Monday, October 27, 2008

MY WORLD ~ 2 Why I live where I live

In 1983 in a massive bushfire, we lost our historic
house and 3 acre garden on the ridge of Mt. Lofty
overlooking Adelaide, the capital of South Australia.
Nine years later, after having partly rebuilt our house
we finally received some compensation for our losses.
The steam for rebuilding, which to a great extent we
had done ourselves, had been knocked out of us, and
we never again wanted to see another workman, who
damaged what the last set had just finished.
At this point my husband who was overstretched at his
work gave in to my urging to aquire some rural land to
replace our lovely 60 acres on the Murray river which
we sold to National Parks to finance some of the rebuilding.
We bought our first piece, ninety one or thereabouts acres,
I loved the thereabouts!, a freestanding almost tree bare
block with bore, windmill and small shed, bordered by four
roads.
Thus started our Odyssey. Other people were carving up
land into ever smaller parcels, we were the nutters putting
a farm back together, planting thousands of trees along road
verges and in paddocks for wild life corridors.
We bought the block across the road, our Moon Hill paddock
which our cows love since the bore water is rich in minerals.
We had by this time a flock of sheep needing shearing and the
larger property with a farmhouse of the 1850's, shearing, hay
and implement sheds abutting Moon Hill was for sale. With the
sale of our daughter's house in the near by township, and my
mother-in-law's help, we managed to buy it. Our daughter and
three grandchildren moved to the farmhouse and were happy.
With time the block at the end of our dirt road we also acquired.
All four blocks are congruent and total 200 hectares or almost
500 acres, which for local conditions is a small subsistance farm.
When my mother-in-law could no longer manage, she moved in
with our daughter into purpose built additions to the old house.
We were four generations happily enjoying hard work and
togetherness. My husband and I inhabit the "hovel", a 70's
grey brick barracks of a place meant for 3 single jockeys.



A frosty morning with crab apple blossom Malus
floribunda, in the garden I carved out of a rocky
paddock



the pine roots at the garden end of the house were
invading my garden 50m away and sucking out
the last drop of moisture, so they had to go.



Part of the spring garden beds which repaced them.



The front yard with stables and sheds and grass for
the grandchildren to play on.



Isabella and her lamb, one of our rare breed English
Leicester flock.



A view across our paddock yesterday to the tree
lined back road and our back block beyond.



Happy cows on a lush spring paddock.

My thanks to the My World team for the great
work they do on all our behalf.

The Logo on the right will lead you to many more
interesting isights.

82 comments:

  1. How utterly beautiful Arija. My older son has always had this idea of us buying a large piece of land together and having all of us live there. I like the idea too, but Jim doesn't!! He likes his own space. It all looks so idyllic. Our cottage is also a bit of a hovel and we hope to improve it before too long.
    xx

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  2. Sounds to me like you have a nearly perfect setting.Children and grandchildren close,nature all around. It all sounds so peaceful,but I'm sure it involves alot of work.

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  3. What a beautiful place to live! The pictures are wonderful. Those purple flowers are wonderful. My favorite photos are the cows in the flowers and the ewe with lamb. Just terrific!

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  4. A wonderful post...I sure enjoyed my visit here.

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  5. Wow - that is cool! When can I move in? What a great story and most of all great area to live with a multi generation family!
    Cheers, Klaus

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  6. I am in awe of what you are doing here. You tell a great story, and I thank you for sharing your life and world in words and pictures.

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  7. You really have the pioneer spirit and have carved a beautiful place to live despite hard conditions. This is trememdous and I'm glad you shared this! Blessing to you and your family!

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  8. Great nature environment .
    I hope that I can find the place like that for my retirement.

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  9. I love those purple meadows, what a great place to live and an intersting post

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  10. Beautiful post. Have been to SA several times, but never to Mt Lofty.

    By the way, SA features strongly as a real geographical location in my first novel, Vegemite Vindaloo. It's coastal SA, the old whaling coast, the Eyre Peninsula, the Bunda cliffs, etc.

    In answer to your question, I'll find out the name of the building!

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  11. What a perfect place to live! Land is something we don't have here in singapore,most of our population lives in high rise apartment.

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  12. Great post. Thanks for sharing. And may I say, I really love that last photo of the cows among all of those purple floers. Beautiful!

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  13. So many people have commented already so I will try to be brief. This is a wonderful story that turns a tragedy into the beginning of a glorious happening. I like how you quietly and deliberately wove the story and illustrated it with the most awesome rural landscape photos. I will end with a question: what are those beautiful purple flowers that the cows get to enjoy?

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  14. Thank you for the wonderful tour. This 2nd week of meme really makes us appreciate the many places that we don't usually see or ever had a chance to visit like the one you showed me in this post. Hope you get to have time to check my world too. Another great job and more to come in the coming weeks.

