Sunset over 7 mile beach.

My favourite part of the year begins – daylight saving!! It feels like we are on holiday being able to come home after work and enjoy a nice campari and soda on the front veranda and still have loads of daylight in which to prepare dinner and potter in the garden.

 Some Susie time…..

As things heat up we are back to hitting the garden first thing in the morning or late in the afternoon to plant or weed or water. The summer veggie patch has been planted – corn, zucchini, capsicum, tomatoes, eggplant, beans , lettuce, beetroot, carrots and cucumbers as well as plenty of herbs, garlic and onions. This time I have planted a lot more from seed as apparently that way only the strongest seeds survive and you get good plants. It is an excruciating slow process for this little gardener who is a bit of an “instant” girl! We were very excited when, after months of nothing in the asparagus bed we saw this…

Our first asparagus spear!!

Sadly, the done thing with asparagus is to leave the first (and sometimes the 2nd) crop to grow and die down before you can finally cut them down to have with some nice hollandaise sauce for brekky or lunch. In the same vein the blueberries and raspberries that we planted may not fruit until next year dashing my hopes of home grown fruit for a Christmas pav. Our new passionfruit which is happily winding it’s way up the wire fence around the chooks may offer up something in time for the big day but I’m not too hopeful. I guess this is why we enjoy it all so much more when we finally get to eat it because we have nurtured it all from baby seeds and watered and weeded and staked and pruned it for weeks before it hits our plates. A labour of love indeed….

The flower side of the garden is luckily a bit quicker to show its face and we are slowly getting on top of the new garden beds and whipping the trees into shape. Lovely Will has come to the rescue once again with our driveway trees, creating some beds around them making it easier for Cam and his trusty ride-on mower to wizz around them without injuring the trunks. I am referring to them as donuts for obvious reasons….

The front veranda is an even nicer place to sit now with the gardenias and lavender in bloom and the bees are LOVING it.

We had a break from the garden work with the arrival of the Barrett family who broke their trip to Mollymook with an overnight stay at The Meadow. It was lovely to have them here and they embraced the country vibes and loved the cows who were grazing this week at our back fence. Kate fed the cows the long grass that they couldn’t quite reach in our garden. There is an electric fence between them and it, otherwise I’m sure they would be in our garden in a flash!

 A moody sky and gourmet grass for the cows thanks to Kate.

I popped in to the cabinet maker to see how our library was progressing and I can see it’s finally taking shape. The bed inclusion has been a real nightmare but now we are on the home straight – a couple of weeks for all the cabinets to be painted and the mouldings etc to get done so I’m actually getting excited about getting those last few boxes out of the garage and having somewhere for all my books and photos etc.

 Getting there…slowly….

Our week finished on a high note with a visit to Cupitts Winery in Ulladulla for a lovely lunch with our holiday makers. I thoroughly enjoyed being out and about as it happens so rarely nowadays for me  (whilst Cammo is sick to death of eating out after 3 nights every week of batching it in Sydney and eating at pubs and restaurants). Cupitts is a popular wedding venue and has a strong french provincial feel which I adore so apologies in advance for so many photos!!!

Cupitts WInery

 A lovely entrance

 France or Australia???

The new extension makes the most of the beautiful countryside views.

The cellar is cut into the hillside

A beautiful view from the bar deck and live music on Sunday afternoons to top it off!

A beautiful interior.

The Crew!

A delicious end to the meal – vanilla panna cotta with poached rhubarb and raspberry sorbet with almond tuile.

This week has been beautiful. Spring in all it’s glory and it’s hard to not feel pretty darn happy to be honest. As it has been school holidays we have had a small stream of visitors popping in on their way to or from Sydney to the South Coast. Little people have visited the chook shed and collected warm eggs and either been ‘scared of’ or ‘played with’ Bailey and other friends have called in for a cuppa or to have a look around the property which has been really nice.

     Ruby loved Bailey but Mali preferred us! 

I had to go to Huskisson on Wednesday  as I finally found an upholsterer to make some cushions for my big cane chairs that I bought at Auction in Sydney. A lovely smiley man, John, who works out of his garage behind his house is making them for me and was telling me it might take him a few weeks as he also Captains the whale watching cruises and it’s “the season” at the moment! Everything in the country happens when it happens and there is no point hurrying people along. He was very unassuming but I noticed he had a big thank you letter framed on the wall behind the desk from Government House in Canberra where he “did” the dining room and the meeting rooms etc. Amazing what you can whip up in the back of a garage isn’t it??

