Well despite the erratic weather I think Spring has definitely sprung! Living in the middle of the countryside we are much more aware of the activity of all the animals and birds at this time of year. There are at least 4 nests on the go in our garden at the moment with a lot of very purposeful flying to and fro creating nests worthy of the bird equivalent of “The Block” So focused on the task in hand, a couple of birds have crashed into our new extension french doors and were left stunned for a few minutes before continuing on their merry way. The rabbits and hares are everywhere in their bold attempts at wooing a mate and Bailey is constantly on guard, hackles up as she watches them bound through our land and into the adjoining fields. The other morning she went troppo and just didn’t stop barking. I came outside to find her barking at a lump in the middle of the lawn so I put her inside and went to investigate. The lump started moving across the garden and I finally saw it was an echidna! I don’t know who was more surprised to see each other out of the three of us! It rolled itself into a prickly ball at the base of a big tree for an hour or two before ambling off to bask in the sunshine by the wood shed! Goodness knows where it lives or where it is now…..

Along with the cute animals we have an awakening of the not so cute variety – according to the local vet snakes are waking up but are still groggy and therefore more dangerous, ticks have been more prevalent and spiders are on the move – some drunkenly weaving their way across the path or as I found out personally, some sleeping in my gumboots! Luckily I always check them and give them a good knock before slipping my foot in. This time I felt something cold and got a long stick to investigate and out came a very fat red back spider! Always worth checking…..!!!

Our garden has burst into bloom and is a real joy to wander around on a sunny day with a cuppa in hand! The roses have had their first flush and are bobbing heads alongside huge mounds of pink and white daisies, purple lavender and white salvias. I’ve planted loads of sage in the hope it will grow and pop it’s head through our steps as we couldn’t pave behind them due to plumbing issues and the wisteria is dripping with fragrant flowers.I have been busy in the veggie patch pulling out the winter crops and weeding and turning the beds over ready for the summer goodies but those pesky winds have been back big time. We have had 5 days of constant high winds and it drives you batty. Every door and window is rattling, furniture (both wicker and iron) have been blown off the verandas and into the gardens. Soil and leaves have been blown everywhere but where they should be and we are OVER IT. It has been a strong weather system all the way from Queensland to Victoria with power outages and flash floods thrown into the mix. You can’t really do anything outside which is really frustrating as there is so much to do at this time of year. If it dies down for an hour I dash outside and quickly plant veggies or stake new seedlings or take Bailey for a fast walk up the lane before it comes back raging its way through the paddocks again. So far our baby mulberries are hanging on for dear life….As we have just had a long weekend which included the footy finals for the year (silent cheer from moi!!) our boys arrived as well as our resident handyman Smutzer to enjoy the festivities. He did a wonderful job installing some lattice under our new veranda to match in with the old one and give us a cohesive look once again. We had one gorgeous warm and windless day and we christened our new entertaining area with a nice lunch and spent the odd coffee break enjoying the sunshine.Our neighbour Farmer Pat is making us a new cattlegrid for our gate as he loves a project and had some old pipes lying around. Lucky Us!! The boys spent a few minutes trying to work out how to install it before taking it back for some final adjustments. A blokey job that they all seemed to enjoy…….

So things move on in The Meadow. Hard to believe we have been here nearly 2 years but when I look back at the old photos I can see the changes. We have a lovely new extension and some great new friends. Life is busy yet simple and we can do as much or as little as we like each day. We want to get the garden into top shape ahead of the wedding and gradually fill our new room with some furniture and artwork but we also want to enjoy our family and friends and the beautiful area we live in so we wont pressure ourselves to get everything “perfect”. At this stage we have merely moved some of our furniture around between the rooms so we can use both living areas until new things become a reality and I’m sure we will enjoy it all the more for waiting. Here is the new family area finally being used!

All in all it has been a strange week of contrasts and one I’m glad is finally over. So much admin and computer work as we start the insurance claim from the trip and various car registrations, services, bills etc have all left my head spinning and sick to death of music on hold as I wait interminably for a human with whom to talk about the various computer glitches. Passwords, Usernames, Security Codes, slow internet and a thousand other reasons to hate modern technology has left me washed out and rather jaded so Spring please come back with your blue skies and sunshine and make me happy again……!!

 

 

With much excitement for what lay ahead we boarded the train from Paddington to Bristol which was the closest station to Thornbury Castle – the destination for Mum’s 80th birthday weekend. Amazingly my cousin, who had flown in that morning from New York, saw us struggling down the platform and we all ended up travelling together which was great. It was raining of course but even a grey wet day couldn’t detract from the childish wonder I felt on entering the gates of Thornbury. It was all very Harry Potterish yet warm and welcoming to boot. As usual our party was the loudest group there and we quickly seemed to overtake the place with our excited shrieking as various family members arrived piercing the calm of The Castle. Our rooms were simply divine. We were like kids in a candy store as we explored all the nooks and crannies and ooohed and aaaahed at the thickness of the huge stone walls and the height of our amazing 4 poster bed.

