the outdoor life

As Winter here in Australia is in its final fling, naturally thoughts- well mine, anyway- are turning to the promise of Spring and the new life and fresh beginnings that it brings, warmer and longer days, more time spent enjoying the outdoors and hopefully less of the Artic-esque winds that have been blowing through town for the past few weeks. Brrrr. The thought of shedding some layers and not having washing hanging out on the line in the constant cycle of drying- getting rained on- partially drying- getting rained on again, and again and again, well it's all sounding mighty appealing.

I've been taking advantage of any dry-ish weekends to spend some time working on the garden. The veggie patch is in its second crop now and almost ready for harvesting. We planted parsnips which probably look the most promising at this stage, carrots which seems to be slightly stunted in terms of growth, beetroots which to my untrained eye appear be doing well, and broccoli which is pretty much a write-off, having first been attacked by caterpillars and then developing some form of disease whereby the leaves become covered in rapidly expanding mysterious yellow patches. Oh well, you win some, you lose some! I've been growing some flowers from seed and planting the seedlings in pots and scattered around the front of the house ready to add some colour and welcome the start of the warmer months. I'm most excited about the sweet peas flowering, strategically placed in mis-matched pots in front of the ugly metal shed to try and pretty it up. Painting it in beach hut inspired classic stripes is another project on the ridiculously long and over-ambitious list of outdoor DIYs and tasks we (I), hope (Curt) to complete before Summer rolls around. Along with creating a paved entertaining/ seating/ barbeque area and a path from the back deck to the shed to name just a couple.

And chickens, I am not giving up my dream of backyard chickens even though it was originally vetoed by the man of the house. I am steadily working on him and spending probably too much time researching the logistics of chicken coops and types of hens and their laying habits. Not to mention Lila's kindergarten just had a clutch of baby chicks born which will shortly be looking for homes- it's a sign! I am probably out of my mind considering one of my children absolutely refuses to eat eggs and the other one can only rarely be coaxed to eat them, despite having offered them up in every appealing form under the sun. However I am ever optimistic this may change in the near future with the excitement of collecting them freshly laid! There has also been talk of getting a dog, which there has been since we finally bought a home and moved here last October but now we have got as far as identifying a possible time-frame, which is at the end of the year. I think we may be the only people who live in our little town that don't have a dog, and I promise I'm not exaggerating. The ratio of dogs to people here is staggering but I suppose it makes sense seeing as there are no lack of beaches right on our doorstep there are some many great coastal paths and bush walks to take them out for a run.

Lastly, I am looking forward to some trips to explore some more of the amazing coastline we are surrounded by. Aside from a couple of day trips, every spare moment of our first Summer here was taken up with house projects, accumulating furniture and establishing our home (I shudder at the amount of money and time we have spent at our local home improvement store). So I am ultra-keen to make up for lost time by embarking on many adventures in the upcoming months. Even camping, which we have never done before due to an anti-camping husband who is not a fan of giving up his home-comforts. However, I know it would be so much fun and the children would love it, and so again, I am working to convince him to dip his toe in the waters. I am hoping all these beautiful images of Artemis and her family camping in the English countryside, well 'glamping' is more like it (from the lovely blog Junkaholique) may help to convince him that it doesn't have to be all dingy toilet and shower blocks, cruddy food and nylon sleeping bags. This is most definitely the type of camping I aspire to one day. Surely if camping was always this spectacular, no-one would ever feel the need to get on a plane again. We just need to lay our hands on that vintage VW camper and amazing canvas tent!

All images via Junkaholique


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on the radar

I'm working my way through an endless pile of laundry, making frantic lists and packing in preparation for our holiday. We fly to South Africa on Saturday and there seems so much to be done before then. Travelling with kids (especially for a three week trip) just requires such an enormous amount of planning and stuff. We spoke to Curt's parents on Skype last night and there has been something of a heat wave in Durban the past few days so looks like we should be in for some sun. Maybe even in the UK too if I'm lucky :) It's exciting to dig out all my summer clothes again after being jeans and knitwear clad for the past few months of the Australian winter. I've got to get back to the grindstone but here are some things that have caught my eye over the past few days...