I took Bailey with me and we met up with my friend’s hubby and son who were holidaying down there, for a quick catch up and a choccy ice-cream for Lucas – another lovely little guy who will no doubt look back on these holidays with fond memories as he gets older. I’ve noticed a lot of people that come househunting in Shoalhaven Heads where I work on Saturdays are there to look for a beach house because they are so nostalgic for the type of holiday they used to have as a kid. As parents I guess we are the creators of good memories for our children and they invariably end up wanting the same kind of thing for their children Then it was my turn to be like a little kid as I packed excitedly for my little trip up to the Big Smoke for my regular book club meeting. The same group of girls, with just a couple of plusses and minuses, have been meeting for the past 20 years ( we were one of the very first clubs to form I think) and it is like therapy for all of us to meet up over a glass of wine and some yummy cheese and discuss life (and the book of course!) In this time we have seen our children grow up, a couple of husbands go west and now weddings and grandbabies are the order of the day and we have a lovely easy relationship together which is very special to me and well worth the 2 hour drive.

My lovely book club girls

This monthly meeting gives me a great excuse to come up to Sydney and do some shopping, meet up with my boys and nowadays stay overnight with one of the girls. I am working my way through the club and it’s lovely to have some extra one on one time with them. This week I stayed in my old stomping ground of Balmain and in a beautiful apartment overlooking Sydney harbour. Sitting out on Jill’s veranda with a glass of wine and looking at the twinkly lights of Sydney I felt so lucky to still be able to get my fix of a city I will always love.

The next morning after a lovely walk and coffee with the Balmain girls I met Sam for lunch down at Balmoral. It was a picture perfect day and a yummy fresh lunch and a catch up with ‘the life of Sam’ on the pier at The Boathouse just topped off my Sydney trip perfectly.

The beautiful Boathouse at Balmoral

A yummy lunch with Sammy

Hopping back into my car to go home with the back seat pleasantly full of shopping bags and flooring and tile samples for the new extension as well as a new cozzie – I was a happy chappy. The swimsuit shopping however was pretty tortuous, after trying on half the shop I finally chose one that takes me 5 mins to get into and then I am pretty much sealed into it in order to rearrange my squidgy bits into a slightly more pleasing shape than my natural one. And on top of all that I had to cough up a small fortune to buy the damn thing.

                                                     Sigh………………………..

We celebrated the first evening of daylight saving by having a celebratory champagne with our friends N&N at their beautiful new house on the mountain opposite us. They were very sad a couple of months ago to find out that the RTA had compulsorily acquired their current home for the widening of the new highway. They had literally just laid the last paver around their new swimming pool when they got the news and it must be said, a few tears were shed. A few Saturdays later they inspected this house with expansive panoramic views over the surrounding countryside and out to the ocean all on 5 acres. It has a lovely old rustic dairy shed that Nicki plans on converting into a commercial kitchen alongside a dining space in order to hold long table lunches (she is a chef) and it has a perfect place for a veggie patch and maybe even that pool she was hankering after. As the sun went down and the parrots ducked and weaved past us on the veranda I thought how lucky I was to have this new life with some lovely new friends and I look forward to seeing them shape this new house into one that they love and enjoy.

    

p.s…..in celebration of daylight saving I have added a few summery recipes to the kitchen page. Dips and salads for outdoor entertaining. Enjoy  xxx

In a week where we had to get our winter woollies out AGAIN and the on/off rain was a pain for all the things we wanted to do involving machinery, we still managed to get some stuff done. This was in no small way due to our friend Smutzer coming for the weekend with his trailer full of trusty tools and a huge ladder to facilitate the installation of our new downpipes. When the recent floods occurred we discovered the moat of water we got around the side of the house was partially due to wonky downpipes and the rain spilling in a Niagra-Falls-esque fashion onto the grass. A few dollars and a couple of hours later we have beautiful straight pipes actually connected to the drain so whatever Mother Nature decides to bring we should be a little better prepared. He also coerced our wisteria into submission and it’s now winding it’s way over and around our pergola.