Thornbury has been in existence in some form or another for over 1000 years. In 1511 it was improved to the grandiose house it is today and in 1535 Henry 8th brought Anne Boleyn here when he was still in love with her and before thoughts of her beheading were on the cards and history simply oozes out of the walls. The wonderful Valerie engrossed us with the tales of yesteryear in a history tour like no other. She brought everything alive with her amazing knowledge and her talented storytelling made it feel anything but a history lesson! We could see the dips in the stone hearth of a huge fireplace where men from years gone by had worn a groove when they would have stood taking a warming stirrup cup on entering the castle to meet with The Duke. Apparently adopting the leg on hearth stance gave their calves a fine curve that was much admired in the 1500’s!! She ended her tour with some stories about the obligatory ghosts one would presume may still wander the rooms and halls of Thornbury and there was more than one of our party that had a sleepless night imagining they could see or hear all sorts of unusual things in the shadows of their rooms that night……..

Mum had reserved the Baronial dining room for her birthday dinner and we spent a couple of hours decorating it with all the paraphernalia you would expect for an 80th. My sister had organised as a surprise to have Mum’s family tree on both sides drawn up, which we displayed on the walls along with a slideshow of all the photos we could discover of Mum going back through her life all the way back to her childhood in the 1930’s. It was lovely to see her as  a beautiful young woman and to be able to share it with her sister and her oldest friend who were celebrating alongside her. A suitably delicious meal and many beautiful wines completed our dining experience together with a cake (representing her time in the Navy as a Wren, a time which she holds very dear to this day) cleverly concocted by my talented sister.

Over the next couple of days we had plenty of opportunities to catch up with all our different family members and remember old times, it was really wonderful as we never get the opportunity to all be together, ever. It was especially nice to see the younger family members get to know each other and reconnect and we are very thankful to Mum for her generous gift to us all. Her first big birthday party – and what a way to do it!! The hotel was just lovely, warm, inviting and grand to boot.

I seriously think I will never be able to have a better a hotel room in my life. Everything about it was amazing. The size. The bed. The walls. The decor. Look how tiny I was in my ginormous bed – like a real life Princess and the Pea!!!

We all parted company for a couple of days until the girls reunited in Milan for 5 days together relaxing in Varenna on beautiful Lake Como. It is my second time on the Lake and I loved it just as much the second time around. It is packed full of every charming and picturesque thing you could ever imagine with a photo opportunity on every corner. A sensory overload of beautiful scenery, colour and an overwhelming sense of peace and relaxation. I cannot recommend it highly enough. To sleep at night with our gorgeous old doors flung open to the lake with the moon shining on the water and not a breath of wind or a mozzie to spoil it all was intoxicating. The rooms, simple and cool with their terrazzo floors and a ceiling fan lazily circling and with a little balcony to sit and watch the world go by was everything you could wish for. The church bells were the perfect backdrop to a town that has barely changed in hundreds of years.

We spent our days discovering various little towns on the lake. This was easy as the ferries criss cross the lake all day long and we could hop on and off at our pleasure. Bellagio, Mennagio, Lenno – all became familiar names and after a pootle around the various markets and an old villa or two we would invariably end up in the delightful village squares with a coffee or an aperol spritz and while away an hour or so before deciding where to lunch. The prosciutto and melon was out of this world, the wines cheap and cold and the pizzas thin and crispy. The lake fish was plentiful and tasty and every terrace offered views that took your breath away. I wish I was a painter as I wanted to replicate the views at every turn. The ochre coloured houses stacked on top of each other in a topsy turvy avalanche of gelato colours covered in blazingly bright bouganvillea all tumbling down to the lake made me want  to whip out an easel and some paints. The fact that I was sharing this with some of my favourite people in the world only enhanced the experience and is one that I will treasure forever. Mum was amazing and never balked at the steep steps up to our hotel or the chunky cobbled lanes that dotted the town or the 30+ degree heat ( a great excuse to sample the local gelati of course!!) I can only hope to be half the woman she is at 80!!!

We discovered some beautiful little towns on the lake, lunching at most of them and we decided we could probably come back here a dozen times and never be bored – there is something here for everyone and it’s supremely relaxing. There are gorgeous villas to explore, castles and churches to trek to ( they are always at the top if a hill) and a gazillion cafes, bars and restaurants in which to while away the afternoons. An intoxicating mix of things “to do” and things to love.

Beautiful Varenna – a little bit of my heart shall always lie there.