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  15. Your world is so beautiful! I would so love to get into this lifestyle. But I do love my mountain by the sea for now!

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  16. Arija, you live in an amazingly beautiful part of Austalia. That bush fire must have been awful, we saw it on TV and I often wondered how all the people who lost their houses, managed to set their lives on the rail again. You did well and I amhappy for you!

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  17. Fun staying together. I get this chance for short time intervals mostly during festivals. :)Nice shots of your place.

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  18. Such wonders! This place you have built ,with love, imagination and hard, hard work; it's amazing.Such an achievement Arija, you planted magic everywhere!
    In my imagination there is a small corner there for Rowan and me. How she would love it and we could chat for hours!!
    I never saw such beautiful, happy cows and in such a pretty field.What breed are they?
    I could go on and on, suffice to say . . . . aaaah!

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  19. Wow your place is great especially the flowers i like those....TC

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  20. You have a wonderful story, I see a great memoir, waiting to be written. Perhaps you've started. Love the photos, too. Thank you.

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  21. Looks like a beautiful place you live in. Wonderful garden. And the animals is so nice. Beautiful post:)

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  22. What a fantastic area you are surrounded by... so blissful in nature. But gosh, it does sound like some days can involve a lot of labor, I can imagine... but very rewarding in the end... a wonderful post!! =)
    ~Michele~
    Mountain Retreat- Canada

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  23. Great your Odyssey. Beautiful your World.

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  24. Gorgeous photos, thanks for the tour and for telling your story.

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  25. Vey beautiful place...
    Purple flowers are very nice !

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  26. What a loss in 1983! Looks like you made the best of it though because your current lifestyle a[[ears to be pretty close to perfect. ;-)

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  27. Wow. I'm so impressed by the commitment you and your husband have to not only return to the land but improve upon it. Look at the tree line. The others are the nutters for sure. Just seeing the sheep and her lamb fills me with warmth. Thanks for sharing.

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  28. beautiful! You tell a wonderful story of your world as well, thanks for posting it :)

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  29. Thanks for showing us and writing about your world... That last shot of the cows in the pasture is fabulous...

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  30. What a beautiful place. Thank you so much for sharing your personal history and your lovely part of the world.

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  31. Oooo, those flowers are so beautiful. The fields are filled with colourful flowers. The part of the world where you come from is so beautiful. Have a nice day.

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  32. hmm...that wasn't actually Isabella, it was her cousin...I'd know... ;-)

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  33. Beautiful! I love that 4 generations are living together. So much history the grandchildren can learn from the grandparents too.
    Enjoyed my visit here so much.
    thanks
    Great photos.
    Pam

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  34. Your place looks lovely. I love rural settings. You pictures show me a beautiful peaceful place,

    An Arkie's Musings

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  35. I am simply delighted with this post; both with your story and with your photos. Your world is just fantastic. All the photos are breathtaking but the first one and the last two photos are my favourites. I’d never seen such a stunning scene like the photo with the cows on a lush spring paddock. I am really impressed that much that I cannot stop looking at it.
    I also like your previous post very much. And your flowers; it is a story for itself; pansies and roses and other flowers are simply gorgeous!
    Thanks for sharing all this beauty with us!

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  36. I'm still smiling... enjoying your post & the images.

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  37. What an idyllic place you live in. And the roots you've planted is inspriring. We haven't live long enough in one place so it's nice the read your story.

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  38. Wonderful post and the most beautiful photo's. Thank you for sharing your part of the world with us!!
    Take care

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  39. Beauty in the eye of the beholder, great shots, love the cows.

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  40. That looks like pretty close to Heaven. Great photos.

    Thanks for sharing and I look forward to more.

    I don't comment very often, but I really enjoyed this.

    thanks for the visit,
    Troy and Martha

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  41. simply beautiful world you created for yourself and your family. it's worth showing and thanks for sharing this with us.

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  42. I love your story, and your pictures are proof that you did the right thing. Beautiful!

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  43. Massive bushfires are such a nightmare...
    Your pictures are wonderful, your world is absolutely beautiful!!

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  44. It looks just sublime! The cows in the blue flowers. Isabella. The huge sky. Heaven.

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  45. This is a very passionate and beautiful post! I can tell you have a deep love for the land and your family. I enjoyed the visit and the lovely scenery.

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  46. I left earlier one comment, but it vanished somewhere.
    I am happy for all of you, that you have after hard work so wonderful place to live. Hopefully you will get rains enough to your plants.
    My best wishes to you and your family!

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  47. Wow. That is so beautiful. Some day I would love to visit your country.

