to use. Our friends in Milton ended up with extra sheep, cows, horses and people (the 1st picture is taken from their farm) and their daughter who runs the lovely cafe Duke & Co Cafe in Milton was keeping the rescue services fed and watered (above)and they are just a handful of the stories we heard that day. Sadly one helicopter pilot was killed in the high winds, apart from some shedding no property was lost but over 2000 hectares of land has been burned out.

The good thing was that this happened in Winter when we still had cool temperatures. The bad thing was that this happened in Winter which means we are going to be in serious trouble come the hot days of Summer. We really need some rain, days and days  of it and soon, to be able to stave off severe fires and catastrophic conditions for our crops and cattle in the coming months. The Drought Drive that I mentioned in the last blog was a huge success and has brought a ray of hope to farmers who were contemplating shooting their animals and walking off their farms that have been in their families for generations. I heard the other day that one farmer was spending $70,000 PER WEEK on supplementary feeding for his livestock. $280,000 a month. No wonder they are suicidal. On the day the Drought Drive arrived however there were many happy faces and an overwhelming feeling of love and gratitude to receive such a huge amount of donations from the  ordinary Aussies who felt their pain and decided to do something about it.

In a different vein but with similar gratitude and respect for our local growers, we supported a Long Table Lunch at the beautiful Claydon Park with local chefs and local growers coming together to give us a delicious and creative lunch with some uniquely Australian entertainment in the form of one Mr Murray (Muz) Hartin, a bush poet and storyteller extraordinaire who manages to capture the essence of Australia in both funny and sad ways. His poem ‘Rain from Nowhere’ sums up the predicament a lot of our farmers find themselves in today. I highly recommend listening to it and I defy you not to cry…….

Just before conditions went pear shaped our good mates Baz and Cath joined us for a few days and we enjoyed some time out at local winery Mountain Ridge, in the afternoon sun listening to some live music and thinking that life was pretty damn good. We had started the day with home squeezed orange juice for our champagne breakfast. I made a lovely spicy tagine with eggs and fetta as a change from the usual Full English and we enjoyed a bonfire under a million stars that night (before the wind changed everything….)

Despite everything, nature continues to do its thing and our garden is springing into life, soft lime green leaves are unfurling on trees and plants, the pear trees are blossoming and the roses and hydrangeas are all full of buds for the next seasons flowers. Our veggie patch has been blown to bits but luckily I had staked anything that grew higher than 4 inches so we still have broccoli, broad beans,spinach and cabbages with a rather optimistic early planting of tomatoes battling the westerly wind to hopefully flourish and give us the yummiest of home grown crops, sweet (unsprayed) tomatoes! Already we have had fat juicy stalks of early asparagus push up through the dry soil much to our amazement and 10mls of rain has been forecast for this weekend so we cross our fingers and toes that they are accurate and nature gets a bit of a helping hand prior to Springs arrival on September 1st. Bring on the sound of big fat raindrops on our tin roof, is there any better sound to go to sleep to??

We have just come back from a week’s holiday in The Barossa Valley in South Australia with our great friends of 30 years who share our love of good food and wine, cosy open fires and lovely old buildings. It didn’t disappoint. We stayed in this cute little stone house in Tanunda and had delicious food, literally Every Single Meal was wonderful and all swished down with some of the local grenache which we took to like ducks to water. Every morning we swore we couldn’t possibly eat or drink another thing and then somehow by 10.30am we were back at another winery being led through yet another tasting!! Our intention was to mainly buy wines only available at the cellar door and within a certain budget and for the most part we stuck to that plan and since returning I have had to make a daily visit to our local post office to pick up our purchases, I’m sure the new lady there thinks I’m a total lush as I stagger out of the door with yet another carton of goodies!The weather was pretty good, chilly enough to enjoy being indoors (yes eating and drinking AGAIN) but not too cold to enjoy a walk through some of the beautiful wine estates. The local ironstone made for very uniquely South Australian architecture, mostly built by German migrants back in the 1850’s who arrived with vines from the old country and started vineyards reminiscent of their homelands. In fact the oldest Shiraz, Grenache and Cabernet vines in the world are in The Barossa as the phylloxera infestation wiped out entire countries of vines in Europe after they left and ironically gave the very new territory of Australia the oldest vines in the world by default.Another famous and well loved place to visit is Maggie Beer’s Pheasant Farm and Farm Shop which stocks all her many yummy jams, dressings, chutneys, pastes, ice creams and books as well as a great cafe run by her daughter Elli, The Eatery. All this is located on a scenic lake. Seriously, what’s not to like?

