Your page: readers’ emails and letters

AFTER FOUR YEARS IN LONDON, A READER RECONNECTS WITH AUSTRALIA THROUGH COUNTRY STYLE, WHILE FOR ANOTHER A 30TH BIRTHDAY GIFT PROVES TO BE A WINNER.

TURNING 30

Shout out to my not yet mother-in-law for buying me a subscription to Country Style for my 30th birthday. After being knocked back when I asked if I could read her copy, she went one step better, surprising me with the 2019 Country Style diary. Now I can look forward to reading my own copy each month, as I take a break from the slice of paradise in South Gippsland my partner and I purchased last year. As I turn each page and read the inspiring, beautiful stories from rural Australia, I can continue to plan, imagine, create and dream of improving our land and life. Ebony Knox, Outtrim, Victoria

TOWN CIVILITY

I like Country Style for all the reasons your readers write in about — buildings restored to beloved homes, glorious gardens, artisans resurrecting the old skills, food that sends me to the kitchen. But what counts most is the spirit of my rural homeland that seeps through the pages in Rob Ingram’s poignant tales of small town life and in Annabelle Hickson’s recent account of the person who disrupted the Peter Allen Festival in Tenterfield. She nailed it when she pointed out that big city demonstrators can “take over whole streets… and be anonymous in their sheer numbers”. In a small community everyone knows everyone. I love living in a place where a person is free to stand up with their placards, where their friends and neighbours may not agree with their protest, or the manner in which they chose to demonstrate, but will give them their ‘about a minute’ to state their case. And I especially love that it just needs one of the official party to say, “Okay, that’s enough.” And it is. Gilda Cowell, Elimbah, Queensland

WELCOME HOME

I wanted to send some gratitude for the long hours and passion you pour into your work. I’ve just moved back from London after four years, and I loved the lifestyle, history and culture. But it also came with financial setbacks. I’m currently in the Victorian town of Mount Beauty spending some quality time with my mum at my parents’ holiday home and I went through her pile of old magazines. I was fearful of not reintegrating, having experienced so much beauty around the world, but I’ve loved being re-inspired by country Australia through Country Style. Thank you for helping me see the possibilities that lie before me, instead of dwelling on what I left behind. Georgia Pearson, Mount Dundeed, Victoria

WINNER BACK TO THE COUNTRY

Our family have always enjoyed Country Style, not just for the beautiful way it depicts things, but because it continues to inspire dreams of a country life. My husband grew up on a station property in north-west Queensland and would happily leave his employment to return to any of the places in Country Style. For now your magazine allows us all to dream and occasionally reminisce. Emma Muir, Red Hill, Queensland (Emma’s son Oliver pictured top left.)

Our February issue featured the Capertee Valley weekender of Sunrise presenter Edwina Bartholomew @edwina_b, her husband Neil Varcoe and blue heeler (and our cover star) Mate. We travelled to the Huon Valley and the Blue Mountains’ town of Katoomba, Gardening Australia presenter Jane Edmanson shared her fond childhood memories of growing up on a Mildura fruit farm and chef Matt Germanchis served up crowd-pleasing seafood dishes from his restaurant @captain_moonlite on Victoria’s Great Ocean Road. Photography @marniehawson Styling @hannah.brady

Reader Emma Muir, who’s this month’s prize winner, wrote to us about a family holiday in Tasmania that was straight from the pages of Country Style. “We recently stayed at The Farmer’s Cottage, in the Huon Valley, during a wonderful holiday with our 18-month-old son Oliver (right). It was exciting to see it in February’s Southern Charm story and dream-worthy to recall the visit!”