Our friends in Milton recently purchased an old church together with it’s considerable grounds that adjoined their 100 acre property. It was built in 1883 and renovated in the late 1980’s to become an individual and eclectic home and with it came a grass tennis court (apparently used as long ago as the early 1900’s) and a few outbuildings including a lovely weatherboard cottage used as a Sunday School and some sheds for storing the tennis and croquet gear! All surrounded by beautiful gardens that have been let go a bit but still show the bones of the original design. A wisteria walk, woodland glades, a circular lawn complete with sundial and a lovely aviary/garden room where you could imagine the ladies of yesteryear taking afternoon tea. The entire property (including a remnant graveyard including the headstones of some of the area’s oldest pioneers) is heritage listed.

                        

The Old Church at Milton

 

So it was that a dozen of us gathered on a showery day to help them clear out the garden and restore it to some of it’s former glory. The men got stuck in whilst the women folk whipped up some lunch and prepared the dinner etc to keep them all happy. At 3pm it was tools down and a well deserved beer or 3 before we tucked into a magnificent feast of Bangalow pork, duck fat cooked roasties and amazing salads fresh from their kitchen garden, enjoyed in the old tractor shed which was transformed into a rustic dining room with candles and portable heaters. All washed down with some lovely bottles of red we teetered home with a feeling of satisfaction from a job well done  and a sense of contributing to the newest chapter in the life of the old church.

Hard at work

A folly found in the middle of the woods

Lunch break for the workers

Happy to finish after a day working in the rain and the mud

Tilly and Sofia feeding the little orphaned calf Buster

A bit of “pruning” and the makings of a good bonfire to have before the end of the burn off season next weekend. Should be able to see it from Sydney!

Life poddles on in The Meadow as we fall into the rythmn of our new life. As it becomes our new normal we hardly recognise our newly relaxed selves as we wake with the sun and connect ourselves to nature. A half an hour in the veggie garden checking on the new seedlings and plucking the odd weed before collecting the morning’s eggs from the girls and then off for a walk with the chocolate drop is the perfect way to start the day.  I have been exploring some of the other local ‘lanes’ with her and have come across some magnificent properties and beautiful countryside. No wonder our office at Raine & Horne is going crazy with enquiries from city folk looking for a country getaway. The hottest segment of the market is the 1-5 acre plot in the $1-1.5M price bracket and we could sell 5 a day if we could only get some stock!! It makes Cam and I feel better that our house falls exactly within those parameters and if and when we are ever fed up with it I know we would have no problem at all selling it. Luckily we love it – even Cam has fallen in love with it – and hopefully we wont part with it for a long time yet!

The beautiful countryside around Berry

It was lovely to have one of my longtime Sydney friends come and stay last week. She was working at Wollongong and decided to drive another hour to stay at The Meadow instead of heading back to Sydney. We had a lovely time chatting non-stop ( we excel at this, as both our husbands can testify) and we ventured into town (!) for a meal at the pub and after a nice walk with Bailey the next day and a bimble around the shops she was back to the big smoke. I’m so grateful that so many of our friends have made the effort to come down and see us as it makes a huge difference to how we feel – our old life can happily merge with our new one – and as the weather warms up I’m sure a few more friends will be booking in to the B&B!!!

Thanks for the bubbles Jilly – so lovely to have you stay   xx

We got our lovely architect Natasha back to draw up a smaller revised alteration plan for the back of the house and have also booked the builder as his first job in 2016. That way we can enjoy Xmas with all the troops without having to worry about it being a building site. The library is in production and should be installed in the next few weeks (nothing happens fast in the country). It has proved quite a headache for the cabinet maker with the large dimensions as well as the pull down bed inclusion. Hopefully it will all be worth it in the end.

Things are warming up and the garden is springing back into life as we discover new plants we didnt know we had! A gorgeous wisteria has burst into flower and I have to somehow get up a ladder and wind it around our pergola to encourage it in the right direction as it is a nicely established one we can use with our new extension area. It always helps a new build look part of the original if it is softened with some large plants or trees.

One of our beautiful blue tongued lizards basking in the spring sunshine

After one of my lovely country walks and feeling full of the joys of spring, I headed home in the car to find a bad accident just around the corner from our house at The Silos Winery. It has a nasty exit onto the Highway with people zooming past at 100km+ and this poor chap just didn’t time it properly. My happy mood slipped away as I realised how things can change at the drop of a hat and that we really do only have one life to live so we should make it a life that we love.

