Innehållsförteckning för Febuary 2023 från Country Style

THE YEAR doesn’t really get going for me until February (and new columnist Tilly Pamment feels the same). Late January passes with me clinging to that holiday feeling. Yes, I’m back at work, but after-work swims and lazy dinners keep summer alive. There is no school and therefore no lunch boxes, no pick-ups or drop-offs, no Saturday sport, no uniforms to be ironed. This year will be different, though, as my eldest is leaving home to go to university and live on campus. This is something that I did, too, but now I’m experiencing it as a mother, not as an excited but nervous 18-year-old. But I find myself excited and nervous again. I’m also resisting the urge – and it is strong – to say “don’t go” because this…

THE JEMMERVALE DESIGNS story starts with a cubbyhouse – yes, you read that right, a cubbyhouse. When searching for a cubby for his children, Paul Tucker turned to his wife, Jannah, and proposed the idea of making one instead. “I said, ‘You couldn’t make one!’” recalls Jannah, 36, with a laugh. “But he rose to the challenge and loved it so much that he just started making pretty much anything and everything we could think of.” Paul, 38, adds: “I wasn’t known for my handyman skills, let’s put it like that.” From there, Jannah and Paul – a schoolteacher and a HR manager respectively – turned their full attention to their new hobby and launched Jemmervale Designs. Paul handcrafts all the products, including stylish furniture and decor pieces made from…

BIGGER AND BETTER… Now in its fourth year, Country Style’s annual exhibition in partnership with Michael Reid is all about our magnificent coastline, that symbolic space where land and sky meet the sea. In addition the show will also capture the diversity of landscapes in between, from coast to coast. The exhibition will be held across Michael Reid’s NSW galleries in Murrurundi and Berrima. Visit the Berrima, Southern Highlands gallery for the opening drinks party on March 11, and other talks and activities relating to the exhibition. WHEN Thursday, March 2 – Sunday, March 26, 2023 WHERE Michael Reid Murrurundi, (02) 6546 6767; michaelreidmurrurundi.com.au; Michael Reid Southern Highlands, (02) 8353 3535; michaelreidsouthernhighlands.com.au Enquiries to jamesstokes@michaelreid.com.au…

WITH SCORCHING SUMMER days dogged by the threat of bushfires, and winters so cold it can snow, regional Victoria’s climate can be harsh. When Katherine Post and her husband, Dr Chris Gyngell, built their Kyneton home in 2021, they knew they had to factor in climate change, which threatens to make the weather even harsher. “There are two extremes here: very hot in summer and very cold in winter,” says Katherine of temperatures in the Macedon Ranges, on traditional Taungurung land. “To have a really comfortable home, you have to either pay a lot for heating and cooling, or build a sustainable home.” Unsurprisingly, she and Chris opted for the latter. “We wanted to build something that was really sustainable and future-proof in energy efficiency; something that wouldn’t contribute to…

TRANGIE NSW TO COAX A BOUNTIFUL GARDEN from the unyielding clay soils and extreme temperatures of western New South Wales is no easy feat. When Claire Austin was faced with that task in 2014, after moving with her husband, James, to his family property, the mixed farming business at Gin Gin Station near Trangie, she knew she’d need a little help. “The house hadn’t been lived in for a while, and we had to start the garden from scratch,” recalls Claire, 36. “For our wedding, we were given a garden plan by James’s brother and sister-in-law, which was amazing because it gave us a structure and something to work towards.” Knowing she wanted a practical, easy-to-maintain garden, with space for children to play (she and James, 37, are now parents…

TILLY’S TABLE FEBRUARY, TO ME, always feels like the real start of the year. January is usually halfway through by the time everyone is back at work – and even then, you can still manage to hold on to some of that summer holiday mood thanks to long evenings and a generally relaxed vibe. But then along comes February (how?), the start of school and the roundabout of normal routine. It’s a real shock; feet are jammed into socks and shoes for the first time in months, not to mention the necessity of ‘proper’ clothes, which somehow never feel quite right after the carefree January dress code. Food needs to snap back into routine, too – with school-night dinners and the dreaded return of the lunch box. This is precisely…

