Let it rain

The forecast dump of rain over Easter has arrived, and we're not unhappy about it. For one, it's a stay home weekend anyway thanks to the coronavirus crisis. Two, we got a new rainwater tank this week! It's right at the back door and we're looking forward to collecting rainwater from the large roof area for use in the garden, for car washing and more. It seems a waste to use town water for these things, so even our small stainless steel tank will be very useful. Plus the tap on it is right at the back door, and I reckon we might drink some of it too. We got a bit spoiled living off rainwater tanks up on the hill for nine years, and the taste of town water is, well... no comparison. We've bought a water filter jug that sits permanently at the kitchen sink for our drinking water.

#quarantinebaking

We're not in official quarantine or self-isolation anymore. We stopped receiving the daily text messages from the government after our 14 days were up. But we are still isolating at home like pretty much everyone else right now. And like many others stuck in their homes, I've been doing a fair bit of "quarantine baking" or "iso baking" as it's now known. Bread, apple cake, choc chip cookies... and now my very first attempt at home made hot cross buns, using a recipe delivered in a timely email from Provincial Home Living during the week. If you want the recipe, scroll through their 2020 Easter catalogue here. I omitted the fruit peel (husband not keen on it) and didn't have the right attachment for my piping tube to get the crosses as flat as I'd like, but who cares. They tasted brilliant, plenty of cinnamon and spice and all things nice. Just add (lot of) butter and a hot cup of tea. And don't look at the scales, it's only bad news.

Remote working? My top five tips

I have worked from home full time for almost 10 years now and in that time I've learned a lot about how to do it successfully. But for many people currently in self-isolation or working remotely due to the Coronavirus pandemic, it may be the first time they've worked from home or at least the first long-term remote work stint for them, so I thought I'd share my top tips.

1. Get used to being on video. Not all of us are comfortable being on camera. I confess it's not my favourite thing, but I am a convert. In almost 14 years with my current employer, I have had regular video calls with my manager and my team, who are all based in other countries. Until the last year or so, it was mostly optional. Now, almost every meeting I am involved in is a conference call using video, often with 10 or more people on the call. Being able to see people helps to build relationships and reduces the temptation to multitask or tune out during a meeting. You can see reactions, smiles and gestures which can make a big difference. If you're a small business and don't have fancy collaboration tools, Skype or WhatsApp work just fine.
2. Do not work in your pyjamas. It's the cliché about working from home that I hate the most. Apart from during a few 6am conference calls, I can honestly say I have never worked in my pyjamas. I get up, shower, wear proper clothes and make up. It's a job, and you will not feel professional or motivated in your PJs. And related to the first tip above: you may be invited to a video call at short notice and sleep or leisure wear is not a good look. I usually go for the 'newsreader approach': hair brushed, makeup on and a professional top/jacket paired with comfy jeans and ugg boots.
3. Take breaks and move. It's very easy to sit at your desk for hours and then realise you haven't moved. I sometimes even forget to eat, especially seeing as I often have meetings during normal lunch hours due to time differences with the US and Asia. Set a reminder on your PC, smartwatch or Fitbit and make sure you get up and stretch regularly. Book exercise into your calendar. Having a dog means I walk for 20 minutes twice a day even if nothing else. I also love my standing desk.
4. Set up a work space. Where possible, find a dedicated space for your PC and other work equipment, ideally one that's not shared with your partner or kids. Recently I've taken to moving to different locations in the house during the day, just to mix it up and get a different outlook - or to get the best background and lighting for that important video call! 
5. Stop at the end of the day. I am much better at this than I used to be, but it can still be a problem during peak periods. However, one of the top benefits of remote work is the flexibility in hours. As long as you get the work done and deliver results (agreeing what those are is a key to successful management of remote workers), it's up to you to determine when and how. Especially in winter, I usually stop work at 4pm to walk the dog before it gets dark, then go back to work afterwards. I might go out for a haircut or medical appointment during the day and make up the time later. As long as I am meeting expectations, that is fine. I get much more done working from home than I do in the office, so I don't feel guilty about taking time out.