It was such a luxury to basically do nothing for a week housework and cooking wise. To be able to lie in without feeling guilty about letting out the chooks or the dogs or the fact that we should be up watering our parched garden. I read an entire book, learned how to play Euchre (semi successfully) and we all spruced up on our Scrabble however there was a bit of an outcry when JB got away with this….. however according to Google it is apparently an acceptable Scrabble word. What is the world coming to I ask you? Dunno.

So after a lovely week away it was back to The Meadow, 2kgs heavier and a lot poorer but nicely relaxed and ready to get back to it. Everything had survived beautifully without us, including the house which we loaned to Tom and his mates for the weekend in exchange for getting Bailey out of the kennels for some R&R. However the combination of the lack of any rainfall and the arrival of  our (not so favourite) August winds has really brought it home how very dry it is EVERYWHERE now. The inland has been suffering for months, even years in some places, but now the normally lush and verdant coastal areas are also officially in drought. Some people call it a green drought as there is still some form of plant material in the ground but it has little to no nutrition and every farm that can afford it is now hand feeding. Finally, with a lot of help from social media, everyone is now aware of the plight of the farmers and people from far and wide are eager to help in whatever way they can. People have chipped in for hay bales and feed for cattle and truckies have formed convoys to deliver them throughout our wide brown land and give those most in need a little helping hand.

Many people were able to donate food and provisions to help the farmers but there has been a lack of available people to drive the big distances to deliver them. My work buddy Danielle has come together with some other local horsey families to help deliver some much needed goodies and they are off to Yeoval . Yeoval is a quiet rural service centre on the crossroads between Dubbo, Wellington and Parkes. It is surrounded by rich agricultural land known for its production of fine wool, wheat, orchards, canola, vineyards, beef cattle and lambs and is a town famed for its connections with ‘Banjo’ Paterson who spent his first seven years on the family property, ‘Buckinbah’. An archetypal Aussie farming community and one that has so far missed out on any of the relief programs so this Sunday they are going off in their own little convoy of Utes and horse floats and taking along our contributions. It is thanks to these good souls who are giving up their time and petrol to get to things done that this week the people of Yeoval will be enjoying some food parcels (thank you also to our number one son and my friends from The Bay for helping to contribute to our donation seen here). More importantly these country folk are feeling the love from everyone far and wide and are feeling valued in a very tough time when properties are being abandoned after being in the family for generations and livestock slaughtered as they can see no way out. In return Yeoval is putting on a shindig for these #aussiehelpers on Sunday at their local bowling club which had to recently reduce their staff to a bare minimum due to no one having any money to spend on going out so this weekend will mean they can pay a few extra people to work and the event will give the town something to look forward to.  You can follow their progress on ‘ABCD drought Drive’ on Facebook. Thanks so much guys  xx

In other very exciting news The Meadow will be hearing the pitter patter of tiny feet in 2019. The Cameron family is expanding and we are absolutely thrilled to be joining the Grandparent Club. The cubby house that lies under our giant pear tree will have to be cleaned out, painted and decorated in honour of this new little member of the clan and I look forward to showing ‘Peanut’ all things country in the coming years. Can you tell that we’re just a tad excited? Happy Days!

 

A wisp of smoke curls lazily upwards from the chimney on an old tin roofed farmhouse up on the hill. Not a breath of wind disturbs the morning landscape which has frozen like a photo, a captured moment in time of a widespread morning frost. The grass crunches underfoot and twigs are snap frozen. So pretty to us but not for the cows in the paddock, the chickens in the coop or my new seedlings in the veggie patch. Australia is generally such a mild climate, especially where we are,  so close to the beach and not too far north or south. Our weather is pretty close to perfect with four distinct seasons, hardly any humidity and temperate nights. Cold enough to grow some lovely English plants in a cottage garden but warm enough to enjoy the swimming pool for at least 6 months a year. No wonder they call it the Lucky Country.

In between the horribly cold days we are having mild sunshiny days more reminiscent of Spring! Balmy days of 20-22 degrees and definitely tee shirt weather. Bailey loves nothing more than lying stretched out on the soft grass in the warm air, not a care in the world and I couldn’t help pulling over to snap a photo of beautiful Gerringong on a drive back from Kiama on a perfect day with not a breath of wind (not that that will last of course….)

