It's been a while since I've been here writing with something else taking up my every moment!! We have finally bought our long held dream farm..an 8 acre, 120 yr old house, & orchard filled with mangoes, citrus & macadamias in the beautiful Byron Hinterland village of Dunoon. Up from Lismore, inland from Byron & down from the exquisite village of Bangalow. Dunoon is the Macadamia capital of Australia (so the sign says on entering the village) Housed with a General Store filled with everything you need including your grog, a General Practitioner, a Post office, garage, local hall, club, fire station, two churches, a pre school & school Dunoon is a pretty little village surrounded by trees & tucked away on a ridge overlooking farmlands & Macadamia plantations. Why Dunoon? Well to be honest we weren't even looking anywhere near here..we had been looking around the Nambucca Bellingen area 4 hours south of here & had decided to settle in the pretty arty village of Bellingen..but as fate would have it we were out bid, out priced & out of faith in our longing to buy there when out of the blue an agent called to see if we were interested in looking at an old farm in the Hinterland that we'd never even seen or inquired about..and as the story goes it was meant to be..as soon as we saw it we fell in love..there was the 100 yr old farm house & garden that we longed to restore..there was the orchard & dairy bails that took me back to my childhood..and the big old tree near the house that I could imagine the swing seat attached too, a laden Christmas table under & many leisurely & happy family times eating and sleeping on the big verandah..well of course we have a way to go with the renovations (she is over 120 yrs after all) but already we are ecstatic sitting around the blazing open fire at night gazing up at the clear crisp night stars and wonder why we hadn't done this sooner..OK on with my Blunstones & back to work..now where did I leave my axe again..Cheers till next time.