Remote work isn't new. The technology is available and not hard or expensive to set up anymore. It's not possible for all jobs of course, and even for work that can be done remotely, I understand it's not for everyone. However, I hope this current crisis serves as a wake-up call to organisations large and small who still do not allow employees to work from home or other locations largely for cultural reasons or a lack of management maturity.

I'm not unusual in the company I work for. In a crisis, our leadership team can tell all staff to take their laptops home and work from there indefinitely. It's been useful more than once, even as far back as during Japan's earthquake and tsunami disasters in 2011. And it's proving critical in the extended and constantly shifting COVID-19 crisis.

The view from my home office is pretty good, despite the fly screen!

Oktoberfest in the shed

On the second last day of the actual Oktoberfest in Munich, David and I hosted our annual fest at home, celebrating with around 50 of our closest friends - at least they were by the end of the night! Bratwurst, weisswurst, pretzels, sauerkraut, Bavarian potato salad, cucumber salad, tomato salad, apricot streuselkuchen (with cream of course), gingerbread hearts and plenty of German beer. Our big shed was decorated with Bavarian flags, posters, long tables and banners. And it wasn't just us dressed up in a Dirndl (me) and Lederhosen (him). Quite a few others got into the spirit of things too.

Rooftops

By moving into the village, we've swapped views of treetops and paddocks for views of rooftops from many of the windows. I love seeing the colourful corrugated roofs and brick chimneys on the old cottages and commercial buildings along the main street and those hidden behind. The bare trees are gradually being replaced with blossom and new green shoots. And from the front windows, we can see the Huon River flowing past. It's a pleasant outlook on all sides.

A cottage garden

The garden here at the Old Bank is a new experience for me. It's filled with cottage-y plants and flowers, like tiny daisies, hellebores, lavender, geraniums, hydrangea. I confess to knowing little about flowers, so my friend Karla kindly visited last week to show me how to prune the roses and help me identify the various plants. The garden space is small and wraps around the buildings. There's no grass, but gravel, garden beds and a cute little garden path of stones. In Sydney we primarily grew Australian natives. Up in the hills of Franklin, we were surrounded by native temperate rainforest trees and plants like native pepperberry and man ferns. I grew vegetables and planted some fruit trees as well as a few imports like maple, spruce, crab apple and ornamental pear. Here in our little winter garden, there are already so many flowers. There are bulbs starting to appear and I'm looking forward to seeing what they all are. The camellia bush is about to explode with fluffy pink blooms. Aren't they gorgeous?

Village life

It's been ten days since we moved down from the hills of Franklin into the centre of the village. This morning we walked across the road to the war memorial for the Anzac Day service, followed by a community breakfast at the Franklin Bowls Club. We've gone from having a large fenced yard to a small garden with no grass, so we take Gretchen across the road for regular short walks along the river. She's quickly settling in to being dog-about-town instead of farm dog. Yesterday evening we ran into friends on our walk who mentioned they were heading to the pub afterwards, so we met them there. Collecting our mail means wandering next door instead of a drive down the hill. There's a lovely little organic store only a short walk down the road, where you can refill your jars of dry goods like flour, rice and spices. David has had customers visit his main road office. And to my great surprise, the traffic noise hasn't kept me awake at all. I'm sure it will have its challenges, but so far village life is proving to be a nice change and an interesting little adventure.

We bought a bank

It's exciting times for us, as we look forward to moving into The Old Bank in Franklin next month. It's a building we've admired over the years, as much for the huge shed immediately behind it with so much potential as for the very solid brick building that is part of the village streetscape, and heritage registered for that reason. One night over pizza at the Aqua Grill, David raised the idea of buying it. It was on the market again after selling to a lovely couple a few years back. Before that it housed a Naval Museum which we visited with my parents some years back.

