I’ve always wanted a walled garden, with espaliered fruit trees and roses growing against old bricks. Unfortunately this is completely out of my reach. For many years my husband and I owned a holiday lodge on an old estate at Marlow in the UK called Harleyford. Only
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During the formative years of one’s life there is no-one closer than an only sister who is around your own age. My sister Robbie and I were born just 16 months apart (I am the youngest) Until we were eight or nine we even slept in
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Home made magnolia syrup….what a joy this was to make and how delicious. I used the petals of the beautiful Magnolia stellata, one of earliest trees to flower here in the Blue Mountains. The mauve pink cups of Magnolia Soulangeana would be fine too. Here is a
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When I was growing up in Tasmania (1950s) there were always fresh flowers on the mantelpiece above our open fire in the lounge room. Among those I remember best are carnations, stocks, sweet Williams, dahlias, chrysanthemums and asters, none of which I grow myself, oddly enough. The
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A TRAUMATIC SOUJORN AT FOYERS HOTEL Late one autumn in the early 1970s I started work as downstairs maid and waitress at a run down hotel in the Scottish Highlands. How I came to be there on my own is complicated. I was on a working holiday
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My sister and I spent much of our 1950s childhood in Tasmania as foragers. It wasn’t that we weren’t well fed…. quite the opposite in fact. We lived on a dairy farm and our mother was a wonderful cook. But well, there is something special for children
Read more →Elizabeth Macquarie kept a diary during the long voyage to New South Wales in 1809. She confessed that life afloat had its advantages. For once, her husband was not absent due to matters of business; ‘I have spent my time in the manner which entirely suits my
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My father was born on October 4 1917.at North Motton, a small rural community in north-west Tasmania He was christened Arthur Newman Allen. The middle name of Newman was for his father. Arthur was for his maternal uncle, Arthur Singleton. However, Dad was always called Robin ….and
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Most Australian women have responded to the request. ‘Ladies, bring a plate.‘ Of course there has to be something on the plate. but more of that later. Oh my word, it’s amazing how much just four words can convey The phrase is part of our social history,
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Would you consider riding a kangaroo? I certainly wouldn’t, but the idea of doing so won me a great lunch many years ago. I have to say that the only prizes I have won in my life are for being very silly, and this was no exception
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