If you had asked me as a child what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would always imagine my life on the plains of Africa or some equally adventurous place, working in the wilds. But then you grow up and life twists and turns and takes you else where, well it did for me, or so I thought…..

In 2005 I married my soul mate and best friend Tom and whilst I was excited and blissfully happy to be starting a new life with him as a farmers wife in Worcestershire. I was also aware I would never achieve my romantic childhood dream of living somewhere wild and beautiful in another land. Dont get me wrong Worcestershire is beautiful but not exactly wild!

My man or so I thought was well and truly also married to his ancestral family farm and was never going to leave. Love and the wonderful life we had together made it easy to abandon that childhood dream. But 2 children and 8 years later Tom threw me a massive curve ball. One night exhausted and lost in the direction our future was progressing he said he was leaving. Well for a moment I thought he said, he was leaving me! Visions of a mid life crisis hitting him and an affair or something, I promptly burst into tears! “No you daft woman, we’re leaving, let’s go to Australia!” . And so it happened, we started the process of selling and packing up our whole life and leaving everything we knew to move to farm in Queensland, Australia.

Two years of visa struggles, many, many challenges, hard dusty work and a broken back from mustering an unruly cow has forced me to stop. So I thought I would start this blog and put our story out there. Plus staring at the ceiling for hours on end due to said broken back has driven me insane so what better time!

So how did I get to today. My goodness, what a massive question with too many complex answers. Well I’m only going to stick to the basics and overtime if you read this blog my story will come out in full. Don’t panic family and friends that’s not a threat and all will be fine I can assure you!

I am also from rural Worcestershire and grew up in a big complex, crazy family with many brothers and sisters and a menagerie of animals. I loved wildlife & art, which led me to study a degree in Photography. I then got lost in the world of design and advertising for a few years before I realised how far from my true passions I had journeyed. So I completed a Masters in Science in International Rural Development with a view to work abroad. It was during this time I met Tom for a second time…we had a brief thing before but wrong time and all that! I was planning to fly to the Faulklands to study for my final thesis on ferel invasive species when Tom begged….ok well not exactly begged but romantically asked me to stay with him. He had some crazy notion I was going to run off with a sheep farmer or army boy whilst out there…thanks for the trust darling! Anyway I stayed, studied and worked locally, made a home, got married, had babies etc. etc. until…………..well this adventure of ours started.

A bit about Tom…

Tom is a good man, one of the best but of course I’m biased, I’m his wife. He’s a man, my husband and we work together so he can also drive me insane but I know for a fact I more than do that to him too! And it’s his endless patience that sometimes gets us through. A friend once said “I’m the terrier to his Labrador”. I think it’s our difference that makes us strong. I’m Yin and he’s Yang.

As I mentioned before Tom has farmed all his life and farmed a successful enterprise with his brother in Worcestershire. It was a mixed farming venture of cattle, sheep, hops, cereals, apples, pears and damsons.  So Tom has plenty of farming experience and I had some and together we have climbed a mountain of knowledge and challenges to get to where we are today.

To leave all that was a massive undertaking. Toms family have farmed forever and his history to the area goes back and back. So to let all that go and start again is amazing and something I, even as his wife would never have imagined he would do before that night in 2013. He had visited Australia before once aged 18 visiting family and friends and it was then that he found his love for Australia working on various farms. Then a second time we visited together in 2010, escaping the cold after we had had to evacuate our house due to flooding and reside in a freezing caravan with Sam then a young baby. (Another blog for another time)

Tom has never once doubted this was the right thing to do, he has never wavered from this path he set us upon. Where as I have often questioned and found this whole journey much harder at times. But with out the challenges  we would not have the rewards. I compromised on my dreams for love and my love aka Tom surprised me and this brings me back full circle…..you never know where life will take you.