Impressions from my sister in law.
Memories of 1978.

#farmergetsawife
Agriculturalists gets a wife
City bride new to the country
City spouse new to the country
City girl marries her farmer
City miss weds her rancher

All of the above are depending on from where you live in this world.
Different expressions….same meaning

“I married my beloved farmer or rancher as the Americans say. A young lady who lived nowhere near the country but by the sea. Near Semaphore in Adelaide, South Australia.

Well all this came to nought. No happy catch up time. No time for chit chat.

Country life line

Rather, a call had been received from my parents in law asking that we return to the farm property immediately for my husband to help with the grain cleaning. In those days you needed to wait having made a booking for a man to go to your property or ranch on a set day to do this job …well that time slot had come early!

There was no new bride to be carried over the threshold. I ventured into our stone cottage myself.

But I love our life here. Over the years we’ve lived in a few different houses. First was that stone cottage.

Cycles of family life.

Alexa back here again.
Our cycles of life
The years roll by
Silently but ever moving

Our family visiting the Farm

Now I must search out that pastie recipe from an old school book when we did Home Economics at High School. My sister in law bakes an awesome one.
Best eaten on a cold day which is the opposite to what we have here presently in Australia. Summer heat waves. Yet I guess you could eat it with a salad.
I think I will wait though so that the oven does not over heat the already warm house.

What a pity I did not keep my copy when I culled all my books during our recent move. The modern copy is rather pricey now.
Live and learn.

Recipe of pasty…….
Page 7 of 8
“Cookery the Australian Way” 50 some years old and still serving and teaching our young.

Memories are the threads of life
A tapestry in the making

What do you see
Your first impression
When you compare

First fleeting impressions hit the eye immediately.

How plain
How happy
How tall she walks
How sad they look
How harried they appear
How naughty that child

Wow, beautiful or handsome
Wish I had some of that

But that is only an impression
Not the true picture

Yet rarely do we say anything of people’s character
That they have a generous spirit
Are kind or thoughtful
You child are trying so very hard

These thoughts arose after looking through some photos I took recently of what at first may appear as junk, old, obsolete or old-fashioned….

“A gift to myself”
A visit to the country
Spending time to wander round
In quietness observe with a different eye
Sights and impressions not noticed in an everyday rush

The very first morning I hurried outside to make the most of beautiful weather not knowing what the morrow would bring.
I needed to savour these delights.

As the days continued I found more treasures to lift my soul.
Sights unseen on the ordinary day

Colours, combinations, textures, shapes, shades, forms, sharp, soft, lofty or insignificant.

Images of time
Of labour
Of life
Past

Yet in essence they were rusted drums, old tanks, fencing wire, peeling paint, weary old stone cottage with its silent walls and long gone school children and families.

It presented me with beauty, character and charm in a palette of rich colours.

Then as I attempted to choose which photos to use I observed another layer of impressions.

How many lessons taught to bring education to children in this cottage school house

How many throats cooled and thirsts quenched from the now empty and old, rusted rain water tanks.

How many Kilo-meters or miles of fencing put up over the years and repaired again and again

Those drums asked how many machines were serviced to provide food and sustenance for this and other households over the decades

How many litres or gallons of diesel used over the decades to to run a farm

These shutters spoke of shelter from the rain or cooling relief from breezes.

Old door
Battered door knob,
Big key hole for long shafted key
Sturdy lock standing the test of time

How many bodies have brushed through this door
Slowly and carefully carrying a heavy load
Or rushing headlong as children do with much banging
How much joy or sadness entered these doors
Now stealthily visited by critters

How many different views through this now empty window

If walls could talk

Look around you, what do you see. More than skin deep. See depth. A multi layered depth.

What story do you see around you, yesterday, today, tomorrow.

Till later

Also Linking here

If I do pause to reminisce and check my last article then the internet may drop out. The pause will be like discovering a drawer full of old photos. Memories. Ghosts. Sadness. Years passing with the speed of light. Joy. Laughter. Loud laughter and silent chuckles. Sadness for a dear sister lost. Sadness for alone ageing parent too far away to see often enough.

Time has passed taking with it sickness and death, an inevitable part of the cycle of life. Yet when it is family it brings with it a vulnerability. It says to me, you too are getting older.

Today, after a morning tea and play with the little grandsons and family I waved them off to their various destinations. Littlest one to sleep, older two to play some more. One mum to shop and the other to share precious time with visiting in-Laws

Having time to spare I decided to stay and explore the beauteous spring showcase at the Mount Annan Botanical Gardens. It beats browsing any Harvey Norman, Domain, Myers or other big name store hands down.

One section was titled “A room with a view”

There are vast green spreading lawns, small bushland gardens or tropical rainforest settings…..a thing of beauty.

By a still pool a timber bench was placed inviting a passer-by to stop, rest and contemplate.

