It has been a very busy week in The Meadow. We had 3 different sets of guests in a 5 day period and it was like a little B&B with all the sheet changing! It was really lovely to see everyone though and well worth any extra housework! Sue arrived from Moruya just in time to celebrate Berry Merry Christmas where the whole of Berry seemingly participated in a big Xmas Parade along the main street which involved road closures and detours for the major traffic going to Sydney. So lovely to see everyone turn out to cheer on the Santa dash, with everything from sprints to bike races to 3 legged races and stroller races so that everyone could join in the fun.

About the only way that I would participate in a street run is if this applied……

The shops stayed open for some late night shopping and the pub was packed with contented diners after a fun evening. We enjoyed our girly sleepover catch up and after a coffee in The Burrows the next day I bid her a fond farewell.

I guess the most important of the comings (and more pertinently, the goings) this week was the fact that Cam resigned. It was a bit of a shock at first despite the fact I knew he had been unhappy since the company was taken over by a global company based in Brisbane. Two of them were essentially trying to do the work that 7 had done previously and something had to give. As he wasn’t prepared to move to Queensland and they didn’t want him working from home 5 days a week he wasn’t left with much choice. As his role is not an easy one to replace it looks like he will most probably have to work until next April whilst they hire and then train the new person. It still feels a bit scary. The prospect of not actually earning any more money and having to live on your savings for potentially another 25 years is enough to make you come out in a cold sweat but I guess we’re no different from everyone else that goes through this stage. It seems ironic that once you get the time and freedom to travel you have to be a bit more careful about how much you spend! No wonder there are so many Grey Nomads with their campervans and caravans out there!!

There were a lot of people coming to Berry this weekend for the inaugural Fairgounds Music Festival – an Indie folk festival that enjoyed a beautiful day and night of weather and was a big success. The whole town was full of people and we had queues at all the cafes and pubs so I guess it was good for all the local businesses too.

We thought it was about time we allowed our chooks to come and go as well. They have a huge enclosed run including some shade under our huge pear tree and some sunny open areas where they like to make their dust nests but chickens love to scratch around and peck at a large range of things (how they would love to get into my veggie patch – Nirvana indeed) so our lovely Smutzer came down to make a new door in the fence with a little drawbridge for them to get out into the garden. It was a work of art and well deserved the ribbon ceremony for its official opening as The Chook Mahal!!!

    

FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our last guests were my nephew and his girlfriend who have been living in Europe for the last 7 years or so and are now back in Oz to live under sunnier skies. They had never really been south of Sydney and I think the green rolling hills and the local countryside reminded Jill of England as it does with me.  

It was lovely to catch up with them after all this time and we waved them off to Sydney from a nice vineyard we hadn’t been to before – The Crooked River Winery in Gerringong. It has a rightly deserved reputation for good food and with it’s beautiful views out over the vines we will definitely go back (just remember to book a table by the windows for that gorgeous view!)

Weddings are popular here and the knot is usually tied under this magnificent old tree!

 

The last little comings and goings are our baby Willy Wagtails. Cam noticed their nest last week and we had admired their workmanship – a perfect nest with high sides to protect their babies. He noticed they were out of the nest but not yet flying and I managed to capture them patiently waiting for Mum and Dad to come back with dinner. They are just gorgeous and looked so cute all in a row. The next morning they were gone so this was a perfectly timed photo!!

 

There is a lovely tea shop in Berry called strangely enough The Berry Tea Shop and last Friday I met up with my friend Leanne for a girly morning tea complete with beautiful home made scones, jam and proper thick cream. Choosing a tea to have wasn’t easy as there are LOADS of choices. I finally went with the wonderfully named Iron Goddess of Mercy tea and it was really enjoyable. I have been meaning to branch out from the standard English Breakfast and Earl Grey for ages and now I really have no excuse with so much choice right down the road!!

My sister had already discovered this place online from the UK and arranged with them to deliver me a gorgeous teapot and 2 huge cups and saucers as a house warming present so I have everything I need to start experimenting. This shop also sells the most fabulous quirky teapot cosies the like of which I haven’t seen since my days in the UK!! Together with their yummy cake selection I think it’s my new favourite place to meet!!

Now I’m not sure how many of you know, but our house is called Germania. It initially irritated the hell out of me – it just seems such a harsh name for such a lovely old house. Before we moved here we thought we would rename the house. Cam really wanted to call it Lochiel after the Scottish area his ancestors hailed from. I came up with all sorts of flowery names like Meadow View, Jasmine Cottage or even The White House as everyone refers to it as that white house at the end of the lane – but what happens if we want to paint it a different colour one day??? As we have tried to embrace the house as it is instead of inflicting too many of our designs on to it, we haven’t rushed into any name changes and as it turns out it is actually a valid part of the history of the house apparently. The house was built by Charles Lamond whose grandfather John Lamond sailed from the Scottish Highlands (see there is a Scottish link after all) on the ship John Barry in 1837 arriving in The Shoalhaven area and working on The Coolangatta estate before being granted his own selection at Worrigee where he worked as a bacon curer in his father’s factory. After the death of his wife he married his German housekeeper, built Germania and ran Ayrshire cattle for milking at Meroo Meadow which was then a large farm. Many of his descendants still reside in The Shoalhaven region and several remain involved in the dairy industry to this day.