As much as David and I love all the beautiful old homes in Tasmania, when we first moved here our choice was to move into a newer house, for a few reasons. We were bringing a (small) house full of modern furniture with us from Sydney, such as a huge glossy white bookcase that wouldn't fit into an older home with low ceilings and cosy rooms. We couldn't afford to replace everything. We also needed to get back to work immediately and couldn't spend time renovating. I really admire the lovely renovated farm houses and historic homes we've visited here over the years, but I'm not sure I could do it myself. And so many older homes on the market at the time seemed so draughty and dark, with lots of wood panelling and small windows. So we bought an almost new colourbond home on 9 beautiful acres up in the hills, where we could move right in with all our existing stuff and get straight back to work. Almost nine years on, we're thrilled to now have a little piece of local history to take care of.

People keep asking us what we're going to do with the Old Bank. To be honest, we don't know. There are so many possibilities, lots of ideas floating around. So to start with, we'll be moving in and doing exactly what we are now - working a corporate job (me) and running a business (David). We'll have a mortgage again, so we can't go crazy! It will be a significant lifestyle change for us, living on the main road in the village. I'll miss the sun first thing on winter mornings, the silence and delicious tank water. I have to sell my chooks. But we'll be right across the road from the river! We'll have bin night! We can walk to buy a coffee, a pizza or a cider! There's a bus stop at the door, hardly any garden and so many rooms! It's time for a change and I'm looking forward to it.

After the fires

On Monday we were able to return home, thankful and relieved. Hooray! We did a huge pile of washing and emptied and repacked our suitcases (properly this time) in case we needed to evacuate again. Made a dash to the vet as our old dog Baerli didn't seem well. There was still thick smoke and a constant stream of fire trucks and heavy equipment going up our road and choppers going over which made me uneasy, but we found out they were back burning and clearing fire breaks behind us. The yard and paddocks are littered with blackened leaves and chunks of bark. Things could have been a whole lot worse.

Our kind host during the time we were away from home had warned me that the time after the fires might be hard. That coming down after being in a constant state of worry and high alert can take its toll. The Beyond Blue web site has some information on looking after yourself after a disaster, but somehow I don't feel like David and I experienced a "disaster" as such - we are safe and well, as are our animals and the house. It's 10 years since the horrific Black Saturday fires in Victoria, which killed 173 people. We know how lucky we are that Tasmania has seen no loss of life in the current spate of bushfires.

I confess I've wished our house had burned down. Only a fleeting thought, but the "what if" discussions (and black humoured banter) between us and our dear neighbours during the evacuation time sparked my imagination. Maybe we could just pack up and go housesitting around the world, use the insurance money to buy a nice camper and go sit next to a beach for a while, rebuild the kind of home we'd really like... or any number of new and interesting options. Instead, it's back to the grindstone and struggling with two weeks of backlog at work, a pile that I can't see any way out from. Nothing exciting ahead.

Today it's raining, good solid rain that should dampen the fires that are still burning out of control around the state, help consolidate the work of the firefighters, refill our tanks and make the garden happy. We've had 30mm today and it looks like the rain is falling where it is needed here in southern Tasmania. For that I am grateful. And happily, Baerli has perked up again now that the weather is cooler and she's back in her favourite spot on the lounge.

Christmas pranksters

When we go away for a night, our dear friends and neighbours kindly pop over to feed and pat the dogs, and let the chooks out on the day we return. They also like to play a prank and see how long it takes for us to notice! Clearly we aren't very observant, because it took us several days to spot that they had swapped out several album covers in our wall display the first time around, and replace them with such tasteful classics as Ripper (1975).

This time it was one of the "robot family" in our front paddock that copped it. David made them from old computer parts and there they sit in all weather, greeting the (very few) people who drive past. Sometimes people stop to take photos of them and kids hug them! Since our recent trip to Melbourne to see Smashmouth, one of the family has taken on a distinctly Christmassy look.

Warming the bones

The flannelette sheets are gone from the bed. We're wearing fewer layers of clothing - no more "double pants", as we call it when you wear tights or thermals under your trousers. No more puffy jackets. The sunny days have been perfect for getting outdoors. We've had to start watering in the garden again, which I kind of enjoy doing in the longer evenings after dinner. Yesterday, we were able to tick a job off the list that required a dry and sunny weekend: staining the chook shed to protect the wood from the elements.

