What Slowing Down Has Taught Us
For a long time, this place was loud in the best possible way.
Kids everywhere. Motorbikes in the yard. The kind of full, chaotic, wonderful noise that a busy family makes when they're living hard and living well. Stuart and I were both deep in our working lives — and Werombi was the place we came back to. The place that held all of it together.
Then, slowly, one by one, they left. The kids grew up, moved out, found their partners, and started their own lives. And the house got quiet in a way we hadn't quite prepared ourselves for. Not sad, exactly. Just different. A little still. A little waiting.
We've been on this land for over thirty years, and I don't think either of us expected that the most full it would ever feel was right now.
Because life has well and truly come back to Werombi.
The bees arrived first — Stuart's doing, about ten years ago — and with them came that wonderful, low hum that you feel as much as hear when you walk out toward the orchard in the morning. Then came the idea for the farmstay, the workshops, the online shop. One thing leading to another the way good things tend to.
Now we have guests arriving, questions to answer, workshops to run, honey to harvest, jars to fill, candles to make. Stuart jokes that he worked his whole career and retirement is somehow busier. He's not wrong. And neither of us would change a thing.
What slowing down has actually taught us is that it was never really about doing less. It was about doing the right things. Things that are rooted in this place, made with these hands, and shared with people who appreciate them.
Home is humming again. And honestly, it's never sounded better.
with love,
Ally
What We've Been Up To
A little snapshot of life at The Werombee Hive lately — the things we're making, growing, and enjoying right now.
Stuart's homeschool bee program has kept us wonderfully busy, and the school holiday bee sessions have been just as full on — in the best possible way. There is something really special about watching people (big and small) get up close with the hives for the first time. The questions alone are worth it.
We also have a handful of workshops coming up that we're quietly very excited about — beeswax candle making and leadlight are both on the horizon, and the prepping has already begun. Watch this space for dates.
And this week I made a big batch of my homemade punchy pickles. The kitchen smelled incredible, ABBA was blaring from the speaker, and I will neither confirm nor deny how much dancing happened between the benchtop and the stove. Some things are better left to the imagination.
We've also had the most wonderful guests through the farmstay lately. There is something so genuinely lovely about opening your home to people and watching them settle in and breathe it all in. We've loved every moment of hosting.
We've also welcomed a few groups of Japanese students for their farmstay experience — what a joy that has been. Different cultures, different conversations, and a shared love of this little patch of NSW. We feel very lucky.