     So folks – do we keep the name or not?

The library saga is (almost) over. After 5 months we finally have it installed and functioning!! It isn’t an all together happy ending however. Michael the cabinet maker is a consummate perfectionist. The reason it has taken so long is his attention to detail and also the fact that they have never made a bed in a cupboard before! On their first effort in installing the bed mechanism one of the hydraulic springs sheared off and we had to get a replacement from Sydney. That delivery ended up in Orange instead of Berry (got the wrong fruit) and it took a week to arrive down here. When they came to install it the second time they discovered they had been sent the spring for the wrong side. Swear words were exchanged with the Sydney store and one of their staff ended up driving down at the weekend to hand deliver the correct part!!!!Needless to say I was very happy to come back from work yesterday to see their truck in the driveway in the knowledge that I was finally going to get my completed library/spare bed. Apparently they had been there for 4 hours as when the final spring was installed the cupboard would not now shut properly…..aaaaagggghhhh- what else can go wrong on this job?? They did everything they possibly could but I had to tell them to pack up and go home as looking at it for the 10000th time wasn’t going to change anything. They are going to call the technical people and see if they have any ideas but at this stage I am just happy to have it in and working despite it bulging a bit on one side! Here is a pic of it before the final fitting problem….

The boys came up for a flying visit on Saturday. They both had a desire to get out of town and breathe in some country air and to relax. Combined with a bit of Mum’s cooking and some of Dad’s wine they were happy bunnies and Bailey was ecstatic to have another couple of eager throwers of the ball for her! I am so happy that we are within an easy drive from Sydney so that the kids can pop down on a whim – it is a lovely drive once you clear Heathcote and it was a huge part of the reason we searched for a new home within a couple of hours of Sydney.

Happy Hour with my lovely boys.

Garden wise the onions and the garlic are harvested! We are very happy with our first crop although I can see why the ‘gardeners’ were advising me to thin out the onion crop as some of them were planted too close together which didn’t give them enough room for the bulb to spread out and grow properly. This means lots of them look more like giant shallots than onions. Others are beautiful and  ginormous  and I think they will last us for ages. Unlike other veggies, you have to pick them when it’s been dry for a while with no rain and then you clean them all up and hang them for a few weeks to cure them. It’s quite a faff but worth it in the end I think. Luckily we have some rafters in our potting shed perfect for hanging bunches of onions and garlic despite banging our heads on them when we go in to collect the eggs. Goodness knows where I shall store them once they’re ready, I shall have to investigate an onion storage set up!!

 

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And sadly a good man was lost this week – RIP my lovely Ken, I will think of you every time we have a camp fire.

After a slow start Summer arrived with a vengeance last week. We seemingly only just got over 3 days of rain where we were forced to stay inside, when all of a sudden we had day after day of sunshine and temps in the 30’s and now we’re back into the summer routine of walking the dog either early or late and trying to hit the garden before the sun (and the flies) become too much. The fans are whirring and the icemaker is in full swing. Interesting salads and barbecues are back on the menu and the malbec and shiraz has been replaced with a beautiful French rose from the Loire valley (at only $11 a bottle!!!!) and icy cold gin and tonics and white wine spritzers. I found a lovely ‘syrup’ at The Treat Factory – peach and green tea – and it makes a lovely drink in a long glass with plenty of soda and ice for when I’m “being good.”

The garden has hit it’s straps with loads of things ripening,  buckets of little yellow teardrop tomatoes, dwarf green beans and loads of zucchinis with their beautiful yellow flowers all ready to be stuffed with deliciousness and fried – Happy Hour will be extra happy this weekend with these little darlings on the menu.

The only trouble is once you get 5 zucchinis you get 50 so we will have a serious glut of these before too much longer. This has precipitated the need for a new fridge with a larger freezer to be able to cope with our produce (not so sure that growing your own veg is cheaper after all – haha!!). Much to the delight of the menfolk in the family this means our old fridge has become the new beer fridge and it can store a LOT of beer!!! Xmas is now sorted! I have also bottled my homemade limoncello and have visions of us sipping tiny ice cold glasses of it in the garden under our huge pear tree over the holiday period.

