Illness, injury, life changing circumstances, ageing. It can be difficult to still do things after something in your life changes can’t it ?! For me at times since my accident it has been heartbreaking and especially in those early days I became very depressed trying to hold on to being able to do everything like […]

There is a lot of talk about foraging isn’t there?!  It can feel like the new black! And foraging is free but it can come with a whole lot of complications. I keep away from anything that: 1. I can’t easily identify. If I have doubts I leave it. 2. Is in a park, pathway, paddock […]

Do you remember the children’s shows where they feature animals and part of the segment is a fact sheet about the animal? We make one of those fact sheets for every animal before they come to live at Fairy Wren Cottage. With so much parental guidance it has been a good way for our daughter […]

If buying bare rooted heritage fruit trees was a priority the first winter we were establishing the garden at Fairy Wren Cottage then planting roses was the priority for the second year. I saved up for a bulk order just like I did for the fruit trees. It is cheaper to buy roses bare rooted […]

  We’ve been lucky here at Fairy Wren Cottage, now  into the first weeks of Summer and our water tank is still full. We are yet to experience  long hot days that roll into weeks, scorching the grass, truely reminding us that we live in a sunburnt country. While some gardeners in the warmer climates […]

We shifted to our property Fairy Wren Cottage in country Tasmania just over eight years ago.  The cottage was liveable if you liked shag pile carpet in every room including the kitchen and toilet, false ceilings just above the door frame height were made   from masonite and joined with plastic strips, the window frames were […]

Like some women collect shoes or jewellery or like some men collect fishing rods and footy souvenirs, I like collecting machine embroidered or better still hand embroidered linen. Always trying to find a use for this beautiful work.  It somehow feels like I am honouring the embroiderer and all their hand work doesn’t go to […]

Because of my hand injury I am unable to do most things in one sitting, apply that to everything, cooking, gardening, getting dressed, you name it, so I break a task up into small doable steps for me.  Of course somedays are better than others. Like everything I do in my life since the accident […]

There are four distinct seasons here at Fairy Wren Cottage and life is gently guided by them. The wood heater is constantly burning through the late  Autumn and Winter months and the early days of Spring mark the slow beginnings of warmer days, the wood heater no longer being lit and longer day light hours, […]