SOUTH ACRES FARM

PROGRESS!

Taken early one morning with the first rays of the sun just catching the petals of the lilly.

Since the last posting, I've had a wee break up at the Gold Coast.  It turned out to be just what we needed.  My oldest daughter who has two little girls under the age of two and my youngest daughter who recently sat the Gamsat Examinations (to qualify for Med. post grad) were my companions.  Our destination was the Cabarita Ocean Retreat  We landed at Coolangatta airport where a driver met us and drove us to the retreat -  just 20 mins away.  The complex is literally meters from the ocean and there is the most beautiful beach.  We enjoyed three days of gluten free, sugar free eating but never felt hungry.   

Our welcome lunch

The food was delicious and we have come away inspired and are cooking all sorts of new meals, using new ingredients.  

Quinoa, lots of raw veg and my current favourite - hemp seeds - cooked this week!

Early wake-up calls had us down on the beach, breathing beautiful seaside air while doing tai chi and then walking briskly.

  

Dawn

There is a tremendous amount of physical activity  each morning and the afternoons are set aside for spa treatments.  My girls who are both fit,  found it all quite challenging.  Needless to say,  I did not join them for everything!!

our first stroll to the beach after our arrival

Back on the farm again things have been moving apace.  We had our first official site meeting in Bowral.   We received some bad news.   The soil base had been compromised by the demolition.  The engineer insisted that 163 holes would need to be drilled and  concreted which would result in a solid base upon which the house will be built.  This has incurred extra costs which we had not bargained for unfortunately - not the best way to begin a project.

Mr R-I talking to Richard the foreman

Steven - our driller who seemed very happy to have his photo taken!!!

The "boardroom" where we have our site meetings!

On the home front.  I move in two days.  The  farmhouse looks like a bazaar .... piles of stuff all over the place as I try to make sense of it all.  The washing machine has been going non-stop as I  want  all of the linen/towels etc.,   fresh and clean before going into storage.

In between all of this,  I am still making decisions regarding the new house.  At the site meeting on Tuesday,  decisions   regarding final choice of bathroom fittings had to be made .... eeeeek.... as I get older I seem to be more and more indecisive.  I have struggled endlessly with a final decision regarding the flooring through the house.  Entry - wooden floors.  Kitchen/breakfast - tiles or wood .... Gallery which is a wide passage connecting one side of the house to the other .... tiles.  On the one hand,  I rather love the black & white tile look in a kitchen but not in the breakfast/TV room area - where I would prefer wooden floors.  These two areas flow into each other so there would be a join.  Anyway... I wont bore you with these endless choices,  but suffice to say that I am boring everyone else within my orbit!!  I am also rather obsessed with fabrics and my current fave is William Morris ... don't ask me why ... I think his designs are wonderful.

So.. tonight is my second last night on this wonderful farm.  I am about to make scrambled eggs for supper -   
Tomorrow the packers arrive.

I'm not sure when next I'll be posting.  I have to figure out a way of changing over to the new blog!! - any suggestions will be most welcome! 

THE LIME WALK