Some cornflowers from my garden – I love picking little bunches of flowers to place around the house. Half the reason I want to plant a hydrangea hedge is that I will be able to cut loads of them for the house without distracting from their hedginess in the garden. After speaking with the beautiful Carolyn, who has opened a lovely new garden shop in Berry called the Radish and The Rose, she has convinced me to go a little bit more country and plant a mixed coloured hedge of hydrangeas instead of the pure white ones I had initially envisaged. They look so gorgeous bunched together in a jug – pink, blue, white and even a beautiful dark burgundy. We are going to plant four magnolia trees between the existing hedge and the new hydrangeas to give them a bit of shade from the relentless westerly sun and also to enjoy their abundant flowers in winter when nothing much else is out in the garden. Carolyn invited me to her house to see some of her established plants and I have to share it with you as it’s so pretty. She has a holiday cottage on the property which I can highly recommend if you want somewhere lovely to stay in the area. http://www.jasminecottageberry.com.au

She may also be able to source a jacaranda for me as I have had no luck with any of the local nurseries and would love one at the front gate – they are such a fabulous colour and fill you with joy.

It makes my heart sing when I see a magnificent jacaranda overhanging a beautiful old cottage – a match made in heaven!

Another lovely place to stay in the vicinity is Bannisters at Mollymook which has had a recent refurb from none other than Collette Dinnigan. She is spreading her design talents to interiors and she has done a lovely job of the penthouse suites. How inviting and refreshing does this look???

Like a little bit of the Caribbean on The South Coast?

Yes please…

Back to reality and it is THAT time of the year again where I suddenly realise that I haven’t bought, let alone sent, my Xmas gifts to the family in the UK and last Friday’s weather forecast of 42C was enough to send me off to the airconditioned comfort of the nearest shopping mall which happens to be a 45 minute drive away. In contrast to shopping in Sydney where I could go to one of 5 different centres all within 15 minutes of me and therefore look, think and compare before buying I was forced into being decisive (yikes!!) and in the space of 5 hours I had done 80% of my shopping. The rest has been done online which really is a huge bonus when you don’t live near a major centre.

Now just to wrap them and send them……………

We do have a couple of lovely old fashioned shops in Berry where you can get unusual items and one of the best shops is The Toy Shop. Despite the fact that I have no grandbabies yet and hardly any tiny tots in the extended family I still love going in there and looking at everything. It’s a riot of colour and has something for everyone.

The only other fun thing that happened this week is that our library got a step closer to completion. In fact the boys got it into the house and were just finalising the mechanism for the pull down bed when the metal hydraulic spring sheared off and ricocheted across the room. Luckily no-one was in the way or they would have received some serious damage. However a new spring has had to be sent from Sydney and in the meantime we have a bed in the middle of our lounge room. After 4 months in the making there is just this one last thing holding things up but hopefully by the weekend it will finally be FINISHED!!!!

Sneak peek……

And that my friends is a wrap from another week in The Meadow!!

 

In a week when the world went mad yet again I am grateful for the serenity of the countryside around me. It’s hard to fathom how people have such warped beliefs that they can indiscriminately kill innocent people, and then themselves, in the name of God. No God would condone such an act and they only continue to drive a divide between Christian and Muslim people by their actions. It encourages the “them and us” mentality despite the fact that most Muslims are peaceful loving people. Terrorism is not a religion folks and the #notinmyname campaign is trying to get us to understand that. This fear is all part of their ideology – these extremists – to ensure a backlash by the west against Islam and thereby giving them a “reason” to continue their carnage.  The media also perpetrates who we should feel sorry for and who we don’t. There was hardly a word in the media about the bombings in Lebanon or in Baghdad but Paris (which is a city dear to my heart and to millions of others all over the world) receives a tidal wave of support, again skewing our perceptions. These bombings could make you fearful about travelling, but that is what these people want and then they would win, so I intend going ahead with my planned trip to Paris in August and say “up yours” to ISIL. The fear of terrorism is sometimes more insidious, creeping into our everyday lives via the media – bringing this fear straight into our lounge rooms through the TV. The media has a lot to answer for with their constant 24 hour reporting – you almost feel like you are there with all the stress and angst that comes with that – no wonder everyone is scared to death.

Rant over.

In stark contrast the only problems encountered this week in the Meadow were of an animal nature – with An Escape and A Stampede. Early one morning, having my first cuppa of the day and still in my pj’s I felt a rumbling through the ground – reminiscent of a scene from the film Jumanji or the start of the earthquake I experienced in Greece a long time ago – and I looked out of the window to see cows literally galloping by our house 3 or 4 abreast all jostling for position. They were on the road instead of their usual track and then I heard Matt The Farmer zooming up the road on his quad bike calling them every swear word under the sun as he tried to contain them. About 6 peeled off into our neighbours front garden and then a few ran straight through the dividing hedge into ours!

This picture belies the speed at which they were travelling and there are loads of hoof imprints in our lawn as a memory of the event. As it turns out there were a few cows on heat and they broke through a gate/fence in order to pursue the call of nature! I guess cows have problems with their hormones too….. Poor Matt, he was rather sheepish when he came to apologise for his wayward cows (and his colourful language!!) but it was just a reminder that we are in the middle of a 300 acre dairy farm.

