| Is it really a week since my last posting? Feels like about 3 days! The weeks are starting to fly now that I am at work a couple of days a week and this week I zipped up to Sydney for a couple of days as well which made it a pretty short week in The Meadow! I had a rather traumatic experience one morning when I came out to the garage to get in the car and a bird was trapped in there and making a hell of a racket squawking and flapping about. They fly into the garage and as there are large picture windows at the back of it looking out over the paddocks the birds think they can fly straight through. It has happened before and the birds eventually got out by themselves. I opened both the roller doors and backed my car out in the hope that the bird would realise it could get out that way but we had an additional problem in that it was stuck to a mouse trap that Wayne had laid in the garage. They are the size of an envelope and extremely sticky and we thought they would be a safer option in view of the dog in case she got her paws trapped or whatever. | ||
I realised when I got closer that it was a crimson Rosella and a baby(ish) one at that and its feather were all over the sticky pad. I was really worried that it might have been it’s wing and that it would be the end of it. I was home alone of course and I thought that even if I could catch it in a towel and put it in a box it would still be pretty dangerous to then drive to the vet by myself in case it got out and flapped about in the car. I definitely needed a second pair of hands and luckily my friend Nola who lives about 5 minutes away was able to come straight over and give me a hand. We managed to catch the little one and it calmed down after a while and we could see that it wasn’t a wing on the trap but it’s tail feathers which had obviously come off when it was trying to escape the stickiness. Nether of us were really sure if they could fly without tail feathers but after easing it’s foot off and cutting around the gluey mess to release the bird we thought we could put it in the grass and see what, if anything, it could do. We were so happy when it flew away straight up into a tree and seemed no worse for the experience. A big relief to us both and we felt ridiculously happy at saving this little baby Rosella. Our little (semi) feathered friend. |
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I asked Nola if I could buy her a pub meal the next night to say thank you but she was attending an event in Nowra so she invited ME to come to THAT instead!! A friend of hers had bought an old convent and it was its 110th birthday which she was celebrating by inviting some of the old Nuns and some local historians as well as friends to a soiree at the old house. It is a wonderful old house but a definite work in progress. It has 8 marble fireplaces and 6 bedrooms with 13 foot ceilings. I think poor Jenny will be renovating it for a LONG time to come to bring it back to it’s heyday, luckily she loves everything old and is enjoying the journey! While I was there I got chatting to the historian and in one of those amazing coincidences it turns out that her mother had grown up in our house in The Lane!!! She has many stories to tell us about the house and we have arranged to get together with her and our neighbours and one of the previous owners to swop tales and hopefully some photographs of the old house. She is excited to walk around it and I’m sure some interesting information will come out that night….. The old Convent in Nowra.It has become very wintry down here and it is really cold in the morning and the evenings. The fires are lit and we have mastered the art of “layers” to deal with the contrast in temperatures. After 10 am it is so warm on the front veranda that we have to shed the jumpers and we are toasty warm in just a T shirt but 2 minutes back in the house and we are reaching for the jumpers again…!! The trees have either lost their leaves or are well on the way and in the midst of our bare garden we have lush flowering citrus trees, our lemons, limes, mandarins and oranges are a very welcome sight in the middle of such a wintry landscape and I am in the midst of cooking lemony things – lemon curd, preserved lemons and luscious lemon tarts. (recipes in the kitchen section). Yummy lemons….Our lovely friends from Sydney visited this weekend and our neighbours invited all of us to witness the lighting of their bonfire last night along with their children and grandkids. They had been stacking the fire for the last 6 months and it towered into the sky just waiting for ignition. We were rather surprised (and impressed) to see they were lighting it with a flaming arrow from a crossbow!!! Extremely unique (and NOT to be tried Tom/Sam Cameron) and very effective. The little kids eyes were as wide as saucers and we all enjoyed a drink soaking in the fiery blaze and re-living those bonfire nights from our childhood! Getting ready….
The four city kids enjoying the country!! We had a lovely meal in Berry at South on Albany with Dave and Ing. The staff are so friendly and the food is seriously good and we had a great evening exchanging banter with the next table and the wait staff and enjoying our ‘big night out’!!
We love seeing our Sydney friends and sharing our new environment with them, it reinforces all that we love about our new life (especially when the wind ISN’T blowing !!) so today I am a happy camper!
