What a beautiful week of sunshine and warm but not too hot weather we’ve had. This is the perfect time of year for an early walk along the beach or an afternoon walk along the river with The Chocolate Drop. She is never happier than when she’s running full pelt along the sand and leaping into the surf to fetch a stick or a ball. We have started taking her to Shoalhaven Heads as it’s a leash free beach and she gets to socialise with other dogs which is so important. She’s actually a bit of a sook, after initially showing unbridled enthusiasm and literally dragging me to say hello to a dog she will then be quite submissive, even with a smaller dog, until she’s 100% sure they are going to be her friend and if there is more than one dog she is like that kid in the playground that just looks longingly on from the sidelines until they invite her to play! The kite surfers have been enjoying the conditions too and sometimes we can have 4 or 5 of them out there making a colourful sight for us walkers.

It was Nowra Show this week and our very talented neighbour was up to her elbows in flour, butter and sugar as she cooked up a storm to enter cakes, relishes and chutneys into the show. She had a few practice runs and we were the lucky recipients of the overflow from the Muller kitchen. These scrumptious little morsels didn’t last very long and we have a yummy boiled fruit cake tucked away for later too. She came away with 5 x 1st and 5 x 2nd prizes and can continue to hold her head up high in the local community !!

Our dear friends from Sydney finally made it down to The Meadow for a visit and brought along their daughter Viv. It was especially nice for her to see some of the countryside as she lives in the middle of London for most of the year but her job as an Opera singer has enabled her to spend the last couple of months at the Sydney Opera House in a performance of The Pearlfishers and she enjoyed a well deserved weekend off on the beautiful South Coast (she especially enjoyed hanging out with our chickens ).

So after a quick tour of the house and garden we retired to the veranda for happy hour and a catch up on life in the big smoke before dinner. Greg surprised us with a special treat when he opened a box to reveal the bottle of 1984 Grange that Cam had given him for his 60th!! It was everything you would hope for and I just wish I had known and I would have concocted a more elegant meal to accompany it!! We enjoyed brekky at Gerroa the next morning, I just love that little town – it’s like going back in time to your childhood and has the most charming feel. A beach house there is on the wishlist!!

I couldn’t resist showing our city guests the amazing starry night. With not a cloud in the sky it was a perfect swathe of black velvet sprinkled with a million stars. All the usual culprits were there but as your eyes adjusted to the darkness the entire milky way revealed itself too. As usual I was reduced to feeling like a little ant in the scheme of things and just marvelled at the enormity of our universe. I wish I had the right kind of lens to take an accurate photo of what we saw but these will give you a pretty good idea!

I realised this week that I should get my act together ahead of the proposed renovation of the back of the house. After being in Council for 2 months I’m hoping the development application will be approved any day now and then we will sit down with the builder and the architect and work out our plan of action. As the renno includes a kitchen, bathroom and laundry there are a fair few decisions to be made!! After spending hours researching online and getting rather depressed at the cost of all the kitchen appliances I lust after, I just ended up ordering a mirror for the new bathroom instead! Things have to start somewhere folks…!!

I am having a slight design blip that you may be able to help me with??

The kitchen is to have a new window installed to open it up to the back garden and the deck area. We will be able to harness the cool southerly breeze in the summer and be connected to the entertaining area too. We thought a hatch type window would be a good idea, with a nice wide ledge outside doubling as a bar or just somewhere to sit and chat while I’m cooking. The bit I’m unsure of is do we have a bifold window or a single window that lifts up on a giant hydrolic hinge thing. There will be cover thanks to a small skillion veranda attached to the extension so do I really need another ‘roof’? I do like the clean line of it though with nothing getting in the way of the ‘bar’ and out of the way of sticky fingers! Just a bit concerned it may be a bit too modern for the age of the house. The other option is to have some sash windows that can also be opened just a little bit if necessary for a breeze rather than the whole thing?

Thoughts??

