Indholdsfortegnelse for January 2026 i Country Style

HAPPY NEW YEAR! This January, I’m celebrating a significant birthday. I’m turning 50, and I’m excited about it. Not just the celebrations – and I do have a few planned: family only; with friends; a girls’ weekend away – but I am grateful to have clocked up a half-century. I feel better about turning 50 than I did about turning 20, 30 and 40. It’s freeing! From my experience, life does get better with age and there is so much to look forward to. I recently attended an event about longevity. The speaker was Michael Clinton, founder of Roar Forward and author of Roar Into the Second Half of Your Life. I am planning on doing exactly that! As a healthy 50-year-old, I can expect to live another 30 to…

UP UNTIL GIORGIO ARMANI’S Acqua di Giò Eau de Toilette was launched in 1995, I’d always been a Chanel girl. You could say I was educated in the art of fragrance while working at Vogue in Sydney in the mid-1980s, while living on the Northern Beaches. Acqua di Giò instantly transported you to an Italian beach (Armani was inspired by Sicilian island Pantelleria). Designed to be the scent of lazy summer days and freedom – aquatic, with sweet, fruity notes – I loved it. I’ve spent my life telling stories for a living. It used to be a well-paid job. Now, with AI, who needs writers? I could be smart and say I saw this coming and that’s why I started making perfume, but that’s not what happened. I wrote…

AFTER CREATING A LUXURY WEEKENDER in the grounds of their beautiful weatherboard home at Red Hill, on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, Richard and Becky Bournon were keen to do it again. They started looking around for another project, this time with Becky’s sister Kirsty and her husband, Evan, who just happens to be one of Richard’s best friends. “We actually introduced Evan and Kirsty; one thing led to another and now we’re all one big, happy family,” explains Richard. When Richard spotted a 1970s fibro beach shack in Rye, on the traditional lands of the Bunurong people, it piqued his interest, despite its rather quirky appearance. One woman had lived in it for 36 years, so the two-bedroom cottage was like “stepping back in time”, according to him. “There was old…

HELLO, HAPPY NEW YEAR! It’s a new year in the garden, and have you told your bees? ‘Telling the bees’ is an old European tradition where beekeepers inform their bees of major household events – typically births, deaths and marriages. The belief is that if the bees are not told, they may die, or abandon the hive. This tradition is thought to have roots in Celtic mythology, where bees were seen as messengers between the living and spirit worlds. We knock gently on the hive to get the bees’ attention, and impart the major news of the day. By including the bees in life events, the hope is they will remain healthy, productive, and loyal to their keeper. After the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, Royal Beekeeper John…

I HAVE A REAL SOFT SPOT FOR A BARBECUE CHICKEN. Not the one known as a ‘bachelor’s handbag’, but a chicken that has been spatchcocked, rubbed with a spice mix and cooked on either an inside or outside ribbed grill. A little like listening to test cricket, the smell and taste of the char takes me back to the innocent summer days of my childhood, when life was less complicated and less convoluted. The term ‘spatchcocked’ refers to cutting the backbone out of the chicken and flattening it so you can cook it flat. The easiest way to do this is to insert a large cook’s knife into the cavity and crunch down on either side of the backbone. Alternatively, you can cut the backbone out with a pair of…

OUR EVER-CHANGING ENVIRONMENT is a hot topic (pun intended) with air miles, carbon footprint and recycling the topic of many dinner party conversations. Things became more focused at a recent dinner when our host picked up a bottle of big, bold Barossa shiraz and poured generously – only to discover it was already empty. The bottle was so heavy that she thought it was still almost full. The kitchen scales confirmed the issue – the empty bottle was 1.030 kilos. It was so rotund that my hand grappled with its immense girth. No names or pack drills for the offending winery. By fate or fortune, the next day my inbox pinged with a press release from the Margaret River Wine Association, announcing ‘Australia’s first regionally focused Lightweight Glass Packaging Charter’.…

SOME MIGHT SAY TASMANIA is an unusual destination for a holiday in July. Yes, it is cold, but the days are sparkling and clear, and at night the sky is lit up with millions of stars. The island state seems to come alive at this time of year and that famous air is even fresher. Having booked The Post House in Carlton, a 40-minute drive from Hobart and just 25 minutes from the airport, I knew I’d be tucked up warm and cosy in a building that has stood against time and the weather for 184 years. When Dr Hannah Chapman and her husband, Stuart, found the former post house on the banks of the tidal Carlton River, it was in a state of disrepair. “The Post House had endured…