A beautiful tree in our neighbour’s garden… |
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Author: susiecameron
Back to Work
After a week in Asia, 2 weeks of being sick and a week starting a new job I have spent very little time in the garden and it is very apparent that this is NOT a good state of affairs. As much as all my veggies grow and blossom the grass and the weeds also grow and it doesn’t take long before things get out of hand. My lovely gardener Peter came this week to help me get on top of things and his sage advice was not to hesitate for a minute – hire someone if necessary- and get on top of the weeds NOW and then mulch – deeply and regularly, if I am to hope for any break from the bossy weeds. So we attacked it with a vengeance this weekend in an attempt to get on top of the situation….my new mantra is MULCH IS MY FRIEND!!!!!!!!
We invested in another bale of silage to mulch the freshly pruned rose bed and Cam has finally got the idea that we have to put at least 6 inches of mulch onto these beds to do any good.
All the roses are pruned and mulched.
The veggie patch is going really well and we are harvesting cauliflower and broccoli with a few snowpeas starting to arrive on the scene too……….
The chooks are all laying and we are now getting 7 a day!!!!!! Fantastic and always nice to send visitors home with a dozen home grown eggs. Just got to remember to ask all our friends to save us some egg cartons. Smeds has been wonderful in this department and gets a gold star!
The interior of the house is starting to feel quite homely as we are now lighting the wood combustion oven in the rear of the house at the weekends which keeps things a lot cosier and we finally have our walk in wardrobe up and running and our ensuite completed.
Next job to attack is our library incorporating a Murphy bed for those times we have the whole family here, giving us in effect a 4th bedroom. Our lovely architect Natasha Marshall has come up with a fabulous plan for a great extension incorporating all our heart’s desires ( walk in pantry/wine cellar/bootroom/indoor-outdoor fireplace/big cathedral ceilings with revealed trusses etc) but it comes with a horrendous price tag and we have to decide if we really need to almost double the house’s footprint when most of the time there is only 2 of us here? For the price we could live overseas for a couple of years or invest in another smaller place so it really is quite a big decision. The main motivator for the extension is the fact we are very unused to not having open plan living and at this stage we have the kitchen at one end of the house and the living at the opposite end which seems a little unfriendly. However with a minimum price tag of around $350,000 we are hoping to find another answer to our dilemma……….
After last weekend’s windstorm Cam apparently isn’t even sure he wants to stay in The Meadow…………….!!!!?????????!!!
It really was a horrendous couple of days where we had extremely squally strong winds coming from all directions. We lost all our veranda furniture – scattered to the front and side garden and smashing the glass top to the table. I lost my seat cushions (they were found blown into a wire fence in a paddock 2 fields away) and the pot plants inside ceramic pots (also smashed) are lost completely. All the mulch and newspaper from the side garden ended up at our back door (and down the lane) and none of us could get outside to do anything (chickens included, they seemed a bit miserable). It literally stops you in your tracks when it’s like that and it’s a pain in the neck. Of course once the sun comes out again it’s all a bit of a distant memory but our neighbours are warning us that it can go on for a month in August…..I think Cammo would be running for the hills after 4 days let alone 4 weeks…)
Today was just glorious though and hard to do anything other than love it here. With a tummy full of lamb shanks and Cab Sav I must say I’m a contented girl tonight………..
So tranquil and peaceful today….
Tom and Lucy came down this weekend and we did take a couple of hours off from the dreaded weeding and mowing and showed them 2 Figs Winery which we loved so much last weekend at the Wine Festival. A totally different animal this time with just a dozen cars and plenty of picnic tables to choose from. A bottle of rose, a bottle of red and 2 cheese platters (with the most amazing mustard pickles and marinated baby figs) later and with the sun setting behind the mountain we went home. Bailey was exhausted after running around and around with the winery dog Chloe, The whole family had had fun!!!
Nice way to spend a sunny Winter’s afternoon
The beautiful Shoalhaven River stretches out before us…..
So another week finishes and as we get ready to try out The Roxy in Nowra to see a movie I feel quite chuffed that we have achieved so much in the garden this weekend – thanks to nature behaving itself and providing a picture pe
Lovely to see you Tom and Lucy xx
Shoalhaven Winter Wine Festival
If it’s the long weekend in June then the place to be is The Shoalhaven!! What better thing can you think of than cosying up somewhere down on The South Coast and touring up to 7 wineries in beautifully scenic locations with live music and some decent food options all washed down with loads of local reds and whites and all available via a hop on hop off bus!!
Our dear friends John and Lyn came to share the weekend with us and our son Sam came down too. They were all happy to escape the city routine for a few days and soak in some of the countryside and a change of scenery. We had the wood fire roaring and it was great to use our big dining room and rip open a few bottles of red and catch up on all the news over dinner.
