After two weeks of huge downpours and thunderstorms the surrounding countryside is looking lush and green, more like Ireland than Australia. The price we are paying for that is a lake in our front garden and some very squishy ground underfoot. Our neighbours bogged their ride on mower a few days ago so we didn’t even try to get ours down to the low lying areas. The trouble is if the grass stays too long the sun can’t dry it at the roots and it dies off. With just over 5 weeks to our garden wedding this is NOT ideal. The silver lining is of course that all the cows and horses have some very lush feed and milk production is up and everyone’s water tanks are full or overflowing. Our poor gutters and downpipes struggle to cope with the volume of water that seems to fall every few hours but luckily in between deluges the sun comes out and the sea breeze tries it’s best to dry things out a bit. The cows don’t seem to mind the murky drizzly weather though….

Of course this whole wet weather episode started the day our painter arrived to finish painting the old part of the house to match in with the new section. He has a strong link to this house and was the last person to paint it 17 years ago so you can imagine how desperate it was for some new paint protection. You could just touch the veranda posts and the paint would fall off. Anyway thanks to the wonders of a wrap around veranda he has managed to continue working whilst the heavens open all around him and the garage has come in very handy too.

Last weekend saw the arrival of some very helpful friends for a working bee, painting the chook shed and some tidying up of the garden. After a week of rain the sun came out for 2 days allowing us to get stuff done which was wonderful. We had little breaks for “smoko” and knocked off at 5pm daily for Happy Hour and some nice food and lots of laughs. Thanks so much to them for their hard yakka on their weekend off from work! They tell me the hardest part of the whole weekend was getting out of Sydney on the Friday night!

As the wedding looms it seems I have a ‘to do list’ a mile long every day to complete but I am very keen to have everything dotted and crossed by the end of this week as my lovely Mum arrives from the UK next week and I want to be free to show her around. Coming 12000 miles at 80 years of age is no mean feat and I’m glad we can offer her some relaxing corners for her to enjoy the parrots and the country views whilst overcoming any jetlag she may get. Her last trip to Oz we were living in the Inner West of Sydney within spitting distance of the CBD and with a pub or cafe on every corner so this will be decidedly different! It will be lovely to have her here for the wedding and to be part of all the preparations. The house is filling up with wedding paraphernalia and I can’t wait for the Bride to arrive and see it all. Hopefully she will love it as she only gets here one week prior to her Big Day.

We used to have so many fairy wrens when we moved in as well as finches and other small birds that lived in our hedges. When the builders arrived with their heavy machinery and the garden became a building site they flew away and I haven’t seen them since so I was VERY happy to see this little fellow the other day.Maybe he was sussing out the potential of our garden to raise his next family? Fingers crossed they come back as I used to love hearing their song and see them flitting in and out of the bushes.

A ray of heavenly light over the chook shed marked the passing of Henrietta last week. She was the only chook we had named as the others looked so alike we couldn’t tell the difference. While all the other chooks had bare red patches where their feather should be Henrietta sported a dark glossy full feathered coat making her the chief suspect in the denuding of the others. In the pecking order she was the Bossy Boots, the Matriarch and I thought she would be the last chook standing. So it was doubly confounding to find her one morning in the nesting box dead as a dodo. She had been segregating herself from the others during the past week and I thought she was just being snooty and standoffish but maybe she knew something was wrong. It’s always sad when you lose an animal no matter how small and you always wonder if there was something you could have done to save them. Funnily enough she died on the day of Lauren’s Hen Party which seems appropriate somehow. I thought the others may have grieved for her in their own chickeny way but they seem as happy as ever, clucking and pecking away, now just 6 of them. Life goes on in the chook yard…..

RIP Henrietta.

So as we steamroll through March and Autumn is now upon us, I find myself quite reflective. A few people very dear to us are sick and it makes me realise how fragile life is and how easy it is to get caught up in the day to day crap and forget to look around you, enjoy the simple things and make the effort to appreciate every day. While we are planning a happy wedding others are going through hell and you never really know what is going on behind closed doors for people. That’s why we should all try and be kind to each other and make every day count in one way or another. Smell the roses, roll in the fresh grass, walk alongside the ocean sunny or not, eat the cake, buy the shoes, save for that big trip, dream BIG and always be grateful for what you have even if it doesn’t always feel perfect. There are always so many people doing it harder.

Some wise words…..

It has been a busy few weeks in the Shoalhaven with the Country Shows in full swing. Each week they pop up starting in Kiama, Berry, Nowra, Kangaroo Valley and this week Milton. They usually have at least one or two interesting things on show in addition to the usual cattle, horsey, sideshow alley type pursuits and last week I ventured up the mountain to  Kangaroo Valley in 38 degree heat to witness the inaugural Cheese and Dairy competition started by my friend Jan and a couple of other women who make up The Kangaroo Valley Cheesemakers. It was very popular with 80 entrants including about 25 students from a local High School. Hand made butter, yoghurt, labne , fresh,soft, washed rind and hard cheeses were all tasted and judged over a 5 hour period and some workshops have been planned for the coming months to teach us mere mortals the wonders of making your own cheese at home. As you get more experienced there are quite a few tools of the trade to collect however – the judging table was a bit like an operating theatre!!

My friend Maryan has been my companion to a couple of fun local things lately. My colleagues tell me that I’m now officially a local after being snapped at the cattle judging and having our photo in the local paper! I even had an akubra  on – not bad for an ex-city girl…       

We attended a far more ladylike event last week in Berry when a local GP threw open her house and the art collection within to interested parties to help them  raise funds for The Fred Hollows Foundation. It is a gorgeous old house that has been brought to life with Lucie’s extensive art collection of her Grandmother’s sister Eileen Mayo.

