Country Style September 2021

I’m writing this month’s letter at home, instead of at the office. Greater Sydney is under stay-at-home orders and I am longing to get in my car and head out of the city. We regularly go away for long weekends to slow down and take in big lungfuls of fresh air. A couple of friends and I sometimes just go for the day to do a bushwalk and have tea and scones. It’s restorative and my way of coping with living in the city. It’ll be the first thing I do when lockdown and restrictions are lifted. I am looking forward to seeing gardens awakened by spring, flowers in bloom and trees with new green growth. From my temporary workspace at home (the dining table, which I share with my husband), I…

FIONA WALMSLEY From a multi-generational farming family, writer, photographer and farmer Fiona penned our new gardening column on page 86. Our new gardening columnist Fiona, 47, is lucky enough to live on the family farm, where her heritage goes back for more than 150 years. “I love the community, the space, the clean air, the pretty light, the people. Clichéd maybe, but true,” she says. “Everything that I hated about small towns as a teenager I love as an adult.” Now the farm in Gerringong, NSW, is at the centre of a busy life, which Fiona shares with her partner Adam, their three children Henry, 17, Matilda, 14, and Ivy, 11, plus cats Sebastian and Smoko, dogs Holly and Ace – “and a truly enormous pet pig called Sage”. CHERYL CARR Stylist Cheryl lives…

LIGHT IN LOCKDOWN I have been an avid reader/collector of Country Style magazine since 2006. So here I am, in our latest Sydney COVID-19 lockdown, pulling out my old magazines and re-reading all your amazing articles. I am so happy that I have kept my collection as I find the stories and photos just so inspirational. Thanks again, Country Style, for your continuing source of happiness! Oh yes, meant to say that I have been removing all the delicious Heirloom recipes to maybe try out while we are confined at home. Jennifer Cashman, North Manly, NSW From Kylie: We love receiving Heirloom recipes from our readers. Please send them to: kylie.imeson@aremedia.com.au THE JOY OF SHARING Each month, for a number of years now, I wait in anticipation for my Country Style magazine to arrive. The…

bird lovers NT Kakadu Bird Week, Sept 25-Oct 2 Kakadu is a UNESCO World Heritage-listed national park, home to more than a third of Australia’s bird species. So where better to explore and learn about these beautiful creatures? Kakadu Bird Week includes birdwatching expeditions, wetland cruises and cultural experiences. parksaustralia. gov.au/kakadu/do/events/birdweek NSW Tulip Top Gardens, Sept 11-Oct 10 Spring means tulips, and Tulip Top Gardens, as you might guess, is brimming with them. Owners Pat and Bill Rhodin have spent the past 27 years lovingly nurturing their four-hectare garden just outside Canberra, which features not only tulips but plenty of other spring flowers, as well as 1000 blossom trees. There’s even a waterfall and a lookout point. It’s one of the Yass Valley’s finest gardens – and it’s all looked after by the family…

WHEN I MOVED TO TASMANIA to start a new chapter in life, I brought with me two small children and a menagerie. The house I was to make my new home was filled with the remnants of The Farmer’s family, floating like flotsam and jetsam on a high tide. It was a tightrope to settle in, to make room for myself and my kids in a house that had sheltered and watched over three daughters, now grown up and making their own way in the world, but still very much attached to their home. In those early years, the garden and the paddocks were my refuge, but gradually I have come to layer new memories over this old house. And because of its age and because it’s seen it all before,…

ROSES HAVE LONG BEEN A SYMBOL of love, but for Amy Erbacher, the flower represents a deeper joy beyond looking pretty in her garden in Orange, NSW. “My daughter’s name is Rose, my mother’s name is Rosanne and my mother-in-law is Rosalind,” says the celebrity beauty therapist turned perfumer. So it’s no surprise the fragrance inspires her work. Growing up in Toowoomba, Queensland, Amy was drawn to nature and its scents. “I remember my nana’s rose garden and I was in awe of her little greenhouse beside their home. I have many fond memories of climbing out the window onto the trellis to pick grapes,” she says. A self-confessed foodie and keen cook, Amy could have become a chef, but her passion for beauty was ignited by her mother. “She would use natural…