Saturday dawned bright and sunny and we drove to Silos where we left the ute for the day and started our Grand Tour! Raj – the owner at Silos took us through his range of wines in his cellar and he is a great front man- very entertaining -and with a small range of good wines and a great restaurant together with some boutique accommodation he has the recipe for a successful business. We are very happy that we are so physically close to Silos!
Silos + the big blue duck!
The bus took us then to Mountain Ridge Winery closer to the coast and in a very pretty location. They all had gone to a lot of trouble to have some music and food on hand to enhance the experience and lots of families were picnicking here. The drinks were starting to go down easier as it got closer to lunchtime! It was nice to see different parts of our area that we would never usually get access to and reaffirm the beauty of this part of the coast.
The boys!
Mountain Ridge Winery.
Off to Coolangatta Estate where we have actually stayed a couple of times before we ever moved South. It is pretty well established and has a massive restaurant as well as some holiday stay cottages. A few local oysters and a guy doing some nice covers with his trusty guitar and we were starting to feel pretty relaxed and happy. Sam and I toddled off for a walk down memory lane to see if we could remember where we stayed when they were little and as usual Sam and his amazing memory for detail manages to remember more than me!
Lovely fire @ Coolangatta
We piled into the coach and set off for 2 Figs Winery which we had wanted to go to for AGES. Some Sydney friends used to rave about it and we had intended getting dolled up one summer weekend afternoon and going for a visit but never quite got round to it so we were very interested to see if it lived up to the hype. As we approached up the steep driveway it was apparent that the view was going to be AMAZING! The Shoalhaven River snaked all around us shimmering in the afternoon sun and about 400+ people had had the same idea as us to make this the ‘lunch stop’ and enjoy those views. A few food trucks serving confit duck on polenta, pulled pork panini and wood fired pizzas were all doing a roaring trade and the queue to buy a bottle of wine was ominously long. A couple of bottles of the 2 Figs Rose later and the sun starting to sink a little in the sky and we hopped on the bus for the last winery Cambewarra Estate
So many people at 2 figs for lunch……
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Confit duck 
The Mighty Shoalhaven River.
Beautiful Cambewarra Estate Winery.
The weekend was spent eating and drinking far too much and we packed everyone off with home grown eggs and some slice for afternoon tea back in the big smoke. Lovely to see everyone and tomorrow is the start of my new job (now that I am germ free and capable of standing upright for an hour at a time again….) and puppy school graduation plus hopefully 2 full days working in the veggie patch coming to grips with the weeds and getting the last of the winter crops in and staked.
Fresh from the garden
Heirloom carrots.
A beef rib roast to top off the weekend
I’m not sure if this one is going to graduate from Puppy School tomorrow night at this stage……and as I prepare for my first day of a new job I’m not feeling 100% confident about leaving her at home for 9 hours!!!!!!!! Watch this space…….
An up and down week…….
Well now I am back there is SO MUCH to do in the garden. It’s literally been at least 3 weeks since I’ve been able to do anything out there as it was very wet and windy the week before I left and unfortunately it has got rather out of control. You really need to do an hour a day to keep the weeds down and the little jobs like staking and mulching as a pleasurable task instead of my current A4 sheet of “To Do” tasks in the garden!
I am spending as much spare time as I have out there this week to make progress, luckily although it’s cold we have clear blue skies and sunshine and it’s warmer outside than in unless I put the fire on -so no excuses for me!!! So the broccoli and brussels have been staked and tied, onions and garlic have been planted along with snow peas and leeks and my asparagus and rhubarb crowns have been ordered. I am preparing beds for raspberries and blueberries and mulching anything that moves in an attempt to suppress the weeds.
I have my little helper of course. She comes into the veggie patch and cleans up all the tags in the beds telling me what I’ve planted. She digs little holes and sits right next to the chook run fence and stares at them for ages – hopefully with an eye to playing with them rather than eating them. She went missing for a while today and when I tracked her down I found her asleep on the front veranda curled up with her lead hopefully in her mouth. She had to go to the garage and pull it down from the hook it lives on so she obviously really really wanted to go for a walk……She also got her first mail delivery today
– I have no real idea what it was but it was beautifully addressed
It was a photo frame?
She started puppy pre-schooltonight and it was her first real opportunity to be with other dogs close up and personal apart from a little flirtation with Wally further up the lane. After being a scardy cat for the first 10 minutes and being extremely submissive she then relaxed and made lots of friends. It was lovely to see her interacting with the other dogs and she behaved pretty well considering people were offering her ‘treats’ left right and centre. She completely ignored me as I was food-less but tomorrow I’m guessing she will remember the hand that feeds her for the other 6 days of the week…!!