The unobtrusive memorial plaque said it all.

“Find a thing of beauty in every day”

Flower shop in Stirling

Delicate snow drops in spring garden

Courtesy binks@morgueFile free photos

My thing of beauty this very instant is listening to the frogs merrily creaking and croaking away in the distant creek thinking of how I will grow a few summer salad plants when we move into our house God Willing in a month.

Missing fresh Rocket in my salad

That itself is another page in our journey. From a two storey home where we lived for twenty-nine years to a single storey home a little further out but with a nice size block just under quarter acre. I would have loved living a bit further out still but the voice of reason spoke.

Where we will live is still close enough to country with the likes of Cobbitty and its surrounds. Nice for a drive and a coffee should we desire.

We always said we would move before we were too old to negotiate stairs in the house.

It is the journey to love and cherish. To prepare, savour and enjoy. A move whilst we are able to make our choices and decisions.

Do find your moment of beauty this day.
Blessings…

Courtesy Pennywise@morgueFile free photos

My kitchen table
Bare feet
Perfect for sitting and thinking
Door open to the back garden
Slight breeze from outside
Slow whirling fan on the other side

How blessed

Washing on line showing off its drying flip flying dance

Courtesy SavaMatkovitch@morguFile free photos

I can just sit and ponder
At nature, even in a small suburban back yard
Dreaming of the country

There is nothing earth shattering here
Just peace and contentment
Clean and fresh scented sheets for this evening

Now a battered straw hat by my feet
A garden inspected and watered
New growth shooting forth from recently planted hedging

Mud dauber wasps with their dangling long legs
Searching for that perfect bit of mud and soil
Ponderously flying like a water laden fire fighting plane
In orange and black hues
Beware they say to me

Thinking back

Where have the years gone
Our very first experience of grandparent hood
Joy and adventure
Seventeen years and a few days
The birth of our first granchild, Renee

Courtesy GaborfromHungary@morgueFile free photos

A new era
Precious
All of them
Family

My five minutes of contentment on this day
Enjoyed doubly by writing
Hoping you too found a moment to pause.

Joining With some Grace
For Flog Yo Blog on Fridays

We wouldn’t have it any other way
Wonderfully blessed
Making memories

AUSTRALIA DAY AT HOME
Jan 26 2015

A hard day here
Sitting on the back verandah on this Australia Day

Australia a land of contrasts indeed…
Deep fried in the intense heat yesterday
Grey, cool and overcast today
Wishing it was a trifle warmer with the sun showing its face
( we are never ever satisfied are we! )

Egg and bacon breakfast cooked by husband dear
Minding two grandies in their parents home
Children happy and content
Grandparents enjoying the luxury of a Verandah

Savouring the view over green lawn to surrounding bush
The old lush mulberry tree
Listening to the birds and their different melodies trying to out sing each other
Hearing the old hens give their distinct call

You know this is a home to a busy family
Basketball on the lawn
Tractor truck on the verandah
Bags of potting mix next to plants waiting to be potted

Long strips of curled up bark from the gum tree lying on the veranda from a made up and now discarded game of hop scotch (grandma did not want to be the first to draw with chalk on newly re painted decking)

Little boy calling out, grandma, I’m hungry

Joys of being a grandparent in this little corner of Australia

Our laid back Australia Day

Words for this day in Australia. Resilience. Support.

Life can be fragile ….like the poppy.

My version of resilience in a tough environment.

Planted nearly fifty years ago on a farm. An apple tree.

Love and care.

Wordless Wednesday

Endless road.
Long dark ribbon straight ahead
Sweeping
to some lonesome level crossing.

A road trip with a purpose
A lonely drive
Being guided
by this Mallee Highway

Where do you go, this lonely car, so early in the morning
Driving on an endless quest to what, to where I know not.
Driving onwards and some more.

To sadness, to sorrow, to emergency
or to support and more
To be cheered, to share, to deliver
A new job?
Or what or where

And then

the heavy silence again
heard only in the country

These thoughts crossed my mind last night as I lay abed in this lonely farmhouse in the wee dark morning hours unable to return to sleep. Too many recent thoughts, impressions and emotions flitting through my mind.

I should have gotten up then to write, instead of scribbling in the car this morning, during OUR journey going from country to the city…

…and now with the traveller maybe long arrived at his destination and us arriving in the city for another day… I’m wishing for a homemade Florentine biscuit and a freshly brewed coffee to kick-start another day, again.

Thankful for this kindly gift of staying in the country with family.

ps…no photos today due to country broadband issues

Joining in with Essentially Jess for IBOT

By AcrylicArtist@morgueFile free photos

Tuesday 16 June…blown off course

A fleeting moment

I was amazed to see a precious sight
The graceful flight
A Monarch butterfly
In winter

Very much blown off course

His colour was resplendent, not tattered at all
Bright and richly hued his coat

Hungry for his food

Dipping into my lavender hedge and feasting on the flower heads
A dip here and a taste here
Up into the air and down again
A few more sips and off

The breeze too strong for him to resist
The urge to wander
Over the fence and away
Even before I had my chance
No photo shutter snap
Even though,
Even though I wished him back

Indeed a sight to lift the heart. Ethereal grace.