The escape artist was of course Bailey.

We have been so lucky that up until now she has been happy to stay in our garage (with the door open) on her mat with some water, a toy and a treat of some sort when we go out. Although she has always had access to The Lane she has never shown any interest in leaving the property and is usually still on her mat when we return to the house. However, this week I have been working some extra days and she has been home alone rather more than usual. The previous day she had discovered the plants I had bought at the nursery and by the time I came home they were strewn all over the lawn and the plastic pots chewed to smithereens. On this day despite the fact that I took her for a walk before I left she went walkabout a mere half hour after I had gone, trotting up the lane and visiting the neighbours, bold as brass. Luckily they are all lovely and adore the chocolate button but we were all worried that she may venture further up The Lane to The Highway which would be disastrous. As a result she got to be babysat by the gorgeous Catherine and stay and play with Wally the black lab up the road until I got back from work. She had to be hosed down before she came home as she had been rolling in the mud and was totally filthy. I’ve rarely seen her happier. She slept for the rest of the day in pure exhaustion.

In order to be able to leave the house in the knowledge that she is safe and also to allow for her to access shade and sun and grass we have installed an inground stake system with a metal cord that attaches to her collar. She doesn’t seem to mind it and despite a few attempts, it doesn’t seem to be chewable. Its about 5m long and fingers crossed it stops her trotting off to adventure down the lane.

In more enjoyable news our long waited for library began to be installed. The base is in and the remaining units should be joining it next week. There is mess from one end of the room to the other with books, magazines and paraphernalia awaiting it’s new home! I can’t wait to have it completed and then the fun of filling it up begins. The last few boxes from the garage will finally get unpacked and we will have the added benefit of having a pull down bed/4th bedroom!!

The garden is constantly unfolding with new plants and is a joy to work in despite also demanding constant attention. I have a kind of roster now whereby I work my way around the acerage so that no one area gets completely out of control and I must say my agapanthas are starting to look beautiful and well worth all the trouble!

 

In what was a mixed week of weather, my two days in Sydney were glorious and my favourite jacaranda trees were doing there thing all over town. Purple puddles against that perfect cerulean blue sky. Just gorgeous. It’s spurred me on to finding a nursery down here where I can buy a tree as I have the perfect spot for it at my entrance gate. Watch this space.

The beautiful jacarandas in Sydney

After my action packed 30 hours in Sydney I headed back South to pick up The Chocolate Drop from her kennels (more like Club Med for pooches) and go home to Cam and Smutz who were doing blokey things like fixing fences, creating hanging spaces in our outdoor shed and mending a leaky pipe. We had a lovely weekend together despite the weather turning foul and very dramatic. In between the downpours and storms we got everything done – thanks to our very own almost-live-in tradie.

Handyman HQ.

The weather was very dramatic with Sydney copping this amazing storm which looks like a tidal wave about to engulf Bondi Beach and closer to home with some very impressive lightening.

The wild and stormy weather.

I must say that whatever the weather it is always nice to be at home – working outside in the sunshine or curled up in front of the fire with a good book I am happy. When I drive down from Sydney and get to those magnificent Kiama bends my heart sings to see the beautiful countryside hugging the coast, the red tin roofs of the white weatherboard farmhouses and the undulating valleys with grazing cattle and horses. How lucky am I to be able to have the best of both worlds!!

We had a lovely little local story this week that made it all the way to the National News when Brooklyn, a big boofy bulldog belonging to a homeless guy who lives in a tent on a local field, chased a wombat all the way down a wombat hole and disappeared underground. People could hear him barking from deep inside the earth and local rescue teams arrived on the scene with their sonic equipment to locate exactly where the adventurous hound was stuck.

He was a long, long way in and the rescue started on Wednesday after shoring up the earth (after lots of recent rain it was pretty dangerous) and digging down towards the chamber. Brooklyn let everyone know he was alive and kicking by barking every now and again and hope was held to get him out within 24 hours. Unfortunately by Friday afternoon they still hadn’t got him and the sad decision was made by the authorities that it wasn’t a viable rescue any longer with the chances of Brooklyn surviving being slim to none……

People power then kicked in with all the Nowra locals taking over with shovels and their bare hands and at 10.45pm in the pitch black Brooklyn was pulled up into the loving arms of his very grateful owner Charlie. He looked a little bewildered and obviously exhausted and hungry but he was finally free!!

 Brooklyn survives to play another day…..

One very lucky and well loved dog – Brooklyn back at his campsite with Charlie.

(There is a rather unexpected postscript to this story……due to this story hitting the national news it appears that Charlie was recognised in Victoria where he is wanted for several crimes so although he has his beloved boy back he may have simultaneously sacrificed his own freedom.)