Every single one of our young fruit trees has flowered this year: the quince, the medlar, the plums, the peach, the cherries, apples, pears and even the apricot tree that we've had no luck at all with so far.

 And best of all - the warmer weather is perfect for a beer in the garden with the dogs at the end of a day of getting stuff done. Hard to beat.

Fresh air chair

A while back I was listening to Peter Cundall's gardening talkback on ABC local radio in the car on a Saturday morning, when a woman called to ask how she could get rid of the pale green lichen growing all over her apple trees. "Oh no," said Peter. "You don't want to get rid of it. It shows that the air at your place is the cleanest in the world!" Our fence posts and now even the outdoor table and chairs brought down from Sydney with us are covered in this pretty pale green stuff too.

In the orchard

This year, our little Williams Pear tree has excelled itself, producing a bumper crop of large fruit with delicious sweet, soft flesh. They are quite unlike the floury ones with very thick skins that we got from the same tree last year. There are a few Josephine pears yet to ripen too. This year we've also had our first Victoria plums which are very tasty indeed, although the Angelina plum tree next to it did not fruit at all this year.

Next to ripen will be a couple of varieties of apples (Cox's Orange Pippin and Pink Lady) and some Josephine pears. I'm so happy that our tiny orchard is starting to bear fruit.

A neighbourly delivery

We are lucky to have neighbours who've become dear friends. We share a lot of laughs and food and good times. We have plenty of excess eggs to share and my neighbour is a whiz at preserving and bottling. Yesterday morning, this load of 'experimental jams' arrived. I can't wait to try the sloe gin strawberry and the frangelico peach!

And yet, because of where we live, these 'neighbours' are at least five minutes walk away, so we have our own space and don't get in each other's hair. Unlike when we lived in Sydney and had five neighbours on our immediate boundary... we heard every argument and smelled every meal and cigarette. I don' miss that one bit.

Beeswax food savers

As well as a few plants, I also picked up some pretty beeswax cloth food covers from the Market @ Franklin last weekend. You warm them slightly in your hands and shape them around the food or container. Cheese, snacks, fresh ginger, fruit and veg... anything but meat. You need to keep them away from heat, and either just wipe them clean or rinse under cold water. After only a couple of days of using them, I'm hooked. Much easier than plastic wrap and better for the environment. Apparently they last at least six months, and when they're dead, you can compost them or use them as fire starters. And they smell nice. Like honey.

Chook mansion

No really - it IS a mansion. It even said so on the box. On Saturday we finally had a day of beautiful weather to be working outdoors, and spent it constructing a kit chicken coop ordered online from Backyard Chicken Coops. It was surprisingly easy to put together. Whoever designed the kit really thought of all the little details and the instructions were clear. The finished house looks fantastic and now I just need another day of clear-ish weather to add the straw bedding and move in our 12 hens and Vladimir the rooster. Can't wait to see them all settled in!

Seven years in paradise

Yesterday marked seven years since we arrived at our little piece of paradise in Tasmania's Huon Valley. So much has happened and yet so little has changed. The weather yesterday looked almost exactly the same as the day we arrived.

Compare the photo of me in the very first post on this blog, when I looked a little dazed from the relocation, the dislocation. The sun rises noticeably north at this time of year - see the shadow in the photo above - and dews are heavy. Fog starts to appear in the valley, but up on the hill, it's usually sunny.  The occasional patch of frost. A few snowflakes falling. Some dark and moody days heralding winter.

Autumn is a spectacular time in the valley. Moving to Tasmania was definitely one of the best decisions we ever made. I am so grateful we've landed here.

Backyard of Fires

Okay, it's not exactly the famous Bay of Fires in the north east of Tasmania, or a tourist attraction, but we have a lot of rocks at our place that are also covered with a striking bright orange lichen.