Looking at each season with a whole new perspective.

23^rd May

A bright red leaf is caught in the cool autumn breeze as it lets go, exposing the bare arms of the twisted grapevine branches. In the distance a new crop of wheat appears, as tiny frail green shoots are rising from the damp soil. It’s the first time I have noticed the way that nature is completing a cycle just as a new one begins. There is neither a total ending nor only new beginnings. It has me looking at the seasons in a whole new way.

At the moment summer is turning into autumn slowly. Some days are still quite warm but there is a change in the air. Howard calls into the house with an offering of a pie and coffee, after running to town to register the truck. I’m grateful because the power is out at the farmhouse from 9.30am until 2.30pm. I sit by the fire, as we chat about the day ahead and see the red grapevine with its few remaining red leaves. The sun is out from behind the clouds now after a gloomy morning. I’m set up here in front of our big lounge room windows, with my notes from a meditation retreat, my lovely meal and the quiet, resisting putting a to-do list together. This will be a day of reflection; I shall indulge in a day of stillness.

So is it never fully one season or is the year a blend of the cycling of life, as new growth appears and dissolves back to the earth?

There seems to be a dominant theme each quarter and yet nature cleverly finds the balance. Each season has cool and warm, day and night, new and old, letting go and new beginnings, giving and receiving.

When I first set up this blog a few years ago (in Fiji at the time with the family) part of my intention was to depict each season with my camera, while learning how to manage a farm. This was a fantastic period of learning and finding my ‘place’ in the business, to value my role hear but my sense of belonging didn’t arrive until recently. For me living on a farm is far more than a moneymaking enterprise. Sadly I see our wide-open places of beauty taken for granted and truthfully I notice city families enjoying their parks and beaches much better than the farming community is. (when I say taken for granted I mean, farming work is so demanding that the work is really never done and therefore its difficult to find time to simply Be Here…and yet we must.)

Embracing this Australian bush is something that is very innate to me, and I’d like to share this as I begin contributing to this blog regularly again. I’d like to explore the surprises each season brings, rather than only photographing the stereotype depictions of what we know each season to be.

As I explore ‘belonging’ here, I shall also explore the ever-flowing rhythms of nature, wherever I am.

I hope you enjoy.

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Narelle Hunter RURAL LIFESTYLE

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