Mittagong Antiques Centre Shop Front

               

We have entered our shop front at the Mittagong Antiques Centre into a competition run by My Southern Highlands.  The theme of the competition is "Why My Heart Lives Here......"  Well you can see why I could not resist this competition!  

The window display  represents everything I love about the Southern Highlands.  The black and white photos were all taken in the local area.  

The photos are very meaningful for me as they were taken on days when we left the city to spend some time in the countryside recharging, restoring and just being a family.  Days when we were enjoying time together and enjoying the simple things. 

I love the Southern Highlands

I love the countryside, I love the seasons and I love the friendly community.  

I filled the vacola preserving jars with all the little things that are symbolic of what I love about country life in the Southern Highlands. They hold special memories of fun family times spent  focusing on the little things, the simple pleasures which to me are what living the country life is all about.  

Oak Tree Lane is all about bringing a little bit of the simple country life into the everyday.

Here is our video on why my heart lives in the Southern 

Highlands.....

To vote for us visit: http://www.mysouthernhighlands.net.au/share-your-love#!prettyPhoto

All voters receive a My Southern Highlands Discount Deal.

Whispers of Spring

I love the seasons in the Southern Highlands. They are so distinct and the contrast and intensity of temperatures brings such a vibrance of colour to Mother nature's canvas. 

Whispers of spring are echoing through the Highlands as glorious buds of colour begin to burst forth from their winter slumber.  


I love photography, and last week on my visit to the Southern Highlands, I was completely entranced.   

So much colour and life had emerged in the week since my previous visit. The thickly scented air hung like an intoxicating mist as I took snap after happy snap.  

It was hard to leave...... 

Maybe that's why I enjoy taking photos so much.  It's a way of bringing a little bit of the Southern Highlands back home with me. 

The day after my exhilarating visit I was back at home feeling a little flat.  There was nothing for it but to spend some time in my own garden. 

It felt good to give my plants a big long drink, to pull out the weeds to give them space to grow and to harvest what little there was in my suburban vege patch. 

It wasn't as dramatic as the colourful performance I was treated to in the Southern Highlands, but it was there and it was beautiful.

 

Perhaps due to the relative scarcity of flowering blooms in my little garden, to me the little that I have was all the more beautiful and precious and appreciated.  

And yes, there are whispers of spring in my own backyard too :)

When your heart is in the country...........

I have always had my heart in the country. 

There's something about the fresh air, the rolling hills, and the smell of open fires that is so deeply imbedded in my psyche.  The deep connection to nature, the wide open spaces... it is all very deeply ingrained in my being....... yet I live in the city - Sydney, the big smoke, the rat race. Sydney is a beautiful city, the beaches, the harbour, great cafes, good shopping........ but somehow I'm not quite at home and it can be a stressful place to live.  

I often feel I am a square peg in a round hole.  Why not move to the country I hear you ask?  Well it's complicated.  Life always is.  Those close to me know that I have tried, but things have never worked out.  There has always been a 'spanner in the works' and the timing has never been right.  Sometimes in life things just click into place and you have a deep sense that somehow things are meant to be.  In my case there were always barriers and the doors were firmly shut.

It will come.

Our tree change will come one day when the timing is right for my tribe and me.  For now we are where we're meant to be and we make do. I guess I live the country life in the city as best I can. This means relishing:

family time,
baking,
sewing,
knitting,
crafting,
open fires in my courtyard,
taking time to breathe,
long walks with my kids and my dogs,
the soft glow of candle light,
playing music,
arranging lavender in my favourite blue and white milk jug,
taking time to smell my roses.

It means a drive into the countryside in Mittagong in the Southern Highlands once a week to restock and redecorate our shop,
to breathe in country air,
to take photos of the rambling hills,
to pick acorns,
to cut willlow and make wreaths,
to feed the ducks,

..............................to recharge.


Everytime I drive down the tree lined road into the Mittagong valley nestled into the surrounding hills, I wind down my car windows and fill my being with fresh country air, and
somehow I feel nestled too.  
It's bringing a little piece of the simple country life into the everyday.  

This is Oak Tree Lane.