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Australia
I ran away from teaching to the country to grow veggies. There are also some chooks and a pair of troublesome goats who were so much trouble they had to go! My simple green life isn't always as simple or as green as I'd like...but I keep trying!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Why I live where I live.

I have lived where I live for less than a year.  

Serendipity brought me here...
but other things keep me here.


Well of course there is the garden.  It is established and superb, the soil loamy and fertile.  
The property large enough to do the things I want to do, but small enough to manage.  
The creek at the back is not only beautiful and has at least one platypus,  but also provides water for the garden.  

What more could a gardener want?

Although it feels like a bush retreat, there are neighbours and a welcoming community and all only one and half hours from Melbourne.

We can go on a lovely short rural drive to Yea and have lunch and a latte.
On the way home, just off the main road we can make a stop.

Imagine this

It is a warm humid day with thunder rolling in the distance and this is the view we must look at.  



There is a flutter of butterflies (what is the correct collective noun?) all around the car.  Because they seem so camera shy, The Cook offers to stand like a tree in case one might land and deem to have its photo taken. They just laugh and fly away.

The noisy cicadas, probably don't have time to be amused by our strange goings on.  They are preoccupied, serenading each other.  Cicadas have probably been speed dating longer than humans have been around.





On the grass at my feet, a shucked off cicada casing.  Next to it, its recent inhabitant acclimatizing herself to her new outfit.  

Cicaderella, ready for the ball.











The Cook, obliging as always,  offers a contrasting back to display the cicada in her finery.



 We didn't keep her long from her Prince Charming 
.

I'm not sure that March flies trying to bite one through one's jeans can really be a reason to love living here. But they are such a part of Summer in the bush...why not?  Anyway, they don't succeed.


 I don't know what this is, but it is pretty and matches the flower...besides I am very proud of this photo so couldn't leave it out. 




When the rain comes we sit in the car and listen to a show about Janet Frame, a favourite author, on the radio.  The butterflies disappear and the cicadas rest from their song...perhaps they are interested in the New Zealand author too.



The rain clears, the butterflies and cicadas get back to business and this is the view.


Once home, I sit with the goat babies by the creek. Listening to them pull grass and chew is very meditative.  I watch a baby currawong hassling its mother for food in a tree on the other side of the creek.  A kookaburra is perched, as he is every afternoon, on a dead tree with his head cocked to one side.  He is looking for movement on the creek bank.  Every now and then he swoops down and picks something up.  I am waiting for the time I see him with a snake in his beak.

Today I also planted the lettuces in the pottager, and more chamomile and corn in the vegetable garden. 

I made sure Henny got off her eggs to have something to eat and drink.  She does not enjoy this twice daily forced health regime.

The Cook made a fabulous risotto al fungi.  Warm orange cake, drizzled with orange sauce and cream is  desert.

Another 12 botttles of marmalade were made... to feed my obsession.  Soon it will be off to bed to listen to the night sounds of frogs romanticising and the willy wagtail who will warble on and off all night.

Now why I would want to live anywhere else!

I would love to hear why you live where you live.

.........................

10 comments:

  1. Ah!Hazel!How long have you got? I am very attached to the land, I can see the place I grew up from the top paddock, something very comforting in that.There are enough challenges to keep me interested but not too many to be overwhelming.I love my community.I have the best of country and town, more coffee shops and good restaurants than I can shake a stick at.A swim is 10 minutes away and I can see the sea from the front verandah.I could go on.....
    By the way you don't need to force your girl off the nest, she knows what she needs and will do it herself when she needs to.Hope I'm not giving advice where it's not asked for but they don't call me The Chook Lady for nothing! I expect you read GrassRoots and Earth Garden for all that sort of advice anyway! Have a fun day..lovely photos and country.

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  2. I love the cook standing like a tree, very tree-like indeed...

    I also love where I live, but it is mostly about our house. I travelled for 10 years before settling down, and buying the house of my dreams. It's old and wooden and has a leaky roof, but I love it. It has character and style and most of all, it is a reflection of me and all the things that I love.

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  3. we live where we do cause I had a dream.. a dream of fluffy white sheep bouncing round the paddock ,a dream of a cow being milk dauly to make dairy delights, a dream of fruits n veges nourishing our family..we could not affors to own acreage on the gold coast where we where living so i searched the net and wherelrd here to our dream...

    i love your views beautiful

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  4. Very beautiful photos. Love the amazing scenery in the top photo. Amazed at that giant (rather good looking) green bug, cicada. Wow! Always enjoy your posts.

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  5. Hazel, it all sounds so idyllic! And the photos of the cicada are truly awesome.
    My reasons for living where I live are more mundane: firstly I live in this area because it is close to where I was serving when I left the Army (back in 1985) and to where I got my first civilian job.
    Secondly: although I have worked for 4 different companies since 1985, I have found this area to be very convenient for transport links - 50 mins by train to London; 45 mins by car to Heathrow airport etc.
    I do wish that I lived in a more rural area, with a bigger garden though. Maybe when I retire...

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  6. I missed your blogs while I was away Hazel - great postings!
    I have lived where I live and loved where I live for almost all my life! The surroundings have changed but I delight in growing vegetables in the same spot that our dad started growing vegetables more than 60 years ago. He was a great mentor and I hope that my grandchildren can learn from the time we spend together, planting, nurturing, harvesting and cooking our organically grown fresh produce.
    Hopefully the eucalypts that have played an important part in my life will remain long after I have moved on.

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  7. Great photos Hazel.

    Thank you for sharing where you live, looks like a beautiful area.

    If I had my choice I wouldn't be living where I live but this is where my hubby's work is so I have to make the most of the dry red dirt and heat lol...We were living in the town, but being a farm girl, I managed to convince hubby to move to a few acres just out of town. Although now with new development, more people are moving out this way.

    I enjoy reading about where other people live and why.

    Have a great day,

    Tania

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  8. My house is surrounded by mountains and forest. My neighbors are wonderful people, I live in a small quiet street.
    Every day, the sky gives me different colors.
    And my garden is visited by insects and birds, it's full of life. That is why, I live here.

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  9. Hi Hazel,
    I love your description of where you live it really highlighted how in tune you are with your surroundings. You also describe all your natural treasures beautifully.
    I moved about 4 years ago to my treed location from the city life and know I will never go back. The kookaburras wake me up in the morning and tell me when to go inside at night. I spend all day working on my home grown fruit and vegies and enjoying any wild visitors who spend the day with me.

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  10. Thank you so much for all the lovely responses to this text. I absolutely love living where I am and feel so contented and fortunate. It is wonderful to hear about other people's feelings for their homes. Big hugs to all!

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