Making friends.
She gets super excited when I take her into town and wants to say hello to EVERYONE and the sound of a child’s voice even from a great distance is enough to give her the strength of a super hero dog (if there is such a thing) and pull me half way down the highway. Atrocities are now few and far between but a roll of toilet paper lay crushed and ripped on the front veranda today and on leaving her home alone last week for 3 hours I came back to a house strewn with 2 kilos of rice after she nudged open the pantry and “discovered” her dinner rice. After consuming way too much of the raw stuff she had an upset stomach and rather snazzy looking rice encrusted poo for a couple of days….
She is going to have to get used to staying home alone a little bit as I started work for Raine & Horne in Berry today. At this stage I am just helping out with the property management one day a week together with reception and doing the open inspections every other Saturday – that makes a very taxing 3 day fortnight! Down the track another girl in the office would like me to fill in for her so she can have a 9 day fortnight and they also require me for holiday relief. I don’t really want any more right now anyway as there is always so much to do at home but this is enough to get me out of the house and meeting some locals and keeping my brain engaged. Also a bit of pocket money in case I ever get to go shopping again….??
It is so nice to NOT have to work out what time to leave home to get to work and get a parking spot etc. 10 minutes before I start I leave home and that’s that! I am also very conveniently located in the newly hip end of Queen Street in Berry right next door to Little Rae’s general store and the newly opened Burrows and the ever beautiful Moss Nest. I have a feeling my earnings may well be spent within 10 metres of where I earned them….
Well luckily I wrote this on Wednesday – the day before I fell pray to the dreaded flu virus. I haven’t been this sick since the 1980’s in Kathmandu! I literally can hardly stagger from my bed to the bathroom and I feel constantly nauseous and light headed. Wayne kindly gave it to me and he probably got it from Sam last week when we went up to Sydney for Tom’s 25th birthday where we had a fab night at Sake in The Rocks. This embarrassingly means I have had to delay my first solo day in the new job. I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t want this bug anyway.
Before the influenza struck……….
Sadly that meant I also couldn’t travel up to Sydney for a close friend’s son’s wedding. I couldn’t believe the timing but there was no way I could even get into the car for the 2 hour drive let alone anything else. Wayne manned up and represented the family despite still feeling under par and sent me photos of the lovely wedding and the reception at Taronga Zoo with amazing views of Sydney harbour in full ‘Vivid’ colour. 
A great time was had by all and I’m so sad I missed out on such a happy and vibrant occasion – congratulations to Dean and Gemma, lots of love for many happy years together xxx
A little escape to Asia
Hello people – after a 2 week break spent in Hong Kong visiting my daughter and an aside trip to Beijing to explore and climb The Great Wall I am back safely tucked up in The Meadow and enjoying a few completed items finished while I was away. The boys almost finished the ensuite with just a couple of small things left to do – hand towel rings and a couple of paintings to go up. We are very happy with it and it’s lovely having so much room after sharing a small sink for the past 4 months! I also LOVE the soft closing loo and drawers – no more arguments of the seat up/seat down variety! 
The mantelpiece for the new fire also got put up and now that the nights are getting (very) chilly the fire is belting out most of the time. Thank goodness we did it when we did. A Jetmaster is well worth the expense for efficiency and atmosphere and most definitely for the IMMEDIATE heat! We will have to have a go at lighting the wood fire in the dining room soon before our guests arrive for the June long weekend. The walk in dressing room should go in next week and then we can officially unpack lots of our boxes. The rest will finally get opened once the library is installed which is my next project…… 
So I’m a happy little vegemite and all the more so after spending a lovely week with Lauren. Despite the fact that she was working (and organising an art fair which started the day I left!) we managed to spend a lot of time together. I would meet her for lunch every day and do my own thing in between and we made the most of her long weekend by flying to Beijing on Thursday night arriving at midnight and the same on our return to HK on Sunday – although this time round we were delayed by 3 hours making it a 3.30am arrival back at her apartment. Not ideal as she had to go to work at 7.30am….. 
The view from Lauren’s apartment
Flea Market finds
The Forbidden City 
Our hotel in Beijing 
Beautiful parks in Beijing
Aerial view of the forbidden city
Good old Chairman Mao
Real Chinese food!!! 
Can’t believe we are here! 
Slowly making my way up….. 
It’s a long way up…..
Nearly there
I made it!!! 