Luckily everyone was ok but it is a reminder that life can change in a second.

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I almost didn’t post anything this week as it has been non eventful and quiet. Then I thought isn’t that fantastic – a calm serene week where I was happy every day, just pottering in the garden, walking the dog, looking after the house and enjoying my environment. I treated myself to a coffee at the gelato shop and thought it was a big deal; I went to Sydney for a haircut and dashed home without shopping at Miranda Fair which was 5 minutes from the hairdresser because Bailey was home alone and I felt guilty. What is happening to me????

I’ve never felt calmer, slept better or been more grateful for the simple things in life. Maybe it’s getting older or maybe it’s a genuine enjoyment of my new life but I am not bored, I love pulling open the curtains in the morning – even if it is before 7 am – and seeing the cows wandering past from their milking and I love saying good morning to ‘the girls’ and collecting their eggs, still warm, in my hand. The fact that all the trees are blossoming or in leaf and the birds are nesting all contributes to my feeling of well being and an overall sense of contentment and happiness.

It was a beautiful weekend for The Berry Small Field Day, a mostly agricultural show with all the latest in 4X4s, trailers, tractors, fencing and chainsaws, sheds and livestock. This year they included a gardening section to make it more appealing to the wider community and there was also an interesting stall featuring the local beekeeping society. We are keen to have a hive and there are several new types available so we will make some enquiries.

 Busy bees

What is an agricultural show without tractors?

Or without a devonshire tea for that matter!

It was a really warm day and we got to use a lovely gift that our friend in Moruya, Sue, gave to Bailey earlier in the week. It is a really fantastic idea – a fold up waterproof bowl (that can attach to her collar) if you’re out and about during the day. It is much easier to find a tap than a drinking vessel and she lapped it up – literally!! Great gift – thanks Suz!!!

A happy puppy A h

We actually used it again yesterday when we decided to explore some more of our local coast and nipped down to Huskisson for a walk and lunch at The Husky Pub. People were out in droves due to the beautiful Spring weather and some brave souls actually went in the sea for a swim. Brave, not because of the surf (which is non existent here) but for the water temperature which is still, shall we say, ‘brisk’???

Cammo appreciating the view from The Husky as well as a cold drink.

Today my friend Jill is coming to stay for the night and I am excited to be going into Berry for dinner and to show her the area I am feeling more attached to every day!! The following may sum up our philosophy but of course as we are old and sensibilish no doubt we will behave instead……….???

Is 7 months equivalent to teenagehood in dog years?

Miss Bailey has been a bit naughty this week.

I was having some difficulties with my computer sound and after twiddling every little button and checking my settings 20 times, I realised that the cable connecting the sound to the computer had been chewed in half. Two guesses as to who was the guilty party??

With the beautiful Spring weather and the longer days the chocolate one has been waking up bright and early and is ready for action circa 6.30 am. She lets us know that she is awake and ready to play with gentle whining that escalates to a “wake up now please” bark and it is very hard to ignore. I thought I would win this little power play by getting up to tell her “NO” and then leaving her shut off at the other end of the house while I attempted to go back to bed and snooze. She continued to whinge until I gave in at 7 am. I got up and smugly made my coffee feeling I had proven to her who was boss when I noticed something wasn’t quite right with my spare pull out bed……

My smugness disappeared as I realised my tactic had well and truly backfired.

I went ballistic of course and she knew she had done something very wrong. She slunk outside and looked very doleful and sad at this turn of events. During the day every time I looked at it or pointed to it she did the same thing – at least she knows she did wrong and didn’t employ the  “well, THAT will teach you for ignoring me” attitude. She got locked in the laundry that night so hopefully the message got through.

In order to restore the friendship we decided to make the most of a beautiful afternoon and head for the beach where she could run to her heart’s content and tire herself out. When we got there we had the entire beach to ourselves, which always amazes me after Sydney’s well utilised beaches. It is a great beach to walk on with flat well packed sand and people walk, run, ride their horses, cycle and even go kite karting on it at various times of the year. Today it showed the aftermath of the big rain with loads of driftwood and foam balls blowing in the wind like tumbleweed which kept Bailey amused for ages.

