Tag Archives: southern highlands

Southern Highlands – Joadja – Part 2

This is the second and final post of this series on my farm stay at Joadja.

The afternoon of the second day was sunny. You can see the difference in the landscape. Everything looks lush and hopeful.

I woke up early on the last morning in order to take advantage of the gentle early morning light. Being a mid-May morning, there was a little mist and a lot of dew. It’s a magical time to be out-and-about.

The sun eventually cleared the horizon, bringing about another clear morning. I think I appreciated the day a bit more knowing what has come before.

Southern Highlands – Joadja – Part 1

My last few posts were about the seaside, but we’re going to gradually make our way deeper in-land for awhile.

In this little series, we’re on a farm-stay in the Southern Highlands region of Joadja. These photos were taken back in May, 2022. The property we stayed at is on the Wingecarribee River, which threads itself through the region. It is a good 30-45 minutes from the nearest town (Berrima), so it’s certainly a place to getaway from it all. The stay took place over 3 days, so I got to know the many moods of the landscape. The weather does change how a place looks quite dramatically. I’m obviously using my photographers/landscape painter’s eye now…

On a sunny afternoon…

On a rainy morning…

There were lots of walks on farm roads to be had. I’ll post more rural scenes from Joadja in my next post.

Southern Highlands Weekend – Part 1

The end of winter (and our wedding anniversary) saw us heading once again to the Southern Highlands. I revisited Chinoiserie, the property with the beautiful peony gardens that I saw the previous spring. This time, we came to stay.

Chinoiserie

We stayed in the separate guest wing, and it was a lovely, cosy place to be.

Chinoiserie

Lots of whimsical touches inside, like this stained glass window.

Chinoiserie

Dominic, the co-owner and ‘head gardener’ loves his peonies, so there had to be some indoors too.

Chinoiserie

Memories of Autumn – Part 2

I became more aware of the trees around me in the autumn: how the branches of the crepe myrtle in my front yard formed a cross-hatching pattern against the bright sky.

Memories of autumn

The softer light also highlighted frequently overlooked details: like a haphazard pile of leaves on the ground.

Memories of autumn

It wasn’t not only the deciduous trees that caught my eye: in the morning light, the ridges of bark on this gum tree had a character of its own.

Memories of autumn