Last week Jay took the staff up into the high country for some hike training, having Elliot, I stayed on the flat and Mum and Dad came to visit. Mum and Dad always do a huge amount of incredibly helpful jobs around Wollangarra but particularly our cottage Tussocky. We had a lovely couple of slow but satisfyingly full days. The post When Mum and Dad come to visit appeared first on The Life of Clare ..read more

This blog post has been written in dribs and drabs over March and April. Doing: Working, a lot. Our hours are long, days full, sun up until sun down we are busy on the flat, working with young people or farm work or admin. I do a lot of admin, email answering, phone call returning, planning for 2019 already. Recently I had a quick but beautiful visit home. I had a few appointments in Geelong but other than that I enjoyed time with my mum, dad and sister. It was a lovely slow few days. Hearing: the morning call of the kookaburra, our rooster and quiet farm noises. Drinking: a few glasses of cas ..read more

For the last few years I taught how to bake a basic loaf of sourdough. There were plenty of others around with more skill, expertise and prowess than I but I loved teaching the simple skill and getting to meet people that I often chatted with over Instagram. These days I rarely bake a sourdough loaf, but do get to enjoy the lovingly baked rye sourdough loaves that one of our wonderful staff puts into our wood fired oven at least once a week. I’ve been enjoyed baking the occasional loaf, following the beautiful recipe by The Clever Carrot. While I no longer bake excessive sourdough loaves I am ..read more

Hello, how are you? How has your week been? This week we have been recovering from our Open Day. It’s a wonderfully big day filled with supporters new and old, and it’s our biggest fundraiser for the year (Wollangarra is a not-for-profit, so fundraise we must). This day takes a huge amount of organisation and preparation, and a massive on site week of build up and set up and then about that of pack up too. I didn’t take too many photos but I did make a little video that I shared on Wollangarra’s Instagram account. Last week I was reminded on my love of spinning wool when I took 15 minutes on ..read more

I’ve been reflecting on some things I’m loving in life these days and I wanted to share some of them with you. Life is good, great in fact, the days are long and full, and I go to bed with a full heart and wake with a smile. I hope you are doing the same. The app Pocket – we don’t have internet where we live or work, or even for about a 30 minute journey from our front door. This app can save webpages to your phone offline. I’m finding it particularly excellent for recipes from Fig Jam and Lime Cordial because Celia’s recipes are so perfect for this place. Two day old pony tales – there’s no m ..read more

Making: lists. Cooking: stew with root veggies and a deer shank. I cooked it on our tiny gas hob for 7 hours. It was delicious and even better the next day. Drinking: All the tea and weekend red wine Reading: I Am Pilgrim – it’s oh so long and I’m sort of done with it but I just want to find out what happens. Wanting: to bake some sourdough. I miss the process! Looking: Out the window at the snow. We’re just driving over Mount Hotham on the way home from some lovely visiting. Deciding: To make more of an effort to reduce my single use plastic. I’ve just bought bamboo toothbrushes for the next ..read more

We’ve spent the last three weeks packing. Madly packing. Because just over three weeks ago we found out that we were successful in our application for our dream job. Directing Wollangarra. You might have seen the news on Instagram or Facebook, but if you haven’t here it is. For the next three years, Jay and I will be co-directing Wollangarra, working in conjunction with the staff, who we will live on site with and the council, the governing body. Essentially the job is an admin job, chatting with schools, paying bills etc and making sure the staff are having the best time and are able to be th ..read more

I’ve raved about meal planning, I love it. I really do. I love the organising, I love the planning and I love knowing what I need to buy. But recently I have found that it wasn’t working for us. We’ve started buying our meat from a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) monthly membership, and because of this I began doing a monthly grocery shop. I’ve been getting fresh food once a week or fortnight as we needed it. But apart from the fruit and veg I tend to only be at the supermarket once a month. I wrote a couple of monthly meal plans, but to be honest they just weren’t working for us. I ..read more

MAKING: I’m loving sewing these little essential oil bags to send to anyone who signs up to my DoTERRA team. COOKING: simple food. Meat and vegetables mostly, not a lot of sugar, and eggs, lots of eggs. DRINKING: hot strong milky tea READING: Sarah Wilson’s First, we make the beast beautiful*. I don’t consider myself to have anxiety, nor can I understand how someone who has it feels, but I do get anxious feelings. I’ve mentioned before that I am an over thinker, I over analyse everything and this can often lead to worry about having done the wrong thing. This book has been ..read more

A little over a month ago now Jay and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary. It’s the one excuse we can think of each year to try the current ‘in’ restaurant in our area. Over the last few years we have dined at some gorgeous places. They’re always way out of our budget but it’s an occasion worth celebrating and devoting time to. We went to Loam for our first wedding anniversary, Brae for our second, Oakdene for our third and Little Green Corner for our forth. Lunch is my ideal meal out, I’m an early person, always have been. So if I can start celebrating, eating, drinking early that ..read more