I came to consciousness gently this morning, slowly realising that the
drumming beat I could hear was coming from the paddock below our house. The
neighbour’s horses were enjoying an early morning frolic. And why not I
thought, as I pictured them tossing their manes and tails in the air as they
galloped with what sounded like utter joy to be greeting a frosty, nippy day.
The first encounter with the neighbours that we had when we moved here 9
years ago was with Lollypop, a charming black horse with a white blaze. She
rode down our driveway with Morgan atop, a gorgeous young girl, and both so
excited there were new people to check out. Morgan wasn’t looking for apples in
my pocket though! It would have been Lollypops’
daughter and friends that I heard this morning celebrating the coming of
autumn.
It’s lovely to hear the horses but not having to get up in the cold and
muck them out. We’re surrounded by productive, busy farmland: horses to the
east and south, sheep, pigs and cows to the north and strawberries to the west.
The labour that is involved with the upkeep of these beasts and bounty we
observe mostly from a distance. We quietly cheer the farmers on as they wrestle
with building fences to keep rambunctious stock where they’re supposed to be.
We help out from time to time, chasing pigs and horses out of our yard when the
fences have come second in the battle for supremacy.
The embarrassingly small amount of labour that we do at our place
involves making jam and chutney when we feel like it and trying to keep the
foxes from killing the chooks. (Have failed several times on that front-that’s
a whole other story!) We have a small orchard that has had to look after
itself. For the time I was pregnant and then when McEwan was still small, the
fruit plummeted to the ground, the thudding of the overripe orbs noticed only
by the birds. The parrots, magpies, cockatoos, currawongs and butcherbirds
feasted on neglected white peaches, figs, plums, apples and nashi pears. Oh and
mandarins, oranges, grapefruits and lemons. Almost forgot those.
I had such dreams of abundant production when we bought this place. I
was going to be knee-deep in delicious concoctions I’d made, all sourced from
our permaculture style of living. How those dreams have gone by the wayside.
This year however, I’ve been able to get out amongst it all, as McEwan
is a great little helper now. I collected one kilo of blackberries from the
runaway vines that were strangling an orange tree. So some good did come of
turning our back and letting nature have her way with our unruly, untended,
overlooked and frankly overwhelming acre.
I’ve decided to turn over a new rust coloured leaf this season and
actually tend to the garden in a more orderly fashion. I shall get help though
as the restraining of ivy, the taming of blackberries and the beating to
submission of Wandering Jew and Holly will be a task bigger than Ficus
Benjamina Hur.
Wish me luck-I’ll invite you around for a garden party when I’ve
uncovered a spot where we could actually sit!
My Website: Books for Happiness.com
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