Doesn’t this look like the most perfect country lunch??

My friend and Pilates teacher Leanne from Pilates Studio Berry hosted a 30th birthday celebration for her daughter in law, the very talented Ashley, at her beautiful property. Ashley runs Piccolo & Poppi , an events company popular in Sydney and on the South Coast and it turned out to be a perfect day for her birthday gathering and a perfect location and view too!!!

This week we too enjoyed some beautiful country locations on our road trip to northern Victoria. We drove down the coast to Eden for our first night and as it is most famous for it’s whaling history we drove out to the old Davison Whaling Station to get an inkling of how things used to be in the mid 1800’s. Located in a glorious bay and surrounded by huge stands of silver gums the station would have been pretty self sufficient back in the day, growing its own fruit and veg and enjoying the local fish and the odd kangaroo too I should imagine! It was a really magical spot with bell-birds calling so loudly you could hardly hear yourself think and there was a very real and physical sense of the past; the only other place I’ve felt that way was at Port Arthur in Tasmania. Although the work would have been hard I think whoever lived here would have had a good life in comparison to those in the cities in 1850. A more glorious and tranquil bay would be hard to find.

The old Whaling Station

steps to paradise

such serenity

silver gums

Boydtown

The Seahorse Inn at Eden

After a lovely nights sleep listening to the ocean crashing into the cliffs below us we hopped back into the ute and headed inland and up over the Snowy Mountains stopping at Mount Hotham for a lunch with a view. I haven’t been up in the mountains in the summer and it is amazing how different it looks without snow. The air was fresh and clean and the winding road took us through some lovely old country towns before we arrived in Beechworth for the night. A town famous for it’s connection to Ned Kelly and his gang and for it’s local honey and wines and the generously wide old main street with gorgeous old buildings. It was fascinating going around the old sandstone courthouse and jail and learning about life back in those days when you could be sentenced to death after a mere 20 minute hearing. A display of public drunkenness saw you jailed for a month and many a woman was left at home to run the farm and raise the 5-10 kids they invariably had, alone.

lunch at Mt Hotham

top of the world…

fabulous bookshop in Beechworth

A Beechworth pub

Country pub at Cann River

A quiet corner

A couple of people suggested we go to Daylesford via The King Valley, a popular wine growing area and as one of Cammo’s favourite wineries Pizzini lay within this valley we took the detour. The only patches of green we saw were the vines and the odd garden in a village that was obviously being hand watered. There is a bad and widespread drought in this part of Victoria with everything either the colour of bleached straw or sunburnt orange. The poor cattle and sheep were literally nibbling the baked cracked soil and farmers are having to hand feed at considerable expense. Some can’t afford it and are having to sell their herds instead. It’s a sad state of affairs and you hear nothing of it on the news – the poor farmers really get no help at all and then we wonder why we’re getting an avalanche of meat from overseas or interstate in our supermarkets instead of local grass fed animals.After a long day on the road we finally arrived at The Dudley in Hepburn Springs.

I cannot recommend this place highly enough.

A beautifully appointed boutique hotel with a husband and wife team that leave no detail undone. The level of service and thoughtfulness was second to none. They even drive you to and from dinner so you can have a couple of drinks and the breakfast menu is something to behold. An exceptional pub dinner at The Farmers Arms was all the better for being unexpected and we started to feel like we were on holidays! The next day as we were staying 300 metres from the famous local mineral springs we enjoyed a couple of hours floating about in 34 degree water full of magnesium,calcium and other goodies and left feeling decidedly the better for “the taking of the waters”. That night we dined at the famous Lake House and enjoyed another lovely meal albeit a very different one from the previous night. Much more refined and labour intensive but as is often the way when you really look forward to something and it costs a lot you become more critical and I think my dinner partner preferred his big plate of pork belly from the night before to his kingfish carpaccio and duck breast at the highly acclaimed Lake House!! I loved both meals in different ways….

Pizzini wines

A relaxing corner

Worthy of the title

Cellar door at Pizzini

Champagne prior to dinner

Japanese windflowers

The Lake House

Tranquility of Daylesford Lake

Goats Toast breakfast at The Dudley

Asparagus and salmon brekky

With our car laden with our various purchases we reluctantly left Daylesford to start the journey home. Cam wanted to visit Tumut – a town at the foot of The Snowy Mountains where his Dad had grown up. With very little information we set out to find the old house that Cam had last visited at the age of 8. We had a street name but no number and of course it was one of those super long streets that literally stretch from one end of town to the other. I had no faith that we would find it but incredulously the ute came to an abrupt halt outside number 149 which looked extremely familiar to him despite recent additions to the roof. It was opposite an old house which back in the day had sat in the middle of a big orchard that the kids frequently stole fruit from. It was now surrounded by battleaxe properties and had obviously been subdivided and it wasn’t until he knocked on the door and the people living there now affirmed the presence of an orchard out the back that we knew he had indeed found his house!