Lake Houha 
Great way to get around
Beijing on a Saturday night
Relaxed and happy at Cocktail hour
All in all Beijing was a surprise. I was expecting drab blocks of grey cement buildings and terrible smog but we got 25 degrees and blue skies and sunshine! The old town where we were staying within walking distance of Tienanmen Square was delightful and a bit of serenity within a hutong. Courtyard hotels proliferate around here with their tranquil inner courtyards often with a pond where you could be forgiven for thinking you were anywhere other than a huge city with a population of 11.5 million! You could tell in some ways that it was a communist country – no Google, facebook, instagram etc but in other ways you could be in a modern western country. Cute little quirky cafes, takeaway frozen cocktails on sale, cutting edge sunglasses shops, coffee shops and wine bars all alongside old guys with rickshaws or tuk tuks, peking duck restaurants, cultural palaces from hundreds of years ago and Tianemen Square, literally a huge square with no obvious mention of what ensued in 1989. Shops galore – Zara, Gap, Forever 21 – you name it they have it. Lauren’s colleague Ashleigh who had lived in Beijing for 3 years gave us a 7 page to do list of restaurants, cultural sights, bars and markets. She put us in touch with a great driver who spoke English and didn’t drive like a maniac and Terrence with his big smile was there to greet us at midnight on arrival as well as drive us out to the Wall, He was happy to chat or be silent, whatever we wanted and if anyone ever goes there and wants a great driver I would be happy to pass on his details. Ashleigh’s printout which included the chinese words was a godsend and we were forever thrusting it into the face of taxi or rickshaw drivers in the hope they could take us to ‘THE’ place to be in any given circumstance. Sometimes we sat in what was basically a baked bean can and put all our trust into a toothless 70 year old who reckoned he could get us there. Funnily enough, despite the low key form of transport they often whipped out their brand new iphone 6 to check up on the directions!
All that’s between us and death is a baked bean tin…..
So in summary I was very glad we decided to have an aside trip to Beijing and have a brand new experience and despite 4 flights in 7 days I am glad I crammed in as much as I could. Next time I see Loz it will be here in The Meadow at Xmas and I can’t wait to show her some of MY beautiful part of the world. When I drove into the bends at Kiama I was so happy to be back in the green, serene dairy country of my little part of the South Coast and sitting on my veranda later that day I was so grateful for all I have in this new country life of mine.
A country wedding
You’ve got to love a country wedding….
Just about everything country was epitomized in the weekend wedding of my dear friends Leigh and John. It was truly a magical day in front of 85 of their nearest and dearest and in beautiful Autumn sunshine. They exchanged their vows on the grassy slopes of their Kangaroo Valley property The Old Koonabulla Dairy and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house! The bride and groom couldn’t take their eyes off each other and John (aka Mr Romance) left us hankering after some more romance from our hubbies of 30- years!! A lot of fun was had and one of my lasting memories is of Leigh tucking her beautiful satin Carla Zampatti gown into her knickers and hitting the dance floor with gusto!!
I’m pretty sure that lots of the Sydney based guests have gone home hankering after a country existence and as we sat under the beautiful Pin Oak trees eating our recovery breakfast the morning after I was SO GLAD to call this beautiful part of the South Coast home!
Walking to the wedding
So much love….
Husband and Wife!
The Brady Bunch
Yummy food thanks to Simone Logue
The beautiful bride
Congratulations Leigh and John
The hub…
Magnificent Dessert Table
Lots of chat around the fire in the dairy as the night went on….
How beautiful was it? They were truly blessed with the weather and the whole day was perfect from start to finish. I love them dearly and wish them a lifetime of happiness together.
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On the home front we have been experiencing extremely strong winds that have literally lifted our furniture from the veranda and blown it half way across the garden. Wicker chairs and cushions, gumboots and peg bags, torches and dog toys have been scattered to the four winds and apparently the real wind doesn’t start until August…….yikes!!
Bailey has been growing before our eyes and has the funniest personality. She has started going into town with me and loves everyone she sees, they mostly love her too and it takes a long time to buy a pint of milk with everyone stopping to pat her. She hasn’t attacked any more shoes (mostly because I have them off the floor now) but I thought of her when I saw this…..
How can you stay cross with them???????????
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I went to a great dinner at Silos on Thursday featuring local food producers. Their food was cooked in 4 courses and they gave presentations about both the good and bad bits of being a small producer trying to stay true to their ethics. It was a fascinating night and I was very encouraged by the enthusiasm and passion of these mostly young people trying to make our food “good” again. We had local pasture fed chooks, local unprocessed milk, grass beef producers who are trying to improve the life and death of their animals and a biotech company harvesting seaweed and using it in food and also as ‘food as medicine’ which essentially all well produced and unprocessed food is. There were about 200 people there supporting the evening which was promoted by the slow food group here on the south coast. Many of them were local farmers and we heard many stories of share farming and innovative ways of sharing the burden of debt that often accompanies small farms. We left feeling encouraged that our little part of the world was in good hands.
