After a hard Easter weekend of work on our Mountain property we decided to treat ourselves to a day a of wine tasting in Stanthorpe (AKA the Granite Belt). The drive from Kyogle to Stanthorpe is quite enjoyable. You see a dramatic change in landscape as soon as you cross over McKellar Range. The terrain out west is more typically Australian — quite dry with lots of gum trees. Continue reading…

We had an amazing Australian Christmas this year. We were spoiled by Keith and Micky who had arranged a very special celebration at their home in Bangalow, NSW. They have an amazing home and are great hosts so it was a treat to be invited to theirs for Christmas. Bangalow also has a great street party on Christmas Eve with a samba marching band and all! After a welcome cocktail (cosmo of course) we headed down to join the festivities and had a delicious dinner at Ate. On Christmas day there were a few sore heads but nothing that couldn’t be soothed by Mickey’s delicious Eggs Benedict. After a rest we all piled into the car to Broken Head for a picnic (a scrumptious smoked chicken and mango salad with champagne) and a swim. All in all a very memorable first Australian Christmas for Mark and I. Thanks boys!

After Christmas we went up to Dad’s property in the McKellar Range. The property hasn’t been lived on for fifteen years so it was a feat to make it up to the house. The land is completely overgrown and the driveway is not drivable. Continue reading…

As we depart Leeds I have been thinking about our food experiences here. I don’t think Yorkshire is particularly known for its cuisine, with the exception of its pudding and some great Indian restaurants. When we first moved to Leeds we had some terrible food experiences, so we feared we were in for a year of pain, but we found a few very good restaurants. We became regulars of Hansa, a Gujrati vegetarian restaurant—we must have eaten here at least six times over the year. The food is delicious and the staff are friendly. As foodies do, we managed to sniff out a few others including Diva Italiana, a stylish and tasty Italian restaurant, which sells wine by the carafe, and Sukhothai in Chapel Allerton, which has a great tofu hot pot (amongst others).

What Leeds lacks in restaurants it makes up in fresh food, with fabulous farmers markets almost every weekend. We became regulars at the Leeds farmers market and we volunteered at the Oakwood Farmers Market. Continue reading…