It also makes me glad that I still have not pruned my Lavender hedge. It pains me to think that I WILL have to do it….one day!

Would we seize that moment and make the most of a fleeting opportunity. Could I. Whatever it be. Give a moment of joy. Create a moment.

My wishful moment of stillness right now.

By Jusben@morgueFile free photos

Courtesy ‘xenia’@morgueFile free photos

The power of networking
Sharing, supporting each other, extending oneself, opening new horizons, searching out new ways to help yourself by connecting with another

My example of networking came to me randomly as I was reading about the struggles farmers go through.

Courtesy ‘click’@morgueFile free photos

We support a butcher who is I guess is semi rural. When I drive to visit one daughter I always have to go past him so I decided to get bulk meat for the family on the way through for daughter or on the way home when buying for myself. I always SMS daughter before I come over to check if she needs meat as she doesn’t drive this way in business hours. We would mainly purchase chicken breast, amazingly cheap legs of lamb and if asked he will butterfly the meat by carving out the bone which I then use for soup. At times bulk mince, bulk rump steak and lamb chops. All are way cheaper than the big supermarkets….and his legs of lamb are THE best…so delicious and tender.

Courtesy ‘Kakisky’@morgueFilefree photos

Now the networking connection I learnt recently is that this butcher has a contact at a country farm quite a few Kms away, maybe a five-hour drive. So he has cut out the middle man and is helping himself AND the farmer.

Courtesy ‘Richcd’@morgueFile free photos

Then we learnt of the next networking connection. Our daughter’s local semi rural IGA independent grocery store now sells meat from this butcher….again a plus for everyone.

Times are tough but people can work together for the benefit of all.

We can help each other just by being there for someone, or we know that mummy X is really good at doing Y so she can help mummy O….so many ways of social interaction to provide needs whether of succour, support, deeds or things.

Let’s find ways to network with those who need or find ways for our own needs. In return hopefully we will find a mutual benefit.

Help is more than just caring….
Do more than care, help
William Arthur Ward

Courtesy ‘Hotblack’@morguefile free photo

In real life situations
Young and older together
Family, friends and acquaintances
Helping and learning and laughing together
At camp Staycation…the best

Linking in with Essentially Jess at #IBOT
PS…this post was scheduled to load after midnight for Tuesday…well the technology didn’t work as I discovered on coming home from a day out…Oh well…I had fun anyway today

Courtesy of Lightfoot@morgueFile free photos

Permaculture is such a big fancy word…
A continuation of the previous post on Permaculture but let’s turn it into an everyday word that everyone can understand…Family friendly

It is a way of bringing together people with whatever bit of earth or space that you can work with and on. It can be as small as a pot of Basil on your window ledge, or as large as a farm. It can be on a tiny block or apartment in the city, the suburbs or in the country. It is a delicate dance, balancing at times many aspects, be it our parents adventures or this brave new world with people opting to try the old ways.

Homesteading is basically a lifestyle that promotes greater self sufficiency.

One of our family have a few chickens or hens which refuse to die. They seem to live a charmed life. Even surviving being rounded up by little boys. For chickens to survive you need a few things. These hens live spartanly in a fairly large sized fenced area. The roof also being fenced with wire mesh to stop flying predators. Their roosting and laying boxes were made of spare lumber. The door is a flash spare screen door double locking…once with the latch and next with a brick on the ground in case the latch doesn’t get closed properly by little boys going exploring in the hen house.

A frame from a video hence the wide space

You should see the hens when the scraps of veggies get brought out…it’s a mad scramble. They love their free range in the yard and apparently take themselves to bed each night before dark. Now if only little boys could be so obliging at bed time

So… A plot of earth, shading trees, safe habitat, food, water and if there also was time for a vegetable or herb garden there’s an excellent free source of chicken manure for food production….

…and then sharing some of the homegrown produce in celebration like at one venue a few weeks ago at their open gardens. They had toasted breads with melted cheese and tomato and herbs served on wooden bread boards. For us, I think Hubby will have a ploughman’s lunch served on a board. Aldi crusty panne De Cassa bread toasted with ham, cheese, tomato and maybe some onion…. I’ll top mine with red cabbage coleslaw…easy to make and nicer the next day. Keeps well too.

Have a great day everyone. Enjoy your spring you readers in the Northern Hemisphere and us Down Under try to get over those colds and sniffles….BUT we have a glorious blue sky here at home. So a bonus!

Linking in with #IBOT at Essentially Jess