Our veggie patch has been planted up with all the winter veg – cauliflower, brussel sprouts, cabbage, broccoli and silverbeet and the roses have been pruned back (rather severely to get their shape back after a few years of neglect) and the Jetmaster fire is being used and loved most nights. The cows are enjoying the paddock adjacent to ours which was planted with rye grass a month ago and provides them with some extra goodness coming into the cold weather.
Those trees are in our garden!
I am heading to Hong Kong today to stay with my daughter so I’ll see you all in a couple of weeks.
With love from The Meadow xx
Home Alone
It’s been a quiet week here with hubby overseas playing golf in China and then in Singapore for a week working to pay for our new ensuite! It is coming along beautifully and will most probably be just about finished in another week. The Tradies have been great and very dedicated – the painter was here Saturday and Sunday getting it done. As wonderful as it is that they are all pitching in, it is a constant battle for me to keep young Bailey out from under their feet. She LOVES them all. They all smell good and leave a trail of tasty offcuts of underlay and gyprock for her to chew. Their paint buckets provide her with endless fascination (and a white nose and whiskers) and they all have little eskies with yummy foody treats. To be honest she is going to be rather bored once they go. So, between the rain and avoiding the tradies we have been locked in the lounge or in the car trying not to be a nuisance to everyone.
Progress with the ensuite – 10 days to go!!
I escaped for one day to Sydney and Bailey was fantastic in the car. Due to the dreadful weather it was a 3 hour journey each way and she just slept and happily sat in the front of the car with me – not even a comfort stop until we reached Paddington where Tom was going to babysit for a few hours while I got my hair done. Tom’s mates all came for a play with Bailey at the park and she rewarded them with lots of puppy love.They all had fun and we went to lunch in Double Bay where she was the centre of attention with so many people wanting to pat her and regale me with tales of their dogs. As Tom said “the best chick magnet EVER”!! She was very well behaved and I’m thankful that she likes to travel and is easy with people.
Lunch at Indigo – yummy!
I have enrolled her in puppy pre-school with The Berry Vets. It is a 4 week course and should help her socialise with other dogs and learn the ropes. So far she has only met Wally – a 1 year old black Lab who lives in our Lane and was SO EXCITED to see Bailey he nearly choked himself trying to say hello to her. She was initially pleased to see him too but then just froze, lay down and refused to move!
At 14 weeks she is still learning alot.
- She loves tomatoes and eats them as often as she can steal them from the vine.
- She sits and shows immense discipline as she waits for her meals. Her whole body quivers in anticipation until I give her the go ahead. I have the power….
- She wakes EVERY morning at 5.55 am (or earlier) and then goes back to sleep at 7 am (just when I have to be up to welcome the builders….)
- She still loves flowers – very rarely will she pass by and NOT have a smell or nip at them.
- She adores any empty containers or rolly tubey things and will fetch and drop them for hours if I had the patience.
As I was about to post this an atrocity was committed…
She had been rather quiet (always a bad sign) but I thought she was asleep and I went out onto the veranda to get something to find this…..
Guess I won’t be wearing them to the wedding on Saturday then…
She got into BIG trouble for this and she slunk off to her bed looking very sheepish. Not a happy camper.
(A few nice things coming up in the next couple of weeks so watch this space……….)
Anzac Day in a country town
What a wonderful morning we had commemorating the 100 year anniversary of Gallipoli. We have been to a few dawn services in Sydney’s Martin Place which were always special and full of the pomp and ceremony you would expect, but somehow this years simple and inclusive ceremony in Berry resonated more. Maybe it made us more aware of that ‘everyday’ guy who signed up – often from the country – just doing what he had to do, and as I had my morning cuppa at sunrise (thanks to Bailey) outside looking over the fields I was very aware that they would have had absolutely no idea what they were signing up for. Whereas a new day always holds hope for me I’m sure that dawn in Gallipoli would hold a different feeling altogether for the diggers. Those of you who know my family history would understand that this was a very emotional day and tears were flowing at several different stages of the day as I witnessed both the very young and very old come together over a mutual love of Australia and the life we live here, thanks in part to the sacrifice of these men and women so many years ago. #lestweforget 
Loved seeing the nurses represented too…. 
