A Place That Has My Heart
Oh and also I have some exciting news!
The place I live right now, in this beautiful Bega Valley, is a place that has my heart. I’ve loved it for (almost) my entire life and I can’t see myself living anywhere else. Ever. But within this heart-holding-valley is a place that is extra dear to me.
It’s an area, not a town . There are no shops, not even a post office. There’s a hall. Oh, and a fire shed. It also features a river with a big bridge and a dam that holds water for a large proportion of the valley. And a mountain. A beautiful enveloping mountain.
It’s called Brogo.
It’s the place we moved to when we first left Sydney and came to the Bega Valley, way back at the end of 1980.
It’s the place where my parents’ dreams of self sufficiency and clean air and a free wild childhood for us was realised. The epitome of the Bega Valley - dairy country, rolling green hills, surrounded by bush, and cradled by Mumbulla Mountain and the ranges of wilderness beyond.
It’s the place I safely, and freely explored, on horse back, with friends and on my own, most weekends of my childhood.
It’s the place where couples in their 20s, just like my parents, moved from the city to live a handmade, homegrown life; bring up their kids; and become the vivid, creative, fresh new threads that made up part of the tapestry, woven amongst the sturdy local-born-n-bred ones.
It’s the place where those families gathered together and formed a cosy community of newcomers who quickly shot down roots and created lasting homes of mud brick and green glass bottles and outdoor toilets and memories to last lifetimes.
It’s the place where we could be wild and free and where nature and the outdoors was way more of a focus than indoors.
It’s where the space around us brought comfort and resilience and where we got to grow and learn and taste life in all of its simple gloriousness.
It was the place where I learnt about connection, and family, and cosy.
It was home.
Guess what the question prompt is for Tell Me Over Tea over the next couple of weeks?
What place holds your heart?
If you would like to answer that and tell me the story of a place that holds your heart please hit reply. I’ll be sharing these stories over the next two weeks, both here in my newsletter and also on Instagram.
I can not wait to hear your stories!
Oh, and if you’re new here and not sure what Tell Me Over Tea is, well, no need to worry because I am about to explain it, along with the exciting news I mentioned in the title of this letter.
I’ll just come out and say it ….
I’m starting a podcast!
I’m equal amounts of excitement and terror about it but I think it’s going to be such a wonderful way to collect stories - mine, yours, friend’s, family, complete strangers. It will be a space where simple life stories are honoured and a place of connection and friendship as we get to know one another a little more through our personal life stories.
And there will be tea! Each lovely guest will receive a little gift in the mail from me - some tea and a letter. We will share the tea when we chat for the podcast and in each episode we will have a tiny natter about the tea. What a special way to begin a cosy story telling chat, with a cuppa in hand;)
And guess what the podcast is called?
Tell Me Over Tea!
I’ve decided that it’s the perfect name for it and so my new little story telling project of the same name, will merge into a podcast!
So, at the moment I am in the throes of planning episodes and organising content and finding lovely stories to share with you. Gosh, I’ve found some wonderful stories already and I can’t wait to create the episodes so you can enjoy them too.
If you have a story that you ‘d like to share in the podcast, please let me know. I’d love to chat about it and see if it might be a lovely fit for Tell Me Over Tea.
And please don’t forget to let me the stories about the places you hold in your heart.
PS If you’ve been thinking about making a start with writing your own personal life stories, but you’re not sure where to begin, please know you are very welcome to grab my free Beginner’s Guide to Turn One Memory into a Written Treasure:
If you do happen to be new here, hi there! I'm Kim, and I love to share stories of home and childhood, and the moments that connect me with the people and places I love so much. I have a passion for encouraging you to write your own life stories down too and I have a new offering to help women do just that: Little Life Stories. I also have a free Beginner’s Guide to Turn One Memory into a Written Treasure: grab the guide here.
I also love the good old-fashioned art of letter writing, in particular, and of course, all things stationery. I have a gorgeous letter writing group for women, called: The Lovely Letters Project.
I write about the connection between my precious Nan and I, in a letter bundle here: Dear Nan.
I share all of these things over on Instagram, Pinterest and my website.
It’s really lovely to meet you!
Already part of the club? Welcome back! Love you long time! Hit that reply button to let me know you’re here. ◡̈ xox
I know already that your Tell Me Over Tea podcast is going to be my new favourite place.