A wonderful weekend away

Time for The Village Continuum has come around again. I can’t believe the year has already come close to finishing! You may remember last year I journeyed to Hollyburton, a permaculture farm just past Riddell’s Creek in Victoria to attend a weekend long workshop when old world skills and village living are the order of the day. This year it was a long weekends worth and the extra day was such a wonderful bonus.

Allegra opted to come with me this year and she had a ball running around with all the kids, climbing trees, making damper and learning Fox Walking. I don’t know much about it but I can imagine somewhat. Allegra was most pleasantly surprised to learn that a workshop is not just WORK as the name implies. 🙂

Sitting by the fire, toasting bread and keeping company with 2 other lovely kids.

We had the new car packed (Mitsubishi Triton dual cab ute – needed for farm work and a second car) and ready to go Friday morning. Both of us have been looking forward to going for weeks. The alarm went off at 4am which saw me up and caffeinated before waking Allegra at 5 and hopping straight into the car, squeezing in around homemade shoes, archery gear and clothes. A quick kiss goodbye to troop leader Martin and off we went.

Arriving at a farm at 6:15 with sunrise and fog is a magical start to the day and by 10:30 we were settled into our tiny home, fed with a delicious breakfast and working hard on crafts and making friends. At about 12pm I glanced at my phone to see a message from Martin that Orik was unwell and on his way to Ballarat hospital for further checks and tests. A brief word of explanation and we were in the car, heading back to Bacchus Marsh to pick up Jasper.

Orik was discharged from emergency an hour or so later, given the all clear on his health so Allegra and I headed back to the Village. The community there was just what was needed to sooth ragged nerves and creating something is always a good thing. Unfortunately, the primary reason I had wanted to attend this year was to learn how to mow using a scythe. The workshop that was on whilst I dashed back home was Speedy’s scything workshop. A quick word of explanation gained me a short impromptu lesson though and I am now the proud owner of my own snath and blade. I can’t wait to peen up my blade and start making hay at our farm! Thanks Speedy. 🙂

The rest of the weekend was filled with cheesemaking, tiny house tours, milking my first cow (harder than it looks and murder on arthritic hands), great conversations and superb food. The whole weekend is chef catered and although the vegetarian food was missing one of my favourite ingredients, I enjoyed every mouthful. Breakfast eggs were supplied by Madelaine from Madelaine’s eggs, another wonderful part of Hollyburton.

This is our village, looking towards the main house. This area hummed with life, love and laughter every day from 6am until well after 10pm.

We packed up the car on Monday morning and attended our last workshops Monday afternoon. I have now learned natural dyeing, basket making, cheese making, tiny home tours, scything, felt slipper making and how to navigate climbing to the top bunk of a tiny home under the influence of gin and cider. That last one might have been more an object lesson on why not to mix drinks! 😉

This year I even remembered to pack my camera but with soapy wet hands for slipper making I couldn’t take any photos, then I ended up so engrossed in the workshops I forgot to take any other photos with it. Yep, a whole 3 days away and not a single good photo. I must apologise profusely but I have 3 to share from my camera phone. That’s it.

Early early bird tickets were on sale during the weekend and I signed up for TVC 2017. I am already counting down!

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