What is it about Paris that gets under your skin? It has a heartbeat and rhythm unlike any other place. I always forget how magnificent the buildings are, how spectacular the French women are and how cosy and inviting the bistros are even though they are all offering pretty much the same thing as the French are so traditional their menus are identical. It is comforting that you can get your favourite dish at any one of the thousands of bistros that dot the avenues and boulevards of Paris. In this city of Lights there are so many romantic corners to snuggle in it’s hard not to feel like a voyeur as young lovers gaze into each others eyes over their entrecôte and frites. It is also not the sort of place you want to be by yourself and especially not when you had spent months anticipating being there with your husband and all of a sudden you are there solo. This is exactly how our long looked forward to holiday begun however.

Things started out so well with an upgrade to business class and a lovely meal in the 1st class lounge before we boarded at 10pm. We were so chuffed and kept saying what a great start to our holiday we were having and how lucky we were. Things were a bit short-lived however as on arrival in Doha my erstwhile travel companion couldn’t locate his passport. As we were still on the plane and he had it on arrival at his seat we were pretty sure it must have slipped down the side of his chair and an engineer was called in to take the seat apart but to no avail. It had disappeared and the only thing we could think was that someone had picked it up by mistake and they would discover their error once inside the terminal. Eternally optimistic we proceeded in and to the transfer desk for our 2nd leg to Paris presuming it would be found and delivered in time for our flight. Sadly this was not to be and our plight became apparent as our luggage was offloaded and talk turned to notifying the consulate in Abu Dhabi (no embassy in Qatar either just to make matters worse) of our situation and of having to return to Sydney to apply for an emergency passport as there was no way he could enter France without paperwork and to top it all off permission from Sydney immigration had to be sought before he was even allowed to return to his homeland – CRAZY!!!

I was told I could continue to Paris on another flight but I had to take all the luggage, apparently they couldn’t or wouldn’t separate our 2 cases so off I poddled to gay Paree without my boy but with 40 kgs of luggage not being very sure where or when I would see him next. So here I was in the most romantic city in the world eating dips and crackers from the supermarket in my bedroom my first night because I felt so jet lagged and just couldn’t be bothered to attempt to go out at night alone. When daylight came however I was in my element – off exploring the sights and walking the length and breadth of Paris along with all the other tourists. It was an uncharacteristic 36 degrees and I was grateful to be able pop into an art gallery here and a cool shaded park there to rest and recover before I one again grasped my camera, sunnies and map to discover another little corner of Paris. I must say the Parisians are VERY good at utilising their public green spaces. In the Jardins de Luxumborg there are people everywhere – playing basketball, tennis, swimming, reading, painting, playing chess and a million other things. Using every available inch of space and facility and each park seemed to have at least one cafe serving everything from a bottle of water to a 3 course lunch with wine! I enjoyed the special of the day (the flakiest, butteriest of quiches with the perfect amount of perfectly dressed salad ) and an enormous glass of rose under the shade of a plane tree all for the price of a pie in Australia!!! They are masters of the simple things done well. I was so lucky to be staying very close to the Seine and in my jet lagged state I was waking up very early and walking as Paris woke up. A beautiful time of day anywhere but especially here as I wandered through the amazing buildings that make up the Louvre totally alone apart from a pigeon and a stray cat. It really made me feel part of the history unencumbered as I was by the usual throng of tourists.

After a couple of days exploring and eating alone I was excited to board the TGV to Narbonne in the South of France to visit our family friend Brett and his wife Laura and family. He is an Aussie, an ex Wallaby who now plays rugby for Narbonne. He has two delicious little children and a beautiful wife who was happy to share her house not only with me but with another 3 people who happened to be visiting and there was a lovely party atmosphere as we had a wonderful weekend of eating, drinking and playing with the littlies. They live on the beach at a wonderfully undiscovered place called Leucate which was dotted with restaurants and pop up bars and is the South of France that the French go to!! The beautiful local seafood, Carcasonne and it’s amazing ramparted city and well preserved castle, tapas at the local bar and a cute village square together with some genuine Aussie company all helped me forget the plight of my loved one for a day or two.

By the time I returned to Paris he had managed to get an emergency passport and had bought a new flight to meet me – exactly a week after we had set off together the first time!! We were staying near the Gare de Nord as we had an early journey on the Eurostar to London so we made the most of our time walking to the Sacre Coeur and bar hopping until we found a great restaurant for dinner.

One night in Paris together before we headed off to London and the main reason for our trip – my Mum’s 80th birthday weekend. We met our daughter who had flown in from Hong Kong for the auspicious occasion and had a fab day wandering through the streets of London (l think there’s a song there somewhere!!) which was awash with hanging baskets of flowers and those fabulous pubs that I still miss after 30 years living in Oz. Little Venice with gaily painted houseboats tethered along the canals lined with Weeping Willows, Notting Hill and Kensington Wine Room for lunch after a drink in the amazing pub The Churchill which was decorated with chamber pots hanging from the ceiling and the walls completely covered in pictures of everything you could possibly imagine. Completely mad but somehow it works!!!