Foamy fun…

Not a soul in sight…

What a beautiful way to start the day.

It’s back!!!

After an initial burst of Spring loveliness our bubble was well and truly burst with the floods and now you would hardly know they had happened except it’s still squelchy underfoot in a few places and the plants wont need watering for ages. I stocked up on loads of flowers and veggies to plant and am madly trying to get rid of the last of my winter veggies – cabbages anyone? I am going to attempt to make some sauerkraut this weekend with the last of them and then I can plant some zucchinis in the cabbage bed. As soon as the brussel sprouts are gone (they were fabulous this winter) the tomatoes can go in and the fennel, beans, beetroot, carrots and lettuce are already enjoying their new place in the patch. Anything I don’t grow I can order from Greenbox and our local producers so I am very lucky.

It’s a good job that fresh produce is prolific at the moment as I have embarked on a 6-8 week anti-allergy diet which is basically Paleo and involves no grains, dairy or alcohol . Seeing as I could happily live on bread, cheese and a glass of red I’m not a happy camper at the moment. The first couple of weeks are always the hardest and I have to get into the swing of it by having plenty of options on hand and prepared so I have things to take to work or have in a hurry when I would usually grab a sandwich. As for giving up my evening glass of wine – nothing is going to make that any easier I’m afraid. I can have an “occasional” glass apparently and I am translating that as being able to have one if I go out to dinner or if someone comes here for dinner. Fair enough I think??

So here I am dreaming of this..

when all I can really have is this…..

Anyway……….if it works and I can enjoy a better quality of life (well, breathing anyway) I will happily forgo some of my fave foods. With my body at an all time super sensitive high the least I can do is be proactive in my health and try and ‘do it my way’ as Frank would say. Watch this space……

We had a nice surprise visit from Tom this weekend, his mere presence was his gift to his Dad on Father’s Day and on Sunday we ventured into town with the chocolate button to visit the monthly market at The Showground. It is extremely popular with people coming out in droves for their new season plants and loads of handmade and crafted items. The crowds are a rare experience for Bailey and she gets super excited for the first 10 minutes until she gets used to it all. I found a nice lead for Bailey’s dog friend Chloe (remind me to give it to you Karen Riley) and Tom gifted his Dad a nice new belt. We bumped into Leigh and John from The Valley stocking up on new plants and she showed me the place to get a good passionfruit plant. I have been looking for the common black passionfruit for weeks but all I could find was the banana or golden one so I am happy that we will now have our fave fruit on hand to squeeze over a pav, or some yoghurt or in a tart whenever the fancy takes us!

The Berry Country Fair

Happy Father’s Day

With the arrival of Spring my favourite little blue wrens are back making nests in my rose bushes . I can spend ages just watching them and listening to them sing. Just another beautiful part of daily life in The Meadow.

Almost overnight the blossom is bursting on the trees, the birds are building their nests and we haven’t had the heating on in the house for a few nights. The sun is rising earlier and the magpies wake us up before the sun does. Our veranda is almost too hot to sit on in the middle of the day and there is a bottle of rose languishing in the fridge just waiting for Happy Hour. I LOVE Spring. It holds such promise for the next few months but isn’t so hot that you have to walk before 9am or after 3pm. The garden wakes up and thoughts turn to outdoor seating and eating and the hammock swings temptingly in the breeze. In a few more weeks we will be moaning about the heat, the flies and the fact that the grass needs weekly mowing but for now it is a time full of endless possibility and anticipation of happy sunny times ahead.

Luckily it was a beautiful day this week when I arranged to meet a couple of girlfriends for lunch in Wollongong. We figured that was about half way between them in Sydney and me in The Meadow and not too far to travel for any of us. I had never visited the Gong before and was pleasantly surprised. This was North Beach and a great little lunch spot, Diggies, provided us with a perfect place to catch up on all our news and while away a couple of hours.

Diggies Cafe – North Beach Wollongong

Gotta love a girls lunch…….

Hardly a soul in sight……

Back at The Ranch I am pushing forward on the long list of things to do in the garden before it goes berserk again. I have luckily found Will, a local lad, who is helping me with all the hard yakka. He is passionate about nature and is very thorough and helpful. He is concentrating at the moment on our front boundary which needed a lot of help. The agapanthas were inundated with weeds and grass and he is slowly but surely restoring the border to something I am happy with. Then we have the rose border, the plum trees and the pear tree to contend with plus all the summer veggies can now be planted – home grown tomatoes here we come!!!

