We are back in action with visitors now we are back from our holiday with a mostly completed house. Our builder is tying up the few remaining loose ends and we now have doors and windows that don’t rattle and will soon have a painted roof, then it’s just a case of attacking the garden and decorating! Our lovely friends Baz and Cathy came to stay this week and they are one of those couples that can’t NOT help. They are both extremely handy having almost single handedly completed houses from the lock up stage in the past and can turn their hands to most of the trades in some form or another. Baz was delighted to see the wonderful drill set that the kids had bought Cam for Xmas and got stuck into hanging mirrors, clocks, my utensil rack above the stove, window boxes and all those little jobs that have been on my list for a while! We are very grateful to them for all their help.

                     It was heaven to have them here and we did manage to squeeze in some fun and lots of wine and cheese  so it wasn’t all work and no play! My wisteria has had a severe haircut courtesy of Cathy and is now wrapping itself in the correct direction around it’s posts, all I have to do is keep chopping it to encourage it in the right way and soon we shall have a lovely feature on the west side of the house.

We made time to show them the area which Baz knew from a time long long ago when as teenagers and early 20 somethings they used to pile into whoevers car had some room and drive from the western suburbs of Sydney to the South Coast to surf. He had fond memories of Gerringong and we had a burger on the hill overlooking the ocean for old times sake after looking through one of the best surf shops you will ever see. ‘Natural Necessity’ has one of the largest range of boards you will see in a commercial surf shop and Baz had a glazed look in his eyes as he wandered amongst them all, looking rather similar to me when I’m in a shoe shop…….

We have been worrying about our little brood of chooks for a while now as they seem to have been in moult for months! It is normal for them to lose their feathers for a few weeks in which time they lay less eggs as they need a lot of protein to grow new feathers. Ours have been laying on average 4 a day instead of 7 and the feathers are still looking very shabby, we were worried they may have been pecking each other and have been keeping an eye on them to no avail. A poultry auction held at The Showground last Sunday was the perfect place to ask wise chook people’s advice. Cam took some photos to show them and straight away they recognised the problem and said we had to increase their protein intake, so on top of their high protein pellets they now have rice mixed with cat food three times a week and hopefully we will soon start to see some improvement. I couldn’t bring myself to get any cat food containing chicken as it seemed rather wrong so beef and fish is the protein of choice. They absolutely can’t get outside fast enough when they see me coming with their special rice concoction and they eat all the meaty bits before the rice so I think the chook whisperers were right…….

Cam has been hard at it in his office in Berry so we literally only saw him in the evenings. Happy hour has been a hit and miss affair depending on the wind. Some days are just perfect and we can sit outside in the golden afternoon light with a yummy cheese board and chilled rose and other days we’re inside with a glass of red and our ugg boots on!! We have had little rain to speak of and our water tank that supplies the veggie patch is nearly empty. Luckily we are also on town water so we are going to fill the tank up by running a hose from the house next week if Mother Nature doesn’t come to the party. The boys dug up a whole load of sandstone pavers which had led to our old washing line and laid some new turf so we need to keep the water up to everything at the moment.

Cam still manages to finds some time for a little relax in the garden with the Chocolate One however, the Dynamic Duo are often to be found here……………..

We are off later today to Milton for a long table dinner cooked by highly regarded local restaurants and some dancing under the stars so until next week dear readers I will bid thee farewell……

 

I’m not sure which is my favourite time of the day down here, normally it’s the morning with the promise of the day to come but every now and again I happen to look out of the window at dusk and see a magnificent sight, as if someone has spilt all their red, gold and orange paints across the evening sky and I just have to run outside and soak it all in.

It’s been a productive week in The Meadow as we begin the process of ‘finishing off’ the extension. Our snazzy custom made fly screen doors are all installed now and just in time as the flies have started to wake up with the warmer weather although goodness knows how they manage to fly in the massive winds that have still been buffeting this part of the coast. I feel sorry for all the animals as they stand resolute in the paddocks with their backs to the wind. It has certainly been relentless this past couple of weeks and even those people born and bred here are officially OVER IT!!! Even our iron furniture got blown off the new veranda – crazy!

My kitchen shelves have been installed and my not so small cookbook collection looks very much at home on them, giving the kitchen a nice lived in look and an injection of colour. It will be lovely once we get all our artwork framed and up but in the meantime I have loads of beautiful roses and flowers from the garden that liven the place up a bit.The roses are going bananas and even the Man of The House has come to appreciate them!

Work has now begun on updating the original part of the roof to match in with the new one.  A local guy who has known this house since he was small is doing it and he LOVES a chat. He really is a wealth of knowledge about it’s history and inhabitants but he always seems to catch me just as I’m trying to sneak out to the garage or to put some washing on the line and 20 minutes later I’m still there listening to his stories. I think it’s lucky that for the most part he will be up on the roof which will cut down on chatting opportunities quite considerably! Despite the wind he managed to get the whole roof pressure washed ready to begin painting it in the new ‘Windspray” – a nice soft grey which will make the whole place look fresh and clean.

I have had great fun this week harvesting my mulberries. I fill a bowl on a daily basis at the moment and I’m not sure how I’m managing to pull the wool over the birds eyes but they don’t seem to have noticed the bumper crop residing in the middle of our garden! The new manhandling of the tree’s natural branching habit has worked a dream and now I just have to find a few recipes involving mulberries, if anyone has a good one please let me know??

The bathroom and laundry areas are now a joy to work in, all the new surfaces are so much easier than the old ones to clean and the sunshine pours in through the laundry window making it impossible to be unhappy even whilst folding the sheets!! Good old black and white is a classic and never seems to go out of style so despite the update it still ties in nicely with the old house.

                                  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that renovation things are basically finished we are back in action with our guests. We have quite a few people staying with us over the next 10 days which will be lovely especially if the weather comes to the party and starts to behave. As the Christmas merchandise starts to appear in the shops I am endlessly reminded how quickly this year has gone and how soon it will be 2017 and WEDDING YEAR! Every time I get lazy in the garden I remind myself that I need to get in some hard yards now to reap the reward next April. Gardens always pay you back in spades whatever small thing you do to them (haha – did you see what I did there??) rewarding you with food to eat and flowers to enjoy which does make the weeding side of things slightly more bearable. However Susie is a bit boring if she is all work and no play so I gave myself an afternoon off yesterday and went up to Kangaroo Valley to visit my girlfriend who has a house with an amazing view down the valley. She has renovated the old dairy that was on the property in an authentic rustic style and I enjoyed a quiet cuppa with a book on the deck listening to the amazing birdsong up there. So many beautiful areas in this part of the world, I still feel so lucky to be living here! If you want to have that feeling for a weekend too you can rent the dairy and/or the main house (see details below)

Can you feel the serenity?

The Old Koonabulla Dairy can be rented through https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/2311138 or https://www.stayz.com.au/accommodation/nsw/south-coast/kangaroo-valley/144525

Until next time, this is Heavenly Hirani (as hubby calls me) signing out………… 🙂 🙂

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!!