 

Next stop Thornbury Castle for the big birthday bash………!!!!

Well, after 16 weeks and bang on deadline (but rather over budget) our builders cleaned up, packed up and left!

They left at 3pm as Sam and his friends started to arrive for the weekend’s celebration of his 30th birthday. We weren’t completely finished, the paving guys were only 2/3 through, the aircon is still to be installed and the painter will be here for another few weeks but we were finished enough for 25 guests and that is what counts!! Of course after 2 weeks of the most beautiful spring like weather with temps in the mid 20’s it turned windy and chilly an hour after they arrived and my dream of holding a beautiful outdoor long lunch disappeared with every increasing cloud. Luckily the newly completed extension could hold us all comfortably and soon there was a pleasing sound of tinkling cutlery and clinking glasses and plenty of lively conversation as the day progressed.

We were lucky enough to have been gifted a beautiful little piglet from our friends at Claydon Park in Milton together with a spit roast bbq and 5.5 hours after it started turning we had this little beauty…..

Needless to say the Birthday Boy was delighted and there was much “tasting” of the crackling by all and sundry before we tucked into the pig itself. It was so lovely that so many friends made an effort to travel from Sydney to help him celebrate the big 3-0. There were times we weren’t sure our first born son would make it, he has definitely contributed to a few grey hairs over the years, but I wouldn’t have him any other way and it’s lovely to see him all grown up and happy.

Some lovely wines and lots of animated conversation later we adjourned to the front veranda for the obligatory cricket game with Cammo trimming the pitch on his ride-on much to the delight of the audience!

Back inside for dessert in front of the fire as things were getting decidedly chilly and then outside again to finish the day around a bonfire overlooking the paddocks.

Such a great way to end the day. I never get tired of sitting out there with a glass of red staring into the glowing embers, contemplating life and all its wonderful complexities!!

Back to their rented houses which were both lovely with gorgeous views of the surrounding countryside and perfect for large groups – we shall definitely keep them in mind for a certain wedding that’s coming up…..

The whole crowd are rugby nuts so they donned their green and gold gear and trundled off to their party house to watch the Bledisloe Cup full of optimism, however every picture tells a story and I think you can see what this one’s telling us…..

As they said their goodbyes we started the cleanup and I was pretty chuffed with the way the new kitchen and extension scrubbed up. Once I’ve sorted a few more cupboards out I will have it all working like a well oiled machine and it’s SO nice to have a clean and functional oven after all this time. My bathroom has my longed for deep bath and my new laundry is a pleasure to work in. The outside space will come into it’s own in the summer months and down the track a pizza oven will complete the outdoor entertaining area.

Of course the evening was not without it’s little dramas. As I was about to fall into bed Bailey started crying and after a few trips to the garden to no avail I was trying to get her back into her bed when she vomited all over my persian rug – just great! Way too many porky treats from everyone during the day and it was all too much for her system. I had just about cleaned it all up and finally got to sleep when I got a 2am text from the house rental company saying that the alarm was going off at one of the kid’s houses and they were going to send a patrol car out to check it out. As it turned out the guests were apparently ‘playing a prank’ on someone, a party trick that cost me $100 in call out fees from the security company. I’m still trying to find out who the culprit was….

Still causing me grief at 30!!!

So now we get our life back. It is going to be fun to cosy up the new room – rugs, artwork, plants and mirrors will all make it feel much more like home and then we can just get on with living! My poor garden has suffered over the past few months, a poor neglected second cousin to the new renovation as I have had very little time to devote to it. Now that our rainwater tank is connected up to the chicken house we can get back to watering it, once it rains of course, and before long we will be planting summer crops again.Tomatoes anyone??

Before that however………..we have a trip to go on!

My beautiful Mum turns 80 in a couple of weeks and we are heading back to celebrate in the UK for a knees up at the rather salubrious Thornbury Castle followed by some time with the Birthday Girl in Lake Como. We fly to Paris on Wednesday for a week – half in Paris and half in the South of France near Narbonne and finish up in Bordeaux for a few days with my sister and brother-in-law staying in a vineyard. All in all I can’t wait and at this stage I think I shall probably sleep most of the way to France as I’m totally knackered!!! It’s been 3 years since I have been in Europe with my family and I can’t wait!

A little montage of where we’ll be over the next few weeks – BRING IT ON!!!!

