Hello Everyone and welcome to a delicious late-Autumn blog. I am so excited for these cold and icy mornings.

Today I thought it might share one of the ‘outside of art’ projects I’m currently working on - ‘The Cottage’.

As we transition into the cold weeks of Winter here in the Southern Hemisphere, Australia, I’ve headed four hours North to my little cottage - my ‘sanctuary’, or ‘Witches Hovel’, as I lovingly refer to it as.

I bought this land a few years ago now and for the most part it’s been a destination to get me far out of the craziness, noise and smell of the city - a place where I could reconnect with nature, reset and heal my body, mind and soul, and a place where I could re-energize my creative flow.

My little parcel of land has no grid electricty or legally liveable shelter (other than my vehicle), and Winter temperatures often drop below 0 degrees Celcius, but I wouldn’t be anywhere else in the world. This is my happy place.

The feeling I get when I am here (in my ‘safe space’), is truly magical. There are actually no words to describe it, because the feeling is something I breathe in - like a mystical vibration - and while this little part of Australia might not be for everyone, this little space is simply too perfect and too amazing for me.

This restoration is just one of the ‘outside of art’ projects I am currently working on, and it is truly a labour of love. There is a LOT of work involved, so, so much, but I want to savour and enjoy every single aspect of progress I make - no matter how great or small, and I want all the finished details to be exactly as I see them in my imagination - that sacred space where the manisfestation process begins.

As always, Autumn is my most favourite time of the year. This is because where I live (when I’m up North), we don’t really get much of a ‘Spring’. That is to say - we seem to get a couple of weeks of it, but then ‘BAM!’, it suddenly feels like the intense heat of Summer starts pressing in, and we struggle to survive each day as the temperatures climb higher and higher.

You will find that, as you travel further North (to inland or mid/interior-Australia), there are no cooling coastal breezes to ease the impact of the hot desert winds of Summer, or tropical rain forests to soften the freezing and icy temperatures of Winter.

On these days of endless heat, I can’t really get anything productive done, because I’m sheltering from the intense sun throughout the day and I’m so exhausted by the time nightfall or evening arrives, I just want to crawl into bed, rest and enjoy the cooler part of the daily cycle.

During this hotter time of year, the ground is also really hard, because it contains a lot of clay and this makes working with the soil quite challenging.

Preferring the icy cold of Winter, to those extremly hot and exhausting days, means I really make my focus on journeying North during the cooler months, so I can breathe in the fresh, crisp air and get on with both more physically demanding projects and creative - whether gardening, landscaping, maintenance, writing, photography or art etc…

As the season transitions, and the landscape magically transforms from an arid, dusty desert-scape, to rolling miles of lush green fields, Autumn and Winter are the perfect seasons to get busy digging our rich clay earth.

The seasonal rains make the deep, rich soil soft and delicious to work with. It is also the perfect time to prune sleeping trees of unwanted twigs and branches, and to get any post or plant holes dug.

Summer and the land is rusty-brown. It thirsts for Winter rains.

Winter and Ice | Frost blankets the now greener land and an Ice Rainbow is captured as the Suns rays glisten on ice crystals in the air.

Living so far North (at the highest altitude point of our State), means I get to experience the full extremes of our beautiful Australian climate. It also means that I am limited to the times of year I can not only work in my garden, but also when I can work on the restoration of my cottage.

This Spring will be my first real attempt at commencing restoration work on the stone-work. Until now, I’ve been focusing on planning and creating the kind of garden space I would like to have in the future and establishing shade trees as soon as possible.

I have had many successes and failures with my ‘plant babies’. I have planted and grown attached to some very special members of what I hope to form a part of my edible food forest. Some of the species planted survived, others didn’t make it. I was too little prepared to aid their success during seasonal extremes. These lessons were very heartbreaking for me - not only in terms of lost grow time, or establishment time, but also, because each little bush or tree I’ve planted has had a very special place in my heart. I have poured all my heart, my love, my hopes and dreams into each one, and that feeling of loss and sorrow when they didn’t survive, is just terrible. Each one is like a dear family member to me.

Even though my little parcel of land is part of a tiny rural commmunity and not completely isolated, I like it this way. It’s comforting to know my kind neighbours are just a little down the dusty road and we always look out for each another.

I do have access to connect to grid power (if I choose), right outside my front door, but I am very much into permaculture, organic home and garden care, off-grid, alternative living and all that holisitic ‘good stuff’, so while I have the choice to remain off-grid and have the means to generate solar and wind power, I will definitely choose those options over grid connection any day. I like to be as self sufficient as possible.

This Spring I will be very busy. I have a LOT of repointing to do, both on the internal and external walls, before I can even apply render and lime-wash/paint finishes, and I only have a tiny window of time to get as much done as I possibly can. This process will take me quite some time as I work on my own with the limited season and limited time.

Given the extreme Summer and Winter temperatures I experience (-7C-48C), I am unable to work on this part of the project during any part of our Winte. It just gets too cold. The Lime (the proper and tradtional restoration Lime), requires very specific optimum temperatures which it can be mixed and used at.

For example, Lime mortar should not be used below 5 degrees Celsius or above 30 degrees Celcius (unless a misting-system is in place), because if the temperatures are too cold, the Lime will take forever to ‘cure’ or set (it might not set at all) and in extreme heat, the Lime will crack, weaken and potentially look ugly, and I definitely don’t want that either.

At the moment, our entire region is still waiting for seasonal Autumn rains, (which are very late). It’s like the whole earth is holding its breath, waiting for the magic to begin.

The entire landscape remains a rusty-brown colour and the Winter grasses (which usually come after the first good rain or two), are yet to push through the soft soil.

There is so much for me to look forward to in the coming months, years even, and it’s truly a joy to be able to share my adventures with you.

I hope my little adventures inspire you to embark on your own wonderful journey in some way.

I might leave you here for now and return to the stillness around me. I too will wait for the heavens to open and transform the arid landscape into lush green fields once more.

Until next time my precious friends, stay healthy, happy and safe.

Sending you all my love - Hakora

#6 Winter is Almost Here