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

Meet the Rellies

We took a trip down the Beechworth cemetery to meet some of the rellies. Alfred Darvall was Toby’s great, great grandfather’s (WHC Darvall – a solicitor and the first Town Clerk of Beechworth) cousin – first prize to the first reader who can tell us what that is?

Alfred came out from Reading, England (where a lot of Darvalls ended up) at WHC Darvall’s urging. He mined the local area for a few years and is believed to have died from typhoid which was common on the goldfields at this time.

The local Burke Museum has a lot of great historical and genealogical information.

Love from the Historians

Woolshed falls

There’s a lot to do around Beechworth – swimming and fishing in Lake Sambell, local cafes and restaurants, great museums and historical goldmining sites, riding the sealed rail trail between Beechworth and Wangaratta, local mountain bike tracks, 1 hour to Mt Hotham skiing, plenty of local trout fishing and some ripper bushwalking. One of our favourites is a visit to the Woolshed Falls 10 minutes down the road.

The water cascades over some spectacular granite rocks before falling 100 feet into a small pond. We’re waiting for a big downpour to see it at its best but it’s always a great little excursion with the kids.

Today we discovered a beautiful golden orb spider on the track waiting for an unsuspecting fly.

We’re still waiting to settle on our new house which is keeping us on edge (and in expensive rented accommodation).

Love from Jane, Toby, Ollie, Henry and Eloise

Beechworth property No. 2 – the Country Empire Builds

Three weeks after buying the first property, we got to have our first look through the old farmhouse. Grannie Annie spent a couple of days up here and helped us inspect the old shack and we all concluded it was too far gone. Ooops! Back to square one.

After realising it would take too long to bowl over the old house and build another or find a rental property, we were back in the market. After 2 weeks of frantic searching we found the perfect house – right next to Lake Sambell on a quiet street near the town centre.

It is a mostly renovated weatherboard Victorian house on an old garden with some beautiful established trees including a beautiful mature Blue Fir tree. So we went into battle for a second time and after a fairly quick negotiation, agreed to buy this house. Contracts are not yet signed, so we’re crossing our fingers. We’re very excited that this may be our home for the next few years.

Jane has already started buying the magazine "Country Style" - how embarassing and now I've just told the world.

Now before you think we’re completely bonkers, property in Beechworth is a lot cheaper than in Melbourne – well that’s my excuse.

Love from the Darvalls

ps. We love Beechworth - the kids and I were in the local park today - this koala ran past us and perched in a tree 6 feet away.

Beechworth property No.1

Well our life has taken some quick, unexpected yet decisive turns in the last few weeks. Within a matter of three weeks we have decided to move to Beechworth, bought two properties, enrolled the squids in local kindergarten and looked at various local jobs & careers!

On our way through Beechworth at Easter we saw an amazing block of land (8400m2 = approx two acres) right in the centre of Beechworth, bounded by the tree-lined bike trail, looking over the Chinese gardens, 100m from Lake Sambell and three minutes walk to the cafes. It includes an old, very run down farmhouse. Then ensued a few weeks of negotiating with the ageing but savvy owners and it was ours.

We have gone in halves with our friends Matt and George with various grandiose development schemes. Stay tuned!

So after securing the property we made the seven hour trek back from Hyams Beach to Beechworth to settle on the property and work out what we were going to do with the rest of our lives. On the way we drove through the most magical morning mist in Kangaroo Valley.

So all in all we have only made it 280km up the road from Melbourne! But fear not intrepid readers, we will head off again shortly for warmer climates spreading the gospel of the mighty Red Rascal.

Life on the road has been fantastic and it certainly focussed our minds on what Jane and I want out of our lives. We both have fairly active minds and realised years of growing beards and dreadlocks and wandering up the coast was not for us. We seemed to spend most of our time around the campfire talking about assorted business ventures and schemes.

Beechworth is a wonderful, peaceful historic gold mining town with an amazing collection of well preserved buildings. Toby’s great, great grandfather was actually the first Town Clerk in around 1870 and various relatives are buried in the local cemetery.

Love from the Country Bumpkins

Ps. Found this warrant to arrest Dan Kelly (Ned’s brother) signed by my great, great grandfather on 5 April 1878 – good to see he was cleaning up the Irish riff-raff

www.sexyparrots.com

We met some new friends in Hyams Beach who would visit every morning and afternoon.

We discovered that the corner of the front balcony was the only spot for internet access. This was also the favourite spot for our fine feathered friends. Found this fella trying to log onto www.sexyparrots.com while I wasn’t looking.

Love from the Darvalls