 

This week we flew to Townsville in Far North Queensland (or FNQ as the Aussies fondly call it) to spend a few days with my sister-in-law and her son in their charming little cottage. It’s built in the Queenslander style with weatherboards, ceiling fans and deep shady verandas, louvre windows to capture the breeze and a tropical garden of palm trees to filter the strong Australian sunshine.Built that way for their summer which is hot and long.Not built so much for the winter. Especially not built for the coldest day in 74 years!!!!!!!

Yup, lucky old us got there at the same time as one of FNQ’s “weather events” with an exceptionally cold band of weather coming through the Top End and lasting the exact 3 days we were there! We had to laugh as we all huddled inside with as many clothes on as we could find to keep the cold out. There is no heating in these homes as even in winter it is usually around 23 degrees! We had a delicious home cooked meal and after some stories about the old days and a few wines we tumbled into bed which was the only place to get warm. One of the few times their duvets have actually been used!

It didn’t stop us getting out the next day and Fiona took us on a comprehensive tour of Townsville, I can just imagine how lovely the coastline and the marina would look on a sunny day but in the cold rain we were pretty happy to find a cosy Italian restaurant for some lunch and more laughs, totally ignoring the outdoors. I still find it amazing that it was colder than the South Coast of NSW, the sun literally only came out about an hour before we got back on the plane!

We were excited to see what the builders had been up to in our absence. It was a lucky coincidence that the days we were away were the days the kitchen was due to be ripped out. We couldn’t wait to grab our torch and see what it all looked like and to see the view from our new bifold window. We now have a glorious view of the back paddocks and the bonus is that the light now floods in from two sides. It kind of makes up for our once beautiful house looking more like a junk heap. Inside and out we have MESS but luckily for us the weather has been gorgeous making our outdoor kitchen slightly more palatable!

The chief Washer Upper hard at work in our camp kitchen.

The back of the house is coming together nicely…..

Bailey was very happy to be home after 4 nights in the kennels. Much as she loves going there and runs off to say hello to Charmaine with not so much as a backward glance she is also happy to come home. She starts with an exuberant happy dance around the garden and this is closely followed by an exhausted crash out in the sunshine or snuggled up in her new bed. She is like a kid back from the school camp – happy and totally knackered.

During winter most of our nice local watering holes provide their customers with a cozy atmosphere courtesy of an open fire. You really can’t beat it and whether it is the local pub or winery, a restaurant, cafe or B&B it is very tempting to stay a little longer in the warmth that only the flickering flames of a real fire can provide.Luckily we are kitchenless at just the right time to make the most of a few of these little gems….

Fireplaces of The Shoalhaven.

A local photographer, Andy Hutchinson, has recently invested in a drone and took this little video of our local coastline which may give you an idea of the beautiful beaches we have in The Shoalhaven, we can drive to all of them in 15-30 minutes. No traffic lights on the way, no parking metres when you get there and hardly anyone on the beach despite the crystal clear water and golden sand…………………..

Sometimes we just can’t get home in a hurry. We got stuck behind these guys for a while the other day – had to wait for the local herd to be encouraged to the dairy by the dogs and the farmer on his quad bike. I like the fact that there are still these ‘slow’ activities in our modern world. No way were those cows going to go any faster to suit us and that’s just fine with me.

Our little bride-to-be arrives this week and we are really looking forward to spending some time with her. She will probably be a little disappointed that it won’t be quite as homely as usual. Needless to say I usually cook all their favourite meals when the kids come home but being at the height of the renovation she will have to adapt her quite considerable camping skills to our current situation. The new kitchen is supposedly being installed on the day she arrives so hopefully after a few days the new oven will be functioning and we wont have to rely on the bbq/microwave/toaster for breakfast/lunch/dinner. Wedding ‘stuff’ is on the cards as the only other time she is home before her BIG DAY is for 3 days over New Year.I’m hoping we will get all the big ticket items sorted and more importantly I want her to feel involved and part of everything as it’s always hard when you are only doing everything online from overseas and then she will be able to make informed choices about any changes she may like to the current plan. As a result of this wonderful Mummy/Daughter time I may go a little quiet on the blog front for the next couple of weeks, I’m sure you will all understand.

At least my parenting days are now mostly of the fun variety, I kind of feel sorry for the modern Mother in this politically correct world…..

No folks I haven’t gone stark raving mad.