This week I was ridiculously excited to discover some fruit on trees that I had previously thought were purely ornamental. We are now the proud owners of three plum trees and an apricot tree! All are full of fruit so now I just have to hope that we get enough sunshine to ripen them and that we manage to harvest them before the birds get to them. Apricots have to ripen on the tree so it will be a race to see who gets there first. I guess we can try netting the trees if things become too much of a contest!

Here are the baby apricots with their furry speckled skins ^ and below the hard baby plums with their shiny skins – a lovely addition to our little orchard of fruit trees. We also have oranges, lemons, limes, mandarins, grapefruit, apple and pear trees, with blueberries and raspberries planted too. Almost a fruit salad…….

There are so many things flowering at the moment I almost discover something new every day. Luckily some of the plants that had died back during winter have sprung forth and are now filling in the flower beds and blocking out the weeds and roses are tumbling over the walls and spilling out over their pots.

The next plan for the garden is a large hydrangea hedge – this has mostly come about as we couldn’t secure the services of a bobcat driver. We have phoned a dozen people over a couple of months to no avail. They are all super busy as most of them have been contracted to help with the building of the new road. The whole area has benefited from the works with lots of local houses being rented to RMS contractors and the local pubs reaping the rewards of hundreds of men not wanting to cook their own dinners Monday to Friday. The food shops are sold out of pies and sandwiches by 1.30 in the afternoon and business is booming in Berry! It is the upside of what appears to be a huge scar on the beautiful countryside. It will look better once it’s finished and landscaped and there is no doubting the fact that it will improve the drive to and from Sydney.

So now, instead of trying to flatten some of the side garden, we are going to plant it with what will (hopefully) eventually become a thick wide hedge of white mophead hydrangeas. As none of the local nurseries have enough I am going to give a mail order nursery a go. It feels like a weird concept – sending mature plants in the mail – but apparently they have a great track record getting them to their customers in one piece so fingers crossed people!!

Its been a big week of sport with the biggest thing being the Rugby World Cup Final featuring the All Blacks v Wallabies. It was the culmination of a great competition and we all got up at 2.30am excited that we may witness the fall of the mighty AB’s with our amazingly energetic boys seemingly on a high. It is now history of course that despite a valiant comeback in the 2nd half we failed to bring Bill home but the boys can hold their heads high and we have a great few years coming up if their performance is anything to go by.

Yesterday was the race that stops the nation and despite the mist and drizzle we got frocked up and drove out to the Nowra Turf Club for an afternoon of race watching, betting and a few glasses of bubbly. All three local Raine & Horne offices come together for the afternoon and it’s nice to gradually get to know the staff at the other offices too. The day ended rather sadly with a horse being spooked after finishing a race and running into a fence throwing the jockey and breaking it’s leg. Paramedics were still treating the jockey who had not moved as we were leaving and goodness knows what will happen to the horse too. It is definitely the “other” side of racing that we tend to forget when we are all enjoying ourselves, caught up in the colour and fun of the day.

We had a lovely weekend with our friends Paul and Emma coming to visit The Meadow. We took them to all the local haunts and the sun shone despite dire weather warnings. It’s hard to tell if it’s going to be 28 degrees or 18 lately but we’ve had a nice little bit of rain so I’m not having to water the garden at least.

So it’s basically happy days in The Meadow except for the differing philosophy between Cam and I about pests and death. I am basically a live and let live person. My belief is that every life has a value however small the creature. Cam on the other hand has strong ideas about what should be allowed to live in the vicinity of our home. High on the list of things he hates are Myna birds and rats and mice. We have native Australian Noisy Miners which are deemed OK but the Indian Mynas are a definite no no. His love of birds ends with these introduced birds that take over an area and drive the little native birds away. Somehow, in talking to some locals he found a guy that makes Myna traps and after completing the transaction the old fashioned way with a slab of beer we are now the proud owner of said contraption. Luring the little devils in with dog biscuits is apparently the way and on inspection the next day we could see that something was in there.

Before – The Temptation….!!

Not a Myna as it turns out but a little rat. It was actually quite a cute one if there is such a thing and as it stuck as much of its body through the bars as it could attempting to escape, my thoughts turned to the film ‘Ratatouille’ and I was a gonner. Cammo stuck to his guns and little Ratty was no more by the time I got home from work. I didn’t ask for details. For me, as long as they stay outside I am happy to let them do their thing – it is their territory after all, but for Cam any rat is a rat too many when it’s on his property 😦

It was a busy week at The Meadow with the arrival of several groups of the family popping in for an overnight stay in The Lane. The Queensland mob found the weather a little unpalatable and their ‘de rigeur’ outfits of shorts and tees a little understated for the chilly turn in the weather! The cooler temperature did however suit us having a couple of meals and several bottles of red in the dining room with lots of chats about the old days growing up and plans for the Patriach of the family’s 90th birthday celebrations next year. It was great to see everyone and yet again I am grateful that we are not TOO far away from Sydney and we are still fairly accessible to all.