She was a meticulously detailed artist born in England in 1906 and emigrating to Australia in 1952 where she was commissioned to do some travel posters for The Australian Tourist Board and later some beautiful postage stamps. She dabbled in nearly every medium and was especially well known as a printmaker. Lucie has the largest collection outside of the Victoria and Albert Museum and it was a delight to tour the house seeing her Great Aunt’s work so beautifully displayed.

A devonshire cream tea in the garden on lovely vintage crockery topped off our afternoon perfectly.

Our neighbours in The Lane are softies when it comes to animals and they have an ever expanding menagerie. To date they have 5 cows, 2 goats, 2 cats and now 3 dogs! Darren has been known to come back from work with a baby goat under his arm as payment for a job he’s done and Kath has such a good heart she can’t say no. Their latest addition is a Dogue de Bordeaux  or a French mastiff and Gloria is just delicious! The most well known dog of this breed is probably the lovable drooling dog in the movie Turner and Hooch. Gloria is going to be a VERY big girl when she’s fully grown, her Dad weighs 85kgs!!!! But for now she is soft and cuddly and inquisitive, as all new puppies are, and we loved having her visit us. Bailey was beside herself with excitement, wanting to play with her constantly until Gloria fell asleep in a little heap on our veranda, completely wiped out!!

With less than 7 weeks until our on-site wedding things are amping up and with our weather being either 40 degrees or torrential rain the garden has gone nuts!!! At a time that I had planned on spending lots of time mulching, weeding, trimming and pruning and finally being able to take Bailey on lovely long walks because the temperatures have become bearable I have had a rather annoying road bump in the form of a stress fracture in my foot resulting in me having to wear an orthopaedic boot for about 4 weeks (supposedly non weight bearing for at least one of them – grrrr). This has well and truly slowed me down, although it has enabled me to spend time finalising things with all the suppliers etc and catching up on my paperwork!! Funny how The Universe takes over sometimes…..

I was determined however not to miss an event that hubby’s Company sponsors, which is a big charity Gala Ball to raise money for Camp Quality. An overnight stay in The Shangri La with an amazing view over Sydney’s beautiful harbour more than made up for my 3 hour train trip (currently no long distance driving allowed .)

As it turned out we were sharing our floor with the Indonesian President and his 45 staff who were gathered in the corridor outside his room chatting away excitedly into their lapels. They were in full military regalia and seemed totally unaware of any other guests as they got on with their business (loudly) at 7am. So much for a relaxing start to the day! The Ball was good fun though, showcasing the hardship that families go through when their children have cancer and the ripple effect that it has on the entire family. Camp Quality provides a very real escape for these families and gives them an opportunity to finally make some memories outside of a hospital environment. Number one son and his girlfriend joined us for the evening and as the wine flowed so did the money into the coffers of Camp Quality, a truly great organisation.

So back to The Meadow we went and  just in time to welcome some old friends and neighbours from 10 years ago who haven’t changed a bit! They were so sweet bringing delicious beluga caviar and lobster tails as a contribution to dinner as well as wine and choccies – very generous guests!! He is a horticulturalist and in just a couple of hours he chopped my garden into some form of submission, leaving it a lot tidier than he found it! He even got us to taste some of the remaining persimmons, assuring us they were of the non astringent kind and guess what? They were delicious!! It was lovely to see them and it was as if it was yesterday that we all used to live just down the road from each other and the kids were at Primary school !!

 Very fancy!!

After all the food and wine enjoyed this past week, in addition to the fact I can’t even go for a walk or do any exercise, and with my Mother of The Bride outfit looming, I am attempting to deprive myself of everything except fresh veggies, salads and lean protein.

My day may (or may not) go like this……..

Oh to be young and have a dam on your property to dive into!! This year has so far been very unsettled weather wise. It’s either pouring with rain and causing floods or 41 degrees with scorching sun. According to people in their 90s this isn’t unheard of but in our recent history I don’t remember having so many days over 35 degrees and we are certainly underdone rain wise. The trouble with Australia is it’s a feast or a famine. No gentle English rain for us. 100ml in less than a day or nothing for 6 weeks, goodness knows how my garden is even alive although a water bill 3 times the price of our previous one is indicative of me trying desperately to coerce the plants into living despite the horrible conditions. Especially in view of the upcoming onsite wedding, I can’t afford to take my eye off the ball at all!!! Maybe NOT the best time to plant my new garden bed…..

Luckily (I guess) we had 120ml rain in 2 days this week, I say luckily as we are about to have another 2 days of 40+degree temperatures preceded and followed by a few 35+ days so this little downpour couldn’t have come at a better time!

In an attempt to de-stress about things over which I have no control I went along with a girlfriend to try yoga. We have the most gorgeous yoga shala near us on a farm that hosts weddings and other such affairs so it is beautifully situated in verdant countryside and just being there nourishes you before you even start the class! Needless to say I was a bit hopeless on Day 1 but loved every moment of it and slept like a baby that night so I’m going back for more next week…..

The Engaged Ones have just come back from a lovely 10 day trip to Nepal where they trekked through some of The Himalayas. Their photos were fantastic and have wetted my appetite to do a wee bit more travelling after my wedding obligations are finished. So many places still to see and increasingly little time to see it all! I oscillate madly between wanting wild raw landscapes and beautiful ancient cities and customs, I have no care for 5 star hotels where everything is homogenised and you could be anywhere from Marrakesh to Mauritius, I love the places that sing to you of their origins and traditions and customs. Who wants to eat the same breakfast you have at home? Surely the point of travel is to see and feel differently about the world which in turn makes you see your own world differently when you eventually return home. Vive la difference and all that jazz!