It just goes to prove that the power of special memories really can last a lifetime!

In the same vein we bought flowers and drove to the cemetery in the hope we could find his Grandma who we knew was buried there.With no office or map it was literally a case of walking up and down the rows until we found her. Another small miracle and an emotional afternoon for The Retired One. A couple of drinks at the local pub to wash down a pizza and we were happy little vegemites. We woke in the dark to get an early start and had just set out when the rain came down. As the whole area was crying out for it we were happy and proceeded to drive through it for the next 4 hours until we stopped in Braidwood to check out a French antique place called Longbarn and String which I had read about. They have some lovely things and they also do an annual trip to France for small groups.

Drought stricken Victoria

A wide brown land…

The house Wayne’s Dad grew up in.

We found Wayne’s Grandma in Tumut cemetary

Braidwood

Braidwood

After picking up a very happy but exhausted dog we drove home for one night before getting back in the truck to drive to Sydney and a lovely reunion with some of Cam’s oldest friends at a beautifully organised soiree in the Eastern Suburbs. We stayed next door to our old house with our lovely ex-neighbours who are always so hospitable it’s like being in a B&B and it was really lovely to see all our old mates from The Street. We had a delicious breakfast together the next day before one last drive back to The Meadow.

The Red Lion Crew.

*******************************************

This sure rings true and can equally apply to a certain chocolate dog……

It’s been a week of hard physical work and LOTS of sweat. Not mine. well, not much of mine in comparison to everyone else working in The Lane this week. Mother Nature didn’t get the memo that it is now Autumn and we have had a week of temperatures in the 30’s making it decidedly summery. Unfortunately I couldn’t leave the veggie patch any longer as we are going on a couple of little holidays in the next few weeks and I needed to get the beds cleaned out, turned over, fertilised and mulched so that everything is ready to go and I can plant the winter veg when we get home. No point planting seedlings when you cant water them twice a day for the first couple of weeks. So despite the heat (and the sweat) it is now looking much tidier and ready for the next season and I’m feeling chuffed I got it done.

It helped that I worked alongside Joe – the new ‘Will’ in the garden – who spent 6 hours in the full 35 degree heat digging out my new hydrangea bed and scrambling under the prickly wild rose to try and track down the source of a rather annoying and persistent vine that has entangled itself in the same prickly rose hedge. It looks like we may have to gently bathe the leaves in poison in order to get to the cause of the problem as it is nearly impossible to see it’s origin. Much as I hate using Roundup (and refuse to use it in the veggie beds) it is sometimes the only thing that will actually work on those stubborn weeds such as wandering jew and onion weed. The bed is looking lovely following the curve of the other hedge and we will mulch it heavily until we buy the new hydrangea plants when the weather is a little more gentle. Lets hope that they will be established and strong by the time next summer comes along when they will have to deal with the full brunt of our Aussie sunshine.

Hopefully it will look like this in a couple of years….

Meanwhile next door has been a hive of activity as well. They are replacing their old septic with a new environmentally friendly system which basically necessitates digging up half of their garden to lay pipes, submerged tanks and spraying systems and they are simultaneously laying a slab for a huge shed to relocate all of his farming equipment ahead of the sale of the dairy. The chief plumber on this big job is going to be 70 next month and while the younger lads man the machinery he hacks away with his shovel, sweat pouring off him as he manually digs ditches in the tricky areas where the machines cannot go.He is friendly despite the conditions, wiry and strong and never complains – they sure do breed them tough in the country.

They had a break yesterday to attend the funeral of Old Man Morschel of the famous local family that live 2 minutes from us. He was born, lived his entire life and died in this house so it was only fitting that his funeral was also held there. You just don’t see this complete and utter connection to one place any more do you? I’m rather in awe of him as I LOVE moving and experiencing new places and couldn’t imagine for a moment how you could live in one place for 98 years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To celebrate Cam’s”retirement” we are off on a road trip to rural Victoria and an area I have always wanted to see. I had imagined pretty towns with a European aesthetic full of deciduous trees and beautiful architecture however I’ve heard they are in the middle of an awful drought and there is not a blade of green to be seen anywhere so now I’m not too sure what we will see! We will embrace all the differences that our little mini adventure may bring, together with one bucket list dinner at The Lake House in Daylesford , a beautiful hotel and restaurant run by a chef/artist couple (www.lakehouse.com.au) and maybe some relaxation in the thermal springs in Hepburn Spa, or hiring a couple of bicycles and exploring various local haunts including the Macedon Ranges wine area and generally enjoying a bit of downtime somewhere new. I’m really looking forward to it. Bailey is going to stay in Milton at Claydon Park where I know Karen and Phil will look after her as if she is their own and she will have an absolute ball playing with Corona and Chloe (fellow labradors) on their 100 acre property! She may initially be slightly concerned as to why we are not there at night but it will quickly become a holiday for her too, just like those 80’s animal movies The adventures of Milo and Otis or Homeward Bound with Chance, Shadow and Sassy. Goodness only knows what those three will get up to in our absence!!! Good luck Rileys and thanks so much for babysitting.