I've always been an advocate of the 'no regrets' school of thought, so I am seriously coveting one of these awesome posters by Sarah & Bendrix (pictured above) to adorn the walls of of new home. Avaliable here from their Etsy shop. Translation from French to English: No, I regret nothing.

This one below is awfully romantic too...

I can't get enough of this lady's effortless, laid back style of late. Love.

The work of Australian artist Belinda Fox is magical and mesmerising. If I was to start seriously investing in an art collection, I can't think of a better place to start. See more on her website.

following a dream: part 1

Or how we eventually got to live in Australia and how that's working out...

I've never shared many of the details about our being here in Australia- why we decided to pack our bags, leave London and head to the other side of the world and how we made it happen, but I thought I'd put our story out there in the event it may be interesting or useful to anyone else entertaining ideas of doing something similar or embarking on their own adventure.

I've always been a believer in getting up and doing, trying to make dreams happen rather than just sitting around whinging about how I wish I was somewhere else, doing something different. Of course these plans and goals don't always come to fruition but nothing ventured, nothing gained as the old saying goes.

Since soon after Lila was born four years ago, we had been throwing around ideas of trying out life down under. London had been a truly awesome place to call home for both of us during the previous few years but it wasn't the ideal environment in which we envisaged raising a family. We were both keen on a more outdoor lifestyle. I spent my childhood on a farm, running around in fields and making dens in hay bales and Curt was keen to raise his kids by the ocean in the the same kind of relaxed, beach environment he had grown up. We also wanted to see more of the other side of the world and give our children the chance to experience new places and people. And live somewhere where summer isn't always a washout (sorry, England. You will always have my heart but your summers are just not quite long or reliable enough). It seemed an ideal time to do it, as Lila was still so small and not settled into school yet. 

I had spent six months living and working in various places in Australia during my year of post-university travels. Curt had never set foot on Australian soil but knew the lifestyle and culture was similar enough to that of his native Durban in South Africa. The obvious choice within Australia was Melbourne as my sister had already been living there for a few years and was settled with a fiancee and a stable job, and if you plan on upping sticks to the other end of the world then it makes sense to be near family.

So we knew where we wanted to be, but actually getting here was far from straightforward. Of course we'd heard enough from other people to know that getting work visas would likely be a difficult, expensive and protracted process. Fortunately Curt was working for a big multi-national company with offices all over the world, including Australia, so applying for a transfer seemed the easiest way to go about getting a visa, and of course guaranteed him a job on arrival. 

As his wife/partner I could automatically get a work visa off the back of his. The timing wasn't ideal as he started the transfer process just as the first wave of the recession hit. The Australian offices suddenly dug their heels in as they were understandably wary of adding to their team in such an uncertain economical time. So everything ground to a halt and we were left hanging, unsure of whether anything would happen at all, told that the recruitment process had been frozen for the forseeable future. 

To be continued...

             
                    

Family snapshots taken on Wimbledon Common and in our local park in Winter/Spring 2009, a few months before we left the UK.

england bound

I'm excited because we've recently booked flights to South Africa in September to see Curt's family for a few weeks and during the middle of it I'll be flying back to England (bringing Rose with me) to stay with my parents at the farm for ten days. As South Africa is almost all the way home from here, I couldn't pass up the opportunity and it means I will be able to go to a very good friends wedding. I can't deny that the lifestyle in here in Australia is brilliant and this is very much where we want to be at the moment (we've certainly waited long enough to get here!) but I will always be a home orientated person and I do miss plenty of places, people and aspects of life from my homeland.

This is a big year for the UK and though I'll be coming too late for the big events of the Summer (the Olympic Games and the Queens Jubilee celebrations), I'm still really looking forward to spending time with my family and friends, visiting my favourite haunts and getting my fix of Britishness- nowhere else can do country pub lunches, high street fashion or fish and chips in quite the same way.

This is a big (expensive!) trip for us that we have had to, and still will for some time, save very hard for and it will be the last one we plan to make to that side of the world for a few years. Next years big goal is buying a house here and we want to see some of the world which is easily accessible to us now. The upside of having a rugby obsessed husband is that we'll definitely be making a visit in 2015 for the next ruby world cup! Though I'll be sad not to return again for a while after September, I can't deny the prospect of a week or so in Bali does sound mighty appealing too.

happy holidays

Happy New Year! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas break. I'm excited about the arrival of 2012 and embarking on a year of adventures and putting down some roots in our new city. We're on holiday with my parents, my sister and her husband and therefore still in full relaxation mode, so I've been quietly mulling over goals, plans and dreams for the next 12 months but haven't done anything so hardcore as to set actual resolutions or stop consuming vast quantities of chocolates.

