Bike Gang in Beechworth

The kids have gone bike mad. They refuse to walk anywhere – they insist on riding. Despite constant prangs and tears, they have kept at it and their riding has improved a lot – it helps when we’re only 50 metres from a fabulous bike track.

Most of the bikes were free. You gotta love a chuck out pile. A bit of oil, some new tubes, training wheels and these little bikes are as good as new.

Love from the Hells Angels

Chilly Mornings

It’s been very cold lately. The other morning it got down to -4 degrees – that wasn’t in the Beechworth brochure! The ice was almost 2 inches thick on the pond and all the grass would crackle as you walked over it.

The kids love collecting shards of ice in the morning and either eating them or crashing them on the ground.

We’ve only been here 3 months and we’ve gone through almost 5 tonnes of fire wood in the new wood heater.

Jane and Kris have come up with some new Red Rascal t-shirt designs which are selling well.

Love from the Eskimos

First Day at Kinder

The kids trooped off to the local Montessori Kinder today – a great step forward for the Darvall family. They came home relaxed and excited and their parents were very happy to have some time on their own after 8 months of 24/7 kid time.

The kinder is on the grounds of the historic asylum which is now part of the Latrobe Uni campus which is on the hill overlooking Beechworth – 3 minutes from home.

We’re all settling in well to our new home and enjoying having the time to set it up properly. Some great progress in the garden and around the house.

We finally settled on the property today – what a relief after various hiccups.

Love from the Darvalls

Pa Pud and Grandma Linda come to visit

Pa Pud and Grandma Linda came to visit the other day. A great time was had by all – the kids were particularly excited. Living in the country (but still only 3 hours from Melbourne) has attracted a fine collection of overnight visitors which has been great. Whereas in Melbourne friends and family would drop around for an hour or two and maybe stay for dinner, we get a better quality of visitor up here.

After a boozy first night on the red wine, Dad, Ollie and I were up early to cut wood. Dad unsheathed “the beast” – his fabulous new Stihl “Forrest Mauler” chainsaw. A huge trailer load later and we were back neatly stacking in the wood pile. A very satisfying job – I might have to get one of those maulers.

That night we all settled in for an early night after all the strenuous activity. At 9.30pm mobile phones started ringing – cattle had escaped from Moorong (Dad’s farm on the Mornington Peninsula) and were rampaging through the cemetery. Dad and Linda quickly decamped and headed for Flinders – an almost 5 hour drive.

Love from the Lumberjacks

Ps. All’s well that ends well – Dad and Linda arrived at Flinders at 2.30am and at first light managed to get 2 cows and the large Angus Bull back onto the farm. No headstones were harmed in the making of this episode.

The Cafe Life

The latte lifestyle has certainly come to Beechworth – at last count there were over 10 places to buy a coffee. But the best one is definitely “The Larder” owned by our friend Georgie – an old school friend of Jane’s who moved here about 5 years ago. Make sure you visit when you’re up here.

Every weekend the streets are bustling with out-of-town baby boomers in search of the weekend paper and a good coffee. The beautifully preserved main street of Beechworth is full of gift and fashion shops which thrive off the weekend tourers. Apparently less than 15 years ago many of the shop fronts were boarded up and unoccupied.

Tom O’Toole’s famous Beechworth Bakery has led the retail resurgence while adding centimetres onto the waistlines of locals and tourists alike. It’s not the “done thing” to praise the Beechworth Bakery – many of the local commentators think it’s a bit passé – but they should think themselves lucky Mr O’Toole chose Beechworth to plonk his bakery.

Love from the Eclairs and Boston Buns

Rain and more rain

After 10 years of Melbourne drought it's nice to land in a spot with lots of rain, heaps of water and only very occasional water restrictions. Over the last week we've had some good examples of heavy Beechworth rains lasting for over 48 hours and over 50mm. Great for the new garden. Love from The Garden Gnomes

We've moved in

We’ve moved into the new house at 3 Jardine Street, Beechworth and it’s been a frenzy of activity since then. The first week we camped in the new house – felt very strange and empty – thank god for the open fires which added some warmth to the beautiful old empty house.

But it was the calm before the storm – then the trucks arrived from Melbourne with our stuff. Jeez we have a lot of stuff! After a few months without all the accoutrements of modern life you realise how little you actually need to live comfortably. It’s been nice to say hello again to a few well worn and trusted items but mostly it’s been dreary hours of unpacking items that we probably don’t need.

Lots of great work on the house and garden – Jude and Clyde stayed for a few days (our first official visitors) and transformed the front garden. After 20-30 years of neglect, 2 days of hard work and 2 large trailer loads of rubbish the front cottage garden has been restored. What a transformation.

The kids loved having Grandma Jude and Pa Clyde to stay and it was sad farewell when they left. Love from us all