Gone Bush

No 1 and I decided to head over to the "shack" for a few days as I had some time off from work. It was to be our "creative retreat". No mobile phone reception, internet, radio or TV.......arrgh!! How would I cope?

We packed up the van, he with musical instruments, me with craft projects galore. There was also a certain amount of chocolate tucked away amongst the supplies, I mean to say, I can live without the internet and TV but chocolate. I wasn't about to put that one to the test!

The shack is just that, nothing shabby chic about it. We had a roof over our heads, a comfy bed to sleep in, running water and plenty of it, all the mod cons, but nothing designer whatsoever.

As you can see from the photos it's in the bush, about 20 feet away from the Goulburn River. Birds galore, Kookaburras, Magpies, Parrots and a very handsome fellow visited early one morning. Yes, you guessed it my favourite Winter visitor - a flame Robin. Certainly brightened up my day.

This photo was taken from the main street of Mansfield, looking towards Mt. Buller and judging by the amount of people in town on the Friday night, the skiing up there must be ok. It's been a very average snow season so far but the previous week saw the best dump of snow for the season.

To get to the shack you head towards Buller then turn right , head up into the hills for Jamieson and keep going for another 20 mins or so.

It's fairly secluded, despite the roadway being one of the boundaries, the trees and scrub screen the traffic. It's fairly quiet during the week, but weekends can see a bit of traffic heading up the hill.

There was plenty of this going on, note toast and a cuppa on top of the heater.

I took my lovely woollen, hand knitted socks with me. I bought them when visiting the Isle of Skye, 3 years ago.

So glad I threw them into my bag as it was quite chilly and they kept my tootsies, nice and toasty.

Sadly, one of them has developed quite a large hole in the heel, I have let it go a bit. Better think about darning it up somehow before it's too late. It took me ages to decide which pair I would buy, the colours were lovely and I could quite easily have tucked 2 or 3 pairs into my suitcase, had the budget allowed!

The river was up very high. The previous weekend they had 8 inches of rain, so the river was quite dirty looking and running very fast. No chance of fishing, this visit.

A very colourful visitor, waiting patiently for me to throw out some wild bird seed for him. He certainly stands out amongst the bare branches.

Here he is with his mate. They are King parrots and obviously they are used to being fed by visitors to the shack.

One morning I had left the bird seed bucket out in the carport and who was sitting on the edge of the bucket unable to reach the seed? It was his missus, cheeky thing.

We had a lovely time away and although you can't turn the creativity and inspiration on like a tap, we did manage to complete a few things.

No1, wrote some new lyrics for songs and came out with some killer tunes on the guitar.

My nimble fingers crocheted , embroidered and sketched. Sorry, no photos.

I learnt a few things , some of which surprised me:-

1) I thought I could do the no contact with other humans for a few days. Not so, about an hour after we arrived I was on the phone to big sis, just wanting to hear another human voice! Ok, so I hadn't settled into the 'hermit' lifestyle and it did get easier as the days went on. I found myself putting on the DVD, Yellowstone a couple of nights in a row, just to have another voice about the place.

Not being a social butterfly, I am quite content with my own company and when I feel the need to socialise I catch up with friends for a coffee, so I thought I would cope a little better than I did.

2) Don't take multiple projects with you. Select one or two any, more and it's unnecessary packing/unpacking.

3) After spending a few days in a one bedroom shack and coping quite well without all the 'stuff' I have at home, I am wondering do I really need it?

Why do I have all of this 'stuff'? What makes me go out and purchase things - need, want, desire!

I can imagine this question will be swirling around in my brain for a few days until I come to a conclusion.

I would be interested in any thoughts you have on said subject.

I hope you had a great weekend whether it was spent in a shack or a palace (or castle!).

The rain continues to fall here, Spring is waiting in the wings.

Thanks for dropping by, if you have a moment leave a comment and tell me how things are going in your little corner of the globe, it's always nice to hear from you.

Till next time , take care,

Claire X