We've had the most amazing weather and haven't really made it much further than the pool of our holiday house and the beach, just been soaking up the sunshine, reading, playing with the girlies and enjoying having the whole family together again. I've concluded that the best type of holidays when you have children are definitely those that involve the extended family as you are surrounded by willing babysitters and actually get some semblance of downtime. Bliss indeed. Especially with the knowledge that the next few weeks will be super hectic and filled with all of the admin involved with settling into a new home.

Here's a few snaps from the past week...

merry merry

Just stopping by to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Hope it's full of everything you want it to be, Early tomorrow morning we'll be heading off on our little holiday. Looking forward to spending Christmas just the four of us, our first as our own little family. Then heading straight off to our new home across the water. See you in 2012!

one year on

It has been over a year now that we have been living in the land of the long white cloud. Though it's mostly been a brilliant, eye-opening time, it has by no means been a totally easy ride. We moved to a country literally at the other end of the Earth where we have no family and knew almost no-one. We had to find ourselves a place to live, buy a car and I had to get myself a job. We had over two months with no furniture and possessions except the clothes we bought over in our bags on the plane because the container we shipped was hugely delayed. I was lucky enough to land an amazing, dream job after just a couple of weeks and we found a sweet (albeit very compact) apartment to rent in a great location. I've missed my friends and family back home a crazy amount. There's been so many moments I wish I could have shared with them or just popped around to see them for a cup of tea and a chat, but I've also forged new friendships and met some awesome people along the way.

We live a short drive away from some of the most beautiful scenery on Earth and have stunning beaches on our doorstep. Some things we've found to be more affordable such as rent and childcare, and other things to be extortionately expensive in comparison to what we were used to in the UK- food and drink, both in the supermarket and also in restaurants and bars, furniture, clothes, books and basically everything bought from a shop is at a premium. This has meant we've had to learn to find our fun without much in the way of retail therapy or eating out- hello picnics on the beach, lots of home baking and barbecues with friends. Even more so now Rose has arrived and we are surviving on just Curt's salary.

We've experienced a warm Summer and also the more rainy but still mild months of Winter. There have been stressful times and joyful times. We've gained a child and there's been moments when we would have given anything to have our family close at hand to babysit for an evening, to be able to pick up the phone for an impromptu chat or to ask for some advice (the 11 hour time difference can be a bitch). One thing we will be forever grateful for is the existence of Skype, it makes being so far away seem feasible and our parents are still able to know their grandchildren and see them often.

Am I glad we made the move? Absolutely. In spite of some of the more challenging aspects I would do it all again in a heartbeat. Home for me will always be the green fields of England and I'm pretty sure we'll return there for good one day, but for now we're enjoying the adventure. I feel proud that we are giving our children a chance to see and experience something of the world.

twenty eight

Hello birthday. You came around even more quickly this year, speeding up no doubt as we draw ever closer to the inevitable big 30. I don't know why this thought panics me at all as I think I've done a good job of cramming a decent amount into my 28 years on the planet- a degree, a round the world trip, a range of mainly enjoyable, creative jobs- although unfortunately none have made me any closer to paying off the university overdraft. I've gathered some amazing friends and am lucky enough to have a loving family, a pretty damn fine husband, a new adventure living in New Zealand and two beautiful children. Though hang on, before this all gets too nauseating let's just stop for a quick reality check.

Getting out of the house with a 3 year old and a newborn is a major military operation, in fact getting (any of us) dressed before 11am is a huge achievement. This by the way does not involve a carefully considered, stylish outfit choice, just a case of throwing on whatever is cleanest or nearest as within a matter of minutes it's likely to be sporting some embellishment of a little patch of baby sick or peanut butter smears from grubby fingers and if I'm really lucky then maybe also a faint odour of stale milk. Make- up? A distant memory. Which is a shame as the climate in New Zealand seems to leave me in a permanent state of teenage style acne outbreaks and the only thing which seems to have any effect on it is the most expensive organic moisturiser and facial cleansing products available. The price of which almost gave my poor husband a heart attack when he last checked our bank statement. Then there's also the small matter of the rather vast sum of money we owe my ever generous parents, who funded our recent flights back over to the UK.