 The family in the sunshine (it came out as they left of course!)

Tom was also in Berry as one of his Sydney mates parents had just sold their Berry country house and the lads were having a farewell party there! He managed to meet up with the senior Cameron brothers for a drink at the pub before heading up the mountain to the action. (The photographer made Tom sit down to get in the frame with the rather more vertically challenged ones!!!)

Of course once everyone left the sun came out and we had a perfect weekend for The Shoalhaven River Festival and for a bit of work in the garden. The Festival was a huge success with riverside markets, bands, fireworks and SUP races, a colour fun run and jet boat races- something for everyone!

Our little chocolate dog has been up to no good this week. She suddenly decided after sleeping in her doggy bed for the past 7 months that it may make a tasty snack and proceeded to chew it to bits, pulling out the foam interior! Despite her obvious embarrassment when challenged about it she did it 3 nights in a row and I was forced into taking preventative measures. It is now sewn and pinned back together and quite heavily dredged in cayenne pepper to discourage further midnight feasts and it seems to be working so far. To be honest there isn’t much else she can turn her teeth to in the laundry but no doubt she will come up trumps and surprise me yet again at some stage!

After our visitors left we had a solid day working in the garden and I must say all our flowers are starting to make it look very pretty. I love being able to walk around snipping off little bunches of flowers for guest bedrooms and the lounge room.

My sweet peas are also in full swing and have completely taken over our fence in the veggie patch! Hopefully they will attract bees etc to help pollinate our fruit and veggies. I was sure it said they were dwarf plants on the seed packet but obviously not!!!

We also discovered a nice walk alongside the river which Bailey loved. She gets a bit fed up with us hanging around the house working and LOVES it when we venture out and about. Some of the local scenery is gorgeous and we really do have to make an effort to see some of the surrounding area. Hyams beach and Vincentia is beautiful and not too far away. We might even treat ourselves to a night away and rent one of the lovely old whaling cottages for an overnight stay!

A little rest after a local walk with the hound.

One of the beautiful whalers cottages

Hyams beach is reported to have the whitest sand in the world but whether or not that is true it is a great place for a weekend escape even if it just down the road! The South Coast is full of such gems to discover.It’s like being on holidays 7 days a week except for the fact that we still have to work……

Unfortunately this is all too true………..

I feel like a kindergarten kid who is obsessed with the nature table at the back of the classroom. My beautiful hall table is morphing into one as I find little baby nests and then hatched eggs, pine cones and seed pods and needless to say I have little jars of flowers from the garden everywhere too!

                

It has been a week involving various animals with spring and the warmer weather spurring them on to mate, nest and generally bask in the sun. Our local rabbit and hare population is getting brazen once again and they run straight across our property to get to the open fields. The chocolate drop can see them a mile off and chases them as fast as she can but to no avail (thankfully). Despite their ridiculous zigzag running style they always outrun her and she is yet to realise that she can actually get out of our garden and into the open countryside (double thankfully) and she returns to the veranda a little miffed and crestfallen that the bunnies got away again…..

On my way to work this week I came across my first ever echidna in the wild. It nearly became an ex-echidna as it was leisurely walking across the main Princes Highway with cars whizzing by at 100km per hour. Luckily we all managed to avoid it and I snapped this pic as it made it across to the safe zone and hopefully an assignation with a lady echidna to make all the effort worthwhile……

Bailey had a lovely afternoon when we invited our neighbours up for afternoon drinks. They are the proud owners of Wally (Walter when he is in trouble) a black Lab about 6 months older than Bailey and after spending her first few months being petrified of him they are now firm friends and they had a great old time dashing round and round the house and wrestling together on the lawn.

Bailey and her beau….

Yesterday I heard a dreadful ruckus going on in the garden and came outside to see a horrible huge scary bird frightening all the little birds up in our big cedar tree. They were flying around it and doing their best to screech at it before it eventually took off. We think it is an asian cuckoo and I can see why the little birds hate it – I was scared enough. A very Hitchcock type scary bird performance it was indeed……..

Later in the afternoon Cam and I noticed a little bird at the base of the tree and we went over to check it out. It was a baby galah that I think must have either been frightened and tried to flee the nest or been tipped out of it’s nest by the cuckoo but although it wasn’t a teeny tiny baby it was still too small to fly. Cam managed to catch it (a sturdy pair of gloves were needed as those little guys can really take a big nip out of your hand) and put it up in the lower branches of the tree where hopefully no foxes can get it. The parents were flying around but I haven’t actually seen them feed it so I really hope it will be ok and quickly learn to fly. It is a real cutie….

In a rather more  cliched ‘Australian’ type animal encounter I had to grapple today with a rather large red bellied black snake which was basking in the front yard of a house I had open for inspection. When I say grapple, it was more a question of poking it with a big broom and shooing it into the bushes between the adjoining properties!! Then I came inside to see a huge pregnant huntsman spider on the door – what next!!!! This Real Estate malarkey is starting to become a bit dangerous!!! However it presented beautifully to some unsuspecting city types….

