Your Page: Readers’ emails and letters
WITH THE FESTIVE SEASON NOW A DISTANT MEMORY, WE REMINISCE ABOUT WHAT YOU LOVED IN OUR DECEMBER AND CHRISTMAS ISSUES.
LIGHT IN DARK TIMES
Like many other small business owners in Victoria, 2020 posed many challenges for us to work through. Having your business closed for four months out of nine gave way to feelings of anxiety, indecision, hopelessness and bewilderment. The subscription to Country Style I had for many years had expired a long while back and renewing it had not been a priority at the time. As I thought about a ‘happy place’ to retreat to from the daily doom and gloom here and around the world, I remembered one of the rituals I had once relished – the anticipation then pleasure of Country Style magazine arriving in the mail. I further delayed the enjoyment by placing the magazine on the kitchen table until I had sufficient time to sit down with it undisturbed and dive into its pages. Seeing it there my husband would surreptitiously circle the table to see whether it had yet been removed from its wrapper. No, not yet … He would have to be patient a while longer to see what ceramics might lie between the covers. Patient because he knew how much I relished the pleasure of opening the wrapper when the time was right. The sighs and comments and oohs and aahs followed as I sat in a comfy chair with a large cup of tea, my husband waiting his turn. It’s a ritual we share.
Now that the business is up and running again there is hope for the future. The Country Style magazines are on the coffee table and inspiration is now only ever seconds away. Catherine Norman, Inglewood, Victoria
FAR AND WIDE
I am amazed how far your magazine reaches, and how many people read your heritage recipes. From the first day of your Christmas 2020 issue, which featured my grandmother’s strudel recipe, I had calls and texts from almost every state in Australia, saying how much they liked the recipe, and were keen to try it.
Later I was sent many photos of these people’s baking efforts – all looking amazingly like the picture in Christmas 2020 Country Style. And of course these were only from people I knew!
Just before Christmas I was in a rural supermarket queue, and the customer in front of me was holding her Country Style magazine, and ticking off the items in her trolley, all of which I recognised as strudel ingredients. The checkout girls commented: “Oh another one making that cherry recipe!”
It has been a thrill to see your readers respond to a classic family recipe and get enjoyment from it. Marina Hamilton-craig, Encounter Bay, SA
FAMILY TREE
Each issue of Country Style has articles showing the diversity of Australian country living. The December issue was special to me, featuring the story on Northern Lights. This mentioned Schleswigholstein, on the border between Germany and Denmark, where my father’s side of the family came from. Dad and I did a trip many years ago and we traced our family back eight generations – and this was before large scale use of the internet! Hamburg was our base and we had the
most delightful time and met helpful and generous people who went out of their way to help with our search. It is so delightful to be at my home on the Central Coast of NSW and to be able to read such articles from elsewhere in the world as well as Australia.
Like all your readers I appreciate Country Style very much and just have to keep finding more shelf space as I never throw an issue out and look forward to each new one.
Jill Fisscher, Central Coast, NSW
LUNCH TOGETHER
Oh how I loved reading Maggie Mackellar’s story, ‘End Mark’ on the annual ladies’ lunch! Just over 12 months ago I moved with my husband and two children to Auckland, New Zealand. I can acutely relate to those feelings of missing long-term friends forged from school, mothers groups and work, and now instead feeling quite lonely at times – often hoping the ‘sisters’ Maggie talks of will appear. But without any guarantee of a lunch invitation arriving in the mail anytime soon, and in a year when we all need kindness, care and something to look forward to I now feel compelled to start my own ladies’ lunch tradition. My 2021 ladies’ lunch may be small, but I believe, like Paul Kelly sang – “from big things little things grow”. Thank you, Country Style team, for the inspiration! Katie, Auckland, New Zealand
IN A TIME OF LOSS
It’s a few days before Christmas, a time that should be filled with joy and happiness; instead I sit in a hospice, beside my beloved father, as he nears the end of his life, due to a terminal cancer diagnosis. Your pages, full of the beautiful mountains and the countryside he loved, have sustained me in these lonely and emotional traumatic hours. As we await our inevitable loss and my tears fall on the pages, I’ve found solace in these beautiful pictures and articles. He loved the countryside of Berry, NSW, where he tended to a few acres. I know he will remain in that special place, in our hearts and minds.
Our family have so many beautiful memories there and he loved waking up early and taking his granddaughter around the paddocks. The world is so gentle at that hour, just like him. He always made sure Mum had a subscription to Country Style and I’ll continue this tradition for him going forward.
Thank you for helping readers connect to nature and wilderness via your pages. I feel so often we are all just so rushed and stressed that we fail to take the time to just be and take in the magic around us.
Sam Milgate, Berry, NSW