At the end of these unseasonably warm days we often get a thunderstorm that rolls in over the escarpment or rumbles menacingly out at sea, splitting the sky apart with lightening and causing a strange eerie light and the odd hail storm. Talk about four seasons in one day!

It is action stations at the top of our lane as the upgrade to the road begins in earnest. Thanks to the latest budget approval for squillions of dollars to be invested in South Coast roads we are surrounded by trucks, road work signs and men and women in high vis vests from 8am until 4pm and as they are currently moving and replacing the power poles we have whole days with no electricity. Despite hitherto thinking my new life was fairly self sufficient I realise this is complete nonsense as soon as the power goes. Even my gas fire has an electric starter and I have no internet at home without wifi which means I am reduced to either going for a long walk or gardening if the weather behaves or sorting out my wardrobe or my overly large magazine collection in the near dark at home if it doesn’t. It was quite peaceful reading my book on the veranda until it got cold and even then I couldn’t have a cuppa. The second day they inflicted this on us I fired up the gas barbie for my cuppa, no one is keeping this little English girl from her cup of tea!

Abigail, our last remaining original chook, passed over the rainbow bridge this week. It always happens when I’m home alone and I’m no better now than I was 3 years ago at dealing with it. I am good in the lead up to the end though. As they are usually a bit immobile for a day or two prior I finally have enough courage to crouch down and stroke them lovingly and give them little treats. A last supper of bacon rinds and spinach and a dish of water within drinking distance of her beak so she is comfortable at least. The other chickens couldn’t give a toss or at least that is how it seems, carrying on with their day as if nothing is different and even clambering over her to get to the nesting boxes to lay their eggs. Just another day in the chook house to them. So we are now down to three girls in the coop which actually gives us more eggs than we need for the most part but when our white chicken goes (she’s next in line!!) we may buy a few more as the black ones seem quite gentle and hopefully will be kind to the newcomers….

With Tom’s imminent departure looming in our calendar and an increased sense of limited opportunities to spend time together, we enjoyed a lovely family weekend snuggled up against the cold winds one day and out on the veranda basking in the sunshine the next. Sam brought down an amazing piece of pork shoulder with a ‘secret’ rub that we slow cooked for 10 hours and which was delicious and we broke open a few of the good reds from the cellar to toast potential future adventures in London Town. The boys will miss each other that’s for sure and we will then have 2/3 of our kids living abroad. Thank goodness we now live in a high tech world where we can chat as much as we like for free with Skype, Whatsapp, Facetime, Viber etc which helps the gap feel slightly less than the 12000 and 3500 miles respectively that it is in reality!

Bailey as usual was in her element with so many people to play with and spent the whole weekend being walked, fed and played with, but her VERY favourite time of day (apart from mealtimes) is first thing in the morning when she is extremely cuddly and Liv made the most of the opportunity for some doggy snuggles. A mutual love affair ♥

She really is such a lovely dog, no matter who comes to the house she greets them with a friendly sniff and a wagging tail. We have never trained her with regular treats but each of us may reward her at various times for her behaviour. I did giggle when I saw this though as I’m sure this is the kind of thing that must go through her head at times!

 

I’m not quite sure what I was expecting from my new life in the country. Was I going to miraculously turn into an amazing baker, pulling fresh scones out of the oven to accompany my homemade jams? Was I going to go ‘au naturelle’ and wear homespun clothes and very little makeup? Was I going to take up knitting, weaving or spinning? All these things somehow seemed ‘countryish’ before I got here, but then I realised I could pretty much have the exact same life I had in the city just with prettier views and less pressure to conform to a type. I’m free to either slob around in my gardening clothes all day ‘sans make up’ or get snazzed up and look as if I’m visiting from Moss Vale (my son’s words….), it really is completely up to me and somehow I don’t seem to be judged or treated differently either way. My Mum, who looks amazing at 82 and thanks to her life in England has better skin than me, will always make an effort to go the extra mile, even if she’s only popping up the road for a pint of milk. She has a ‘be the best you can be at all times’ type philosophy and one that I admire whilst simultaneously not wanting to HAVE to feel I have to get made up to leave the house. This inevitably leads to me NOT “putting my face on” 60% of the time and makes “going out” special once again. When our city friends come to stay I must admit I enjoy having a reason to get dressed up, making the effort is enjoyable and the rest of the time I’m learning not to freak out when I catch a glimpse of my everyday self in the mirror when I pass by!!! Ageing graciously isn’t always easy…..!!