Everyone came out to march
Catching up with old mates at the pub. Cam has left for a 2 week trip to China, Hong Kong and Singapore leaving Bailey and I to hold the fort. Before he left we pulled off our work clothes and spruced up to have a farewell dinner at South on Albany and how glad we were that we made the effort to go out as we had a delicious meal. Such a pleasant surprise to be able to get such good quality food here in the country- as good if not better than lots in Sydney and at a reasonable price too. We will definitely be back here again.
Confit of duck on cauliflower puree – scrumptious!! 
Please note the option to have a glass of local milk!!!
Our curtains were installed this week, great timing as the cold weather and rain have arrived at the same time. It’s quite amazing what a difference window coverings make, they really dress a room and frame the windows. As we didn’t want anything to block our beautiful view of the Cambewarra escarpment we took the advice of the lovely Nola who organised the making of the curtains and went with a linen curtain and we are very happy that we did as they hang beautifully in between the windows and on a sunny day they blow gently in the breeze and remind me of my childhood in England where everyone had the ubiquitous ‘net curtains’ to ensure privacy without blocking light. 
The dining room also got the dress up treatment and we are a step closer to having a completed room. A 3 metre oak table with some new chairs has been spotted and mentally purchased and I can just imagine long lunches with friends and family in the winter with the fire crackling……
While the sun has been out after all the rain I have tried to make the most of it and attack the garden – specifically the veggie patch which has suffered a lot during the bad weather. We have weeds up to our ankles both in the garden beds and throughout the pebbles! I read somewhere that pouring boiling water over them kills them and as its a chemical free option I am going to give it a whirl this week if the weather holds. As lots of summer crops are finishing – tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce – I realise I haven’t been thinking ahead enough and have experienced the dreaded phenomena of ‘spare beds’ unplanted and bare. Next year I will be far more aware of what to plant when, but this year I just about have time to plant a few more caulis and cabbage, spinach, onions and leeks as well as peas of all descriptions before the weather becomes wintry and slows down all the growth, so I spent today weeding and planting while Bailey raced round and around the garden her little ears flapping behind her as she just enjoyed the pure joy of being a puppy in the country!! Eventually she collapsed exhausted in the middle of a garden bed….!! 
I harvested the last of the tomatoes and decided to try and bottle them for a taste of summer. I slow roasted them in the oven with some garlic (thanks to Karen and Phil Riley @ Milton) basil and thyme and then immersed them in extra virgin olive oil with some salt, pepper and the odd chilli. They should be great for pasta sauces in the middle of winter when the sun seems a long way away….. 
A touch of summer deliciousness ready for the oven….
The Big Wet
Well here we are on day 4 of the relentless rain. I am snuggled up near the fire with a sleeping puppy at my feet listening to it cascade down on our tin roof and fill up what is fast becoming a large pond in our front garden.
Paddling pools?
We are usually blessed with lovely weather but every now and again Mother Nature likes to remind us who is boss that’s for sure. It certainly hasn’t been as bad here as in Sydney with no big winds or thunderstorms – just loads of rain. I am very grateful that everything inside is perfect – a great tester for any potential leaks etc and the old house has passed with flying colours.
The builders have even managed to get some stuff done this week, ironically today they came and did the ‘waterproofing’ and popped on an extra coat just in case!
Good progress despite the weather!! 
The boys have been great and have even been happy to look after Bailey on the odd occasion I have had to leave for a few hours. She loves to hang out with them when they have morning tea on the veranda – lots of interesting things to discover out there – odd bits of underlay and gyprock fragments, she spent 2 hours playing with a lid from a tin of plaster yesterday andthen comes inside exhausted to pass out in her new favourite spot next to the fire.
Puppy Heaven………
However she has had rather an explorative week and if we dont click the doors properly when we shut them she sometimes nudges them open and goes off on Puppy adventures….She does have a penchant for shoes, so far we have been lucky and she just ‘rearranges’ them….Can’t wait to get everything put away into our new walk- in dressing room!
Sometime she brings me floral tributes from the garden to say sorry…………
A snapshot of a soggy day in The Meadow. Chooks not happy as they look for higher ground- only getting 1 egg a day sadly.
At least they are getting to be a better size
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Luckily our mates and lovely neighbours from Rozelle came down to stay before the heavens opened and we had a lovely time. We started with a nice lunch at Silos overlooking the vines and the alpacas – yummy food and a couple of bottles of wine and some shared desserts later we came home more relaxed and ready for more stories and The Tahs game! The next day after a Cammo brekky special they insisted on being helpful in the garden. This basically equated to Craig wanting to cut things down – preferably with power tools and Fiona brandishing the secateurs with a professional air and doing an amazing job dead heading the entire agapanthus hedge bordering the property. We were slicing the last of them off when the rain started and it hasn’t stopped for 4 days! Great timing guys – thanks so much! I don’t miss that damn persimmon tree one bit or the bats that used to hang out there, I think the veggie patch will get more sunshine and less fruit fly now – yay!!!
