Wagga Wagga to Worcestershire & back again
This year I’m going to be lucky enough to enjoy Christmas with two families, in two countries, in two hemispheres. December the 25th will be spent in Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia – Adam and I will be in our old home and we’ll share a festive meal with some of his distant family that live in town.
Our English family wanted to celebrate with us though before we flew back to Australia, so on December 3rd we had ‘early Christmas’…
Why are goodbyes so darn hard? In a few days time Adam and I will fly out of the U.K. and the last week or so has been a blur of wonderful catch-ups, meals and hang-outs with our England based friends and family…
The day Adam and I got engaged was one of the happiest of my life. I felt so incredibly humbled and excited at the thought of the two of us getting to spend the rest of our days together. Within hours of us sharing the news, questions started flooding in from both the northern and southern hemisphere about our forthcoming nuptials.
Had we set a date, what colour scheme might be choose, would I wear white, and the big one – where would the wedding be? It all suddenly felt a little overwhelming. There were so many things we had to make decisions on!
Before I moved to England I created for myself a capsule wardrobe – a curated collection of tops, bottoms and shoes that would mix and match. On the whole it’s served its purpose. It’s been so easy to put together outfits, that feel like ‘me’ and apart from a few purchases for climatic reasons, special occasions or work purposes I’ve spent little money on clothes this year.
As I was putting away clean laundry the other day, I spotted a pair of jeans I brought with me from Australia. They made the cut as they were comfortable, fitted well and tucked easily into my Bean boots (which have proven to be probably the hardest working item in my wardrobe this year) . While I’ve worn them a little bit, their slightly faded shade hasn’t felt ‘right’. In Australia in the warmer, brighter days they felt perfect with light, airy tops. In England with the cooler, greyer weather I’ve been gravitating more towards darker colours and time and time again, those jeans have been rejected for my darker wash pair.
So I started doing some research…
Sometimes it feels like good news is hard to come by. Every time you switch on a television, log onto a computer, listen to the radio or open a newspaper there are tales of death, destruction and dire circumstances. Sometimes though, stories of celebration, of love and new life shine through the doom and gloom and it’s so nice celebrate them.
A few days after Adam and I announced our engagement, the newest member of our English family was born. A little girl, to Adam’s cousin and her husband…
Over the weekend Adam and I celebrated our one year anniversary of moving to England. I can’t believe how incredibly fast the last 12 months has gone. I can still vividly remember walking into the arrivals hall at Birmingham Airport on October 29, 2016, exhausted after almost 30 hours of travel, and meeting Adam’s family for the very first time…
Yes. One tiny word, but it holds so much meaning. On Friday, Adam asked me to marry him. There was a ‘squeak’ and quite a few tears before I was able to vocalise my answer, but we got there in the end!
We’ve talked about marriage for a long time. It was never a scary subject to broach. Even in the very early days of our relationship, we both knew it worked and that together, we’d go the distance. Getting married was always going to be a natural progression in our relationship. I didn’t really know when it was going to happen, but I knew it would.
In saying that, I still can’t quite believe I’ve now got a fiancé! I don’t really feel any different, but when I look down at my left hand at my engagement ring I can’t help but grin rather stupidly and think about how it got there…
The other day as dinner time drew closer, I began to have a think about what I would make and I drew a bit of blank. It feels like over the last few months Adam and I have got into a bit of food rut – making tried and trusted meals we know we enjoy and can rustle up fairly quickly. We both love getting into the kitchen and trying out new things, but somehow life just got in the way our creativity disappeared.
In a strange twist of fate within a day of me having this realisation, my friend Sonya wrote about food blogs and recipes she’s been enjoying lately, and it got me all enthused about cooking again.
In my experience there are people who love rifling through second shops or markets and those who are completely nonplussed by the whole venture. I’ve always been interested in stories from the past, so for me looking at old bits and pieces also invokes questions about the object’s history – who owned it, was it special to them, how did it come into their ownership?
Over the weekend Malvern’s Three Counties Showground hosted a huge flea fair, so I decided to go for a look…
Summer seems like a bit of a distant memory now. The days are cooler, shorter and darker and leaves are falling from the sky like giant, colourful raindrops.
I was amazed by our little Malvern garden during the warmer weather. Every week it felt like a new flower or plant was blooming and the air was thick with the sound of bees buzzing about.
Our little patch of green has been slowly falling asleep over the last few weeks, but it’s still proving to be a source of inspiration…
Wattle and Ash 