After my crazy resident mower smashed into my Anduze french style urn (one of a pair of course!!!) and reduced  it to smithereens I have to re-pot my buxus plants into something nice and maybe move it to the front door where no ride-on mower can touch it. There is a beautiful garden shop/nursery in Bowral that I am going to visit this week and I know I will leave it inspired to clip my plants into perfect balls of topiary. I still struggle with my tendency to formalise my garden, it’s a style I have always loved but since my move to the country I have really tried to be more open and flowy with my garden – embracing curves and less structure but it’s a constant battle with my OCD symmetrical side! Maybe a couple of these will keep me happy…..

As we approach Valentine’s Day and all the hype that entails we thought we may make the most of some of the local events. Our friend Nikki is having a degustation dinner at her cafe/restaurant on Saturday night and at $75 for 5 courses and BYO that’s a winner! Silos winery is offering a cinema under the stars experience on Sunday with Romeo and Juliet being shown and a picnic basket and bottle of wine available to the loved up participants. Let’s face it – anything with Leo in it is bound to get the girl’s hearts racing!

So my lovely people, have a wonderful week full of sunshine and love and remember at all times to stay in touch with your inner child…..

 

It still feels like a treat to be able to pick flowers straight from the garden – after 5 years of inner city living with just a courtyard our new country garden is still one of the things I cherish most despite all the work it entails. The roses never cease to amaze me, they are far sturdier than I had imagined and can cope with our horrible westerly winds as well as hot temperatures and pouring rain and somehow they have escaped the many bugs and fungal problems they are renowned for. Maybe that is why they are a staple in every country garden around here?

During our recent research of wedding venues I have been lucky to peek inside some fabulous local gardens that I would never usually have access to. I loved one place in particular as it was a labour of love by the original owners which is now continued by a team of gardeners at Merribee in Numbaa, about 20 minutes south of us. It is a popular destination for a country wedding and the new barn on site has made it even more attractive.

http://www.merribee.com.au

This weekend Berry played host to “The best show in town” and the annual Berry Show went ahead despite the huge storm cells that have been playing havoc with the east coast of Australia this week. Despite the muddy conditions and the humid weather it seemed everyone in the area turned up for this quaint old fashioned country show. It was like going back in time with a side show alley, slushies and pluto pups alongside the Country Women’s Association scones with jam and cream. Our boys were down for the weekend so we traipsed along to support the locals and saw an amazing array of roosters and chooks in the poultry pavilion. Some of those roosters were truly magnificent – all glossy feathers and bright colours and VERY loud crowing, some of them were so big they filled the entire cage and were a little bit scary with a don’t mess with me gleam in their eye….

A mandatory look in the R.M.Williams shed, the tractors and the horse jumping before the woodchop which is always good fun to watch. Despite a generous handicap system the winner managed to fell the tree in record time and the young ones could only look on and dream that one day they too would be that fast.

As our veggies are tripping out on all the sunshine and rainfall Tom and I decided to cook up some of our huge tomato crop and make some passata. Everything we used was from our garden – onions, garlic, tomatoes and basil combined to make the yummiest sauce. The tomatoes have been so prolific and I have been particularly amazed by my beautiful ‘Rouge de Marmande’ tomato. One plant has spread out to over a metre wide and about 7 foot tall and the huge fleshy ridged fruit is delicious and sweet. I finally understand why people wax lyrical about home grown tomatoes. Unfortunately however all this huge rain has ravaged the plants leaving lots of ripening reddening tomatoes on bare shrivelled stems so I am picking as many as I can before they give up and die!

On the first night the boys were here I cooked a recipe from the beautiful ‘Alla Fratelli’ cookbook which showcases the ever popular dishes from their Fratelli Fresh restaurants. The only Italian style cookbook you will ever need I promise.