IMAGINE A FARMHOUSE so idyllic you could mistake it for a Beatrix Potter illustration. That’s what interior designer Steve Cordony and his partner, Michael Booth, have established at Rosedale Farm, right down to their resident gaggle of geese. Away from the concrete confines of the city, set in a serene landscape just seven minutes’ drive from Orange in New South Wales, the beautifully restored homestead and what was once the workers’ quarters are now available for guest bookings. Steve Cordony is a familiar name in the world of interior design – he’s a renowned designer and stylist, and the style director at Belle magazine. So when the opportunity arose to renovate this 1877 Georgian-style homestead, Steve and Michael, a gardening enthusiast, were suitably equipped. The renovation began when the couple…

HOW TO KILL A CLIENT Joanna Jenkins, Allen & Unwin, $32.99 Perhaps you’re unlucky and there’s a Gavin in your workplace or social circle, shaping the culture. He white-ants. A reputation’s ruined. He takes credit for good work and creates errors which can then be exploited for blackmail. At home, a mansion in Brisbane’s classiest suburb, Gavin arrives with lipstick on his collar, hits his wife, ignores his young daughters, and the puppy’s fate is too sad to mention. So when Gavin is murdered, Detective Inspector Messer’s suspects run into double figures. Jenkins delivers a brilliant debut novel which satisfies on many levels. Yes, this is how bad things are out there in the jobs world. Good people are turning nasty, or turning a blind eye. Baddies manoeuvre unchecked. Gavin’s…

CLANCY PAINE Based in Narromine, NSW, photographer Clancy visited nearby Gin Gin Station to shoot Claire Austin’s glorious garden for our cover story on page 94. “I loved growing up out of Dubbo with my five siblings,” says Clancy, who’s been a photographer since high school. “We had a huge yard that met the Macquarie River, countless river swings, and paddock bashers.” Now living in Narromine with her husband Mat, their children – Dolly, 10, Daisy, nine, Trader, seven, and Hardy, four – plus a menagerie of animals, Clancy, 37, adores her country lifestyle: “I love the big skies, clean air and colours. I love giving our kids this life, space and freedom. Our school bus driver will text if he’s running early and treats the kids to hot chips…

BITE RIGHT Upgrading your dinner set? Head straight for these beautiful stoneware plates, made by Dandenong Ranges ceramicist Penelope Duke. She throws them on a wheel, then dips them in food-safe glaze to create functional works of art. Visit penelopeduke.com floor filler PETS, KIDS, PARTIES, MUDDY BOOTS, SANDY THONGS… OUR RUGS HAVE PLENTY OF BATTLES TO FIGHT. NOW, NEW AUSSIE BRAND DOUBLE HAS SOLVED THE WASHING PROBLEM, CREATING RUGS WITH A NON-SLIP BASE AND REMOVABLE, WASHABLE TOP LAYER. VISIT DOUBLE.ONLINE TEA FOR TWO Lloyd Loom furniture was created at the start of the 20th century, and soon became inextricably linked with the gracious Edwardian era of afternoon tea taken on the verandah. Conjure an Arthur Wigram Allen photo with the Victor XL lazy chair from Cotswold InOut Furniture. Visit cotswoldfurniture.com.au…

STEPPING OUTSIDE HER office on Mount Riddock Station, Kylie Jones is faced with the spectacular sight of the Harts Range ridgeline. At sunset, the mountain range glows orange and pink, smouldering like an ember. “It takes my breath away every time,” she says. The teacher has been living on the 263,000-hectare station in the Northern Territory, some 200 kilometres north-east of Alice Springs, for the past two years. It’s from here that Kylie launched her not-for-profit education organisation, RAISEducation, which offers support to schoolchildren living in remote areas. “Mount Riddock has been in the Cadzow family for more than 20 years,” explains Kylie, 32, of her base. “Steve and Bec offered me a home and food at the station, so I could put all my energy into creating the charity.…

