Living in a small village was very different to the suburbs of Canberra! The girls were able to ride their bikes and go for walks and we knew they would be fine. Locals look out for each other and even though we were the newbies I knew that if I got into trouble because of my lack of vision someone would be there for me and we were certainly available to our neighbours if they needed us.
On the day I saw my first snake while out walking with Madeline, I was quite shaken when I got to the pub. One of our neighbours ended up driving us home and told me they were worried about me walking around with my lack of vision. I assured her that I would always have Madeline or someone with me after that. Our grass got quite long at one stage and I was obsessive about keeping doors shut and wearing gumboots or shoes when we went outside. I didn’t know how Madeline would react if she saw a snake and one day when Peter was moving some building material he came across a blue-tongue lizard. He got a bit of a shock before he realised what it was! Madeline was very interested. Our neighbours told us that the fact she was still alive meant she hadn’t come across one yet!
We slowly started to make friends and when we walked down the main street in Braidwood we were able to say hello to people we knew and this was really important. I still remember how I felt the first time I said hello to someone I knew at the Hyperdome after we had moved to Canberra. It was when I felt I belonged. One of our neighbours told us how he loved going into town to get the paper as it took him an hour and a half!
Living in the country during a major drought was an interesting time as everyone was obsessed with water and the lack of rain. We knew the area was in drought but living in the city it didn’t really mean much. There were water restrictions and we couldn’t water our gardens or wash our cars but we really had no idea what that meant out here. People who live in small country towns rely on rain for all their water. We watched farmers droving their stock day in and day out to find feed for them, let alone water. We have a 100,000-litre tank and when it was first built we bought some water to get us going. We had no idea how much rain we got in the early months of living here but we knew we felt left out of conversations regarding the amount of rain that had fallen around the area. We finally purchased our rain gauge and checked it religiously after any rainfall. During our first June here, we had 300mls! It was amazing. As we still were surrounded by dirt it was pretty hairy for us. We did spend a lot of time outside in the middle of the night making sure the trenches around the verandah were working. When the tank overflowed we couldn’t believe it. We had so much rain the overflow ran down the back paddock and created a massive puddle. Maybe this was the place to build a dam.
Eventually we started to plant trees and gardens. I am not a gardener but was very protective of my flowers and Madeline was not happy being kicked out of the dirt patches she liked to lie in.
As we were living in the country it was time to name our country estate! Home Malone was the working title for this project to move out here but the girls made it very clear this name would not appear on our gate! The quest for a name began. We thought about Malone Manor but Manor was on the gate across the road. We found out the names of some of the previous owners but nothing stood out. This area was a part of Falls
Farm and as we are in the ‘Falls Estate’ we thought about Falls Cottage. We saw some beautiful rainbows when it rained and we thought of Rainbow Cottage. Who knew it would be this hard to find a name? We discovered there is a house in the village called ‘Misthaven’ and one called ‘Misty Ridge’. Majors Creek is often shrouded in mist and a friend suggested ‘Misty Meadows’. We loved it and now have the name on our gate!
Weatherwise we often get the four seasons in one day! It can even be sunny and lovely here and foggy in Braidwood or visa-versa. We learned early to throw a jumper in the car all year round. We even get snow out here! The day it snowed heavily was fantastic. Peter was away and when I opened the curtains in the morning I thought we had a heavy frost. I called the girls and we went outside and realised this was no frost! The poor bunnies hutch was struggling under the amount of snow on its roof and I had to get a shovel and clear it. The girls were getting a lift to school that day and unbeknown to them the bus couldn’t get through but they had an amazing experience driving to school in the snow. As for me the power went out and as our house is fully electric I had no heating, could not see much and therefore went to bed. The power was off for about five hours and during the morning some friends dropped over to see if I was ok. I assured them I was going to stay in bed and they went off to check out the snow around the village. It was very exciting!
We were getting used to this new life and even with my problems we did ok. It meant we had to plan things and be organised but that was how I ran most of my life anyway. Emily joined the local soccer club and Saturday mornings became our main social event as we got to know the other girls and their parents. Caitlin and her friends also hung out at the soccer fields and it was a great way to meet people.
I joined the local VIEW club and enjoyed my monthly meetings with the ladies. Our neighbours would pick me up and drive me and it was a great way to get to know the local ladies.
Friday nights at the Majors Creek pub were the place to be as lots of locals went that night. We would pop down for a drink and a meal and end up staying for hours chatting on the verandah with our new neighbours.
When our friends came out from Canberra they were blown away by how pretty and quiet it was. They loved our house and realised we did not suffer from a lack of modern conveniences out here. I even cooked scones for our visitors. You could see the terror on their faces when I announced. ‘I have made scones!’ I got out the good crockery and cutlery, whipped the cream and scooped out the jam. Then came the moment when they had to eat. The scones were usually rubbery and overcooked but to their credit our visitors ate one or two and made appropriate noises about how wonderful it was to see me turning into Country Woman!
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