Welcome to the Meadow!!
A bit of hard yakka – hand tools only – sorry Smeds!
Our worker extraordinaire!
A thank you box of our own produce.
South Coasting
I have had a lovely week enjoying all the loveliness of the South Coast in Autumn. We have new calves on an almost daily basis in The Lane, the veggie patch is finally giving me beautiful ripe tomatoes and an abundance of heavy shiny eggplants, leeks and heirloom beetroot and I have a beautiful new fire and the beginnings of an en suite bathroom! What more could a girl ask for…..
Some small visitors were delighted by Bailey and she in turn loved them and had a wonderful old time careering around and around the garden chasing them and playing tug of war .
Ben and Isabelle in a love triangle with Bailey……
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She is growing like a weed and becoming quite cheeky. I love her best when we go for a walk and she veers from one side of the lane to the other scampering through puddles and nipping at the tall grass. She leaps ahead of me – not a care in the world – with her ears flapping as she runs through the tall grass in the paddock and then drops down in it so I can hardly see her, just as if she was playing hide and seek. Nothing like the exuberance and carefree nature of a puppy to make you feel good about life.
Love our country walks.
I don’t feel quite so in love with her at 5.30 in the morning when she decides that her day begins and I drag myself out of bed to let her out of the house. Ironically that was the time I used to have to get up in Sydney to go to work and I used to moan about doing it 3 times a week – now I’m doing it EVERYDAY!!! I think the time is close to relocate her bed from the laundry to the outside where we have a very large storage cupboard on our side veranda which is protected and safe but where I can leave the door open and she can help herself to the great outdoors when she feels the need.
Our new Jetmaster fire has arrived in the nick of time as the evenings are starting to get chilly. The boys had a fair bit of drilling out of bricks in the existing chimney to make it fit but I absolutely love it and despite it not being “real” it gives a lovely atmosphere as well as throwing out a lot of heat, being instant and with a remote which I can activate from my bed – bliss!! I have a mantelpiece to finish it off that I intend painting this week. It was a bit of a bargain but only came in white so armed with some sandpaper and a tin of black paint I intend to transform it into a vision of beauty to complete the vintage look – hopefully it will look as if it has always been here!
Before, During and After installation.
The mantelpiece awaiting transformation
Day 1 of the build arrived and Scott, Mathew and James arrived with all their bash and crash gear and proceeded to strip our adjoining room to it’s bare walls and floors within a very short period of time. Luckily I had been invited to a book launch and lunch in Mollymook so I left Bailey in their tender care and scarpered.
Phil and Karen had organised my ticket to the book launch of Paul West aka The River Cottage Australia guy who we so enjoyed watching last year when we were still in Sydney just dreaming of our future life in the country. His story was a bigger version of our past 3 months and hearing him talk now about the hard work (but great reward) involved in growing your own food it really resonated with me. As I looked around the room and later started talking to people at our ‘long lunch table’ I was so happy to be involved in a community that values the simple joys of growing and cooking your own food. The South Coast really does seem to have a large proportion of foodies and on our table alone we had an apiarist who fascinated us potential beekeepers with his tales, a vineyard owner (Cupitts) who makes her own cheese, a couple of girls from Ulladulla who were in the process of applying for the next round of MKR and of course our very own Phil and Karen Riley who are now breeding pigs, cows, chooks and have just sent off for their first beehive. It is very rewarding to be surrounded by people who think the same way and know exactly how frustrating farming (however small) can be. The lunch was at Tallwood which is a great little restaurant in the strip at Mollymook with some talented young chefs. Today they cooked 3 courses from the book and all 3 were very well received. 1. Veggie Pakoras with minty yoghurt (my personal fave and recipe in kitchen section) 2. Coq au Vin with green beans, labne, shallots and almonds and 3. Hazelnut Syrup Cake with candied oranges and creme fraiche. Not a bad way to spend a Monday……….
A great day at Tallwood for The River Cottage book launch
Yummy Hazelnut Syrup Cake
When I came home from the lunch I was amazed and pleasantly suprised with the progress that the Bash and Crash boys had made. I LOVE building and renovating, it’s always so exciting to see something “become” the vision you’ve had in your head and even at this early stage it is starting to come alive – not just a few sketches and brochures. The Block meets The Meadow!
And so it begins…….
A few hours later!!!!!!!!!!!
My Move To The Meadow 