Wagga Wagga to Worcestershire & back again
As I sit here typing away, rain is falling steadily on the roof. Out of the window, mist enshrouds the paddocks that lie to the south of the house, there is crow squawking away on top of a lamp post and the air has a chill about it – autumn has well and truly arrived.
It’s only in the last few days that it’s felt like the season has changed, and that shift seems apt for life at the moment…
Continue reading “April”
This year has not started the way I anticipated. Beginning on Christmas Eve and lasting until mid-January our household was affected by a wave a sickness. Nothing too serious, but enough to warrant visits to the doctors, prescription medication and lots of rest. It quashed some loosely discussed plans of travel and resulted in a lot more time spent at home than I expected…
Continue reading “January”
This month seems to have whizzed by in record time. For me it both began and ended with a cold – with perhaps five or so days respite in between. We’ve had flood induced visitors (at one point, there were four adults, two kids, a dog and a pair of goldfish residing at our house) and done lots and lots and lots of planting in our new garden…
Continue reading “November”
Hello! Here we are, at the end of the first month of the year. January’s a funny one isn’t it? At times, it feels like both the longest and shortest month of year. A mix of long, languid summer days and the chaos that is getting back into the work/school/daycare routine once again.
In 2022 I’ll be doing things a little differently on the blog. I’ve used my break to have a really long think about how I want this space to look, feel and sound, so there’ll be a few changes moving forward…
Continue reading “January”
Last month I took a little solo holiday in Tasmania. The purpose of the four day break was to make a surprise visit a dear friend of mine, who I hadn’t seen in nearly two years. The trip was a little momentous for me too, as it marked the first time I’d ever been away from Paul overnight, and it the first time I’d properly travelled since the COVID pandemic erupted.
In the lead-up to the mini-break I won’t deny that I was a little nervous about it all, but I came home refreshed and rather excited to return with Adam and Paul in tow, as Tasmania really is something quite special…
Continue reading “A long weekend in Launceston”
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking this last month. March 2020 signified the start of the global response to COVID-19 and what was to become months of not faring far from home. Now in March 2021 for us in Australia, life feels a lot different a year on. While some things are still of the table (international travel mainly), we are living pretty normally again. Domestic travel has resumed with gusto, most people are back working in their offices, and the use of hand sanitiser and using QR codes to ‘check in’ to businesses has become almost second nature.
For me this month has really felt like the start of new beginning. The start of this new life, where COVID exists, where the wheels have to keep turning. This is what’s been making me smile this month…
Continue reading “What’s making me happy: March”
A couple of days ago I woke up just feeling off. Not physically sick, rather mentally exhausted. Nothing major had happened, but I think a combination of me having a nasty respiratory infection a few weeks back, Paul having a few off-colour days, Adam being the busiest he’s ever been with work and finding a new routine with work and parenting had just taken its toll. I was in a negative head-space and as a result was turning to routine to provide stability. At the time I didn’t realise it, but that routine wasn’t really helping. I was more like a hamster, stuck on a wheel, just going round and round. The same things over and over again. Instead of taking each day as it came, I was becoming too focused about what needed to be achieved on my ‘to do list’ and was giving myself little down time to just be.
Thankfully Adam recognised the nasty cycle I was getting into, and with one simple suggestion he helped me reverse the rut…
Continue reading “Reversing the rut”
Life has felt pretty ‘normal’ this last week. More people are out and about, children are back at school, shops are re-opening and whilst precautions still remain in place, everything just feels a little happier.
This is how my last seven days have looked…
Last Christmas Adam and I were given a gift certificate for one of our favourite local restaurants, The Roundabout. We never found the opportunity to treat ourselves to an evening out before the COVID-19 lockdown rules came into play and we both agreed it’d be a nice little treat once the current restrictions were lifted. A few weeks ago though, the restaurant announced it was going to provide a takeaway service so one night last week Adam and I decided we’d have a ‘night out’, in the comfort of our own home…
I think it’s fair to say this month is unlike anything any of us have experienced before. Life as we know it in Australia is grinding to a halt and it’s been pretty easy to feel overwhelmed and anxious about the months to come. Now more than ever we need to take joy in the simple pleasures in life and this is what’s been making me smile these last few weeks…
Wattle and Ash 