Don’t these pics just make you want to hop on a plane and get into nature?

The rain stopped just in time for The Nowra Show to burst into action. Despite the high temperatures the horsey, cattley people were out in force showing their beloved animals. I hadn’t realised until now that all these country shows are a platform for local farmers to show their best animals and by winning here they get a ticket to show at the big Sydney Easter Show which has considerably more prestige attached. I loved the little kids leading their calfs, so comfortable with their animals and proud as punch when they got a ribbon. I did giggle though when I saw the cows waiting in their stalls with an electric fan whirring on their backsides to keep them cool…!!

The woodchop is always fun to watch and we were glad of a spot in the shade while the big boys got stuck in to the task at hand. I’m glad our logs come pre chopped for our fires as it looks like an accident waiting to happen to the uninitiated!!

It was lovely to see our neighbour Jeanette clean up in the cake competition. No less than 6 1st prizes thank you very much! We were the lucky recipients of the cakes that didn’t make it to the show, if they were slightly uneven or had inconsistent icing they came straight next door for us! Winning!!

Her Mother -in-Law is the famous Vonnie Muller. Famous in the baking world that is. She is known far and wide in the country for her phenomenal cakes and scones and she was persuaded last year to pen some of her favourite recipes into a book. It is now on it’s 3rd print run and she can’t keep up with the demand! She had her very own table in the Show Pavilion where she was signing copies for the masses and she is still chuffed at all the interest it has generated. Never too late for that moment in the sun!

In a year that already seems to have seen so many changes in the world it is increasingly important for us to focus on our own little lives or you could get swept up in the disaster mongering of our politicians and the news channels on the TV. I rarely watch the news anymore as it’s all doom and gloom, accidents, bashings, murders, simmering international tensions with an occasional fluffy panda story thrown in for good measure. It’s easy to lose focus of the important things in life and feel rather pessimistic. It’s easy for young people to feel confused and chase the dollar and success without really loving what they do, always thinking the grass is greener on the other side but if you can find happiness in your work and believe in yourself, success will often follow – just try not to get distracted…..

A couple of weekends ago we farewelled The Five Mile, the 100+ acre property of our dear friends that Farmer Nifty in particular has loved and nurtured now for over 16 years. In what we affectionately called ‘The Wake’ we remembered all the good times that had happened there in that time including their daughter’s weddings, summer holidays showing their grandkids the delights of rural life and the long cherished dream which came to fruition of Nifty embracing long distance horse rides up through the mountains and the rugged Australian Bush in a ‘man from Snowy River’ type fashion. 100 acres is a lot to look after however and especially when you do not have the luxury of town water or a garbage collection and there are a gazillion fences to constantly check on and paddocks to slash. It’s always hard to know when to pull the pin and leave, especially when you still love it. He is struggling in particular with saying goodbye to his beautiful horses who he has loved and cared for for many many years and my heart crumbles for him for what I know will be the hardest goodbye.

On our last night as we sat in the back paddock in front of a glowing camp fire under a billion stars and reminisced  about days gone by I could see that there would never be an easy time to say goodbye. The good thing is that a wonderful new adventure is about to start for them with a new house and new location to love and cherish. The other love of his life is fishing and they will now be a mere 150 metres from the water on beautiful Jervis Bay, closer to their kids and grandchildren and happily closer to us! It is so good at this age and stage to be able to reinvent your life and enjoy a different part of the world, see new things and meet new people – just as we have here in The Meadow. It isn’t always easy to leap off a cliff into the unknown but it can bring unanticipated joy and happiness!

These two have been great friends, colleagues and partners in crime for more years than I care to remember and I’m so glad we had this last hurrah at The Five Mile and a poignant last walk on Congo beach together before closing the gate for the last time……

We had a quick trip to The Big Smoke last week, a multi faceted trip involving a working bee at our house prior to new tenants moving in and a lovely social visit with our good friends. In 24 hours the painters had freshened the house, fixed and varnished the back deck and we had replanted the courtyard, all things that hopefully will be appreciated by the new people. I am always constantly horrified  at the lack of work done by landlords in Sydney. My son lives in a lovely old terrace in Paddington but it is in dire need of a bit of TLC and a repaint etc. They have an overseas landlord who doesn’t seem to care and knows he will always get young people willing to pay exorbitant rent to live in the Paddo precinct no matter what the conditions. Greedy and selfish I reckon. We arrived perfectly in time to celebrate our friend’s daughter’s engagement and then enjoyed a fabulous meal at Lotus in Barangaroo after drinks in a great place sporting the most amazing whisky bar – glowing amber in the evening light it was quite magnetic!! Thanks for a super evening G and M !!

One of the girls in my Pilates class kindly invited us all to her house for a ‘healthy lunch’ to belatedly celebrate Christmas and the New Year. Nothing fancy she assured us and I had envisaged an interesting salad and a fruit platter or something similar and I was so surprised when I arrived at her gorgeous  home to see a table laid beautifully and a feast awaiting us. The presentation of everything was exquisite. On top of all that everything was from her garden or made by her – from the mandolin thin zucchini stuffed with home made labneh and scattered with dried beetroot dust, violas and thyme served with a pickled chilli cucumber salad to the fluffy cheese roulade filled with roasted veggies and home made pesto, the quinoa salad with roasted hazelnuts and pepitas and a salad of fine slivers of marinated squash and zucchini flowers to the dessert platter of fresh peaches and cherries, home made lime curd tarts and a ‘healthy’ coconut ice using rice syrup and that gorgeous beetroot dust again! So creative and tasty. She is my new mentor, she fits soooo much into every day and makes me feel like a lazy cow in comparison. We finished with some lemon verbena tea plucked straight from the garden and after a few hours of a lovely girly lunch (is there anything better??) I went home vowing to make my days count a little more!! I have now bought a mandolin and some muslin to make my own labneh – I think I’m turning into a groupie!!

