Japan

Hello! and a Happy (very belated) New Year to you!

I had started writing this post a few weeks ago but you know how it is…

We returned from our time in Japan about three weeks ago now and had the most wonderful time. I love Japan and the Japanese people so much, and spending time with my family there was just incredible. Benji and I spent the first week on our own and then met up with Eden, Kobi, and Maya for the other two weeks.

The first few days Benji and I spent in Osaka. We had never been to Osaka before and really loved it. The vintage shopping there is really amazing, and so is the food. We spent our days just wandering the streets, eating, drinking coffee, and scouring the vintage shops.

Our next stop led us back to Kinosaki Onsen, a town that holds a truly special spot in my heart—this being our third visit. Imagine strolling down one of the two main streets lined with traditional Japanese buildings, with a gentle river meandering through the heart of the town. The morning we arrived, snow was gently falling, creating even more magic to this beautiful town. We had planned to spend only a couple of nights here but extended our stay by a couple of extra nights. If you ever have the chance to visit Japan, I highly recommend visiting Kinosaki Onsen.

A few days before Christmas, we took the Shinkansen from Kinosaki to Takayama to meet our children Eden, Kobi, and Maya. We hadn’t seen Eden in a few months as she had been traveling in southeast Asia, Kobi had left earlier than us and travelled around Japan by himself for a couple of weeks, and May flew in later than all of us as she was staying on and traveling around with her boyfriend for a couple of weeks. So to have everyone together was just amazing.

We chose Takayama, as the town is situated near the Japanese Alps, and we were all hoping for a white Christmas. The day we all arrived it was snowing and just gorgeous. We dropped our bags at the Airbnb and wandered along the snowy streets to find an Izakaya. That evening was spent catching up on everyone’s stories while eating lots of yummy food and washing it down with Asahi beer. The Airbnb we stayed in had a full kitchen, so we bought lots of food from the supermarket and spent the next few days cooking and hanging out together. Takayama was the perfect place to reconnect and just spend quality time cooking food, watching movies, and exploring the town.

A couple of days after Christmas, we hired a car and drove up to Tokyo. The drive from Takayama to Tokyo is around 6 hours and such a great adventure. We stopped at the ski fields and watched the skiers and snowboarders gliding down the mountain, got some amazing views of the majestic Mount Fuji before driving into Tokyo. Benji only drove down a one way street the wrong way once!

We stayed in Asakusa for the week and had such a great time. My highlights were the Aquarium, Team Labs, picnic in Ueno park, discovering the areas of Kichijoji and Shimokitazawa, and the absolute highlight was karaoke on New Year's Eve! We had sooooo much fun!!

The gardens in Tenterfield were thriving and full of weeds on my return. Fortunately they have been getting lots of rain over the summer which has been wonderful for the gardens. Eden and I spent a whole weekend on the brush cutter and weeding to get the garden back to where I left it. I prematurely removed some weed mat from one of the veggie gardens as I didn’t anticipate so much rain, so I will replace that for a month or so before prepping it and planting.

I have spent some time thinking about A Plot in Common and how I would like to see it evolve this year and have come up with a few ideas….I am in the process on working out the details and will get back to you once I have them established.

Well, I hope that you are wonderful and that 2024 brings you lots of love and laughter.

Love Tash xxx

Cladding and Cow Poo.

Hello, how are you?

This will post will be short and sweet this week..as Benji and I are flying out to Japan tomorrow and I have a few more things to do before we leave.

I hope you have had an amazing week? We have. My favourite part about the lead up to Christmas is taking the time to see the people you love and that’s what we have done this week. It has been so lovely.

Neighbours farm where I was collecting cow poo

Benji finished the cladding on the back on the Potting Shed last weekend and started attaching the ply to the internal walls. When we get back from Japan we will lay the flooring which I am still in the process of finding…and then it is all about the interior! Whilst Benji was doing to cladding, I went up to our neighbours farm and collected cow poo for the garden. The soil in the veggie garden seems to have a large amount of clay so I will apply a lot of organic matter to the soil and gradually improve the soil quality, starting with cow poo!

I have started to plan out what I will plant in the veggie garden when we return from Japan and have a few seedlings growing in preparation for our return. I have planted some brussel sprouts, purple broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini and pumpkin. I have asked my little niece, Franka, to look after them for me while we are away.

The knitting project this week has been another beanie for Japan. It is nearly finished.. After this one I have some gorgeous pink and tangerine wool to knit a beanie for Maya.

Well as I said, it is short and sweet this week. I will write to you from Japan.

Lots of love Tash xxx

Alice and Tom

Well the little Potting Shed is pretty much at lock up. We were not sure how we were going to go installing the old doors and windows due to the fact that not one of them was square.. but it went surprisingly well. Benji needs to fill a few gaps and finish some trims but we are so happy. It means a lot to me that we are able to repurpose our families doors and windows, it gives so much more meaning to the little building.

As I said in my previous post, I have been searching through salvage yards and vintage shops looking for materials and items for the interior of the Potting Shed. I have such a deep love for old things, things that are handmade and hold a story. Even if I don’t know the story, it still touches me and I feel a responsibility to honour it. Does that sound strange? I have collected old pieces of furniture, clocks, boxes, tools, jars, vases and bottles over the years. Sometimes I discover the story behind the piece and other times I have no idea.. regardless, I just love them.