NORTH GREENBUSHES WA “NEVER IN A million years did I think I would become a farmer who spends most of my time outside, working with animals and alongside my husband,” says Zoë Allington, who was born in the UK with a minister for a mother and a father in the military. “Ironically, living in Australia was actually a dream I had when I was younger, but I thought I’d be by the beach, sunbathing!” Ten years ago, Zoë was teaching high school English on the Falkland Islands, off the coast of South America, when she met Travis, a farmer from Western Australia. Travis, whose family have always been in sheep and wheat farming, worked on the archipelago in an agricultural advisory role. “My first farming experience was in the Falklands…

POSTCARD WHITSTABLE UK FOR 10 YEARS BEFORE they bought their house on the north coast of Kent, Skye O’Neill and Jamie Corner loved to visit Whitstable for weekends and holidays. Based in south-east London with their two daughters, Eilidh, 11, and Esme, eight, it was an easy one-hour drive. “Having grown up in Sydney, I really missed the sea – Whitstable was the nearest bit of coastline we could get to,” explains Skye, who is a co-founder of biannual magazine Fieldfare as well as a freelance photographer. “Jamie felt the same way – he grew up in St Andrews on the east coast of Scotland. Living in London can feel very claustrophobic when you’re used to being near the water.” Skye moved to the UK in 2004 and met her…

DOWN THE GARDEN PATH GARDENING IS GOOD for your health – we hear this a lot, right? Fresh air, exercise, good bacteria from the soil… all the things. It’s also excellent for your memory: Did I water the basil today? Or was that yesterday? How many spots on the good ladybird? Is the 28-spotted one the bad one? And where did I leave the garden trowel? One of my New Year’s resolutions was to be able to name all the flowering trees in my area. I’d like to extend that to being able to identify all trees, but let’s not set ourselves up to fail too early in the year, hey? Small victories. Like the hot-pink trowel I got for Christmas – what an excellent idea. Much harder to lose…

I’VE BEEN CALLED a lot of things over the years, but ‘on-trend’ is not one of them. I’m as cutting-edge as a marshmallow chainsaw. The moths in my wardrobe complain about the lack of variety in their diet. But they say you only really need to be good at three things to succeed in life, so that leaves me with one that’s suitable for discussion here. I may not have a crystal ball to gaze into, but I do have plenty of crystal glasses, and as someone who drinks for a living, I might just be well placed to predict what we’ll all be imbibing in the year ahead. I guess that makes me an ‘Under the Influence-r’. Starting with wine, chenin blanc is my tip for the next big…

BOOROWA LOCAL TOYHA WILLIAMS-JOHNSON had dreamt about the retail potential of an old butcher’s shop with a charming traditional facade in the main street of town for years. The opportunity to buy the standalone store, located in the Hilltops Region on traditional Wiradjuri Country, 90 minutes’ drive north of Canberra, arose in 2019. A fully customised renovation then followed. “As you can imagine, it needed a very good clean,” Toyha says. “We put in a commercial kitchen and brought it up to spec with health and safety. Fortunately, we could keep some beautiful original features like the ornate ceiling and external wall tiles, then we partly stripped back some of the internal walls to expose the beautiful red brick. We ended up with a more magic space than anticipated.” Opened…

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SHARED NOSTALGIA Following retirement as a nurse, I felt the need to continue helping people so volunteered my time at a nearby nursing home. I found a lot of the people liked to talk about their younger days and where they were brought up. As a long-time reader of Country Style, I brought the magazine in one day and started reading out the various articles. I was amazed how this evoked memories of their days in the country, cooking and doing all the farm chores. I have been told by the staff that they look forward to my weekly visits and especially the reading of Country Style. Thank goodness I have kept all my back copies! Margaret Sheales, Bunya, Qld NEW FAVOURITES I have recently discovered Country Style. Oh, and…

LAST YEAR, I walked the Overland Track with three friends. It was a long-planned trip, suggested in February and executed in November. February seems the right month to say yes to things, but this time last year I was recovering from a back operation; not capable of walking three kilometres along a beach, let alone contemplate the 60-odd kilometres of the Overland. So, to say yes seemed a small act of faith. The walk was the fancy version where you sleep in a hut, have your meals cooked for you and only carry a light pack. The luxury felt a little like cheating, but the opportunity to walk with old friends, and to ease my injured body back into a six-day walk, was ideal. I signed up. Nine months later,…