I am not the most diligent housewife in the world. I love things neat and orderly and tidy but I am not obsessed with cleaning products, in fact I try and stay away from the chemically laden bottles and opt for some old fashioned vinegar and bicarb of soda to do lots of the dirty work around my house but every now and again I fall in love with a product and today I am going to share with you my current favourite one – the magic eraser. They purport to get rid of those stubborn marks on paintwork and woodwork (which they do) and most recently they have also come in very handy with my new induction cook top. I am still getting used to this new method of cooking and over Christmas I completely forgot the rules when I turned one of the rings on and popped the saucepan on it with a drizzle of oil and then got distracted with something else until I suddenly noticed smoke pouring off the pan. The end result was my beautifully shiny glossy black cook top now had a horrible ugly burned circle on it. I tried to wash it off the usual way to no effect and day after day it stared at me, reproaching me for my stupidity until I had a light bulb moment and tried the magic eraser on it and indeed, just like magic it disappeared and my beautiful new oven has regained it’s status as king of the kitchen, gleaming and perfect! ALWAYS have some of these little babies in your kitchen cupboard just in case of disaster folks, you won’t regret it!

Australia Day was spent with a small group of interesting and fun people at The Heads Hotel participating in the old fashioned delights of crab racing and thong throwing and a menu of fish and chips, a good old Aussie pie and the obligatory prawns, all set to the sounds of Aussie songs being played and sung by a local musician. The lovely Maryann had invited me along as she knew I was home alone with the Master of The House being in Europe persuading people to make some fabulous new cocoa products for him. In what is fast becoming synonymous with an outing with Maryann I had a “2 degrees of separation” moment when we discovered that one of the couples on our table had been a previous owner of our house in Rozelle! What a crazy coincidence!! Needless to say a big day was had by all but none quite as big as this little girl who just had to crash there and then on the grass! Crab racing is emotionally exhausting you know………

As my children will attest I can see a spelling mistake at 50 paces and my pet hate is incorrectly spelt menus, brochures and signs.How can anything that’s been published and therefore passed through the hands and eyes of at least 3  different people still contain mistakes FFS??? However with the advent of tiny phone keyboards and fat fingers I am a little more magnanimous – this is me to a tee……………..

(Ps….just a little tip for those of you that receive this in email format….I was informed that the little video of George the baby wombat that I uploaded last week was missing from the post and when I investigated I had the same problem, along with a really strange format with tiny photos etc. So folks, if you too experienced this please just make sure you always click on the green square pattern on the left of the title of the post each time and it will transform into the correct visual format for you with access to all the links etc.)

Well 2017 is well on its way amid many hot days in the late 30ºs that have tested my patience and ability to function. I have never been so grateful to finally have some air conditioning in my house albeit only in the new back room. Luckily we can easily stay in there if needs be as it includes the kitchen. dining and lounge area and when we finally see the breeze picking up and blowing the corn in the paddock we know the southerly change is on its welcome way and we can fling all the doors and windows open and actually venture outside again.

These hot days are dotted with hours spent watering the garden and concern for the chickens who really don’t like extreme heat. They dig themselves large shallow holes in the earth and sit in them with their wings spread and their mouths open trying to cool themselves down. They love it if I come out with a big bowl of ice and pop it into their water feeder and they all come rushing up for a cool drink. The heat didn’t help my desire to cut out another garden bed on the westerly side of the house either. The ground was like rock and unless you started work at 6am you were in the full sun for the entire day. Broughton Landscapes came to my rescue sending over the very capable Rick who toiled away in the heat and the flies to create the last part of my garden following the end of the renovation. We are now building up the soil ahead of planting (which is the fun part!)

This is the last push in the gardening stakes before the wedding and hopefully it will come along nicely once we get some rain. The engaged couple spent a lovely few days here after Christmas and now the next time we see them it will just be a matter of days before THE BIG ONE! Many evenings were spent on the back deck with a coldie or two discussing the detailed minutiae that weddings entail and Number One son came down to add some input too. It was at this time that something miraculous occurred. At the ripe old age of 30 Sam was finally given permission to wield the Master of the House’s power tools ! It has been a long road getting here probably due to a myriad of misadventures as a child that included him setting fire to a palm tree with a lighter and a can of deodorant and other such events (which created a few trust issues) but I must say he did a great job trimming the hedge between our neighbours property and ourselves and there is an outside chance he will be allowed  on the tools again!

Lauren and Berry enjoyed some time exploring the local area, driving further south to beautiful Jervis Bay and enjoying fish and chips at the beach and other such Aussie experiences before heading back to the hustle and bustle of Honkers. They always have fond memories of our cheese platters and other western meals that they find hard to get in Asia so it’s always lovely to be able to treat them with their favourite dishes when they get home.

After everyone finally left we were literally gagging at the thought of one more drink and for a few fantastic days we didn’t fancy anything alcoholic or rich and fattening and our thoughts turned to our veggie patch and all the fresh produce awaiting us in our quest to turn into healthy chiselled people rather than the soft blobby people we currently are. Despite the fact we have had a very weird season in the patch (we have had to pull out our zucchinis as they were malformed and our tomatoes have all had leaf curl and don’t seem happy) we still have more than enough crops to feed us and in fact have extras to give away…..