Parmesan crumbed veal cutlets with peperonata, silverbeet with garlic together with duck fat roasted potatoes. It was delicious but the standout was the peperonata. Made from our own capsicums and onions it proved to be a lovely sweet sour accompaniment to the rich crispy meat and potatoes (you can find the recipe in the kitchen section))

Well, as January slips away and most of the silly season socialising is done I guess it’s time to buckle down and eat sensibly, drink less wine on the veranda and generally get fitter. It’s impossible to do it any earlier with everyone in holiday mode and so therefore the Feb Fast challenge is a timely reason to give up the plonk for a cause. Also loving the fact that it’s also the shortest month to abstain……and ending with my birthday giving me permission to celebrate 2 days early!!

http://www.febfast.org.au

The time is flying as it tends to when you don’t want it to. It’s rather strange that the farmers are already cutting the hay for winter and the gardeners are planning the Autumn/Winter crops – who wants to think about brussel sprouts and cauliflowers when we are still eating salads and peaches? It’s rather like the fashion industry, always looking ahead to the next season,  the jumpers arrive in the shops when we are all still in our shorts and summer dresses, making it hard to live in the moment. When we moved down here I was determined to try and enjoy each day and season for what it was. I am prone to always be looking forward to the next big thing, the next trip away or the next weekend planned with family and friends and I really wanted to try and appreciate the everydayness of life as well. Granted there isn’t too much excitement attached to grocery shopping or housework and it’s far more fun to plan our trip to Europe later this year, but I am determined to try and see wonder in the small things just like little children do and be grateful for this wonderful new life we have in The Meadow.

What the hell has happened to January?

Mid summer one minute and plunged into Autumn/Winter the next. I don’t know what’s worse, 40 degrees and stinking hot or 20 degrees and pouring rain. We have had both in equal measure this week. Poor Bailey has been restricted with both types of weather and has been seen looking gloomily out of the front screen door as the rain tips down or huddled in a shady spot panting and trying to keep cool. Don’t even get me started on how the chickens are handling it all………..

Now what is wrong with this picture folks……..????

Well nothing if you feel like a quick kip under the fan one afternoon I guess but in reality this is part 4 of our bed-in-the-wall saga.

After waiting for more than 4 months for completion, 3 weeks to get a replacement spring when it broke during installation and another week trying to work out why the cupboards were not now flush after installing the new spring, the unit was finally functional (if a bit wonky) in time for our Christmas guests and the bed was really comfortable to boot – Woohoo!! However my euphoria was short lived, as on pulling the bed down on Xmas Eve there was a sickening  sound of ripping wood and crunching metal (which is never a good sound let’s face it) and the bed has been there ever since! Of course the cabinet makers went on holiday on Xmas Eve for three weeks and on examining it on their return this week they have decided that new bi-fold doors are the only option to decrease the weight load on the mechanism which luckily had just “popped” off the hinge rather than break. So here we go again………..!!

In the meantime it is a nice place for an afternoon snooze……..

In another ongoing story – that of the frangipane that wouldn’t flower – there is a slightly more positive outcome. Let me explain….

When we moved into our house in Rozelle 6 years ago there was a fairly advanced frangipane sapling planted in our rear courtyard. When I redesigned the courtyard I transplanted the tree into a big pot and moved it to a nice sunny spot. I have always loved frangipanes – such a summery and tropical flower to a little English girl – and I was determined to nurture it until it sprung into life and rewarded me with an abundance of flowers to enjoy. It managed a few leaves every year (literally about 6 leaves) and gave me just enough hope that with some love, sunshine and water it would one day be magnificent.

Needless to say that never happened and when the Real Estate people came to take pictures of the house for the rental ad my neighbour felt forced into trying to ‘help’ the situation by attaching some fallen frangi flowers from another tree with cellotape to our plant! Pretty sad state of affairs . I was sure once we planted it in the rich Meadow soil it would flourish and reward us with a lush tree. One year later it was still a stick and the sad day finally came when I decided to pull it out when on closer inspection there were some signs of action with some swelling around the top of the tree and would you believe a few weeks later a crown of flowers has arrived! Absolutely no leaves but there is life AND FLOWERS  and after 6 years my hopeful optimism has finally paid off…

The other flowers are going great guns and it’s as if everything is on steroids – flowers, veggies AND weeds. If you don’t get a chance to get stuck into the garden for a week due to the wild weather you pay the price with weeds up to your knees and zucchini as big as your lower legs – it’s madness!! The flowers are all pretty happy though…..

