Everyday life – Page 27 – Wattle and Ash

Golden Valley

July 13, 2017January 20, 2018by wattleandash2 Comments

Malvern may be famous for its hills but there are also a couple of lovely commons at the base of the slopes.

Commons are like huge open plan parks. They often have livestock grazing on them and you’re allowed to walk, picnic and play on the land. In Australia, I think a reserve would be the closest equivalent.

Last weekend Adam and I found ourselves at Castlemorton Common, which is just south of the village of Welland. It’s famous for being the site of England’s biggest illegal rave, but these days is just a nice place for a Sunday walk!

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Everyday life, Food, Thoughts, Travel

The great British summer

June 22, 2017January 20, 2018by wattleandash2 Comments

After teasing us and offering up a warm day or two here and there over the last few months, summer arrived in England this week.

Pimms in a tall glass and bare feet. — First Pimms of the summer!

We’ve had a solid six days in a row of temperatures in the high 20s, low 30s. It’s even prompted official government warnings, about beating the heat. Friends and Adam’s family have been asking all about how we Aussies cope with weather like this for months at a time.

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Everyday life, Thoughts, Travel

The changing cottage garden

June 15, 2017January 20, 2018by wattleandash1 Comment

Isn’t it amazing how when you go away and then come back home again you pick up on changes you never noticed before?

The day after returning from Scotland I spent almost a good hour poking around the garden, amazed at all the new flowers that had suddenly appeared.

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Everyday life, Travel

Handwritten hellos

June 8, 2017January 20, 2018by wattleandash2 Comments

Thanks to the internet, it’s been relatively easy for me to keep in contact with family and friends back in Australia. Emails, wifi text messaging apps and video chats make the distance between Adam, myself and our loved ones ‘down under’ seem minimal. For a couple of members of my family though, this sort of communication just doesn’t work. My grandparents aren’t online, so my grandmother and I have taken to exchanging handwritten letters.

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Everyday life, Food, Local sights, Travel

A day at the fair

June 5, 2017January 20, 2018by wattleandashLeave a Comment

Summer is the season for fairs in England, so days after checking out Malvern’s annual Food Festival, Adam and I found ourselves at another Worcestershire classic, Asparafest.

Set in Evesham, a half an hour drive east, Asparafest celebrates the market town’s asparagus farms. It was one of those quirky community events Adam had told me about before we moved to England and I was keen to see it for myself.

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Everyday life, Food, Local sights, Travel

Long weekend, long lunch

June 1, 2017January 20, 2018by wattleandashLeave a Comment

Monday of this week was a bank holiday in England. Adam and I both had the day off, so took advantage of our free time to visit the Great Malvern Food Festival. When I lived in Australia, Wagga Wagga’s annual food and wine festival was one of my favourite events of the year so I was keen to check out my new community’s version.

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Everyday life, Local sights, Travel

Badger watch

May 29, 2017January 20, 2018by wattleandash2 Comments

Lots of people come to Australia hoping to see a kangaroo or a koala. For me in England it was a badger or otter. I daresay my fascination stemmed from the childhood classic, Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows, and more specifically the 1980s stop motion television series of the same name, which I can remember watching as a child. Animal people who drove cars, dressed in snappy outfits and had wonderful adventures – what wasn’t to love?!

Adam has always had a bit of a soft spot for badgers. He even gave me a badger mug at Christmas! The vineyard he lived at before moving to Australia was frequently visited by badgers and an allotment he maintained near the village of Cradley, west of the Malvern Hills, was near a woodland where badgers lived. His stories of watching badgers snuffling about seemed magical and he was keen to share the experience with me.

So one evening last week, we made the short journey to Cradley to look for badgers.

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Everyday life, Food, Local sights, Travel

Forest foraging

May 22, 2017January 20, 2018by wattleandashLeave a Comment

Last week I got a Facebook message from Australian friend Kerri, who’s currently holidaying around the U.K., about a delicious asparagus and wild garlic soup she’d eaten. Intrigued and inspired, especially by some of the images of wild garlic that are appearing on my Instagram feed, I went out in search of some the plants myself.

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Everyday life, Food, Travel

The first harvest

May 18, 2017January 20, 2018by wattleandashLeave a Comment

After weeks of diligent watering, weeding and a bit of help from mother nature, Adam and have undertaken the first ‘harvest’ in our terrace vegetable garden!

The salad leaves have been the quickest to grow and we’d been watching the little plants get bigger by the day, just waiting for the right time to snip off some buttery soft goodness.

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Everyday life, Local sights, Thoughts, Travel

Friends from afar

May 8, 2017January 20, 2018by wattleandash1 Comment

Adam and I played host to our first visitors from Australia late last week. Kerri and Adrian have been friends with my parents for years – the sort of people in your life you can never remember not knowing.

They’ve been in Italy, Malta and England on a lovely long holiday and made the time to spend the day in Malvern with us.