Earlier in the week I had a lovely day out in Bowral, combining some shoe, furniture and plant shopping! I had a great time pottering around a few local stores and also drove to have a look at The Cherry Tree Walk which runs alongside the river for several kilometres and encompasses a war memorial dedicated to The Vietnam Veterans. It is very pretty being lined with hundreds of cherry trees and is a beautiful tranquil place.

               

My very favourite place to furniture dream is Susie Andersons at Dirty Janes in Bowral and she is a super friendly, lovely lady to boot! She is keeping an eye out for an armoire for me for the guest bedroom. Outside her shop this gorgeous little canary was singing it’s heart out in the sunshine at The Potting Shed and really showing off to everyone passing by. I love how he is colour co-ordinated with all the terracotta pots!

To round the week off our friend Dave came to visit. He is familiar with this area as his parents used to have a house in a nearby lane and he still knows quite a few locals. He and Cam met about 12 years ago when we had Harry’s Cafe De Wheels in Newcastle and Cam used to stay in a hotel that Dave ran – and they’ve been good mates ever since.

As luck would have it The Mollymook Cup was being held at Nowra racecourse the next day and the lovely Rileys invited us to come along. We got frocked up and set off to see what a bit of country racing was like. We had a great day although absolutely no luck on the gee gees and met a load of localish people from Milton and Mollymook who had very sensibly organised a coach to get them home. I always forget how fantastic the horses are until you’re right up close and personal – they really are magnificent and with all the brightly patterned silks, bottomless champers and fashions on the field it was a colourful day indeed.

  The Fab Four

Fashions in The Field

And in racing micro fashion…..

and always remember folks…………..

(ps…In case any of you were wondering the little galah flew off happily into the wings of it’s mother about 36 hours later  xx)

 Sunset over 7 mile beach.

My favourite part of the year begins – daylight saving!! It feels like we are on holiday being able to come home after work and enjoy a nice campari and soda on the front veranda and still have loads of daylight in which to prepare dinner and potter in the garden.

 Some Susie time…..

As things heat up we are back to hitting the garden first thing in the morning or late in the afternoon to plant or weed or water. The summer veggie patch has been planted – corn, zucchini, capsicum, tomatoes, eggplant, beans , lettuce, beetroot, carrots and cucumbers as well as plenty of herbs, garlic and onions. This time I have planted a lot more from seed as apparently that way only the strongest seeds survive and you get good plants. It is an excruciating slow process for this little gardener who is a bit of an “instant” girl! We were very excited when, after months of nothing in the asparagus bed we saw this…

Our first asparagus spear!!

Sadly, the done thing with asparagus is to leave the first (and sometimes the 2nd) crop to grow and die down before you can finally cut them down to have with some nice hollandaise sauce for brekky or lunch. In the same vein the blueberries and raspberries that we planted may not fruit until next year dashing my hopes of home grown fruit for a Christmas pav. Our new passionfruit which is happily winding it’s way up the wire fence around the chooks may offer up something in time for the big day but I’m not too hopeful. I guess this is why we enjoy it all so much more when we finally get to eat it because we have nurtured it all from baby seeds and watered and weeded and staked and pruned it for weeks before it hits our plates. A labour of love indeed….

The flower side of the garden is luckily a bit quicker to show its face and we are slowly getting on top of the new garden beds and whipping the trees into shape. Lovely Will has come to the rescue once again with our driveway trees, creating some beds around them making it easier for Cam and his trusty ride-on mower to wizz around them without injuring the trunks. I am referring to them as donuts for obvious reasons….

The front veranda is an even nicer place to sit now with the gardenias and lavender in bloom and the bees are LOVING it.

We had a break from the garden work with the arrival of the Barrett family who broke their trip to Mollymook with an overnight stay at The Meadow. It was lovely to have them here and they embraced the country vibes and loved the cows who were grazing this week at our back fence. Kate fed the cows the long grass that they couldn’t quite reach in our garden. There is an electric fence between them and it, otherwise I’m sure they would be in our garden in a flash!

 A moody sky and gourmet grass for the cows thanks to Kate.

I popped in to the cabinet maker to see how our library was progressing and I can see it’s finally taking shape. The bed inclusion has been a real nightmare but now we are on the home straight – a couple of weeks for all the cabinets to be painted and the mouldings etc to get done so I’m actually getting excited about getting those last few boxes out of the garage and having somewhere for all my books and photos etc.

 Getting there…slowly….

Our week finished on a high note with a visit to Cupitts Winery in Ulladulla for a lovely lunch with our holiday makers. I thoroughly enjoyed being out and about as it happens so rarely nowadays for me  (whilst Cammo is sick to death of eating out after 3 nights every week of batching it in Sydney and eating at pubs and restaurants). Cupitts is a popular wedding venue and has a strong french provincial feel which I adore so apologies in advance for so many photos!!!

