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 month has felt like a bit mixed up. A fortnight ago it was almost 40 degrees, this weekend just gone was cool and grey with the occasional shower of rain. I’ve been doing autumn jobs in the garden, like deadheading and pruning, but many of our plants are still growing new flowers, awash with colour like midsummer. Really, I shouldn’t be surprised- we are in that transeasonal period. But for some reason it feels particularly jarring this year…
Continue reading “March”
Often, when you move to a new town you spend the first little while visiting local attractions. Then if you end up settling in that community, those trips to landmarks get fewer and farther in between. Eventually it turns into years, and you start to forget why these places were top of your list.
I found myself in that exact situation earlier this month, and when I revisited one famous local spot I was pleasantly surprised at how it had grown and changed…
Continue reading “March”
I really enjoyed writing up my slightly different take on this series earlier this year, where instead of sharing one thing at length I shared a few little things that’d popped up on my radar. With wintry weather and long, dark nights ahead of us in Australia now, I thought instead of items to purchase this post would take a look at things to entertain you.
So if you’re in need of some Netflix, Instagram and Spotify recommendations, take a peek at what’s been captivating me…
Continue reading “Something to share: the multimedia edition”
May seems to have absolutely flown by and I can’t quite believe that we’ll be half way through the year in a matter of days. It’s been a busy month workwise for both Adam and I, and also a month of seeing people I care about go through the lowest of lows and highest and highs. We’ve had our first mornings frosts of the year and the darkness seems to close in quicker and quicker each evening now too.
Here’s what’s been making me smile this month…
Continue reading “What’s been making me happy: May”
On a grey, cool morning just the other day I decided it was time to pick the first lemons from our tree. Big, bulbous fruit had been ripening on the branch for a few weeks and the lemons looked and felt just right. If you’ve been around here for a little while, you’ll know I love pretty much anything lemon-flavoured and normally when our tree bears fruit I gravitate towards making a dessert. After trawling recipe after recipe though, I just couldn’t find anything that really whet my appetite. Then one night I got a real hankering for proper old fashioned lemonade. The type that’s a cloudy lemon colour and not too sweet. The type you’d drink out of a straw from a nice glass, sitting under a tree on a sunny day while picnicking, Enid Blyton The Famous Five style. Again I trawled through recipes until I found one that had minimal ingredients and could easily be rustled up with little notice.
The end result hit the spot perfectly…
Continue reading “Old fashioned lemonade”
It’s been a rather quiet seven days for me, as I stepped away from the normal routine to care for Paul who was struck down last week with a combination of viral and bacterial infections. As the week went on though the cheery, cheeky toddler returned and I tried to make the most of the one-on-one time we had. It’s been a week of glorious weather, of subdued pottering and of heightened perception of the world around me.
This is how my last seven days looked…
Continue reading “The week that was”
April is possibly my favourite month of year, mainly on account of the weather. The mornings are now brisk, sometimes shrouded in light fog, but the days are clear and bright, and by mid afternoon gloriously warm. The countryside is green, the deciduous trees around town are starting to colour and there’s often the scent of wood smoke in the late afternoon, as people stoke their fires ready for the evening ahead. The temperatures, the vistas, the scents – it all make me feel incredibly content.
There are also a few other things that have also made me smile this month…
Continue reading “What’s been making me happy: April”
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”
Wattle and Ash 