When it all gets too much I jump into the car and head with the hound to Seven Mile Beach at Shoalhaven Heads where dogs can be legally off leash and I just enjoy getting the wind in my hair and some saltwater on my skin . Bailey gets to run and play with other dogs and occasionally even bigger animals, as we often see horses on the beach too which is quite a lovely sight.

Apart from the local hares and of course the cows, we don’t see too many animals. No native animals such as kangaroos, wombats or koalas in The Meadow to speak of but loads of parrots and occasionally the odd black cockatoo which are magnificent. I did see this video recently though that I absolutely LOVED and thought I would share it especially for my Northern Hemisphere readers who seem to think Australia is full of deadly venomous animals. This is a fluffy cute Aussie animal that I think you will all love.

Please meet George  ♥♥♥

Speaking of animals,  I never really realised how amazing cows are. They are such stoic beasts – hardly making a noise even when they are giving birth and they put up with all sorts of weather conditions be it 40ºc or freezing torrential rain without a murmur, just continuing in their quest to eat as much grass as they possibly can before it gets dark each day. When I was out walking yesterday I became aware of a sound. In the same way you become aware of bees buzzing in the blossom of trees I became aware of the sound of tearing grass as I walked past this paddock full of cows. Absolutely no other noise despite there being at least 100 of them in the field – just the sound of systematic tearing and munching of the grass. Quite eerie!

Well that’s it – after today’s rotten temperature of 41°C I am officially over January! Sadly February is usually worse…….

             Thanks Big Guy….

 

I don’t know about you but if I see one more bottle of wine , slab of cheese or fruit cake I think I’m going to stab someone. I’m as fat as a Christmas turkey and it all needs to STOP!!!

I used to think it was just the few days over the Christmas period where we over imbibed and ate celebratory festive foods, however the party scene now starts late November and stretches way into January necessitating eating far too much and drinking as if there is no tomorrow for about 6 weeks. The fact that we also live in Australia where it is Summer at Christmas (ridiculous planning by the southern hemisphere if you ask me…) and you are left with no doubt that your new food baby and your new swimsuit are not good bedfellows.

Anyway while it lasted it was fun and here are a few pics of various members of our family enjoying the festivities before the 40 degree days and a dodgy medial ligament from dancing under the influence with the youngest son spoiled my desire for anything other than an egg on toast and a cuppa.

The good bits about Christmas have been catching up with all those friends and family that live a long way away. It’s a bloody good excuse to spend a few thousand on an air ticket and then stay on someone’s blow up mattress in their spare room with no aircon. We have been really lucky to see the Engaged One twice  in the last 3 weeks and it was lovely showing her the finished renovations and spend time on the back deck talking rubbish together over an aperol spritz. She arrived in time to decorate the tree and enjoy a few Christmassy meals before zooming off to her other family in Tasmania.

We had a lovely trip up into Kangaroo Valley to visit her godmother and enjoy some cheese (and more aperol) under her beautiful grape vine laden trellis in her garden and then the Swiss family arrived to enjoy a balmy evening on our back deck with some of my  very favourite drink for Christmas – sparkling shiraz! Are you beginning to see a common thread here folks??

     

One person (well kind of person) that enjoyed everything about the festive season was a certain chocolate labrador. From the wrapping paper to the crumbs that fell her way as well as all the extra people available to play with, she LOVED Christmas and fell asleep every evening like a little baby all snuggled up in complete exhaustion.

No sooner had we drawn breath after Christmas, New Year’s Eve raised its ugly head and we were packed up and whizzing off to Sydney to hang out with the big city folk. Our friend had finally moved into his new home 18 months after his rebuild started and he threw a great housewarming/NYE party with a band and scrummy food for about 100 of his nearest and dearest. As I whirled around the dance floor with nary a care in the world my mostly-by-then-healed knee gave way AGAIN, spoiling my image of myself all young and free and making me feel more like someone of my actual age…..sigh……!!

The next day we caught a ferry into Sydney to see Barangaroo, the new development of the harbour foreshore and to meet my brother and sister-in-law for yet another drink or two (!!!!) and I loved the upstairs bar at The Palisades overlooking The Rocks. A magnificent view, lovely company and a nice start to 2017.

After spending 2 nights in a room above a Balmain Pub (with just a fan in a room trapped with 40 degree heat from the night before and a family with three kids under 5 staying next door) we were happy to jump in our truck and head home to The Meadow and to the peace and quiet and green surrounds of our house. We still feel so lucky to be able to jump in and out of our city life and to have this to come home to. We worked together in companionable silence until suddenly it was THAT time of day again – Happy Hour or Sundowner-on-the-veranda time and despite all our protestations of the previous day we opened another bottle of wine and saluted our Move to The Meadow….

 

It MUST be Christmas if The Turfco Cows have their sled out and on full view for all those people travelling south on the Princes Highway – they bring a smile to many a face as they whizz through The Meadow on their way to various holiday spots on the coast.

We have had people call in and stay with us whilst travelling on their way to and from various holiday destinations including our inaugural overnight stay involving small children which was a true delight and not half as hard as I thought it might be. I had absolutely no idea what would be safe and what wouldn’t as I looked around our very adult house but I did at least have the sense not to decorate the Xmas tree until after little Daisy (coming up to 18 months) had gone home (Also we received a request from our 28 year old girl child asking me to wait for her to arrive before we trim the tree….) Daisy is totally adorable – a tiny little pint pot full of curiosity and eager to follow her big brother Brody into any adventure he cares to delve into! She also bangs her chest and tries to hum the money chant song from the Wolf of Wall Street – she especially likes the little ooh at the end, just hilarious!! She loved my little Matilda Mouse – taking great care and attention to put her to bed in her little box, all snuggled up with pillow and blanket. Little girls just love to nurture right from the start of their lives don’t they!! Sadly the weather was a bit yukky, with my longed for rain coming at exactly the wrong time for their visit! We did manage to feed Neddy a carrot or two and Brody LOVED his ride with Cammo on the ‘tractor’!! I had a little glimpse of what fun it would be to have grandkids visit and collect the eggs and climb the trees etc – great fun!!