I was driving through Stanthorpe a few weeks ago and came across this cute little vintage shop that I hadn’t visited before. I was looking for some old baskets for the garden but ended up finding this photo…

I was completely taken by it. Someone’s family photo sitting in this little shop in Stanthorpe. Look at their beautiful expressions. Their new little baby. I couldn’t quite believe how fortunate I was to be able to buy such an extraordinary piece. When I got home I excitedly showed it to the family and Benji turned the photo over and found this…

I don’t have any words to express how I felt when I read this. Here was a little piece of their story..

Benji did some research and found that Alice Russell was born in 1875 and died in 1956 and Tom Russell was also born in 1875 and died in 1952. Both are buried in Grafton cemetery. My sister lives in Grafton and I asked her if any of these family names were familiar to her and she just responded to say yes! My nephew goes to school with possibly one of Alice’s great great great grandsons’…isn’t that incredible? My sister is going to contact the family and ask if they would like the photo and if not I will find a place for Alice and Tom in the Potting Shed...and their story continues..I love that.

This has been my knitting project for this week. I am not very happy with it as I made some mistakes and also made it a bit small..I do love the colour though. I have a new found love for red at the moment..In the last couple of days I have started a hottie cover for my daughter Eden and an olive green beanie because I do love green too…

Well I am needing to get up at 4am tomorrow to drop my son Kobi at the airport so I think I will sign off now and get ready for bed..

I hope you have had a wonderful week.

Love Tash xxx

A Plot in Common.

Hello! how are you? It’s so good to be here after such a long time. I wanted to create a platform where I could intimately share our stories as we begin this new chapter. At first I started making YouTube videos but quickly found that when Benji and I started a project we both became so focused that I would forget to pull the camera out, was already half way through the project and found it awkward trying to talk to the camera…here I feel I can really open up and share all the details.

When we first acquired the land, in July 2022, we spent over six months driving out to the farm and just talking about the different possibilities. To be honest, there were times when I thought it was going to be too much. Too much time, effort and money. The farm is part of an old apple orchard, all the trees were removed about 40 years ago. The farm was then subdivided and what is left on our patch of land is one tree (a Privet), a dam and a well. We are starting from the very beginning and I now realise what a privilege that is. We plan to regenerate this piece of land by feeding the soil, planting lots of trees and growing as much food as we possibly can for my family, friends and our local community. I am also thinking that I would like to share the space with you, by opening the gates and giving you the opportunity to spend time in the paddock, in the garden or around our kitchen table. A place to connect with our food and each other. The whole premise of A Plot in Common.

The land is a north facing sloping block with views to the distant mountains. We have decided that we would like to build a shed house as our home, facing out to the north. It will be something small, that blends into the landscape and that we can build ourselves. During the end of winter we chose the site for the shed house and had a concrete slab poured. As we started to do further research and finalise our ideas for the shed house we got a bit distracted by the beautiful spring weather and planted some fruit trees and built the foundation for the first part of the veggie garden. This meant that Benji needed to set up an irrigation system which he did by pumping water from the well up to a tank at the top of the property and then gravity feeding it down to the trees and garden. We are so grateful for the well! Having water is such a gift!

With the elevation of the land and the size of the farm we decided to plant trees in and around the garden first to create a sense of privacy and also because this made it easier with water access. I planted various fruit and nut trees and planted out a herb garden, various kinds of berries, edible flowers and some perennial flowers. In the next couple of weeks I am going to plant some green manure in the veggie patch and leave it over summer. This will help feed the soil before I start planting out my autumn crops. Our neighbour has also kindly offered for me to go to their property and collected as much cow poo as I like which I am so grateful for. Who doesn’t love free cow poo!!

So with the foundations of immediate garden area started and the weather warming up, Benji and I then thought it might be a good idea to build a little storage shed. A place to store our tools and equipment whilst building the shed house. We thought that the storage shed could also double up as the garden ‘potting shed’. Whilst finalising the design we worked out if we extended the width of the ‘potting shed’, by 40cm, we could fit a bed in there! So now the ‘potting shed’ has been completely redesigned as a tiny house that we will live in whilst building the shed house and then share with family, friends and guests in the future. Benji’s brother and wife are currently renovating their home and gave us some old weather boards, a couple of beautiful old timber doors and windows which Benji incorporated into the design. Thanks to YouTube, and a 1970’s building book from the op shop, Benji and I have started construction on the ‘potting shed’.

Inspiration and design for the shed house

Garden design

Potting shed

Beginnings of a flower garden

We are trying our best to get the potting shed to lock up before Christmas and then after Christmas start working on the interior (my favourite bit!). I have been searching salvage yards for old timber floor boards and internals doors. We found an old bread bin at one salvage yard that we think we will use as a sink and few other beautiful pieces. As I said, I really love designing the interior.

So I think I have you all up to date with what we have been doing on our little farm.. one last thing I wanted to share with you are a few little things that I am making… knitting is a current obsession. I have done little bits in the past and have decided to knit a few beanies for a trip to Japan in a few weeks. I made this one….

I am currently working on a bright red one and if I have enough time (I am a very slow knitter) I would like to make a bright yellow one. After I make my way through the beanies I am going to have my first attempt at a cardigan.. any ideas are most welcome! Do you knit? Or like to do another craft? I am just loving the rhythm of knitting it really helps with my busy mind..

I also wanted to share that I made vanilla essence a few weeks ago, well I started the process… it takes up to 6 months (for optimal flavour). Vanilla pods and vodka! So simple.

It really is so good to be here to share what we are doing and connect with you again. I’d love to hear any of your thoughts or ideas in the comments.

Love Tash xxx