GROWING UP PLAYING sport with her siblings and cousins in south-west Western Australia, Donnell Wallam dreamt of becoming a professional athlete – her first love was basketball. Today, the 194-centimetre-tall 29-year-old is an elite netballer, after making her Australian competition debut and her international debut in 2022. She travelled with our national team, the Diamonds, to Birmingham for the 2022 Commonwealth Games and participated in ongoing training. Two months later, Donnell debuted with the Diamonds and the eight goals she scored in 10 minutes in a Test match against the England Roses won them the game and established her as a hero. It’s not just Donnell’s sporting prowess that has won her headlines. Only days before that England match, this proud Noongar-Kaniyang woman privately requested permission not to wear the…

GEMBROOK VIC WHEN BOBBY GORDON WAS a young boy growing up in Gembrook, an hour south-east of Melbourne’s CBD and on the traditional lands of the Bunurong and Wurundjeri people, he would stare at the white house on the ridge across from his family home and marvel at its proud facade nestled into tree thickets. The house was built in the mid-20th century by a local chemist, a family man with 11 children. “All of old Gembrook seemed to go there for some kind of celebration or kid’s birthday party at one stage! It’s quite entrenched in Gembrook’s history in that sense,” says Bobby, 43, who along with his wife Rowena Henry, 41, now owns the stately house and its rolling three hectares. Their children – Harry, 11, Gus, nine,…

HOME OFFICE serenity now This light-filled office is tucked into one of the seven bedrooms at Longmeadow Estate, on the south-west coast of Victoria. Owner Sophie Bartley maximised the space with a custom-built desk long enough for two work stations. Her all-white palette allows the room to serve several functions without sacrificing its tranquil atmosphere. And there’s still space for a touch of whimsy: Sophie bought the Casablanca Palm lamp from local Portland shop A Little Decorum. Follow @longmeadowestate on Instagram. a point of view With pretty reclaimed windows looking out onto an abundant cottage garden, this study must surely provide fertile ground to grow a flourishing career (or just the dreamiest place to pay the bills). If you’re wondering how to blend modern office technology into your rustic or…

NESTLED BETWEEN THE RED banks of the South Australian outback and the vineyards of the Clare Valley is a historic little town named Burra. Built on traditional Ngadjuri land, Burra is an easy two-hour drive north of Adelaide, and tourism is booming as visitors are eager to discover this State Heritage Town, which also proclaims it is the Merino Capital of the World. Local store owner Jodie Quinn, 47, moved to Burra from Kangaroo Island in 2003 after she met her husband John, 49, a local resident. Jodie studied childcare after finishing school and worked in that field for 10 years until their first daughter, Eliza, was born. Four children, 12 years and a menagerie of beloved pets later, Jodie and John bought That Country Store and haven’t looked back.…

STRUGGLING TO DRIFT OFF in the February heat? You’re not alone. Notable figures from Vincent van Gogh to Madonna have suffered from insomnia, a problem that’s uniquely misery-inducing. That’s partly due to its plethora of potential causes, from the aforementioned hot weather, to stress and anxiety, to certain medications. Some of these are thorny problems, but one solution that can address several at once is upgrading your mattress. “There are many factors that contribute to a good night’s sleep,” says Rachel Beard, the sleep wellness manager at family-owned company A.H. Beard, which has been making mattresses in Australia and New Zealand since 1899. “They include comfort, room temperature, noise and stress level. Key in securing the best comfort is, of course, the perfect mattress.” If your mattress is older than…

WE HAVE DROUGHTS, FLOODS, PLAGUES and country music out here. Around this time of year, the country music season kicks off. Before the Tamworth Country Music Festival hits town, it’s on the airwaves 24/7. Rock, soul, rap, reggae, heavy metal and hip-hop gradually fade out and are replaced by wall-to-wall country. We were discussing country music recently and Melvyn (AKA Hank during country music season) recalled a slight that American humorist Bob Newhart once made. Newhart said: “I don’t like country music, but I don’t mean to denigrate those who do. And, for those who do, denigrate means ‘put down’.” We had to smile, even though we were all wearing T-shirts with the motto: “100 Per Cent Country – None Of That Sissy Western Stuff”. The Tamworth Country Music Festival…