Will doing what he does best……

 Love his work…….

The chooks are also happy when Will is here because he feeds them all the greenery he is weeding out, as they say “one man’s trash is another ‘chook’s’ treasure”!! With the warmer days and the bonus greens they are all happily laying an egg each per day. They are so funny, queuing up to lay in the same nesting box even though there are four identical ones for them to use!

Bailey has a boyfriend. He is a Maremma which is an Italian sheepdog. They are known as livestock guardian dogs  who famously live/ sleep/stay in the paddock with the sheep/chickens/cows and protect them. They are absolutely gorgeous dogs and we always feel a bit sorry for this magnificent animal who seems so friendly and affectionate yet whose fate dictates he lives alone in the paddock. Bailey adores him and I think the love is mutual. They squeeze themselves as much as is possible under the fence to smooch each other and run up and down the fence border, tails wagging 100 miles an hour, declaring their love for each other. I feel like a real party pooper when I have to call her to my side and put the lead on her to continue our walk down the lane….

Puppy Love………

This coming week I have to go to Sydney for a couple of days. I have a Specialist appointment and luckily managed to combine it with my regular bookclub meeting. I missed the last one so it will be lovely to see all the girls again. I am also rather excited at the prospect of doing some shopping. There just isn’t the range and choice down here that we have up in Sydney and I am hoping to have a very decisive and productive 3 hours whizzing around the shops whilst I’m in the City.

As Wayne is away in New Zealand this week I have booked Bailey into a local kennel for the night. We met Charmaine from Petcharm Lodge a couple of weeks ago and her setup for the dogs is FABULOUS! More like a 5 star hotel for our 4 legged friends as you can see by these pictures. Nothing less than chandeliers and plasma TV for the favoured pooches and she makes all her own bone broth for them for dinner too. We feel blessed to have found her and she is only 5 minutes from our house too! She even caters for doggy day care and will look after them from 9-5 if you have something to do out of town. The dogs are split up into groups according to their personality and size and spend some quality time in the exercise yards together before retiring to their twin share rooms with doggy duvets…..

Super styling for our fur babies….

(She may never want to come home………..)

Thank goodness it only happens once a year!

A dozen of Sam’s closest friends descended on The Meadow this weekend to celebrate his 29th birthday. A birthday lunch at our house has become an annual event over the past 4 years and it was lovely that the boys were prepared to travel to continue the tradition. Most of them had booked into The Berry Pub for the night and we had our guest rooms fully booked too. The new table was fully extended and the kitchen was groaning with food – a good test for the new house with our biggest gathering yet.

You’ve arrived!!

All went swimmingly with copious quantities of beer and wine consumed and tales of days gone by were shared over lunch before a game of backyard cricket to round the day off. Bailey was the best on the field – thank goodness she is such a good ‘fetcher’ and was happy to run after the balls furthest away and bring it back to drop the ball neatly at the bowlers feet as the other members of the team were a bit slow off the mark. She had a lovely day with so many people to play with (and no doubt lots of sneakily fed treats as well!)

 

A few beers and nibbles before lunch

Ready, Set, Go……

Josh anticipating a catch…

Howzat!!!!!!!!!!! Cheers and Jeers from the Peanut Gallery…..

Sam’s birthday coincided with the Bledisloe Cup decider and with so many rugby boys (players and fans) in the house we had organised a couple of cabs to take them into the local pub to watch it there. The last time we had beaten the Kiwis at their home ground was the year Sam was born so we had this feeling of coincidence and a sense that we may win. Forever hopeful of course and those hopes were to be well and truly dashed a couple of hours later when we were thrashed.

The All Blacks did not come to (Sam’s) party…..

 

Anyway, apart from losing the rugby to our arch rivals and the pre booked taxi not arriving at midnight to bring our house guests home (necessitating a certain Motherly person to retrieve them from downtown Berry at 1.30 am slightly the worse for wear) it was a fabulous day and worth all the hard work. A lovely bunch of fellas with just a couple of my faves unable to attend as they are living in London. It’s hard to believe they are all about to turn 30 – where have the years gone????

