(Sometimes) Daily Notes

Dropping In Today we visited Todd and Verena who live at the bottom of the road. While the rest of us tinker with gardening and bee-keeping and possibly a horse or two, this couple is the real deal. They farm. They grow hay, routinely cutting and baling cops between midnight and dawn, returning to the…

We spent this evening in the company of good neighbours. We invited Phil and Mary for pre-dinner drinks and waved them off close to midnight. They brought home-made chicken and vegetable pies and a jar of honey from their apiary. We drank their wine, then sat around our kitchen bench eating nachos from mismatched bowls.…

Lawn therapy As a boy, The Husband liked to mow. He’d gladly push and pull the family Victa across the family’s sprawling corner block and trim the surrounds with a rotary edger. He loved lawn. Nothing much has changed since then. Here at The Farm, he loves to crank up the tractor and slash the…

The storm A storm pummelled The Farm in December, ripping tree limbs from giant ironbarks and flinging them about the paddocks, one crashing to earth across our front fence. A kind neighbour ‘phoned us with the news and another local ventured up the road with a chainsaw to assess the damage. He dislodged the offending…

The Farm Swatting at flies between keystrokes today. This morning I removed the coral paint from my fingernails and swapped sandals for elastic-sided boots. Party season’s over and there are jobs to be done. Rather than open two week’s worth of mail or deal with the pantry-moth infestation in my kitchen, I’ve run away to…

Resolutions The first day of a new year should set the tone for how the calendar unfurls. It’s like feeding a newborn baby; while you might find yourself resorting to tinned food by Easter, lemonade by mid-year and pouring them hard liquor by Christmas, new year’s day should be strictly breastfeeding on demand. Measured against…