Happy New Year!

A slightly belated Happy New Year to you! Here's hoping it brings you health and happiness and many hours of reading pleasure!

I might have to change the tagline of this blog, as this is to be OUR YEAR of LIVING in the COUNTRY!
Our past two weeks have been busy, testing times during which we discovered we're not as young as we used to be... and all that jazz.

To begin with, cyclone Tasha dumped a LOT of rain on the Tablelands while we were away and our first task was to dig new drains around the garage and then clean out the mud as a fair amount of "stuff" including my books will be stored in there.

Our extensions are lovely, but not quite ready to show you yet... Still, our house is slowly emerging from the pile of boxes. After an apartment with masses of built in wardrobes and storage, we're facing the challenge of creating free-standing storage in line with the country style look. We converted a wardrobe into a pantry, and I think it works quite well.

Here it is above (on the right) closed ...

And here it is open. In the drawers below, I have all those plastic bits and pieces, and baking tins and falling to pieces recipe books. Very handy really.

Other corners of our living area are starting to look more homely, too. Here's one -- and I'm thrilled to say I get better Classic FM radio reception in this spot than I've ever had anywhere...

And even our sideboard, the first piece of furniture we bought after we were married, has found a home and looks as if it belongs. (Below) No we weren't married in Victorian times. We did buy it as an antique. :-)

We're so glad we painted all our walls white last year. It's really paying off now, as the whole place feels bigger and fresher.

We're thinking of calling this little place Cloud Cottage. I got the idea after hearing rainforest described by a botanist on TV as cloud forest. Romantic, isn't it? Over the years, we've tried out many, many names, but this is the one we both like. so I think it will stick. What do you think?

Now it's back to revisions for me. They should have been in before Christmas, but my editor kindly gave me an extension, so I'd better get my head down.

Oh, and I've seen Molly Cooper's Riva cover. Not exactly how I pictured Molly.