Shining River Glowing Hills in Cygnet, Tasmania, AU ~ December 5-25, 2011 & January 17- March 10, 2012

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I’ve taken up residence on a cloud here in Cygnet, Tasmania, where the main road is dirt and crests through eucalyptus trees lining the wide river, bright under rolling green and yellow and blue hills of forest and farmland, through a little hippy-frontier-artist-alternative-intellectual town with the best cafes and bookstore and clear-eyed, genuinely welcoming folk I’ve truly ever encountered. My cloud floated down the sparkling Huon River that runs down the center of Tasmania and lodged in Petcheys Bay, the gleaming bay in our front yard, with five other cheerful sailboats twinkling nearby, taking our breath away at every time of day. The Huon Choice organic blueberry farm is owned by a lovely, lovely young couple, Jilly and Kris Middleton, who are now well and truly friends, and have just welcomed their first child, Georgia, into the world in late January. Another lucky kid! (hey Jett, she’s going to be a charmer…).

Jilly grew up on the farm here, and her father John Middleton, the original blueberry-farmer-and-town-pastor, still lives on the back of the property in a little red-roofed shed-house and has also become a good friend, as have the wider circle of family and friends surrounding this beautiful couple. Here I have a new sense of family and community: Jilly and Kris’s parents and siblings and childhood friends and neighbors are around every single day, rolling up their sleeves with big smiles to help with picking berries, retrieving lost goats, running markets stalls, cleaning sheds, delivering babies, driving to town, and keeping wwoofers contented and connected, all with good humor and honest love.

Jilly and Kris have lived in share houses and co-ops all their lives, so they get a kick out of having people around and are experts at creating a sense of sharing, welcome, and respectful communal living just by their own positive attitudes and example. Although you all know that I enjoy filling my own space, this year I’ve lived so happily in hostels and farm sharehouses, and with Jilly and Kris this piece of my own personal journey has come to my consciousness; I love this sharing and unpretentious lifestyle. I just like being around Jilly and Kris, and being part of their way of life, which is all about living in the community of extended family, leading by the example of mutual kindness in communion of daily rituals like making dinner, working in the fields, sharing bathroom time and the last bites of cake. They scooped me right up with love on my first visit to the farm, and welcomed me to return and stay for as long as I want, which is exactly what I’ve done.

The blueberry farm is in Cygnet, an extraordinary township that reminds me of a tiny version of the best of Brattleboro, though the locals you see in the coffee shop and scrumptious café are also the farmers who grow apples and veggies and cheese and meat and wool that everyone in the town enjoys. Plus, everyone in Cygnet knows one another and has a good spirit about it. On several occasions folks have stopped to give me lifts to and from town, and it always turns out that they’re in some way friends of Jilly and Kris’s or locals who I run into many times later with warm greetings and news. I’ve gotten to know many of our farmer neighbors, since they’re all friends and ask for help here and there. All the local storeowners and employees are friends of Jilly and Kris’s who are so warm to me too. Now when I walk into most of the shops in town, folks say, “Hi Laura!”

Back in December when I first arrived on the blueberry farm, I had planned only three weeks in Tasmania before I went to Cambodia; I ended up spending all of that time on this farm, feeling amazed and making friends, and then made plans to return here for January, February, and March. I’m so glad I did. The powerful silver eucalyptus trees, bark peeling and leaves jangling down, sweep me up in a hug over the mountains and bright bay in sloping golden light; blueberries are ever-more delicious to me; I continue to make new friends and feel integrated into this mindful and cheerful community; and I’m learning and growing in myself every day.

The goat cheese farm up the hill (this is a BIIIIIIIIIG hill) is famous in the area for it’s extraordinary cheese and loving attitude toward its goats, and I’ve recently had the treat of helping them out three days a week. Hans and Esther, the gentle Swiss cheesemaking couple (Esther learned cheesemaking by spending summers up at a hut in the Swiss Alps, tending cows and learning from a master cheeseemaker), work with me feeding and milking the goats in the early morning, enjoy tea and cookies around 9, then make cheese (I can make cheese!) in the cheeserie before a light lunch, which involves at least 5 kinds of cheese! The goats melt my heart every day with their curious eager eyes, nibbling lips that kiss my hands as I feed them nice-smelling hay and grass, and sweetly mischievous ways. Today I had to run after 6 kids who all ran in different directions when I was moving them from one spot to another; I felt like I was back in school!

Working with Hans and Ester and the goats on the top of the glowing hill, and learning new things about animals and cheese and running a successful small business has been refreshing for my brain after six weeks of berry picking… Blueberries remain a joy to eat by the bucketful, and with all their anti-oxidants and healthful effects on the brain I’m sure I’m as sharp a tack as I’ll ever be, but I was beginning to struggle with the monotony of the tasks of picking and packing. Also, Jilly and Kris have rightly been increasingly tied up with enjoying quiet family time with their new-born, and I’ve seen very little of them in the last month. So goats are a great diversion for me! And I’m looking forward to a roadtrip around Tasie with a wwoofing friend, and to enjoying a couple more wwoofing locations before I leave Tasmania in early April, including a honey bee farm! Blueberries, cheese, and honey – are you convinced it’s heaven yet? Have I mentioned that Tasie is also famous for its seafood, oysters especially, and red wine?? And some of the most amazing hiking in the world???? You all have to get to Tasmania some day.