This week we celebrated Bailey’s 1st birthday!! We (coincidentally) invited our neighbours from the lane for a bbq and they bought their new border collie puppy Dougal for a playdate. Hard to believe that Bailey is now the grand old dame and we have a new kid on the block. She has had a good week socialising as Jess bought her two gorgeous dogs Panterra and Frankie down to The Meadow for a visit and they spent a lovely couple of hours chasing balls and running around. Bailey was particularly fascinated with little Frankie, who is hardly much bigger than one of Bailey’s toys! Bailey looked like a giant in comparison. As you can see from the photo they are a real small/medium/large trio!! Hopefully Jess will come for longer next time now they have all “met” each other successfully.

Happy 1st Birthday to our beautiful Bailey, we have loved watching her grow from a gorgeous little pup to the fun loving life-be-in-it dog she is today.

The produce continues to go bonkers in the veggie patch. I will definitely be planting differently next year as there is no way on this earth you can eat/pickle/give away this amount of grub every day. In the pre supermarket days locals apparently used to decide who would plant what and then they would all swop so they all got a useful variety of fruit and veg – something we should perhaps introduce?? This week I’m making tomato passata and relish, picking bread and butter cucumbers and preserving capsicum and eggplant. We now plan our meals around the veggies instead of the other way around!!

Australia Day was a rather soggy state of affairs down on the south coast and the Big Berry Breakfast that had been advertised at the Showground was washed out. We celebrated instead with a slow cooked shoulder of lamb with an eggplant and tomato bake and loads of fresh green beans from our patch. Our friends joined us for some drinks to celebrate the special day in our calender and Cam enjoyed his extra day off in The Meadow before heading back to the Big Smoke and the slog of the 9-5. I have LOADS to do to get everything back into some semblance of order but I’m rather easily distracted………………

 

 

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The weather has been just beautiful this week and the garden is in full throttle. The roses are tumbling over each other as they bloom and the cottage garden is filling in nicely. The veggie patch is ridiculous and I have been dropping bags of zukes, cukes, eggplant and tomatoes to everyone in the lane that doesn’t have their own patch as there  is way too much stuff for me to use/pickle/freeze. I’m getting about 20 cucumbers a day, about 6 zucchini, 4 eggplant and 10 tomatoes! Crazy!! Thank goodness we bought a new fridge freezer before Xmas so I can actually store everything. Today I am making the bread and butter cucumbers and moussaka. I’m grating loads of zucchini and freezing it and the rest we are peeling into long strips, marinating in oil, chilli and herbs and tossing onto the bbq with the evening’s meat chicken or fish – delish!!

The week started with an appointment at the beautiful Jaspers in Berry where the unique and passionate Rosi showed us around her lovely wedding venue. It sits behind some huge trees on the highway and we have always wanted to see inside! Tom even came down from Sydney to lend a younger perspective and to video it all for the engaged one. It was like being transported to another world and I don’t think there was ANYTHING that she hadn’t thought of. The accommodation was top shelf, the 3.5 metre verandas were gorgeous and the interiors were as unique as Rosi herself. A nod to growing up in Papua New Guinea and the old colonial way of doing things. The icing on the cake was the most magnificent tree in the front garden strewn with fairy lights which instantly made me think of ‘the Magic Faraway Tree’ – it’s as close to my imagining of it as I have ever seen….

Is this the real Magic Faraway Tree?

Despite it’s magnificence – or maybe because of it – it’s not quite what the bride-to-be wants. I think after being surrounded by the high end luxe of Honkers she doesn’t really want everything to be shiny and sparkly and her heart lies elsewhere….

For anyone else out there looking for a great venue not too far from Sydney don’t hesitate to check out http://www.jaspersberry.com.au

It was lovely to have Tom down, however briefly, although it ended up costing me more than I thought…..After having a couple of coldies on the veranda in the evening we retired to bed and I woke in the morning to the sound of Bailey crunching something on the veranda. As she has a penchant for sticks I didn’t worry too much until I got up and discovered this…….