These are not my chooks, although I feel mine are missing out not having these delightful little ensembles to wear during the damp and chilly South Coast winter. I’m sure the locals would well and truly talk about ‘those weird Sydney people in the white house’ if our chooks paraded around in anything other than their feathers. We met a few more locals last weekend when our lovely neighbour Darren threw a birthday bash to celebrate his half century.  He and Kath were wonderful hosts and they were blessed with a beautiful afternoon and a clear cold night with a million stars sparkling in the sky above the backyard fire which, along with quite a few beverages, kept us warm and toasty. It is the first party I’ve ever been to where the hosts phoned specifically to invite Bailey. She was in heaven as she did the rounds of the guests receiving many pats and later many treats. This (picture below) was the place she loved the MOST. She pretty much stayed within a metre’s radius of the spit roast in the hope someone would drop something tasty. This is the home of her friend Wally the black labrador and they had a lovely time playing on the property together and generally getting up to doggy mischief. It was really nice to meet some more people from the local area including our new neighbours now running the Meroo Kennels and Cattery. They are much  friendlier than the previous owners and are full of plans to restore their house to it’s former glory. Another building project for The Lane.

There is certainly no shortage of trucks going in and out of the lane at the moment as everything is full speed ahead with the renno. It has been a big week with the external wall cladding now on, the roof finished and the triumphant breakthrough of the old room to the new one, creating a really beautiful space.

We are now laundry-less and next week will be kitchen-less, just in time for the arrival of The Engaged One. It’s not going to be the welcoming homecoming she was hoping for with all her favourite meals and her holiday gear washed etc but we will muddle through and have fun nonetheless. Fingers crossed the new kitchen is installed in time for me to cook something delish for The Hens Weekend as promised…..yikes!!!!! In the meantime she is in the lap of luxury in Bali lapping up some sunshine and the odd cocktail. As an engagement present we gave them a few nights in one of the four villas our friends built in Seminyak. They are all beautifully designed and decorated and they provide a real oasis amongst the hustle and bustle. We stayed in one a few years ago and it was gorgeous. If you are after some upmarket serenity with unobtrusive staff to meet your every whim in a great location have a look at http://www.juraganvillas.com – we can highly recommend them.

This was our little patch of gorgeousness………

Bailey has a new beau. Cooper the blue cattle dog is now a daily visitor. He belongs to Adam, one of the builders, and she has dropped me like a hot cake to rush outside and play with him every morning. He takes all her balls and toys but she doesn’t make a whimper. She’s a tad fickle for my liking but Coopy is pretty lovable and I can see what she sees in him…. They love it if I take them up the lane for a walk in the outside world and they behave like puppies, running and exploring together.

We still have lots of beautiful places to discover in our vicinity and we decided last weekend to take advantage of the beautiful winter weather and head south to Jervis Bay and specifically to Hyams Beach. It is just a sleepy little town tucked away between Huskisson/Vincentia and the National Park but it is perfectly formed. A quite famous beach of pure white sand and the most beautiful aqua blue water framed with gum trees and architecturally interesting beach houses. The old original timber whaler’s cottages have been painted in gorgeous pastel colours and they sit alongside modern two story glass fronted beach houses with huge verandas, perfectly placed to view the whales migrating and the dolphins playing in the protected waters of Jervis Bay. In the summer holidays it becomes a playground for city families looking to escape the urban jungle for a week or two, searching for the simple life. One general store with an attached cafe is the only commercial venture in town and it has the feel of ‘the good old days’ about it which still resonates with people both old and young. It is one of the few popular coastal villages that boast a non surf beach where the littlies are safe to poddle about with a bucket and spade without Mum and Dad having to keep an eye out for a rogue wave coming in to wash them away!

In a bit of sad news the poor Plovers were robbed of their eggs overnight last week. After all that hard work sitting on her nest in the middle of a white frosted lawn Mrs Plover couldn’t compete with Mr Fox who must have come calling in the night. Not a scrap of egg left, it was is if they had never existed. I was a bit concerned they may try again but it seems they have gone to pastures new and I think that is a wise move. Nature sucks sometimes…..

Happy Weekend everybody – let’s get excited!!

I had a ‘moment’ the other day.

I was sweeping up rat poo into my dustpan as any good country-ish type girl does (Cammo has commited mass genocide and I now feel brave enought to go in and clear up all evidence of their existence) in my grossly mismatched gardening clothes, when I caught a glimpse of my hands, all broken nails and dried up cuticles and I wondered where that girl with the regular-as-clockwork-every-3-week-manicure went??? Don’t even get me started on the rest of me. I have been growing my fringe out for the last 5 months which is the longest I have ever had the patience to hang in, waiting for the lank weirdness of it to look somehow intentional and stylish. Waiting for it to transform into a bouncy thick bob or something I can tie back when working in the garden or travelling in the car with the windows down. But quite seriously when I look in the mirror all I see is a rubbish hairstyle with no style whatsoever despite my lovely hairdresser doing her best to keep things looking good.

Time to shape up/scrub up/ look like I give a damn, I thought.