Our lovely friends and their gorgeous kids visited us for a quick overnight pit stop.

Laura has a very successful blog ‘thewholemummy.com’ where she documents her life with toddlers and how to balance them with love, life, fitness and all the important things of today’s modern age and she managed to capture our relaxed afternoon on the veranda beautifully before the flies carried us away on the evening breeze…..

In the absence of the man of the house I went to a Fawlty Towers night at The Shoalhaven Heads Hotel for an evening with friends. We had a delicious 3 course meal and enjoyed an interactive theatre show portraying Basil, Manuel and Sybil to perfection in some of the many famed skits from the TV show. 125 people spent the night laughing and being told by Basil how atrocious our manners were, Sibyl tried to keep the rabble under control as usual and Manuel had us in stitches being extremely non PC and doing a great job to re-enact the role that Andrew Sachs made so famous, all the more poignant as he died earlier this month. A fun night was had by all and I was a little envious as everyone piled into the courtesy bus with their wine glasses in hand and I drove home in the rain to put my chickens and Bailey to bed. The responsibilities of a country lass and all that jazz……

The house did look rather welcoming with it’s lights twinkling as I turned into the drive and I’m guessing I probably felt a lot better than the wine swillers the next morning too….

We invited all The Lane for Christmas drinks and some festive food yesterday, it was great to get everyone together and be able to chat about the ups and downs of country life and we managed to consume rather too much cheese and many bottles of bubbly and wine leading to a few of us being rather fragile this morning. Dazza had us all in hysterics as he recounted in his inimitable style the various stories of his life and other such interesting things. It is so nice to get together as there as there are only 7 houses in the lane and it’s important to stick together, support and help each other. There was also talk of a Boxing Day race involving the men folk and their ride on mowers……..God help us all.

My local walks have taken on a festive tinge too as in lieu of the city houses with their Xmas lights people here decorate their outside gates and walls as we often never see the houses further down the drive. I wouldn’t be surprised if I see some of the livestock donning the odd santa hat later this week…..

Not everything has been love and laughter though, with my friend’s son having an extremely bad car accident that he was lucky to survive. He has broken every bone in his face bar one and is in danger of losing an eye. He has had metal rods inserted in his leg, all his ligaments have been reattached and he has been very lucky to escape with no ongoing brain injuries. He is 18 and is looking at at least 3 months in hospital and then extensive rehab. Today was the first of his facial reconstructive surgeries, a daunting thing for everyone but especially an 18 year old with his whole life ahead of him. It has really put everything into perspective for me and is a timely reminder that your whole life can change in seconds. The parents both work full time and have 3 other children so the constant driving up and down to Sydney is challenging and tiring for them. It has been lovely to see the whole local community come together to try and help them, friends have taken the smaller children, a Go Fund Me campaign has been set up and will help with the extensive ongoing costs and we are all trying to help out by cooking meals for them. The local lifesaving club is holding a fundraiser for him and it really is heart warming to see people digging deep at a tricky time of the year to come up with spare cash. True Christmas spirit.

In happier news the prodigal daughter has returned to our shores, enjoying a weekend in Sydney with her brothers and girlfriends in a whirl of shared breakfasts, lunches and dinners and plenty of drinks in pubs, on verandas and terraces overlooking the harbour and she is generally loving catching up and reconnecting with her old life. She arrives down here in The Meadow today so I am madly making mince pies, planning her favourite meals and trying to fit in all the things she wants to do in the few short days she is here. It is like a tsunami when she is here but we are ready for the onslaught!!

I hope that everyone gets to enjoy some time with their families, creating special memories  together and let’s hope that the big guy in the red suit makes a few of those Christmas wishes come true…..

Merry Christmas !!!

 

Well it‘s been a memorable and busy couple of weeks with us zooming all around the highways and byways of NSW to celebrate birthdays and the festive season. Berry has put it’s Christmas hat on and we have decorations everywhere reminding us, in case we didn’t already know, that its only 2 weeks until Christmas! The Berry Merry Xmas event was held this week when our little town becomes inundated with people, half of whom get dressed up in a Santa suit for the annual ‘Santa Dash’. The road is shut (quite amazing really as it is the main highway between Sydney and Melbourne) and all sorts of Santas run through the main street for about 400 metres. It is quite a sight and all the proceeds go to the local school. Later in the evening there is a similar dash involving women with shopping trolleys full to the brim with donations which then get given to the homeless hub in Nowra. All in all it’s a very ‘feel good’ few hours and all the shops stay open until 9pm and most have special one-off offers to entice you to open your wallet and encourage you to spend locally!!

Last weekend people travelled from far and wide to congregate in Forster to celebrate the 90th birthday of the Patriarch of our family. He is quite a remarkable chap, lives by himself in his own home and with the help of a few good local friends still gets his own shopping and goes to the golf club a few nights a week to have a beer with his mates. Despite his original protestations about having a party he ended up getting right into the spirit of it all and absolutely loved seeing so many people there to help him celebrate. Family flew from Queensland and Victoria, drove 8 hours from Wagga and some of the people he used to coach in soccer when they were in their late teens (now in their 60’s!!!) drove from Sydney to surprise him so he was feeling quite overwhelmed with all the love and friendship that was shown to him. All the grandkids except those overseas were there to share the occasion and we all had a very enjoyable couple of days.

