Someone said to me the other day “so, are you country people yet?” I had to laugh because we have been told that a general rule of thumb when moving from the city to the country is that even after 15 years since moving, you are still not considered a local.
But somewhere over the past couple of months, we’ve realised we’re beginning to feel more country than city, and it is a lovely breath of fresh air that I think we both knew we needed. It has now given us two months to feel confident enough to know we have made the right decision.
In some ways it feels like we have always been here and Sydney is just a distant memory. I know that we had the advantage of being here before and knowing the place, but we have just settled in and have a sort of routine now, and so many projects (still!)
Dad has also settled into his new house and is enjoying still being head of the gardening department, although there are still a few gardening debates. Apparently handing over Roseville didn’t include handing over all the gardening decisions.
We are teaching Toast that he can’t have exclusive access to all paddocks and the neighbouring paddocks and he is slowly learning, I think, what he can and can’t do. Hamish and Fergus have settled in beautifully. Although Fergus is still a bit shy, I did get a small pat this week. Whether he thought it was the enormous raindrops or my hand is another queston but he will eat out of our hands and gets very close, which is still progress. Hamish now lets me give him a full brush at his level and standing up. It is wonderful to spend afternoons in the paddocks as the light hits the trees and slowly sets behind the house.
Every afternoon feels spectacular.
We have already met so many people in town. As I had mentioned, it only takes going to the local coffee haunt for people to want to know whether you are passing through or staying and once we tell them we are here for good they are often up for a good chat.
A lady we met during our first week in Guyra saw us again recently and laughed,
“Oh good… you’re still here!”
Somehow that simple comment made us smile.
Maybe we’re slowly becoming part of the furniture.
We feel like we are making friends in the area and getting to know the ins and outs of a small town. The bottom pub that has been newly renovated is busy most weekends and really having no kitchen for two months has given us a chance to eat out and meet people that we may not have met otherwise.
Daily life is enjoyable.
There is always another project.
One thing we hadn’t expected was how much purpose every day would bring.
Another idea.
Another conversation.
Another list.
The other day I wondered whether my list was in fear of running out, only to jump onto something new – lots of potential ideas for sharing Roseville with others, which has now given me a whole new list of things I want to do and I have the time to do it. I am so lucky to have the ability right now just to settle in and see what the future holds with our next career options, if you can word it like that. Jaime is enjoying all the projects that he has in his head knowing he has the time to do them, so each day is filled with purpose and we sit back at the end of the day either in the paddock with Toast, Hamish and Fergus or by the fire with a glass of wine feeling satisfied by a good day with some sort of achievement.
It is the small satisfactions that I look at such as the King Parrots and Rosellas that come to the fountain and water troughs of a morning, the tiny sparrows that fossick in the garden beds, the way the light hits the tree in the main front paddock of an afternoon, the white frost covering everything of a winter morning, the glorious sunny days after a good frost (that seems to be every morning currently), watching the new roses we planted a month ago shoot new leaves and slowly seeing the garden getting ready for spring. As I write this I am looking out the window to a galah playing in the frozen water trough as 2 King Parrots drink out of the fountain and two foxes just having a stroll through the first orchard. I had to do a double take!
There is no day that there is nothing to do and there is no day that I don’t feel grateful for the ability to take a breath and enjoy all the beauty around us. To think I questioned whether this was the right move for so many reasons, and now I know we haven’t made a mistake.
Life has funnily taken us in a direction that neither of us ever expected, but it is a wonderful place to be right now. If you don’t know why we chose this life you can read About Roseville and the history here.
Perhaps becoming a country person isn’t about how long you’ve lived somewhere.
Perhaps it’s the moment you stop feeling like you’re visiting.
Someone asked me whether we were country people yet.
I still don’t know the answer to that.
But I do know this…
Roseville feels like home.
And for now, that’s more than enough.
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