It is SO EASY to literally just whip your comfy clothes on when you wake up and stay in them all day, weeding in the garden, walking the hound and generally pottering about with not a care in the world but after a while you forget how to be a girl and tizz yourself up, especially when I only go out occasionally and only work on Saturdays. Luckily the Engaged One is arriving in a few weeks and we are going to have a couple of weekends in the outside world. One weekend full with bridal salon appointments and catch ups with the Sydney Folk and another weekend celebrating her Hen’s and I am going to make a concerted effort to look and feel a bit like my old City Self with a hair do and manicure to match! Rat poo and broken nails will be a distant memory!

In animal news the new kids on the block have settled in very well and we even have a few new calfs already so they must be happy. It is amazing how different it looks having  black cows in the paddocks instead of the freesians and they seem super excited to be knee deep in lush green grass as their condition is a bit less than optimal after having been grazed on lesser grass the other side of the river.

I think I met one of the most stupid animals on the planet this week. Most species go to great lengths to  raise their babies in a safe place camouflaged against potential predators and danger but not these guys.

Meet Mr & Mrs Plover.

And the baby plovers-to-be……….

True, they are well camouflaged in a colour sense but the parents have laid these right in the middle of our front lawn. The same lawn that is going to be used in a matter of weeks for a cricket game when Sam and 30 of his closest friends are here to celebrate his 30th birthday. The same lawn that is currently the centrepiece of our circular driveway and home to the 11 trucks of the various tradies working on the renovation. Today we had 4 stonemasons, 3 electricians and 4 builders co-habiting in the workzone. I felt the need to escape so you can imagine how the poor plovers were feeling. Mum is quite dedicated, sitting on the nest all night in the freezing cold, but then  she loses the plot during the day, hopping off the nest at the slightest noise. Goodness knows how the (now 3 eggs) will hatch with such sporadic attention.

You also have to take into account The Cammo Factor.

After being away for a few weeks surveying likely business ventures in Europe he finally got back onto the ride on mower to spruce the place up and only noticed the eggs as he was literally riding over the top of them. Luckily only one egg got squished and he has now sprayed a ring of flourescent paint around the “nest” so he doesn’t inadvertantly kill any others. Amazingly Mrs Plover came back to the scene of the crime the very next day and laid another egg to make up the numbers. They seem to be very punctual as apparently the earliest time they ever start laying their eggs is after the summer/winter solstice on June 20th and here we were on June 25th with 3 ready to go!

Renno’s are in full swing after losing only one day to rain this week. It was also the coldest day in 22 years and my house was a very un-cosy place to be. I locked myself in the lounge with the fire blazing and lots of cups of tea until it was an almost acceptable time to hit the sack and my beautiful electric blanket induced cocoon. The boys were back full of enthusiasm the next day and I now have a (hopefully watertight) roof and a new rustic stone wall to match the old existing one. Luckily we had quite a bit of stone floating around the property – probably left from the time the initial wall was built and Matt and his team from Broughton Landscapes have done a great job matching the style and proportion of the original wall. The hero of the new 3 metre steps will be the sandstone slabs for the treads and they should hopefully be here on Saturday to complete the job.

Winter means cuddles with Bailey in front of the fire………..

As I am working on Election Day I pre-voted. My second vote since becoming a dual citizen and after the whole Brexit debacle I realised how powerful the vote really is. Powerful but nearly impossible when you have to fill in a minimum number of boxes and there are dozens of options, most of which I had never heard of. It might be democracy at work but it’s easy to see how the whole thing can go pear shaped when you dont always know what you’re agreeing to when you tick some random box to fill out the necessary quota. On a day when another airport was targeted by some demented fanatics all I want is to have stability and peace and quiet, surely that’s not too much to ask is it??

This week has certainly reminded us all exactly how we are all linked as a global community with the Brexit outcome causing immediate ramifications around the world. Stockmarkets and currencies plunged, Europe was reeling at this mostly unexpected outcome and the reality it will inevitably have on the other EU countries . People who trade with the EU were all left wondering what was going to happen to them as the ripple effect travelled far and wide across Britain, Europe and the World. As a Brit living in Australia I watched it all unfold and wondered if those people who voted leave to “get their country back” actually thought it all through and if they did, I guess you’ve got to be careful what you wish for. Things will calm down eventually of course and now we have to look towards the future as optimistically as possible and try and work this thing out for the best, there was no real plan for this result and there are a lot of unsettling factors at play however, in true British fashion, humour has helped ease the fairly volatile situation amongst the Stay/Leave community.

These memes sum up quite succinctly a few of the more humorous reactions to departure from the EU…

 Is this the end of yummy ‘foreign’ food?

Is the Chunnel suddenly going to be blocked off?

Most importantly can we still all be friends??

