Wagga Wagga to Worcestershire & back again
Every March, nestled around the banks of the Wollundry Lagoon in the centre of the city, Wagga Wagga plays host to an annual food and wine festival.
It’s always been a regular on my social calendar and this year I was thrilled to be able to introduce Adam to a ‘Wagga’ event that I’d always enjoyed…
Continue reading “Food, wine & friends: an autumn afternoon”
To me, the Snæfellnes Peninsula on the west coast of Iceland felt like the set for a post-apocalyptic western movie. Vast open plains in rich browns and reds dotted with mountains dusted with snow, that from a distance resembled Viennetta ice cream. A robot on a horse with a rifle slung across his back could’ve cantered past me and I wouldn’t have thought it looked out of place at all…
Now that Adam and I know we’re moving back to Australia, we’re trying to savour and enjoy the time we’ve got left in England. A few Sundays ago, while Adam was away on a work trip, I awoke to a particularly mild autumn day. It was overcast and slightly breezy and had the hankering for a good old walk.
I wasn’t in the mood for a wander on the Malvern Hills, so decided to take myself back to local National Trust property, Croome Park, which I visited for the first time last December. While I loved exploring the main house on my last visit, I wanted to spend some time in the 700 acres of parkland that surround the property…
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.
It feels like October has been filled with drizzly days which has seen my ‘nesting’ instinct kick into full gear. Pottering around home in cosy jumpers and fluffy socks is so much more appealing than being outside when the weather’s grey!
One morning the other week though I awoke to a brilliant blue sky and decided to get out and onto the Malvern Hills for a lovely, long ramble…
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…
It’s been a hectic few months. Between my family’s visit from Australia and a few other trips Adam and I had organised earlier this year, it feels like we’ve barely had a weekend to ourselves for weeks and weeks.
After picking up my second cold in three months the other week, I decided some much needed quiet time was definitely on the agenda…
My mum, dad and brother and are now safely back in Australia and I can hardly believe their six week stay in the U.K. is over. The time truly flew by and at the end of their holiday it felt quite ‘normal’ to have them here with us in Malvern. It was lovely for our families to spend time together and it’s a little sad everyone is back spread out across two hemispheres once again.
In our final few days together we took a little trip to a town called Hay-on Wye, right on the England/Wales border.
It’s known as the ‘town of books’ due to its abundance of second book shops and for hosting the Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts.
It’s an amazing little place…
The other day I got text message from Adam: ‘We’re going out tonight’. It was all a bit mysterious, but after some questioning (I am a journalist after all!) Adam revealed that while waiting for a flight he’d read about a massive solar storm that was due to create optimal conditions for spotting the aurora borealis as far south as the English midlands.
He kept his eyes on the forecast and various scientific readings throughout the course of the day and that night we decided to go looking for the northern lights.
Living in the U.K. has definitely taught me about living more seasonally. That natural rhythm of change every few months is so evident, that you can’t help but adapt to it too.
In Wagga Wagga, where Adam and I lived before moved to England, there were four seasons, but autumn and spring often arrived in short bursts, breaking up the hot and cold weather. Here it’s more gradual and the seasons are given the opportunity to ‘breath’ a little more, so you get to learn the nuances of each quarter of the year…
Wattle and Ash 