GOODBYES AND NEW BEGINNINGS

How do I find the right words to describe our time in Melbourne now that it has come to an end? I’m not quite sure. When I think of the girl who arrived three years ago, broken from the hardest year of my life, confused as to what I wanted to do, I realise this city has truly changed me. I’d never photographed an agency model, I’d never worked with a stylist. I went to university, I dropped out of university, I learnt invaluable lessons and skills from hands on experience, I made lifelong friends, I fell in love with train rides into the city. I traveled to Indonesia, Japan and the USA, I came home to my cosy house. Melbourne is like a drug to the creative soul, it’s where dreams are discovered and created. If I wasn’t about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime, I would never leave this wonderful city.

I’m not the girl with the words, so I’ll leave you with my pictures.

 

The day after we returned from America I ignored my nagging jet lag and set out to the Plant Love Picnic hosted by my beautiful friend Nirrimi at the Abbortsford Convent. Delicious food, wonderful company and warm sunshine, there really isn’t a better combination. I brought a quinoa salad and stuffed myself full of everyone else’s creations. I made some lovely new friends, and finally got to catch up with some old ones! My long lost Bali sisters!

Getting home means seeing my ocean again. I get reacquainted by collecting some sea glass and sitting on the shore listening to the waves.

During the week I picked up Nirrimi and we set off to her two shoots in the setting sunlight. We listened to music on the long car ride, singing along, giggling and gossiping like two little girls. We caught up on each others adventures over the past year that we had been apart, and spoke of our dreams for the future. This wonderful girl is so full of light.

A gorgeous lake basking in golden sunlight, a group of Kangaroo’s were grazing right beside us. I watched while Nirrimi glided effortlessly snapping away. I love watching others work and seeing their thought processes as they create their images.

Her second shoot was with beautiful Rochelle, we explored fields near her home and afterwards her mum cooked us the most delicious vegetarian curry feast!

Spring crept up on me this year, flowers blooming in the street near our home.

Saying my last goodbyes to one of my favourite beach combing spots. I took my Mama on my final trip and we found some beautiful pieces of purple sea glass, I was feeling the love.

The hardest thing about starting a new adventure was having to leave this sanctuary. Our home, my safe place. So much love into these walls, and lots of good memories. Martin and my first real home (before this we had only had apartments) and having our friend Callum move in meant there was always plenty of scary movie nights! Our loft bedroom, my little creative cubby in the tiny room out back, having Coles less than 30 steps from our front door, I couldn’t imagine a more perfect place than this one.

On my 22nd Birthday we held a Garage Sale to sell all of our belongings (and the rest to the op shop and dump!). I’ve never held a Garage Sale before, and the combination of the excitement of my birthday, my Papa visiting, homemade gluten/dairy free cakes from my Mama, friends stopping by, and making over $1000 in profits, (thanks to it also falling on the Garage Sale trail day, so lots of people were out on the hunt for a bargain!) made it one of my favourite birthday’s yet! I sold most of my vintage clothes collection, we put lots of our furniture out for free on the curb! I didn’t feel the need to write a birthday blogpost this year, it’s probably due to growing older and finding that birthday’s don’t really mean quite as much anymore (even though I am still an excitable child the night before!) and also us being incredibly busy this year. But twenty-one was a wonderfully difficult year I’ll never forget.

We moved out of our home and into my Mama’s apartment for a few weeks before leaving Melbourne. We were official homeless (in the best sense of the word!) living with our clothes in bags, our belongings in a few small boxes, and sleeping on a mattress on the floor. In these short weeks we drove to Adelaide, I shot three weddings, a maternity shoot, test shoots and a lookbook. My Mama finished working for the first time in 35 years, Martin finished his job at the cafe, now a fully qualified Chef and we all went to the St Kilda night markets to celebrate.

Summer night vibes. I can’t recommend this market enough! It’s really wonderful, great food and cute stalls.

I sprinted three blocks hoping to make the sunset, but just missed it as it slipped beneath the horizon. No matter, the sky was still beautiful.

Market bought organic ginger beers, pastel skies and beach views.

And all too soon it was time to leave. I was sad to say goodbye to Melbourne which surprised me, we spent our final night having dinner with friends at a pub, the perfect way to finish our time here. I try not to let myself dwell or think too much when it’s time to leave a place, it helps to stop those ‘should I be doing this’ feelings. Strangely I felt much sadder leaving Melbourne than I did when we left Adelaide, there is something about this city that sets the soul alight. We packed up my little car and went out on the open road.

Our first night was spent in the very tiny town of Seaspray, a speck along the magnificent 90 mile beach. We arrived late in the afternoon, driving along a forest lined stretch I saw rabbits, an echidna and thousands of butterflies. We pulled in to the Caravan park and installed our popup tent in less than two minutes. We quickly changed into our bathers despite the chilly winds and ran into the freezing ocean!

Coming back from the beach, the caravan park stretched out before us, our tiny tent a speck in the distance!

In the morning Martin went to catch some more waves and I spent an hour slowly beach combing while the sun began warming the sand. I found the a beautiful shell bigger than my hand, but it still had a happy little crab inside! I did find some very pretty empty shells that I collected in my pockets. We packed up our camp and drove to our next camp spot in Mallacoota. Here is our little tent under a beautiful tree, rain predicted in the evening so we hoped the tree would provide us with a  little shelter!

The caravan park is on the edge of an inlet with incredible views!

The cute camp kitchen hut where Martin cooked us a delicious veggie risotto dish! Half the caravan park couldn’t help but pop their head in to find out where the delicious smell was coming from.

At 12am the rain arrived, by 1am the rain was beginning to come through the roof of our tent… it was torrential! By 5am our sleeping bag was soaked on top of us and we decided it was time to get up. Taking a tent down in the pouring rain isn’t easy…! We had hot showers to warm our bones and by 7am we were on the road again. We made it to my parents home in Narooma and the rain was still coming down heavily. I watched the wall of water from the verandah.

Picking wild flowers from the garden for my Mama.

On Saturday morning we drove to the Moruya markets! Sunshine and good vibes, I’m planning on holding my own stall here early in the new year!

We’ve got a few more days in this paradise and then it’s on to visit family in Adelaide for Christmas and Whyalla for New Years Eve! It’s less than two months until we get on that plane to Europe!