Tom’s designer sunnies looking less than functional – and one very sheepish dog.

As the weather was so gorgeous we headed out to 7 mile beach. Our neighbours told us of a secret(ish) track that comes out in the middle of the beach away from most people and the Rangers! So together with the Chocolate Drop we went and had the most magnificent walk with not a person in sight. Just unspoilt apart from the odd bit of driftwood and a few shells.

Our week ended with a nice visit from some old friends from The Ping who popped in on their way to Canberra. We had a terrific lunch at Silos with them and I can’t stop thinking about the hand churned goats milk butter rolled in ash that accompanied the homemade bread and that was before our main courses which were very pretty and totally delicious! We are so lucky to have this place just 5 minutes away from us and they have just started a snacking menu which means you can come for just a nice glass of wine and a snack if you don’t want to do the full blown lunch thing. http://www.silos.com.au

My head has been spinning with all the wedding plans.  You have to research and price everything before you can book anything and I can’t believe that things are already booked so far into the future. You can get a venue but not the caterer or the other way around – it’s nuts! Cam and I have been to visit a few places now and there are so many truly beautiful places to tie the knot around here we are well and truly spoilt! We feel the responsibility of being the eyes of the bride but thanks to the power of the internet she has been able to do everything except actually visit the venues from her desk in Hong Kong. It’s a bit like renovating (which we’re also beginning again – am I mad???) as you have to have all your ducks in a row to know if you can actually afford them!!! Luckily I have one of the most down to earth daughters in the world which makes things a lot easier and when things all get too much I just go and sit on my front veranda and drink in the scenery. Instant relaxation…

On top of the wedding preparations we are planning a trip to Europe later this year to celebrate my Mum’s 80th and also trying to get some renovations done on the back of the house. I  seem to spend loads of time on the phone or on the computer researching accommodation or flights or bathroom and kitchen appliances! We are still waiting for the final tick of approval for the DA.  I received a letter from the council telling me who is looking after my application and saying I can contact him between 9-10.30 am Mon-Fri. Needless to say after phoning him every day at the appointed hour I have still not spoken to him. I guess he will get sick of my messages one day and actually call me back??????????????? Once we get the plans back it will be a bit chaotic for a few months as we get everything built but we have our lovely trip  to look forward to when it all gets too much!!

I had a little chuckle to myself when I saw this….

A family photo at last!! (no matter how hard we tried Bailey would NOT turn around!!)

What a wonderfully busy family filled two weeks we have had. Our family from Switzerland joined us as well as Scotty, our ‘other’ son who shares a house with Tom and has been part of our Christmas morning for many years now.  All my pre conceived dreams of a country Christmas were fulfilled – a house full of people and chatter, a fridge full of food, a driveway full of cars and several eskies full of beer and wine! We somehow found beds for 10 people and despite the flies we managed a few evenings outside under the stars and during the day we were grateful for our large dining room and the veranda. It was made extra special by the fact we were celebrating Lauren’s engagement – a proposal from Berry on the 21st December enabled us to all celebrate together as a family and give our first Xmas in The Meadow an extra special flavour. As they hope to hold the wedding here we had an opportunity to discuss things before they head back to Hong Kong. Very special times for us all and we are very excited for the happy couple. Needless to say I am SUPER happy!!

Congratulations beautiful daughter!!

As we had guests for 3-4 days we spread the Christmas deliciousness over a couple of days and had the big hot dinner on Xmas Eve night (this also happened to be the family patriarch’s 89th birthday) which was lovely. The room twinkled with the candles and fairy lights, some champers and big reds were consumed with many a toast for a happy Christmas, health and happiness for everyone and generally it was a lovely warm fuzzy evening.

