Tea eggs for easter

I ' m (we're)  p o o p   d e   d o o p e d ! 

Basically because we have been so very busy of late, our tin type, photogravure and letterpress workshops are taking off  and in between all of this came Easter, so this is a late entry but that's ok.

I'm a wee bit tired but fully content.

New routines are to be had with the workshops and a tiny re tuning.

A nice place to be.

(Yes I do recall at the beginning of the year I stated that we are going to work extra harder this year, I'm eating my words already)

Today I'm just going to re centre in my garden, plant the new hedge for the large circle in the middle of the paddock. The plan that one day we can spend our frolicking lunches in the middle of the circle of snake bark maples and hedging plants, it will be our own little private space inside a larger private space.

Does this make sense?

Probably not because there I go working again, planting Versailles in the front paddock. Actually I'm having another go at it, the last effort we had huge amounts of rain and the maples little feet were waterlogged and drowned, so a change of design for a more robust hedge.

I want it like a hedgerow, all messy and lots of different varieties of plants, rambling romantic.

Today I don't mind if it doesn't make sense because its our first day off in 4 weeks and my mind is feeling like a circle within a circle.

Here's what we ate for Easter and it was the best best Easter this year, friends and family came to stay and the tea eggs that was my specialty for the Easter table was a a crowd pleaser and topped it off with Pukara Estate truffle olive oil. 

D i v i n e   d i v i n e   d  i v i n e .

Tea eggs from the beautiful blog and totally relate to this goddess moving to the country side site
mimithorisson.com/‎ 

Cumquats and aluminium office sliding doors

I made this cumquat jam from 30 year old trees that were planted when my twins sons were born.

It's still warm, no sign of any Autumn chill at all, the hedging roses are even showing a puff of  pink bloom and the cumquat trees are fruiting.

The paddocks are so green for this time of the year. 

V e r y   s t r a n g e   i n d e e d y .

what can I write about?

 We have been sitting up in bed for years having our cups of tea first thing in the morning in the same mugs and toast with jam. This is how we have always started the morning, you know how we all have rituals, well this is ours, especially here in Hill End when the winter frosts come in. 

B u t   a l a s   w e   a r e   c h a n g i n g   a l l   t h i s !

Why are we changing this?

Well it's called vanity and things are speeding up around Hill End Press.

The workshops are booking up.

We've got lots to do.

Our tummies are becoming a little too big for our liking as well, so now we have just tea, black tea and still in bed, up at seven with Bill jogging and me walking with Tango the wonder dog.

We've become so crazily virtuous.

Working in the countryside is very different to city life. You have a very expanded timetable that doesn't really have any demarcation of when to stop, so we tend to just keep working from the morning to late at night, but that goes with the territory of having your own business anyway right.

I said to Bill the other day that I'm going to build an office in the middle of the paddock, aluminum sliding doors, nylon curtains and swivel chairs, so people will really believe we are working.

Country life always has the appearance that we are frolicking, oh how I wish.

Having a home office has its pluses and minuses.

The plus is we have no peak hour traffic and our own pace and timetable and this incredible landscape, the minus is that it can get lonely sometimes you can miss the different personalities and distractions filtering in and out of say a city office environment.

W h y   d i d   w e   c h o o s e   H i l l   E n d   t o   l i v e ?

 All the artists that make the arts residency pilgrimage flow through each year always makes for very inspiring company, the landscape and the expanded nature.

Do I miss the city? Not really, although I must say except my children and theatre, I miss them at times. I find now when I go to the city that I miss that sense of distance that I have in Hill End, the views. The difference in me is that I would have lived on the town clock if possible when I was younger but now.

Hill End always delivers some moment that can be timeless or fleeting, challenging or difficult but either way it always alters ones way of thinking in a good way  and approach to the world, I think its that it makes one think in ways that you would never have thought.

To be honest I've learnt so much since moving here.
Which was nine years ago.
I think it's really about being diverse and open to what is presented each day, not to worry about the what ifs. 

I've learnt this very big time.

Country driving and what if I break down, dusk driving with roos, which timber is best on the fire, chilly drafts and lengths of masking tape along the windows, isolation, having a kitchen in a separate building, the distinct seasons, living and working together, making a business work in a remote place.

They've all been challenges that at times have been big hurdles and I'm glad that we are out the other side, we get it now and understand how it works.

The funny thing is that it did always work ok it was just how I viewed and prepared for it.

It's brought a strength out in us both that we never knew was there.