But on the other hand, the beach is only a 5 minute walk down the road, the sun is shining and it's a gorgeous day today even though it's the middle of winter. We have food in the fridge and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some birthday cake later. So life is good. The's still a lot I want to do but if I did actually get around to around to writing that book and maybe owning my own shop in the next two years then what would I have to look forward to when I hit 30 after all.

Image by nubiany on flickr. Mmm, a slice of this would do just fine!

thoughts of home

The green fields and red bricks will always be home to me. The fact I am returning in 9 weeks is a great feeling. Big thanks to my sister and her wedding for giving me a chance to come back for a while!

My thoughts are of home and what it means as I just finished reading a book I really enjoyed, particularly this extract below.

"David will return to Mosel years later, with his wife and children. I will show them the estate, and then he and I will walk the grounds at dusk and he will ask me why I never left. Home is the place where you've felt the most, I will tell him. And that can be any place. Or anyone. It doesn't matter how long you lived there. It's what you'll always want to come back to."

Excerpt from The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys.

I love to travel and have lived in, experienced and enjoyed my fair share of places but this is always the one I look forward to returning to. Wherever I am, this is still always what I mean when I refer to home. Some of my happiest times and best memories have been created here. The only downside is that while I am here I will have to spend many days away from he who is my other home until he comes to join us for the wedding and the arrival of the new little one.

But I always carry both my homes in my heart, wherever they or I may be.

happy 2011

Wishing everyone lots of love, success and happy vibes for the year ahead.

We have returned from our wonderful Australian holiday in Melbourne rested, tanned (yay!), a lot poorer, but with some great memories and lots of plans for the future. My sister and her fiancee Blair were saints for letting us stay with them in their gorgeous apartment for 3 weeks and not once complaining about the early morning starts and extra mess courtesy of the small, loud person. We saw so much of the city and the surrounding countryside. A lot more, I'm ashamed to say, than when I was backpacking in the post-student days and spent a month there, where I was mostly touring around the bars in the St Kilda area.

A few highlights were visits to a wildlife sanctuary where we encountered the adorable koala Benny, an evening Christmas carol concert in the Botanic Gardens, a trip to the picturesque village of Daylesford with its stunning lake, a day spent at the zoo, and a visit to a winery on the Mornington Peninsula. Oh and course lots of beach time. New Years Eve was spent with a big BBQ on the balcony and first rate views of the epic firework display over the city. So now it's back to Auckland and reality and I'm starting to get excited about the year ahead. I'm not a fan of resolutions but I do love making lots of lists and generally organising myself. This has been made intensely more enjoyable due to the fact we have a new toy to play with- a shiny ipad, courtesy of Jo and Blair which is an extremely generous late wedding present. So I have been happily downloading apps, and getting my life sorted. Roll on 2011!

Here are a few of our holiday snaps...

portugal

Portugal was utterly magnificent. For the past week we called this lovely yellow villa home...

Enjoyed the quiet, unspoilt beaches...

Introduced Lila to the joys of jumping in the waves...

And the delights of a quick paddle...

She got very busy with her bucket and spade...

While her Daddy went for a surf...

Then she decided she wanted to try out her own "skateboard in the sea" (but actually on the beach)...

There was time for long walks...

And ample beautiful scenery.

So all in all it was pretty near perfection. Also not pictured- quality time spent with my parents, lots of amazing seafood and lovely wine, a novel completed (read not written!), lots of pool time and floating on big inflatable animals and chairs kindly left by the villa's previous occupants and attempts to teach Lila to swim. Conclusion- she can currently only kick her legs or move her arms- not both at the same time but I'm sure we'll get there with time!

Now we have returned to London for the last week in our flat, and to tie up all the loose ends and say our farewells. Curt informed me today that our internet connection will be cut off tomorrow so I'll be offline until we arrive at my parents farm next Sunday to spend our last week in the UK with them.

So bye 'til then, it's going to be a hectic week for us with a whole load of conflicting emotions- lots of sad goodbyes, probably a bunch of nerves and a big dose of excitement too. Time for some deep breaths...