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  48. Wow! Beautiful and a dream come true for me! I'd enjoy a hard earned place to live at with family that I love.

    I love all the shots but I'd be particular with the tulips!

    Do enjoy it there and thanks for your visit and comment too!

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  49. I am so pleased that somehow I happened upon your site!! I love your story about how you nurture your land and care for it as well your farm animals!! You are my kind of human being on this planet earth! I can tell that you are a giving and happy heart as well your family! LOVE the image of the cows in the lavender field!!.. sigh
    I notice from your portrait photo that you love roses..well come on by my Canadian blog and scroll down to see my prize roses still blossoming as Jack Frost approaches!
    I've bookmarked you so I can stop by again!
    Good day! NG

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  50. what an amazingly beautiful place...envy envy

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  51. One day I hope to visist your part of the world, it's always been a thing on my to do list. Lovely post. Looks like a peaceful relaxing place to live.

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  52. You have done wonders with the land you acquired. And you created beautiful natural vistas. The flowers in my post are on an orchard, where we buy peaches, apples, cider and pumpkins. The flowers are for sale, cut your own. They also sell a few potted plants. I wandered through the rows of flowers taking pictures of butterflies.

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  53. Wonderful story, something to be proud of. Beautiful area too. Your shots seem to have a soft feel that I love. Thanks for sharing.

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  54. What a beautiful piece of property. love the gardens.

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  55. What a beautiful way to live, surrounded by nature and what you created.

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  56. What a story! You are in a beautiful place and you are extending the beauty through your work and your blog! Thanks for this.

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  57. What a great story and the pictorial to go with it was really pretty! Thanks for the tour!

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  58. Very pretty area. How nice that you've been able to acquire the surrounding land.

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  59. Those lambs and cows look so cute and happy there. Thanks for showing around your beautiful place.

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  60. "Louis" appreciates your story - and he also appreciates the photo of his Australian cousins... ;-)

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  61. Arija..out of such tragedy come triumph..how beautiful and wonderful that you are helping to keep the land whole and not broken up and that you were able to be there with your whole family..lucky family and lucky animals..lovely story..

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  62. Dear Arija, thank you for sharing your life story!
    What a wise decision to buy the old farm and build a home for a family of four generations!
    It seems to be hard work, but it seems to make happy.
    I was born on a small farm near Vienna where 3 generations lived together. Work was hard, but these first three years of my life in an extended family gave me a feeling of security in life.

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  63. These landscapes are magical - I'm happy to have a chance to meet and know world's "stories" from everyday point of view thanks to you and other members from "My world". Thank you for your visit and greetings from Croatia.
    Sandra

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  64. Lovely, lovely photos of your farm! I grew up on a farm in Tennessee, USA and actually had one of my own for eight years, raising TN Walking horses. I treasure those experiences. Your fields and gardens are beautiful.

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  65. What a fabulous post, and such endearing photos.

    Thanks for sharing such beauty!

    - celine
    http://indicainq8.wordpress.com

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  66. Arija, I love to see the details of your life.. how things change and evolve.. things drop by the wayside to be replaced by new comforts.. when we thought we could never be happy again,, we find it hiding there..

    I love the photographs.. and the Leicester Sheep.. I used to have some.. and I miss them

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  67. What an idyllic place Arija! And what a treasure for you to be able to share it with your children and granchildren and at the same time instill in them the love for the land and all its gifts.
    With padlocks like the ones you have, I wouldn't even mind to be Isabella ;)
    I am so glad the fires didn't bend the spirit and instead your family turned everything into more blessings.

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  68. What an interesting and beautiful post and the pictures too. How lucky we bloggers are to be able to live vicariously through posts like this.

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  69. Beautiful scenery.... I so enjoy coming here and share your part of the world... thank YOU!

    cielo

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  70. That looks absolutely gorgeous!

    I really love the countryside, but my boyfriend is a born and bred city boy, so I doubt I'll ever have such wide views again. Must be delightful to live where you live!

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  71. Nutter? Well then I'd be a nutter too, because I would have done nothing differently!
    Beautiful post
    Sandi

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  72. How lovely. You are in such a teriffic place! Love the blue flower meadow and also the sky watch photos are great!

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  73. This is a story I LOVE !!
    Good onya.
    And I like your comment over at Reader Wil's today.

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  74. That is what I miss most about where my parents used to live, the ability to look out and see nothing but fields and trees.

    There is so much to see and so much to get lost in with scenery like that.

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  75. What a wonderful life course you have taken. The photos are a great depiction of your fabulous world. Thank you for sharing.

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  76. This a wonderful post, Arija, with great photos. Such a beautiful place you have after all the trials and tribulations.

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  77. I am enjoying your site SO much - What a beautiful place you live in!!

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