So life in the country is different every day. No scones or weaving here but plenty of little surprises to keep this little city girl happy. This week I was delighted to come across a big ring of field mushrooms in the middle of our lawn and eagerly picked a large bowl full, anticipating them fried up in butter, garlic and parsley on local sourdough toast for breakfast but they ended up being used in a tasty chicken and mushy braise courtesy of Neil Perry, (recipe has been added to the kitchen section.)

Country life sometimes throws you a curve ball too and I was more than slightly concerned when I sighted a pile of white feathers in the garden one morning. “Nothing good will come of this” I thought as I wandered over to investigate , and despite the fact that there was nothing there other than feathers it’s pretty obvious that Mr Fox had an early morning snack of some sort on our property, merely leaving the fluffy evidence and nothing more. Maybe it was one of the many white corellas that fly over us every day at this time of year. They fly in huge groups of several hundred birds which we can hear coming for ages before we see the white cloud on the horizon, a cacophony that makes you look skyward….

The country I am now starting to become more aware of is the plight of the local farmers. We have had hardly any rain and any that we HAVE had has been at the wrong time for sowing/planting and as a result there has been very little extra feed available for the cows. The corn that was planted only had one cob of corn per stalk as opposed to the usual 3-4 making it much less nutritious for the cattle and everywhere I look people are hand feeding their stock. Horses, cows and goats are all straining over the fences of their paddocks that butt up to residential property to get to that little bit of grass that is always greener on the other side and the cows are eating well past sunset and into the darkness to try and get enough energy to keep warm in these cold winter months. One thing I hadn’t considered before was the drinking water for the cows. Our farmer neighbour was mentioning the huge water bills that they get when it doesn’t rain as cattle drink a lot and they then have to hand water as well as hand feed them ending up with water bills up to $10,000 per year just for a smallish farm. All these things should contribute to the end price of meat and milk products but mostly it is the farmer that has to cop it on the chin as the middle man refuses to pay more than XXX per litre of milk or kilo of meat. No wonder people are leaving the land in droves or selling out to big corporations. Who else could afford the vagaries of today’s weather patterns and the ever increasing requirements from government and their food rules.

What IS lovely about country living is having visitors and we have had quite a few in the past few weeks. It’s always so lovely to get a call asking if we will be around and then spending time with people we rarely get to see. Such was the case when our son in laws parents phoned from Tassie to say they would be passing by on their way up north in their caravan and would we be home? A great couple of days spent golfing, eating and chatting about our merged families ensued before we waved them off on their way to warmer climes..!!

Then a weekend with our youngest followed with lots of animated chats about his imminent move to London and all that was involved with that. As it was a beautiful sunny and warm weekend day we decided to give the Choccy Drop a bath which she tolerated with a decidedly unimpressed expression! I’m certainly going to miss our funny, lovable and life-be-in-it son but I encourage him wholeheartedly on his adventure.

Then, in what is becoming a bit of a tradition, we hosted a Xmas In July weekend with some friends who we always have fun with and who love good food. The star of the show – the porchetta – came from one of Phil and Karen’s pigs at Claydon Park in Milton and was cooked to perfection by the MOTH in the pizza oven. It is so wonderful to be able to eat locally grown (and loved) meat that you know hasn’t had anything dodgy added to it and that tastes divine. We managed to add in a pumpkin from our neighbour, our own carrots and a homemade custard made with our own eggs to accompany the Xmas pud. That’s fairly country I reckon! An excuse to eat in our dining room for a change with a log fire burning and some lovely wines to bring out the conversation! One of the real beauties of country living is that people stay over and you have so much more time together than on a city dinner date. Thank you to our lovely friends and all their many contributions to a great day, there’s nothing like chatting until late at night and talking about things that have been important or changed your life over the past 50 years or so, we are lucky to have such special people to share our lives with.

True friends are very important, people you can enjoy time with and that support each other but the bottom line is you have to be happy in your own skin and with your own life. Maybe that means you finally do that course that teaches you to paint, speak French or play the guitar. Maybe it means you finally lose those extra pounds, get fit or have your teeth straightened. Maybe you search out those old friends or family you have fallen out of communication with. If you hate your job get brave and change it. If you are in a bad relationship, get the courage to leave it. We only get one go at this big thing called life and although it’s scary to change things, if you just take a leap out of your comfort zone for a while you can often achieve things that you only ever dreamed about. So many people thought we were mad when we said we were moving to the country, especially at our “stage” of life but it has made us very happy and if you never give things a go how will you ever know?