The skies have been amazing lately both early in the morning and at dusk. I have the hot days to thank for my early rising and the chooks to thank for being outside at sunset as that’s when we tuck them into their coop before Mr Fox comes out to play….

Early morning mist and  a sky that’s splodged with charcoal clouds

Someone has spilt peach and apricot paint on this sunset sky

I keep thinking I should take up yoga and be a bit more zen but every time I try this is pretty much the result……….

It’s been a busy week for the local vet with a lot of ‘stuff’ happening in the lane. Last weekend we had not one, but two, dead calves. It always makes me feel so sad to see a little black and white bundle lying in the grass and nine times out of 10 a sad and exhausted cow lying nearby. Sometimes it’s a false alert with the little ones just sleeping but you can normally see an ear twitching or a tummy rising and falling.

Not so this time.

Another cow, Mum to the other inert bundle, was licking this new calf desperately trying to get it to breathe but to no effect. The nurturing force must be strong in her as I saw the farmers having to shoo her away hours and hours later – she was determined! She was apparently a very young cow and this is often the outcome when they become pregnant too soon. She survived to be a Mum another day but sadly the other cow died with paralysis, quite common after a difficult calving.  All in all farming is a really really hard life, I’m sure those days when you have to pick up a dead calf or a full grown cow, these guys must wonder if there is another way to make a living and I’m not even going to get started about the 5am starts and the weather variations they have to work in….
Things will change down the lane this year as the young farmers lease runs out on the dairy farm and they have decided not to renew. Their parents have a farm and they will go and work alongside them instead. If no-one else locally is interested in renting a dairy farm it looks like it will be sold. Such a shame after several generations of the same family farming that land and yet another small dairy goes out of business. The land is not zoned for residential so we are not likely to be surrounded by building blocks any time soon. There are 3 separate 100 acre titles and I’m thinking that a canny developer may buy it in the hope the zoning changes in the next 10 years or so. We will miss seeing the cows wandering past in single file on their way to milking or dotted in the surrounding fields looking all the world like a still life painting in the golden afternoon light.
We wont miss the extra flies that they bring though.
Always a silver lining folks…..

Dougal, the new puppy on the block, has been diagnosed after extensive testing with lupus which is going to adversely affect his hereto happy life in the countryside and Molly the goat had to have surgery for a hernia much to her disgust. She is doing well but her bleating has an extra sad tone to it. Vets are such an important part of rural living. We love our pets of course and will do anything to keep them happy and healthy but for some local people their animals are their entire life AND income and a sick animal, or worse, a sick herd has severe repercussions. Their dedication and love of what they do sets Vets apart I think. At least doctors don’t have to work in a muddy paddock in the pouring rain with their patients……

In happier news it has been a lovely week catching up with friends and enjoying some stunning scenery at the same time! Lunch at Wharf Road with my friend Sue was lovely. All the more for the fact it was air conditioned on a very hot day and we enjoyed their lunch special of a main course and a glass of wine for $25!!

Then a quick trip to Sydney and an opportunity to choose some tiles and bathroom items for the renovation (if and when it ever begins) and the odd compulsory wedding decoration purchase! I’m so glad we have plenty of time before the big day so I can really enjoy the process of planning everything with Lauren. A lunch with the eldest son at the Boathouse at Balmoral was the perfect Sydney ending to my trip. All sunshine, blue skies and a gentle breeze keeping things bearable on what was a very warm Autumn day.

Bailey has been enjoying some long local walks, we try and go early in the morning or in the late afternoon when it’s cooler. Her favourite place is the beach where she can run for miles and leap into the waves to fetch her ball as well as bump into lots of other dogs. It completely knackers her for the rest of the day and is a great excuse for us to have a lovely coastal walk too. The country lanes allow her to meet other animals and she is always inquisitive leaning into the fences to get as close as she can to the cows, horses or donkeys. At home and at work she loves to be involved with whatever is going on and is always right at our side being ‘helpful’…

So our little life in the country bimbles along with a pleasing rhythm, our daily chores dictated by the seasons and the weather. We have been so lucky that loads of our friends past and present have popped in to see us when they are in the area. We see so many more people down here than we ever did in Sydney and have also reconnected through this blog with people we knew 10 years ago which is just lovely. The fact that people are often down here for weddings and holidays means we get to see them for a couple of hours or overnight on their way home and we feel blessed and very lucky to be moulding this new life of ours in The Meadow.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thoughts??

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

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

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

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

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

http://www.merribee.com.au

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

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

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

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

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

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

http://www.febfast.org.au

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

What the hell has happened to January?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Is this the real Magic Faraway Tree?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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