We backed up the next day with an early morning swim at the beach before heading home to unwrap our prezziess and bake the ham. Today was the future son-in-law’s birthday and another reason to break open the bubbles. We ended up eating a very late seafood lunch before adjourning to the veranda for an afternoon of games of bocce and cricket.

Beautiful unspoilt 7 mile beach

Tom – did you steal some of that ham????

Merry Crimble everyone….

The weather was perfect – 25 degrees and sunny – enabling us to enjoy a highly anticipated game of cricket. Cammo and Berry measured the pitch and then Cam mowed it nice and low – spray paint designated the crease and the whole family participated in the fielding. Bailey of course was by far the best out fielder as no-one had the energy to run across an acre to get the ball! Pop was the official umpire and I was the only injured party copping a ball just above the elbow from a rather apologetic son!

Measuring and mowing the cricket strip….then …..

action!!

So great that Pop could be with us for this special Christmas.

 

A bit of furniture re-arranging to better enjoy the view and a few coldies….

 Sam popping the 1st of many bottles of bubbly to celebrate

The table laid for Christmas Dinner

Now we are back to just three of us (plus the chocolate drop) and a steady stream of people popping by on the way to or from Sydney. I think we see more people down here than we did when we lived in the Big Smoke! We will be dropping the newly engaged one to Mollymook for NYE and we are continuing down to The Five Mile near Moruya to visit our dear friends. Hopefully next week the fridge will contain no more leftovers and the garbage bins will finally not be overflowing. The bottle recycling will have finished and the sheets/tea towels/napkins will have been washed and ironed ready for the next full house and Christmas 2015 will be a distant but fond memory. Another year has ended but for us it has been an amazing new adventure full of new friends, new experiences and new knowledge as we grapple with growing our own food amongst nature (my apricots were definitely more bird food than jam this year and the plums are heading in the same direction ). It is hard to think of living anywhere else now as we make our new life in The Meadow. Thanks to all of you for sharing it with us, I have been genuinely thrilled that so many of you have read this blog and I have thoroughly enjoyed writing it. In fact I have enjoyed it so much I have plans for a little writing project that I hope to be able to share with you all later in 2016!

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year from The Meadow

“Live the Life you Love”

I don’t know what I really expected when I moved to the country – apart from breathing in the fresh air and looking out over the vibrant greenery of The Shoalhaven, having a few chooks for fresh eggs and a dog to sprawl on the veranda. I didn’t really think about the other animals around us and what impact they may have on our lives. Needless to say living in the middle of a dairy farm we have become privvy to the day to day hiccups of having 350 animals with a 24/7 routine of care. It’s so easy for us to sit in our lounge and look out at the cows wandering past to the milking shed and see one that’s hobbling or very thin and think they should be better looked after. We judge with our city aesthetic what animals should have/look like/be treated like and the reality is a whole lot different. It doesn’t mean the farmers don’t care but they don’t look at them quite the same way as us city pet owning folk do. It is upsetting when you see a dead calf, or cow and it takes a couple of days for them to be removed and I’m getting increasingly upset for poor old Neddy the horse that lives in the paddock adjacent to us.

He is in a completely treeless field – rain, hail and shine. No protection from the near 40 degree days and from the relentless westerly wind. He gets no visitors and no exercise. He twitches constantly with the hundreds of flies that buzz around him and when I get up close his hooves are all tattered and frayed. The people next door are lovely people (and apparently are doing her sister a favour by keeping the horse for her) but with a new baby and 10 acres of their own to look after Neddy is the last thing on their mind. So every week now I add a bag of carrots and a bag of apples to my shopping list to give Neddy boy a bit of a treat and the sound of a friendly voice when I feed them to him. I’m also seriously considering spraying him (as some of the girls I talk to do with their horses) to help with his fly problem. Am I just being a silly city girl who can’t cope with the reality of country living???

Our trees give him some shade early in the morning at least….

