When we bought this house I used to daydream on a daily basis about what I was gong to do once I got down here. I bought every “country style” magazine that is published in Australia AND the UK. I had pinterest boards coming out of my ears. I had organic gardening books and books on how to raise chickens. I went to the vintage markets every weekend for the past 12 months where I collected vintage teacups and saucers for afternoon tea on my new veranda and I went to the auctions and invested in some unusual pieces of furniture for the new dream house…..All of that was very worthwhile and amazingly everything fits into the new house beautifully, but the reality is somewhat different from my imaginings. I am yet to have anything other than a mug of tea or a glass of wine on that veranda (although a recent birthday prezzy from my sister and a gorgeous tray from Tina would make it VERY easy to enjoy a proper afternoon tea and the Davie girls gifts of the most beautiful cake platters also make me think I should be baking every weekend!!)
This week has seen a more practical version of life in the country….
Firstly we noticed one of the new chooks was limping and standing with one foot in the air all the time. It was also the one being left out the most – not part of the gang at all. When Wayne finally managed to catch it (it was MOST unimpressed) we could see that one of its toes or claws had snapped and was at a horrible angle making it impossible for it to walk and uncomfortable to roost. I raced inside to get our first aid kit and managed to use a band aid to straighten it and provide some stability for it while it healed. Wayne wanted me to pour disinfectant over it but this chicken had a cranky glint in it’s eye and I ‘chickened out’ and ended up using a fancy band aid that had a silver antibiotic lining instead! Nothing but the best for our chookies! I am pleased to report that she is walking much better every day and is starting to join in the action with the others. However…..WE STILL HAVE NO EGGS. These chickens are just taking their sweet time to start laying. So far just the one tiny ‘fear driven’ egg has arrived at number 80.

Our next reality check came in the form of a bat. I got up one night at 3am for a drink of water and when I put the light on in the bathroom a huge flapping shadow absolutely freaked me out. I thought it was a giant moth or similar and fell like a drunk against the bathroom door jamb whilst hysterically brushing the air to make sure it didn’t come near me. I have an amazing rainbow of bruises on my right side to show for it. Amazingly I completely forgot to tell Wayne about it the next day and it wasn’t until we were about to take our first mouthful of our delicious roast dinner that night and the ‘moth’ returned flying round and round our lounge room that I realised it was a bat. Luckily not one of the ginormous ones that are eating all my fruit trees but a smaller one that we think must be living in the eaves of the veranda. Goodness knows how it got in – hopefully it just snuck in when we had the door open one night and doesn’t have a direct entry visa into our house. We turned off all the lights and shut all the bedroom doors and it eventually accepted our open door invitation to leave the building, flying straight out the front door.

The final reality check that I am now in the ‘real’ country came yesterday when we were attempting to finish our huge mulching job in the garden. We place newspapers over the ground and then put the hay thickly on top to prevent any oxygen and sunlight getting through. It has to be watered in at all stages to prevent it all blowing away. The hose was spluttering and not performing and we thought it had a kink in it or something but the fact of the matter was that we had run out of water in our rain tank!!!!! Being city folk we just turned on the tap and presumed we had a limitless supply of water not realising that most of the outside taps were connected to the rainwater tank. We have had hardly any rain in the 2 months we’ve been her and of course with all the work we are doing in the garden we have been using copious quantities of it. Now we are reduced to fetching watering cans of water from the ‘town water tap’ about an acre away from the veggie patch which is arduous to say the least.
Seriously contemplating doing a rain dance tomorrow………

This is a fancy word for a veggie patch.

One that I find very evocative as I have had a vision of the Potager I would like in my mind for several years.

According to Wikipedia……The traditional kitchen garden, also known as a potager (in French, jardin potager)  is a space separate from the rest of the residential garden – the ornamental plants and lawn areas. The kitchen garden may serve as the central feature of an ornamental, all-season landscape, or it may be little more than a humble vegetable plot. It is a source of herbs, vegetables and fruits, but it is often also a structured garden space with a design based on repetitive geometric patterns.

This week we came a little closer to my vision with the arrival of 3.5 tons of river gravel.

Growing up in the UK I had often seen gravel used amongst the raised beds instead of grass as it drains freely and stops the whole area becoming a muddy mess in wet weather. In Australia it also stops us having to mow it every few days in summer which is a bonus, as the beloved ride on mower doesn’t fit in there and it all has to be done by hand!

We spent one whole day laying newspapers down on top of the grass and then barrowing in endless kilos of the gravel but hopefully it will only need to be done once and we are very pleased with the results. What do you think?

As you can see, everything is growing beautifully and we are now harvesting lettuce, snow peas, french beans and pak choi with the tomatoes, leeks, carrots and beetroot not too far behind and all in 6 weeks!

The chooks are happy and getting braver by the day, not too long now before we can let them free range around the property. We should also start getting some eggs in the next couple of weeks with any luck. Cammo is “encouraging” them by leaving golf balls in the nesting boxes. They are finally getting excited when we deliver fresh kitchen scraps to them and there is sheer pandemonium when they spot a little bug or lizard in their yard and literally run after them as one clucking and hysterical group. Whatever the lead hen (Henrietta) does the others blithely follow so let’s hope she has half a brain and proves to be a good leader of the gang!

Despite the neglect of the rose bushes over the past few years they are still producing some lovely blooms with that proper old fashioned rose perfume. I think they are all David Austin roses and they should be even more fabulous next summer after a good pruning. Cam is always muttering under his breath about getting rid of the ‘damn roses’ but I refuse to listen to him. Every country garden needs some flowers and these are old and established.

Susie 1: Cammo 0

This evening at 6 pm I decided to make use of the hammock that my son Tom put up the first weekend we moved in. It is at the back of the property overlooking the paddocks and feels very hedonistic when you’re there, swinging gently, with not a care in the world. I love it. There is a lovely breeze and I can hear the wrens and finches in the nearby bushes and the kurrawongs and lorikeets in the trees. All is well with my world, well almost………..I can also hear the sound of the trucks on the Princes Highway.

You can barely see the highway but when the wind is in a certain direction and in the stillness of the early morning or late afternoon I can hear them hurtling up or down the highway in a desperate bid to get their goods to Sydney or Nowra “in time” for…… whatever. It is the ONLY thing that is a demerit point so far with the property. I speak to myself logically….”people need groceries and petrol Suz” or “it’s good to be close to an arterial road – easy to get everywhere and easy for people to call in” but it BUGS ME!!!!

It is however a do-able compromise in the scheme of things. I love the house. I love the surroundings and I love the lifestyle. It all came at a reasonable price. Soooo……………there has to be a compromise somewhere and I guess this is it. Not the end of the world, just a niggle in the background occasionally, such as when I’m daydreaming in the hammock…