Cupitts WInery

 A lovely entrance

 France or Australia???

The new extension makes the most of the beautiful countryside views.

The cellar is cut into the hillside

A beautiful view from the bar deck and live music on Sunday afternoons to top it off!

A beautiful interior.

The Crew!

A delicious end to the meal – vanilla panna cotta with poached rhubarb and raspberry sorbet with almond tuile.

This week has been beautiful. Spring in all it’s glory and it’s hard to not feel pretty darn happy to be honest. As it has been school holidays we have had a small stream of visitors popping in on their way to or from Sydney to the South Coast. Little people have visited the chook shed and collected warm eggs and either been ‘scared of’ or ‘played with’ Bailey and other friends have called in for a cuppa or to have a look around the property which has been really nice.

     Ruby loved Bailey but Mali preferred us! 

I had to go to Huskisson on Wednesday  as I finally found an upholsterer to make some cushions for my big cane chairs that I bought at Auction in Sydney. A lovely smiley man, John, who works out of his garage behind his house is making them for me and was telling me it might take him a few weeks as he also Captains the whale watching cruises and it’s “the season” at the moment! Everything in the country happens when it happens and there is no point hurrying people along. He was very unassuming but I noticed he had a big thank you letter framed on the wall behind the desk from Government House in Canberra where he “did” the dining room and the meeting rooms etc. Amazing what you can whip up in the back of a garage isn’t it??

I took Bailey with me and we met up with my friend’s hubby and son who were holidaying down there, for a quick catch up and a choccy ice-cream for Lucas – another lovely little guy who will no doubt look back on these holidays with fond memories as he gets older. I’ve noticed a lot of people that come househunting in Shoalhaven Heads where I work on Saturdays are there to look for a beach house because they are so nostalgic for the type of holiday they used to have as a kid. As parents I guess we are the creators of good memories for our children and they invariably end up wanting the same kind of thing for their children Then it was my turn to be like a little kid as I packed excitedly for my little trip up to the Big Smoke for my regular book club meeting. The same group of girls, with just a couple of plusses and minuses, have been meeting for the past 20 years ( we were one of the very first clubs to form I think) and it is like therapy for all of us to meet up over a glass of wine and some yummy cheese and discuss life (and the book of course!) In this time we have seen our children grow up, a couple of husbands go west and now weddings and grandbabies are the order of the day and we have a lovely easy relationship together which is very special to me and well worth the 2 hour drive.

My lovely book club girls

This monthly meeting gives me a great excuse to come up to Sydney and do some shopping, meet up with my boys and nowadays stay overnight with one of the girls. I am working my way through the club and it’s lovely to have some extra one on one time with them. This week I stayed in my old stomping ground of Balmain and in a beautiful apartment overlooking Sydney harbour. Sitting out on Jill’s veranda with a glass of wine and looking at the twinkly lights of Sydney I felt so lucky to still be able to get my fix of a city I will always love.

The next morning after a lovely walk and coffee with the Balmain girls I met Sam for lunch down at Balmoral. It was a picture perfect day and a yummy fresh lunch and a catch up with ‘the life of Sam’ on the pier at The Boathouse just topped off my Sydney trip perfectly.

The beautiful Boathouse at Balmoral

A yummy lunch with Sammy

Hopping back into my car to go home with the back seat pleasantly full of shopping bags and flooring and tile samples for the new extension as well as a new cozzie – I was a happy chappy. The swimsuit shopping however was pretty tortuous, after trying on half the shop I finally chose one that takes me 5 mins to get into and then I am pretty much sealed into it in order to rearrange my squidgy bits into a slightly more pleasing shape than my natural one. And on top of all that I had to cough up a small fortune to buy the damn thing.

                                                     Sigh………………………..

We celebrated the first evening of daylight saving by having a celebratory champagne with our friends N&N at their beautiful new house on the mountain opposite us. They were very sad a couple of months ago to find out that the RTA had compulsorily acquired their current home for the widening of the new highway. They had literally just laid the last paver around their new swimming pool when they got the news and it must be said, a few tears were shed. A few Saturdays later they inspected this house with expansive panoramic views over the surrounding countryside and out to the ocean all on 5 acres. It has a lovely old rustic dairy shed that Nicki plans on converting into a commercial kitchen alongside a dining space in order to hold long table lunches (she is a chef) and it has a perfect place for a veggie patch and maybe even that pool she was hankering after. As the sun went down and the parrots ducked and weaved past us on the veranda I thought how lucky I was to have this new life with some lovely new friends and I look forward to seeing them shape this new house into one that they love and enjoy.

    

p.s…..in celebration of daylight saving I have added a few summery recipes to the kitchen page. Dips and salads for outdoor entertaining. Enjoy  xxx