Country Style

a letter from the editor

The couple first met over 30 years ago, married when they were just 21 but sadly broke up after only two years. “I used to think about Tim often, about what could have been and what should have been,” Jo told our writer Barbara Sweeney when she visited them on their farm, Boggy Creek, in the NSW Snowy Mountains. Luckily, there is a happy ending to this story: the pair met again at a horse event and, in 2014, Jo and Tim walked up the aisle for a second time on what would have been their 25th wedding anniversary. As Tim puts it, “some things are meant to be”. Turn to page 92 for their story. Our A Day in the Country columnist this month is Chris Ferguson. I always enjoy…

in this issue...

NIKOLE RAMSAY This photographer — who shot Harriet Birrell’s home on page 42, On the Move on page 100 and The Style Diary on page 118 — starts her day by paddleboarding. Nikole discovered her passion early in life, studying photography as soon as she left school thanks to the encouragement of an inspirational teacher. “I’m drawn to light… the way it creates a mood and the cycle of change it brings to each day,” she says. In fact, she’s often up at sunrise, paddleboarding on the river near her home on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula where she lives with her husband and two kids. In June, Nikole will venture further offshore when she co-hosts a food and photography tour of northern Italy with another local, Annie Orchard, of Annie’s Provedore & Produce…

your page

SWEET MEMORIES I love how Country Style takes me back to when I was staying with my wonderful grandparents in the Queensland country town of Nagoorin. Memories of driving down the track and Grandma timing it just right with the morning tea — strawberry slice and little cakes with smooth icing on the table as soon as we walked through the door. I love all the recipes that are sent in from times gone by. Page by page, I love it all. Noela Stockbridge, Gladstone, Queensland Editor’s note: We love the sound of that slice — please send in the recipe ASAP! STRONG TIES I had tears in my eyes as I read Kate Brew’s story in the Christmas 2019 issue about bushfires, having experienced the same worry. We moved our young family three years…

age of reason

ALTHOUGH THERE IS an obvious danger in generalisations, I want to say to those finding life tough throughout their 20s, 30s or even 40s; hold fast, it gets better. In her book Happy, Amanda Talbot describes lifetime happiness trends as a smile. She says that in general people are happiest in their youth, with joy dipping in middle age and then lifting again around the 50s. There are, of course, myriad of personal situations that affect our individual happiness, but I’ve rolled into my 50s thinking that the happiness curve may just be right. This contentment has come as a pleasant surprise amid the flurry and worry of a rip-roaring drought and consequently, a business on the edge. And while this situation is stressful, I’m reminded of the saying: ‘This ain’t my…

country style

Editor-in-chief VICTORIA CAREY Creative director JO QUARMBY Deputy editor KYLIE IMESON Melbourne editor VIRGINIA IMHOFF Art director ANN DO Senior copy editor KATE BARBER Art production/designer MATUS KUNDRAT Junior designer SOPHIE WILSON Stylists LISA BURDEN, NATALIE JOHNSON, ASHLEY PRATT Homes group production editor TAMARAH PIENAAR Homes group coordinator MATILDA RINGROSE (02) 9282 8456 Regular contributors CLAIRE MACTAGGART (Queensland contributing editor) DIXIE ELLIOTT (Food) ROB INGRAM (Country Squire) ANNABEL LAWSON (Books) JOHN McPHEE (Collectables) CHRISTINE REID (Gardening) BARBARA SWEENEY (Flavours) JULIETTE WINTER (Health and Beauty) ADVERTISING AND PRODUCTION Commercial brand manager RHYL HEAVENER (02) 8114 9420 Homes commercial manager RHONDA MAUNDER (02) 9282 8687 Advertising production manager KATE ORSBORN (02) 9282 8364 Victoria, SA and WA sales director JACLYN CLEMENTS (03) 9823 6341 Director of sales NSW KAREN HOLMES (02) 9282 8733 Victoria head of direct sales WILL JAMISON (03) 9823 6301 Queensland head of sales JUDY TAYLOR (07) 3101…

the glass menagerie

FOR MUCH OF HER LIFE, Leisa Wharington has been under the spell of glass. She was only 10 when she took classes with a local potter on the Mornington Peninsula, and it was there that she saw her first glassblowing demonstration. “This glass business was so fluid and amazing, and the atmosphere in the studio was dynamic!” says Leisa. “The fluid material was boiling hot, and you had to use tools to manipulate it. I was hooked on the drama of it.” Now decades on, Leisa, 59, is a renowned glass artist who works from her collective creative space, The Studio & Co. It’s an old auto shop and complex of converted shipping containers shared with five other artists — and a coffee roaster — at Hastings on the Western Port…