The Wild Blue Yonder
For my visitors who regularly revisit to view new photos, I added more photos on 6th January 2010.
My Peek-A-Boo Tree. It sits on a knoll in 'the wild blue yonder'. Lean up against it and you can see forever.
Greetings from rural Australia.
I’m Carol Jones and this is ‘My Place In The Bush’, where I live with my partner, Victor Pleshev, an architect.
And our three dogs. Feather, a Springer Spaniel X, Daisy Mae, a Collie, and Jake, a Rhodesian Ridgeback.
Home is Ilford, a rural village of just a few farming families in the glorious Central Tablelands of NSW.
We’re smack in the middle of a breathtakingly beautiful triangle.
Our Springer Spaniel X, Feather, Fishing At The Dam
We’re equidistant from the world famous vineyards of Mudgee, the beautiful hills of the historic regional town of Bathurst and the coal mining town of Lithgow.
With its original streetscape of workers bluestone cottages built in the 1800′s, Lithgow is undergoing a gentrification process by families eager to escape the rat race of Sydney.
We’re west of the Great Dividing Range, which separates Sydney from everywhere else in NSW.
My tree lined dirt road. My gate is just before my Lorraine Lea hedge. It's my only way in. And my only way out.
The famous Blue Mountains form part of this range. It’s the only city on the planet that’s world heritage listed.
I live on a secluded, eucalyptus lined dirt road, the Old Ilford Road, 250 metres off the Sofala Road, a secondary road that connects Mudgee to Bathurst.
My property is considered remote. Couriers don’t travel the Sofala Road. So all deliveries are made to my nearest towns of Kandos, where I pick up my mail and post parcels. And Rylstone, where Rylstone Ag Supply cheerfully – and helpfully – accepts all courier deliveries for my business.
Our Rhodesian Ridgeback, Jake. He's A Genteel African Who Loves To Keep Warm In The Hay.
My mail and a litre of milk are 40 kilometres away. The nearest hospital is an hour away. My vet is an 80 minutes drive. And the nearest neighbour can’t be seen or heard.
The oldest grave in Ilford is in Café’s Cemetery. The date on the tombstone is 1814.
The winters are cold and frosty. Minus 7C is a normal winter’s morning.
The summers are hot and dry. We’ve been as high as 45C, but the norm is about 32C.
When we arrived at the homestead in 1992, winter rains were plentiful and the summers were mild. 33C was considered a very hot day.
No more.
Our Collie, Daisy Mae, With Her Favourite Toy
Winter rains can no longer be relied on for winter plantings and summers get increasingly hotter.
The land is rocky and shaley. This is superfine sheep country. Superfine wool is grown on sheep who graze in paddocks with poor nutrients. In other words, the sheep are malnourished.
We were told by the Department of Primary Industry that we could never have a garden because of the poor soil.
No one gardens in Ilford, they said.
They were almost right.
The Australian Climbing Rose Lorraine Lea In Bloom On My Front Fence
Kay Moore, the wife of a son of one of the original farming families, has been gardening here for more than 40 years. She spent her first 5 years improving the soil with copious amounts of cow manure from their cattle herd.
I’m the second.
My property is 54 hectares. It was an over grazed, over cleared ex-sheep property in severe drought when we arrived in 1992.
My modest house was surrounded by a bare paddock of one hectare.
As Mark Café from Integral Energy says, visiting my property was like coming to the surface of Mars.
As an ex-New Yorker, I’ve lived only in apartments.
My two abodes in Sydney were terrace houses in Balmain NSW with small, postage stamp size gardens.
A hectare of poor soil is a challenge. So I read about gardening for 4 years before we planted anything. We arrived here poor as church mice, so the cost of major losses was too daunting for experimentation.
Lavender and Vinca jostling for space
Everything you see in my photo album was planted as a seedling or root stock. And much was raised by me from cuttings or seeds. I have a proper propagation garden that was in constant use for the first 10 years.
We’re now running out of space, so new plantings are limited to my vegetable garden. Which is another story.
Gardening keeps me fit and out of the gym.
I also take my dogs for a walk in the morning out in ‘the wild blue yonder’. That’s the back 50 hectares.
I live on the side of a hill and everything on my property slopes. You can’t place a three legged barbeque anywhere without having to prop up at least one leg.
My walking track that leads to the back 54 hectares and the 'Wild Blue Yonder'
If I’m walking downhill, then the return trip is uphill. Some of my morning walk is akin to walking up Mount Panorama, the world famous race track in Bathurst, to get back to the homestead.
My dogs are super fit. They look normal to me. But look like finely honed athletes compared to the less active, porky, over weight dogs now found in towns and cities.
Ditto for me. I’m so fit, strong and energetic, I could pull a plough. I’ve been known to split wood for our fireplace when Victor’s been tied up with urgent architectural deadlines.
It’s time to get on with the show. I hope you enjoy the view.
Now you know where I live. I hope you’ve enjoyed the view. I love comments, so feel free to share yours with me.
Take care,
Carol
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow ! how heavenly. Absolutely “blown away” with the picturesque views; in awe of those magnificent colourscapes of plantings; agaped by your God given strength and perserverance; inspired by your wisdom, ingenuity, (and direct eye contact); entertained by your characteristic humour; and hoping that one fine day, I shall be destined to meet you, your Victor, and your three best friends. THANKYOU CAROL, I so enjoyed “stopping by !” Beverley.
BEVERLEY,
It’s an absolute pleasure to have you stop by. And your comments do make me smile! Keep coming back as I have lots more photos to add. So I hope to see you again soon.
Take care,
CAROL
CAROL,
Your recently extended pictures are truly a beautifully presented gallery beyond measure. I shall send you a “special thankyou” for this absorbing visit.
In appreciation,
Take Care,
BEVERLEY.
BEVERLEY,
In appreciation of your ‘special thank you’, I’m publishing your poem. It’s far too splendid to keep to myself. You are a woman of many talents! Thank you so much because I am deeply touched.
Take care,
CAROL
From Beverley:-