A local guy made him a croquembouche birthday cake which provided a few laughs as he had wished a happy 90th to Cole rather than Col but we soon fixed that little situation and it was a bloody delicious end to the afternoon.

What a handsome bunch of Grandsons!!!

We did manage to enjoy a walk on the local beach with the dogs and catch up with our friends over a cold one or two before we all headed home and the Birthday Boy was pretty chuffed with all the love and attention!

Home is a busy place at the moment with the garden in full swing and crops growing before my eyes. The zucchini are breeding at a rate at which we are unable to eat and next weekend when we have all the neighbours in for Xmas drinks we are going to discuss the idea of a community fruit and veggie swop amongst the homes in our lane. ‘My zukes for a few of your beetroot’ kind of thing as there are so many markets around there is no point selling excess stuff there but we don’t want to waste it or feed it all to the chooks.

The veggie patch doing it’s thing……

Raspberry and passionfruit Pavlova here we come………….

      

A quick trip to Sydney for our annual girl’s book club Xmas dinner gave me an opportunity to hit the shops and I parked my car in Balmain and caught a bus into the city, meeting number 2 son in the beautiful new Barangaroo precinct for lunch at a lovely sushi restaurant on the waterfront near his new office before venturing into the centre for some Xmas shopping. I did manage to do a bit but despite the fact that I have lived in central Sydney for many years I did feel a little overwhelmed by the craziness of the city this trip – everyone was walking so fast and with such serious faces and there was an overwhelming sense of consumerism (which I guess is directly linked to Xmas) but it did all feel a bit shallow and not as much fun as I thought it would be! On top of all that when I got back to my car I had a parking ticket – welcome back to the big smoke Suz……..grrrrrr!!

Zushi – melt in your mouth seafood and sushi – yum!

I’m starting to sound like all the country people we have ever known over the years as I protest the lack of rainfall. As thunderstorms swirl all around us dropping great sheets of rain over the escarpment at Kangaroo Valley, The Meadow has zero centimetres in the rain gauge and our water tank is empty – just brown sludge which even the chickens won’t drink. As a result we are on a constant watering program with the fruit trees especially needing a lot of water to hold the new fruit for the season ahead and we are on 30 minute rotations of all the flower beds. A huge overnight downpour would be the bestest Chrissy prezzy for me right now! The new crepe myrtle trees we planted last year are happily in bloom and buzzing with a million bees and should provide some nice shade on the westerly side of the house in the coming years.

As everything ramps up for Christmas get togethers and spare time is at a minimum I feel that apart from the garden watering regime this is the closest I am getting to a workout lately…………

In the week that our Northern American friends celebrated Thanksgiving I pondered on all the things I have to give thanks for. There are all the obvious ones of course – good health, a wonderful family, great friends and an amazing new life in the country but please indulge me folks as I espouse the wonders of owning my little chocolate drop. She will be 2 in January, which is equivalent to 14 in human years, and you would think she may therefore be starting to be a bit grouchy and moody, only wanting me for food and generally starting to take me for granted for the next 10 years, however instead she is just the best company – taking as little or as much of my attention as I am prepared to give her at any given time with no sulking or revenge planned if I don’t come up to scratch.

Sometimes when I have loads of other things I want or need to do or it’s hot as blazes and the last thing I want to do is go for a walk I look at her little face and realise she is 100% dependent on me for EVERYTHING and I just have to put her first – just as you do with your kids. Her excitement is palpable as I put on my Nikes and she hears the jingle of the car keys, not knowing the exact location of what lies ahead for the next hour but knowing it will involve walking/running/swimming/smelling of all sorts of interesting things and generally having a darn good time. She runs ahead of me chasing flies, birds, ducks or whatever lies in her path. She leaps across ditches, immerses herself in any river or puddle she can find and 9 times out of 10 she will do her ‘happy dance’ when she runs in a tight figure of 8 at top speed until she is panting and happily exhausted. She will chase balls or sticks right into the middle of the river or into the breaking waves at the beach and bring them back to my feet over and over and over again just full of joy and love of life. You cannot help but feel happy when you see her enjoying herself like this and all thoughts of the chores waiting at home just disappear in a puff of smoke!

At home she is never happier than when she has at least 2 balls – one in her mouth and one on the floor that she plays ‘soccer ‘ with, patting it with her feet to me and me kicking it back to her and so it goes on back and forth until one of us gets fed up ( Ok that would be me ). I don’t need to look at the clock to know it’s between 5 and 5.30pm every day as she comes up to me and puts her head on my lap looking up at me with those puppy dog eyes not so subtly reminding me that it’s dinner time thank you very much. We taught her to carry the mail, a task she learned very quickly and loved so much that she now has to ‘help’ you carry things all the time but especially when you get out of the car with shopping. She takes the task very seriously and even endured the very enticing waft of bacon as she carried in the brown paper butchers bag containing the weekend breakfast the other day – a form of torture for any dog but especially for a permanently hungry labrador……

 She looks decidedly unimpressed here…..