FAR HORIZONS Aaron Tait, Hardie Grant, $22.99 Books can surely never die as long as this level of excitement is on offer; experiences that film can never match because you’re inside the narrator’s mind. Tait is 17 when he’s dispatched, barely trained, to the Middle East, where he’s part of a small team of specialist divers who soundlessly approach and then arrest smugglers shipping oil out of Iraq. (Australian successes outstripped the combined total of US and UK ‘scores’.) When he returned to Australia to complete his contract, Tait was already tormented by regret at the lives lost in combat. The military psychiatrist assigned him to six months PTSD leave. He went first to India with a wish to do good in the world. But then he went to Brazil,…

THE REAL DEAL Just prior to some recent travel, my son and his wife gifted me a Kindle for my birthday, knowing I love to read on holiday but have no room to carry books with only carry-on luggage. I returned home and treated myself to the Country Style Christmas edition. Oh, the joy of glossy pages, beautiful images and stories. The scent of a new magazine is divine, as I rustle leisurely from page to page. I enjoyed the convenience of the Kindle but love the look and feel of Country Style. So much so, the reward of a delicious Christmas pud from Pudding Lane with a subscription sealed the deal. I am looking forward to all my 2026 editions! I am all set for Christmas with styling and…

FOR DESIGNER, ILLUSTRATOR and author Melissa Mylchreest, the effects of the pandemic are evident in her life to this day. A small business owner, Melissa’s world changed overnight when New South Wales went into lockdown on March 30, 2020. “Everybody just stopped calling, my design business stopped instantly,” she says. “It was incredibly stressful.” With no work coming in and her business, King Street Press, in a state of flux, Melissa was forced to take a step back from the hectic life she’d become used to. To alleviate some of the pent-up stress caused by the prolonged uncertainty of lockdown, she started taking long walks near her home in Shoalhaven Heads, NSW. “In the beginning, it was just about moving until I felt better; it was the only way I…

“TIME HAD TAKEN ITS TOLL, and Rosalie was not in great shape,” says Leanne Kross about the timber cottage that she and her husband, Mark, started renovating in late 2022. The couple, who are in their 50s, live in Noosa, Queensland, where Leanne is a primary school teacher and Mark is a deputy principal. Rosalie is their country weekender in Wolvi, a rural locality in the Gympie region of the Sunshine State on Gubbi Gubbi Country. Their relationship to the century-old cottage dates back decades, and Mark’s connection to Wolvi runs four generations deep. “Mark’s mother spent her whole life in the Wolvi area, and so did her mother and grandmother before her. They all went to Wolvi school, as did Mark and his five siblings,” says Leanne, who was…

WHAT’S COOKING? Taking alpine architecture and Australian materials as their inspiration, Louisa and Al Harvey built their Brookfield, Queensland, homestead to connect with the landscape. Stacking doors and windows blur the threshold between indoor and outdoor, which is vital for Louisa, who works from home. “I have a view that inspires,” she says. The exterior palette includes ironbark decking, spotted gum cladding painted in Intergrain UltraDeck in Rich Chocolate, and a fireplace in Bowral Brown Austral Bricks. Al made the dining table. Visit carbineridge.com.au GET THE LOOK Make it yours FROM TOP Flynn glass tumblers in Green, $59.99 (set of four), from Temple & Webster. Relic salad bowl in Moss, $49.95, from Salt & Pepper. Belize wooden outdoor director’s chairs in Sage, $199.99 (set of two), from Temple & Webster.…

IF JANUARY HAD A THEME, IT WOULD surely be ‘ease’; a month in which to slow down and recharge after the year that was, with time to regroup and gather our strength and optimism for the year ahead. I don’t know if it is the heat, the post-Christmas lull, or the luxury of time off that seems to make time slow down, but whatever the reason, I’m all for it! In our house, all routine goes out the window in January, too – we sleep in, eat when we’re hungry, and spend our days pottering around the garden and playing with the dog. Bliss! Time in the kitchen feels unhurried, a luxury of no set mealtimes or early school drop-offs. The fruit bowl is full-to-bursting with magnificent summer fruit: mangoes,…

THERE IS A QUIETLY JOYFUL vibe on this overcast Sunday morning as the unloading of the longline fishing boat Total commences at a busy fishing port in Cairns. The task of getting their valuable catch off the vessel and to their own small factory nearby is traditionally a family affair. Skipper Kyle Lamason is joined by his older brother Rowan Lamason and his wife Kate – both owners and directors of Little Tuna, which specialises in producing high-quality locally caught asnd processed tuna. As it’s the weekend, Rowan and Kate’s three children – Euston, nine, Fin, seven, and Ruby, five – can also take part and marvel at the majestic, torpedo-shaped fish that are lifted from the deck of the Total and placed into chilled containers on the pier. Kyle…