Well it’s definitely been a week of change in The Meadow. The dairy farm has been sold to a local cattle rearing family and the current farmers held their big auction on Friday selling their entire herd and machinery to the highest bidders. It was an emotional day for our neighbours who had reared a lot of those cows since birth and I bumped into a very teary Janette when I took Bailey for a walk in the afternoon. She was having trouble coming to terms with the reality of selling up their family farm of 5 generations and the fact that we won’t see the girls walking in single file up to the milking shed anymore. It’s even sad and strange for us and we have only been here 18 months so I can only imagine what they are feeling. The nicest thing is that the new owner bought a dozen of the herd to stay here and he also bought the oldest cow  (a very unusual and respectable 18 years old ) to live out it’s days here too. This shows me the calibre of the incoming farmer and I like him for that one single act of kindness already!

We have some new neighbours in the lane and everyone is so happy to welcome them as the previous owners of that house were extremely rude and unlikeable people. They ran a small kennel and cattery and we were so thrilled when we moved here to see one so close to home – such convenience we thought! Prior to Bailey actually arriving to live with us Cam went and introduced himself to enquire about the requirements for small puppies should we need to leave her somewhere overnight. As he approached he extended his hand to introduce himself and she took a step backwards and folded her arms behind her back…..not exactly what he was expecting. She questioned him “Is that your wife that walks up and down the lane taking photos?” “She takes photos of the countryside – yes” was his reply.  A total invasion of her privacy apparently and enough for her to shout at me to “get off her property” the one time I stepped foot through her gate when I lost Bailey one day. I had always stood up for her odd behaviour by saying some people are good with animals but bad with people, but after this day when I was obviously distressed about a missing puppy and all she could do was to scream at me to get off her property I realised she was no animal lover as anyone would drop what they were doing to help me look if they were. They had a similar attitude to everyone in the lane so needless to say they weren’t ever invited to share a bbq or Xmas drinks and it seems so strange that in this small country lane there are divisions between people when there are so few houses!!

Happily I have already received a wave from the new owners as I drove past their house and hopefully I will introduce myself with a much different outcome when I finally meet them, who knows it may be a perfect overnight location for Bailey after all…………

Some tranquility returns to The Lane with the arrival of some friendly neighbours.

In animal news, our little injured pigeon has been deposited at the vets this morning where they are going to x-ray its wing and also contact the owner via its microchip – it is a racing pigeon so it belongs to someone. Only problem is that if it’s not going to be able to fly well I’m pretty sure the owner wont want to be bothered with it so Cam may well finally get a pigeon in his life again! Bailey leaves her alone as she thinks she’s just one of the chickens and all in all it seems pretty contented although a bit skinny right now.

Miss Bailey is enjoying the company and snacks that come with the builders but she has had her sleeping arrangements changed on average every 2 days as they work their way through the back area. Her doggy door is now gone so thank goodness she is a big girl now and can last a whole night without having to go outside to the loo! During the day if she is not outside annoying the tradies she can be found snug as a bug in a rug on the leather lounge (originally this was out of bounds but we’ve caved on the condition she doesn’t come anywhere near our white couches!!)

The renovations are ploughing ahead despite some savage weather. If it’s not raining cats and dogs it is blowing a gale and I feel rather guilty when I’m all cosy in my ugg boots and dressing gown making my porridge in the morning and I look outside at the builders up on the cold metal scaffolding rugged up in their beanies and jackets trying to hold themselves steady in 60km westerly winds. In between the squally weather we have had some beautiful sunny days and so far we haven’t lost more than a day of the build to Mother Nature. We are now the proud owners of an outdoor entertaining area (or the shell at least) and we are beginning to see the shape of things to come. I have chosen most of the fixtures and fittings now and am enjoying seeing it all come together, just the odd tricky things I’m still waiting to get quotes on – the stonemason, landscaping and flooring are still to be locked in!! The worst is still to come as they work their way inside and start knocking down walls and ceilings……………

The hardest part of this week has been getting Cam set up with his phone line/internet/printer and scanner etc. in his new office. It is in a beautiful old listed building but it is for that exact reason that its so hard to run new wires and that all the plugs are way too close to the floor for the modern plugs needed to run an office in 2016. No plugs are in the right spot for any of the technology and we need a few extension leads and power boards to get operational. It looks a bit like a laser alarm system but with real wires crisscrossing his office! A nightmare!

You get the idea………..

Silos Winery have offered a ‘locals special’ in their restaurant over the winter period so we decided to go and check it out with our ‘local’ friends Noel and Nikki. A roaring log fire on a cold winters night and a bottle of big red was as much an incentive as the $29.50 price tag for a main meal and a glass of one of their signature wines. It was just what I needed after a week of being cooped up inside trying to keep the dog out from under the builders feet and the dust and debris out of our remaining living areas. Thank goodness we still have nice places to go to for dinner down here in The Meadow and an excuse to get out of your gardening/comfy clothes and put on some make-up!!