These are the beautiful breakfast chia bowls from Milkwood in Berry, pretty AND delicious…

Is this the quintessential Aussie breakfast?

How lucky are we Aussies to live where we do and have the huge range of amazing food products to choose from that we do. I shouldn’t say products actually, as that conjures up pictures of supermarkets full of packaged goods – rather I should just say amazing food. Full stop. Until recently I didn’t realise that avocado on toast was an Aussie ‘thing’ but merely something we have been doing for 20 years!Sunshine on toast! With our busy lifestyles smoothies are an obvious choice in the mornings when that extra 10 minutes of snatched sleep is often more appealing than getting up to poach a couple of eggs. The new kids on the block are chia puddings with various toppings, bircher mueslis made with nuts, almond or rice milk and fresh fruit of the season, breakfast tagines, shakshuka with it’s rich tomato and capsicum base, haloumi with chimichurri and corn fritters with smoked trout or nitrate free bacon – the list is endless. In my perfect world I would eat breakfast and dinner only and make them both AMAZING!!

Our local pub is quite famous for it’s Alpaca burger.

If like me, that brings a picture of big brown eyes with thick long lashes to mind you may not find it easy to order one, but they are good enough to have been voted one of NSW top 6 pub burgers. Our local winery, Silos, incorporates a working Alpaca farm and they produce wool, doonas, pillows and scarves as well as meat and sausages. They also sell the animals with a male going for $1000 and a female for $2500 and they seem to make pretty good low maintenance animals for a small holding as there are lots to be seen scattered over this part of the South Coast.Their meat is showcased at The Hungry Duck, Wharf Road as well as The Berry Pub so give it a go peeps!

A little corner of our lounge is dedicated to my favourite blue and white collection.

It’s been a lovely week in The Meadow. My birthday was celebrated and enjoyed with a quick overnight trip from the youngest son making it extra special. We had an early start at the beach with Bailey and then home to prezzies and an evening in a local restaurant we have been wanting to try for ages – The Hungry Duck. A delicious 5 course degustation was consumed and the interesting flavours of sashimi of yellow fin tuna with a blood orange sorbet sounded weird but proved to be a  party in my mouth and at a mere $55 a head we were thrilled. In Sydney it would be A LOT more than that! http://www.hungryduck.com.au

A run and a swim is always a  great start to the day….!!

We had a lovely weekend with my nephew Niall and his girlfriend Sarah coming to stay. They have just arrived in Australia after living in the UK for the past 5 years or so and Sarah is still pinching herself that she is now living a mere 10 minute walk from  Bondi Beach and waking up to blue skies and sunshine most days! Sadly it was pouring when they arrived in The Meadow so to make up for it we sought shelter in the local winery and enjoyed a comprehensive tasting of their produce before checking out Haven & Space in Berry to stock up on some very well priced homewares for their new house! The next day dawned bright and sunny and Sarah took some beautiful photos (as seen below) before we headed to Gerroa for a beautiful brunch and a swim. The ocean is just the most perfect temperature at the moment and we are relishing it all the more for knowing Autumn and Winter are around the corner.Lying on the warm sand listening to the waves break onto the shore and with an azure blue sky for as far as you could see it felt as if I was on holidays!

Note to self to do this more often……

The only downside of our week was discovering that our development application has been referred to a historical consultant in Sydney who is apparently going to decide whether or not our house should be listed. Needless to say we do NOT want this as it restricts what we can do to the place. Our renovation design is classic and decidedly in keeping with the era of the building and as it is all at the back of the property hopefully despite being of ‘interest’ historically we will still get the tick of approval. Just as well we hadn’t fallen in love with the idea of a big modern glass cube extension out the back I guess………