Instagram A farming family has made this Californian bungalow in historic Ballarat into a picture-perfect pied-à-terre. “Loved staying here,” said @grapefarmcottage when we posted it on Instagram. “Absolutely gorgeous,” @shazzi54 commented, and we agree. On the App Store Country Style magazine Subscribe and download our app Download the Country Style app (it’s free!) to read our online stories, or combine it with a digital subscription to get every issue. Our digital magazines are as beautiful as print, plus you can customise font sizes and listen to an audio version. Newsletters homestolove.com.au/ country-style Our Country Style newsletters are always worth a read, full of news, house tours, and editor-approved travel tips. Scan the code to sign up. PHOTOGRAPHY MARNIE HAWSON…

ESTABLISHED PRE-COVID, the prolific gardens of this holiday home in MacMasters Beach, on the Central Coast of New South Wales, really came into their own during the long spate of lockdowns. A wall of native shrubbery along the shared driveway shields the house, while trees and grasses act in soft contrast to the charred-timber exterior. Upstairs, elevated decks and balconies look out to lush canopies with views to the beach beyond. Landscape designer James Headland of Pangkarra Landscape Design makes regular visits to the home – which belongs to a Sydney family – to check on its progress. “The aim was to create a sense of entry as soon as you come up the drive, as well as to enhance the sense of greenery when you’re inside looking out,” he…

CLAMS WITH LEMON RICE Feeds 4 It was on a holiday to the island of Skopelos that we first ate clams with rice. It was a warm summer’s afternoon, we were sitting with friends. The rice was lemony, spiked with fresh dill, the clams were the freshest ones we had ever eaten, and we remember thinking we just had to share this recipe in our next book. The best part is when the rice sticks to the clams, and you get to suck all the delicious juices from the shells. Mussels are a great substitute if you prefer them to clams. 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to serve 1 tablespoon salted butter 1 white onion, finely sliced 2 garlic cloves, crushed 300g medium-grain white rice, rinsed Zest…

can do Country cooks know how vital it is to have a stash of pantry recipes ready for emergencies: stand-by dishes we can whip up from jars and cans alone. Alison Roman’s Something from Nothing ($49.99, Hardie Grant) adds 100-plus delicious new options to that list. show & tell Head to Melbourne, Adelaide or Perth in February to watch renowned chef Yotam Ottolenghi in action. His live shows blend cooking demonstrations and storytelling with the warmth and humour that make him such a crowd-pleaser. Visit premier.ticketek.com.au still ama-Zin Mudgee’s beloved restaurant The Zin House has retired its degustation menu in favour of grazing-style share plates. Now called Zin Food & Wine, its homegrown dishes remain divine. lowefamilywineco.com.au/zin IN BLOOM Portmeirion pottery has been a delightful kitchen dresser addition for nearly…

SAND BETWEEN YOUR TOES, salt in your hair and fresh seafood on your plate – Australian summer memories are made of these. It’s exactly what you’ll find at Forster, a coastal town about three-and-a-half hours north of Sydney on the land of the Worimi people. Forster and its twin town across Wallis Lake, Tuncurry, have long been a top spot for laid-back family getaways thanks to the calm waterways, beautiful beaches and lush national parks, and the area hasn’t lost any of its charm over the years. Rather, a fresh wave of buzzy restaurants, bars and boutiques have added to its appeal. Among them is Wharf St, a craft gin distillery and restaurant co-owned by Tim Cooke and Jesse Roche. Tim grew up in Forster, and after a career in…

Lanolips Tinted Lip Balm SPF30, $14.95, from Mecca, offers long-lasting hydration and protection against damaging UVA and UVB rays. Infused with peptides, vitamin C and ceramides, Mecca Cosmetica Future Face Hydrogel Mask, $13, from Mecca, will brighten your complexion. Dry off after a dip with the Elmore Beach Poncho in Lemoncello, $119.99, from Sheridan. Made from Australian cotton, it has terry towelling on the reverse side. The lightweight Daily Hydration Mist, $44, from Ella Baché, provides hydration for up to 72 hours and prevents moisture loss with marine botanical extracts. Packed with argan and avocado oils, Haircare Nourishing Oil, $60, from Arbonne, shields hair from heat and styling damage, and reduces frizz. Technocolour One Hour Express Self-Tanning Foam in Caramel, $28.95, from Bondi Sands, is fragrance-free and delivers a warm,…

WHAT IS A WORK OF ART? I’m asking myself this as I look at the dapples on the coat of our very ancient thoroughbred mare, Belle. This is her 31st summer. I bought her for my daughter in 2007. It was not a sensible decision – she was too much horse for my young daughter. But her beauty healed something terribly broken in me. She was so elegant, so light on her feet. With her fine head, neat white star, black legs, mane and tail, and her glossy bay coat, she was the perfect model of a thoroughbred. She wasn’t easy – far from it – but for better or worse, she sure taught my daughter how to ride. Then, just as the two of them had got to know…