On the other hand the respect I have for food producers is increasing on a daily basis as I discover first hand the problems of growing your own fruit and veg. Especially fruit. So many things can and do go wrong. The strong westerly and southerly winds both blow off any less than secure fruit, leaving it scattered all around for the rabbits and one apricot loving Chocolate Labrador. She walks past the fallen plums and goes straight for the furry little apricots and there is a trail of stones left to let me know exactly how many she has consumed. Then, if the fruit manages to stay attached to the tree, it makes it easy pickings for all the birds to fly in and have a few pecks (to check the ripeness)  and for any rogue fruit flies in the area to take up residence. If it escapes those hurdles we still have to get enough of the right kind of sunshine to ripen the fruit and make it eat worthy. At this rate I will be lucky if I get enough apricots to make one pot of jam and you can buy one of those from the supermarket for a few dollars – CRAZY! I still hold on to my dream of picking sun ripened fruit straight from the tree and biting into it’s voluptuous sweet perfumed flesh and thinking – WOW – that was worth all the hard work. If I ever get there I will let you know……

In the meantime I am harvesting some lovely zucchini, green beans and yellow teardrop tomatoes and I was very excited to part the leaves on my capsicum plants the other day to see beautiful shiny peppers staring back at me. The eggplants are flowering and the red tomatoes are ripening so I will soon have enough ingredients for a ratatouille!!!

At least our garden is providing us with some interesting veggies!! My home grown J-Lo tomato!!

I had my last trip to Sydney before Xmas this week. A flurry of hair appointments, the last few bits of gift shopping and dinner with my lovely bookclub girls to celebrate Christmas and to give our Kris Kringle prezzies. I discovered when I attempted to decorate the house this week that all my decorations which had filled my previous little house so well were completely lost in this new one. I barely had enough decorations to cover the two fireplace mantels and the hall table so I stopped off at a Xmas warehouse for a few more bags of goodies.

All my beautiful Book Club girls………….

We will wait until next week to buy our tree to keep it looking as fresh and happy as possible for the big day. We want to place it in our bay window which is the perfect visual location for it but unfortunately it gets the sun all day long and the pine needles will be struggling after 10 days. I am sure it will look lovely and Christmassy once it is installed and I even splashed out on a new angel/fairy to look over us all from the top of the tree!! A visit to the new Harris Farm at Drummoyne sent me into a rhapsody before heading home with the boot full of bags of beautiful produce that I can’t get down here – in fact it was the first time I’ve had a twinge that I don’t live in Sydney since I moved! We have a Harris Farm in Bowral and I think I will be going there to get my Xmas food as the choice is vast – with huge wheels of cheese and fabulous cold meats as well as all the fresh stuff….sigh………

Well,  Christmas is just a little over a week away and despite all the many, many lists, the meal planning, the gift buying, the decorating, the never ending shopping and spending, the wrapping and the cooking,  it is still something I love and look forward to. For our entire family to be together is the best gift I could have and I just wish I was a bit closer to England so I could share some of the chaos and fun with my Mum, Sister and family. This year we have 10 of us here for the big day and as we are so far away we will have all 10 staying with us so I have been madly buying bed linen, pillows and duvets so everyone can be comfortable. Throw into the mix the fact that my Father-in-law has his birthday on Xmas Eve and Lauren’s boyfriend has his on Xmas day and we have a very special few days in store! Cammo is going to mow a cricket pitch on the front lawn, the drinks fridge will be bulging at the seams, the table tennis and darts are available if the weather is gloomy and many a story will be relayed on the front veranda just as it has for the past 119 years! We are off to the Christmas tree farm this Friday to cut down our very own tree (very Clark Griswold of us don’t you think??) and as we have 12 foot ceilings we can get a lovely big tree to decorate. The turkey, ham and pork are ordered and we have a lovely home made pudding from our friend Smutzer. A game of golf is planned for Xmas Eve while the girls cook up a storm and Bing Crosby has been downloaded onto Spotify to keep the tradition going albeit in a new way! The Meadow will be echoing to the beat of a different drum this year but we are just the most recent keepers of the keys and the latest chapter in the story of the White House down the Lane in The Meadow………..

                     

Have a great Christmas everyone !!

 

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!!