Eat, Brew, Olive: A journey with friends: Getting to know the new place

After a final week of stress as banks and lawyers were having difficulty talking to each other, lawyers were closing for the Christmas period and I was picturing not getting our house until everything re-opened in January, our settlement finally went through on Friday at 4.45 and we had the keys in our hand just after 5pm, just in time for the lawyers to close for the festive period.

We trundled straight out to the property to see how much work was waiting for us. The grass was overgrown close to the house and Rohan had seen that on his pre-settlement inspection, meaning that we took a trip to the local mower place to buy a more heavy duty ride-on, figuring that his little greenfield in the shed wouldn't quite cut it (pardon the pun). The first couple of days have been spent in a haze of grass cutting, whipper snipping and cleaning up inside ready for painting the yellowy walls and grey skirtings a crispy white.

We welcomed our first visitors on Saturday with Dave and Jane coming up to check out the new digs, and then Terry, Liz, Laura and Thomas came out on Sunday to have a look as well. It's great to have family coming over straight away and we look forward to having family and friends here a lot. We don't want the redback spiders that were visiting in the back sunroom/greenhouse and so we have killed them off (sorry spiders) and are planning opening up that section to be an open verandah area rather than a closed in hot house that is perfect for redback living! The patch of dirt in the corner where tomatoes were growing well in the greenhouse environment will be perfect for some kitchen herbs within easy access. So far we've discovered chestnut, peach, cherry, lemon, apple, mulberry and fig trees around the house and in the orchard and we're keen to see what else we discover! I think there may be a pear tree or two lurking as well. I've become at one with my new workboots and had my first spin on the ride-on when Rohan bogged it yesterday and we had to take the ute down to the back paddock to drag it out!

Last night we went to the local community hall for the Christmas Party and to meet our new neighbours and community. Everyone was friendly, welcoming and assured us what a great place it is to live. Our next door neighbour, Michael joked about the size of the snakes and also figures that the sandy deposits in the back corners of his and our paddocks are remnants from a lake hundreds of years ago.

Already there is something beautifully peaceful about driving out the road from town, turning at the bluestone bridge and heading up the road to our place. The view from the kitchen window with Mount Buninyong in the distance will improve the experience of washing the dishes I'm sure! As I sat out the front yesterday just gazing at the view, rosellas flittered past and into the trees in front of me and the wind whispered through the pines. So life at Innisfree is good, there's lots to be done, but when we look out at the views surrounding us, almost anything seems possible!