This weekend she had some little friends to stay. Our old neighbours made the trip south with their two fur babies Gin and Tonic. Being Jack Russells we were all a little concerned they may get on the scent of a rabbit or lizard and be off through the fences and into the paddocks but they were perfect guests, exploring the grounds very systematically and honing in on the exact 2 places that our blue tongue lizards hang out!! Smart little guys…

I have been buying up big in hosiery. Too much information I hear you say? It’s not because I have a penchant for lingerie, well no more than any other girl , but more because I want to save my apples. Last year we had no apples because we pruned the trees back hard to get them back into shape and especially those trees espaliered against my fence. What few apples we did get were enjoyed mostly by parrots and bugs leaving about a handful for us. This year I have gazillions of baby apples about 2cm big and if I want them to grow up and be proper apples I have to take action now before the little borers get into them, happily chomping away on them from the inside out. Hence the hosiery. Turns out that those little foot or anklet stockings are just perfect for wrapping around the little apple buds and keeping those pests out whilst letting the sunshine and warmth in! So I’m like a woman possessed zooming from supermarket to supermarket and just like a kid in the lolly aisle I’m ogling the various options looking for the correct ‘dernier’ for the apples at the right price as I need about 100 of them! Luckily there are those self checkouts everywhere now as in the old days I’m sure the checkout chick would have raised an eyebrow at my trolley load of foot stockings – most probably coming to the conclusion I may have a foot odour problem…..

It is a busy time of year, the garden is demanding, with a need for feeding and mulching as well as the interminable weeding. The produce from the garden needs attention, pickling, bottling, grating and using in cakes (a wonderful way to use your zucchinis and carrots ) and constant vigilance against the bugs and caterpillars that will come and undo all your work in a very short space of time. Then of course we have Christmas just one month away and all that entails although now it’s more about food and wine with our nearest and dearest than loads of gifts but there are still some to be bought – not so easy now we are so far away from big shopping centres. My overseas family have to be done first of course to allow for the post and then my favourite part is planning the menus for those 3 days over Xmas. Tradition dictates the majority of our dishes but now we have embraced the European idea of the hot dinner on Xmas Eve and the Aussie seafood on Xmas Day it has allowed a little room for the odd new dish to be embraced and enjoyed. It will be a quiet one this year but with visitors trickling in before and after the Big Day – plenty of prawns, oysters and champagne will be consumed and less of the cake, shortbreads and chocolates that we used to have in the UK.

The weather dictates that lighter fresher food is more palatable than roasts and gravy and pudding but the downside to it being warm at Xmas is that it is  also swimwear season. Bad mix. Therefore as well as all the other things on my to do list I also am trying to be a bit ‘good’ and stay a bit ‘fit’ in the eye of the storm of mince pies and cheese plates galore. I did find a great cake recipe the other day involving avocado and pistachios which sounds weird but tastes great and avocadoes are veggies and veggies are good for you so therefore  this cake MUST be good for you – it’s almost salad for goodness sake!! (you can find the recipe in the kitchen section). For fitness I basically put on my runners and head out for a walk, lug barrow loads of heavy mulch across our 2 acres or dig the veggie beds over but for the outside world fitness has definitely changed a bit in the past few years with the arrival of the fitbit and the digital world and exercise seems to be done a little differently nowadays……..

The roof has finally been painted and matches the new extension and as per usual when you do some new work it just makes all the pre existing stuff look awful. The existing house walls and windows will be repainted early in the New Year and then we will be officially DONE!! We will paint the chook shed and the wood shed ourselves but the professional guys with all the proper equipment will do the house. We have some old wood on the windows that is rotting and the finial on the garage was falling apart necessitating a new one so we never seem to get on top of everything. I spent some time painting my faithful versailles planter boxes that I bought 25 years ago in the soft grey and have planted them up with some pretty cordylines for the back deck and am now painting the stools for the ‘bar’ until I can afford the ones I love!! One step at a time Suz……We had our first batch of hot weather last week and as dusk fell on Friday after a 34 degree day we had some rather unwelcome visitors. Hundreds of thousands of flying ants arrived from goodness knows where and the birds went crazy chasing them all for a tasty snack. The ones that survived the birds were then attracted to our lights and every window and door in the house was covered in little black bugs. It has taken me days of sweeping them up and yet there are still a few survivors managing to annoy me on a daily basis. I suppose the heat activated them from their dormancy – I have no idea what function they serve in nature except to feed the birds but they are a pain in the bum.

Thanks to my friend Leigh who owns a couple of lovely shops in Berry ( Scullys and Bedroom Bliss)  I was alerted to the fact that there is a strawberry farm just down the road from me. I had seen the signs with pictures of strawberries on the highway but had always imagined I would have to go and actually pick them like we used to back in my home county of Hampshire in England. I was pleasantly surprised when I turned into the driveway to see a cute little hut all set up with produce from the farm and a fridge full of buckets of beautiful red strawberries. An honour system for payment involving a chute down which you put the correct money and voila you have a perfect little set up which means people don’t have to constantly man the stall !! The strawberries were outstanding, tasting like the strawberries of old and bursting with sweetness and flavour. They were quickly put to work on a custard tart!

The tart didn’t last long with the boys working their butts off in the garden painting the pergola, a tough job in the heat and with years of lichen on the bricks and posts.Now it is all fresh and white we can continue to wrap the wisteria around it with hopes of it dripping beautiful lilac flowers in Spring and Autumn.

In nature of a more appealing kind we found this little fella wandering around on the ground seeming to hide behind logs and looking a little lost. He hadn’t quite got the hang of flying yet. He could launch himself from a height and manage to fly but didn’t have the thrust to get off the ground. As we were a bit worried about potential attackers we popped on the heavy duty gloves (they sure can nip) and put him up on a branch near Mum and Dad. How cute are they when they are little!!

Our avocado tree has survived the winter winds but is still basically a stalk with a few lateral twigs, a rather long way away from a tree laden with heavy perfect avocados ripe for the picking! They take at least 3 years to fruit apparently so we will have to exercise some patience (not known for having TOO much of that) and in the meantime we buy at least 4 a week at varying horrific prices and find they are either too hard or we wait too long for them to ripen and then they are too soft. This is a situation I think most Aussies would be all too familiar with……