My boys came down the day before to ‘help’ but ended up using the gorgeous sunny afternoon to try out a local golf course in Gerringong. It is in a beautiful scenic spot overlooking the ocean and on a beautiful day it’s harder to think of anywhere better to hang out with your brother and try to hit small balls into holes with sticks.

Not a bad spot for a game of golf

Happy Days  xx

Our neighbours family have owned land in this area going back to when it was first settled in the 1800s and I got a little peek into how life was for families at the turn of the century when Pat invited me to have a look at his ancestral home. At various times it housed extra Cousins, Aunties and Uncles with the house bursting at the seams with 3 different families living there together. Verandas were enclosed to become living areas and kitchens and rooms built as formal sitting and dining rooms became bedrooms to cater for the increase in numbers. The original kitchen is now gone replaced with an 80’s built in number which must have been sheer heaven after working on a wood fuelled stove and cooking for 14 people every day! Ironically Pat’s Mum Vonnie, became one of Australia’s best known country cooks – renowned for her baking (especially her pumpkin scones) and her many award winning cakes. Now in her 90s she is a judge at the local country fairs and at The Easter Show in Sydney and is the vision of a country lady – all rosy cheeks and twinkly eyes. After seeing where and how she must have started her baking career I have even more respect for her achievements! What stories this veranda has seen over the years……if only the walls could talk……..

Their dairy has a wonderful old barn that has been used for EVERYTHING over the years, including local dances and various family christenings, birthdays and wedding receptions. It is mainly used now to house some old equipment but it has a lovely atmosphere and you can imagine how much fun the kids would have had playing there in the old days before the modern ‘progress’ of TV and video games….

We have had a couple of milestones this past week, our first dinner date with some locals which was lovely and made us feel part of the community instead of  Sydney ‘outsiders’ and my first out of office function with my new workmates. It was a thank you to the team at all 3 offices – Nowra, Berry and Shoalhaven Heads for all their hard work and achievements in the recent Real Estate Awards where they scooped quite a few trophies. We went to the beautiful Wharf Road Restaurant and enjoyed drinks and canapes in front of the log fire and it was great to mingle and meet some new people from the other offices.   Earlier in the week Cam and I took the hound to the other side of the river from Wharf Road and enjoyed some locally caught fish and chips in the sunshine. There is a path that tracks the river and is a pleasant way to spend an hour walking the dog although I think she may dive in once the weather gets warmer – labradors just LOVE the water!

On a beautiful sunny morning I bundled Bailey into the car and we drove to Milton for a “doggie playdate” with Corona and Chloe at Claydon Park. Seeing Corona a year or so ago had ignited my desire to get another labrador and then Karen and Phil got Chloe – a little black lab 4 months older than Bailey – and I thought ‘what is a country veranda without a dog lying on it????’ Hence our little chocolate drop’s arrival.

We had a lovely day with the three of them chasing each other around the farm and Bailey met her first cat, Felix. Bailey jumped around him prancing to and fro trying to engage him in play but he sat there disdainfully – a huge ball of white fluff – and completely ignored her, until she got too boisterous and then a swipe of his claws let Bailey know who was boss……………………………..

Phil “sharing” his pie with the three amigos………..(note Bailey sitting beautifully in the hope of a reward)

The next day I had to go to work – my alternate Saturday, and of course the weather was perfect. A million things could have been done in the garden but I was off to sit in the office. Still, as I drove through the countryside it was hard to feel hard done by. The coral trees are all starting to flower and contrast beautifully with the green fields and as I drove into Shoalhaven Heads the sun was shimmering on the water and not a soul in sight. Such tranquility, with a sigh I hopped back into the car and onto the office.

The head of the Shoalhaven River in the early morning sunshine

Beautiful Coral Trees line the road

There is a feeling of Spring in the air and it wont be long until we are all complaining it’s too hot and driving to the beach to cool down, and despite all the dire warnings of the August winds we have only had one night of rattling windows and furniture stacked up on the front lawn in the morning. The roses are starting to bud and the lavender is blooming. There is talk of planting tomatoes and spring flowers and little calves have arrived in our adjoining paddock. Time for the next push in the garden with the front perimeter fence being targeted this coming week and hopefully the planting of some hydrangeas around the bay window. Bring it on!!!!