A fabulous book!

First let me just say how much I love libraries! I often come back from a walk at lunchtime near my work with an arm full of books I've borrowed out from the local library up the road (sometimes it can be quite difficult getting them all home since I catch the bus and have to lug them all the way home, very heavy!).

Earlier this week I once again popped up to the library to return a few overdue books (I have so many I forget which are mine and which belong to the library!), and came back with another armfull. This time including a meditteranean vegetarian cookbook (so many yummy dishes to make!), a learn to knit book (I'm struggling to get past the basic crochet stitches so thought knitting might be a good diversion), a herbal book (good to know what things I can plant to create my own garden medicine cabinet) and a book titled "Ten Thousand Acres" by Patrice Newell.

Has anyone read this book, or any others by Patrice?

I hadn't heard of the author before but the front cover struck me.

So I've finished reading the book already! Not hard since the writing is very easy to follow, its not too full of text (has lots of brilliant photography!) and the story is so beautifully written.

Here is how Patrice describes her book on her website:

Ten Thousand Acres – A Love Story goes beyond the angers and arguments of debates on ecology and climate change to the deepest feelings we have for our farm and the wild landscape that embraces it.


It goes beyond the crops and the cattle, high above the olive groves and the old homestead into the old stories hidden in its hundred hills and valleys.


We do not really own our farm, let alone the ancient landscape that rises above it.
Ten Thousand Acres IS a love story – of how the place has come to own us. It is my book of endless discovery of the extraordinary riches that surround us, in the dark of night and the harshest days of drought.
It is about the wild aviary of birds, the boundless zoo of native animals, the abundance of beauty, of trees, plants, grasses and botanic secrets.
I hope to make a contribution to the literature of ‘place’, the new awareness that Australians must have for all the Australia’s within our immense continent.
In words and pictures, my book sets out to reveal the love we must have for the totality of the natural world – the respect for the land that is essential if we (and I mean all of us, ‘all creatures great and small’) are to have a hope of survival.


I fell in love with the writing, and here to prove how beautiful it is, here is my favourite passage:

"On exactly the same day as last year, two frogmouths arrive and take their place side by side on their favourite branch in their preferred ironbark tree. I look up at them. They look down at me.
A few weeks later there are four of them. Two big-eyed babies.
Things are as they should be." pg 93

Looking on her website I see she has another book I'd be interested to read, "The Olive Grove." It's the story of when she moved from the city out to the country, definitely something I'd like to read!

How's your weekend's going?

:)
Kim

Straw bale!

I have been researching like a nutter! It's what I do when I get onto a great idea or goal. I waste spend all of my time glued to google researching the heck out of a topic that I've just recently discovered. This week that topic is building with straw bales!

Lyndon and I have recently been chatting about living in a shed on our land before we build. That way we can start prepping the veggie patch, chook pen, fruit trees, etc early on and start reaping the benefits quick smart. We would then look at building our house. This would allow us more time to save for the house while living on the property, rather than having to stay living in the city longer while we save. It would also give us the opportunity to get to know our land, the way the sun crosses it, the weather patterns, the layout, before we build so we can incorporate all of that info into the design of the house.

So.... living in a shed. Right. Well I'm no princess and think I could handle living in a shed for a few years. It would have to be insulated though at least. We were then looking at different options for sheds to have on our land and the costs involved. The shed part is easy, making it liveable is the harder part. We then thought 'why not build the shed out of straw bale!?' That would give us practise before we build our house out of straw bale, and would leave us with a great little art/craft studio/guest retreat once we've built the house. It may be a little bit more expensive but will be much more usable and blend in with surrounds a lot more.

This is the basic design we found on the web that we think would suit:

Doesn't that look sweet! So cute! We'd extend the living area bit some more enough for 2 lounges and a small 2 person dining table. We were thinking the total dimensions would be about 10x7m and a bit taller to allow for the loft bedroom.

There are some great examples of Australian strawbale homes on the web and I have been excitedly trawling through all of their websites and blogs.

A lot of people building straw bale houses offer for people to go and help out, giving them experience in the process. I thnk this is a great idea and would certainly look at doing this to learn the trade!

I'd like to know if any of you have had experiences, or know of anyone else that has, with building with strawbales. I'd love to hear your tales, the good, bad and ugly!

Visit to the country

This past weekend we spent a lovely weekend visit my fiance's parents up at Pomona, in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland. The whole weekend was overcast and slightly rainy, which was just lovely.

After the hour and a half drive from the smoggy, busy city after work, luckily only stuck in coast-bound traffic for a little while, we made it to the quiet ands serene countryside. We met up with the parents-in-law at the Cooroy RSL for dinner. It took me back to when I was growing up and we would join the locals at the local country pub for dinnner each weekend.  Surprisingly the music was really LOUD! It was a 50's band playing the ol' faves, but it was just too damn loud, very unexpected for the patronage at the RSL!

One of the best parts of visiting Lyndon's parents is the guest bed, it's the comfiest bed we've ever slept in! And we take full advantage of it, usually sleeping in until 8 or 9 in the morning!

On the Saturday we ventured out to the Eumundi Markets. These markets are so full of produce, craft, baking, furniture, buskers, hippies, you name it! and its set up in such a way that it's VERY easy to get yourself lost and walking past the same stalls over and over again! I became quite friendly with a few stallies!

I restrained myself and didn't end up buying anything from the markets, except for a yummy lentil and vegetable roll. I'm surprising myself with how well I'm going with not spending money willy-nilly!

After the markets we met up with Lyndon's godmother who he hadn't seen in over 10 years. What a breathe of fresh air she was! She's just written an autobiography and is described by her publishers as a "passionate gypsy wanderer"! Check out her bio and book here. If you get a chance grab a copy of her book and have a read, you will not regret it. It's a great story about the adventures she has had all over Australia. We were speaking to her about our plans for the future and she was so motivating in her encouragement of it all. She's convinced us to live in a shed when we get our property to get a feel for the land first! Sounds perfect to me!

We then popped into the local nursery which was very cute! It's set up like a little cottage garden. Again no purchases, just some lovely scenery.

After this very eventful day we headed back to 'The Farm' as we affectionately call it, and decided to take a walk up to the lookout. The property backs onto the Noosa Trail Network which is a bunch of hinterland trails through some great countryside. We didn't go too far to get this great view of the sunset over Pinbarren mountain:

On the Sunday, we spent the first part of the day walking around the property checking out the new work that Lyndon's parents have had done to it. A lot of new work! It's an extremely hilly 10acres so it was quite a workout. We then lit a burn pile but it didn't last long because of the rain.

Just before lunch we headed out to the famous "King of the Mountain" festival in Pomona. It's a yearly event where competitors run up the 4.5km, almost vertical Mt Cooroora, then back down again. Crazy if you ask me, but the festivities that take place in Pomona on the day where lots of fun.

Then we headed back to Brissie. Sigh.

How was your weekends?

:) Kim