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.