expatdiva: Revisiting the World Icon City Sydney, Australia (2)

It took us about 3 hours on a fine day (meaning less traffic!) to drive from the Northern Beaches to visit our dear friend, Rowan & Peta's farm in Oberon.

Oberon is a village situated near the famous Blue Mountains, and not far away from it you will find towns like Bathurst, Gouldburn and the Great Western Highway. It is surrounded by the lovely creeks, highlands, dams and reserves.

I think this is a better map to show you the distance from Sydney to Oberon. For more info, you can go to oberonaustralia.com or google Oberon: a rural community

I love to visit Rowan and Peta. They own a massive farm consisting mainly of sheep and cattle. Besides them you can find some lovely local, healthy produce, a few in season during my visit were vegetables like the squash, Roma tomatoes, onions and herbs such as rosemary, lavender, sage, theme which are all organically grown.

Squash

Squash Flower

Unripe Roma Tomatoes

Mature Onion Plants

Rosemary, Lavender, Sage, and Thyme

Farm Hens and Chooks

The two cattle dogs to guard the chooks from the foxes, especially at night.

If they ever came out of the fence they would be finished for sure.

Jack, the cattle dog was asked to wait behind the Ute.

An apricot tree filled with juicy, delicious fruits!

So many fruits you would just not know what to do with them.

More fruits!

An apple tree.

Situated in the highland, we spent a night at this farm's self-contained house which is more than 50 years old. In-spite of its age, the interiors and the amenities are maintained like new and is quite comfortable. It can accommodate up to 12 persons. The farm house has 3 spacious bedrooms,1 bathroom, 1 lounge plus kitchen/dining. It is surrounded with fruit trees, vegetable plots and lots of sheep and cattle, scattered all over the farm.

An uncompleted sun deck extension on the Northern side of the house.

View of another farm house near the property.

The sheep and the cattle were grazing in the ranch.

It was spring time. The sheep were newly fleeced and they seemed to be very hungry .

When I called out to them only one responded. It looked at me as if saying: Can't you see I am busy?

No! They didn't want to talk to me. The whole flock seemed to walk away from me.

And just then, these two stopped, took another look at me. "Can we help? Whaaa! Don't tell us you want to join us?"

Molly

When I first encountered the Australian cattle dogs in Sydney some years ago, I thought it was the wild Australian Dingos. I was a bit apprehensive to approach Jack. But this is Molly, the cattle dog and she is a different story. She is tame, very intelligent, moves fast, tough and extremely loyal to its master. There are three Australian cattle dogs on the farm. They are medium in size, blue eyed (yes, blue eyes!), short, compact hair, black/brown in color.