Farewell Figtree

Well it seems like it was only a few months ago that we made the decision to move to Melbourne, but today seems to have come around fast.

Today we said farewell to Figtree. I was hoping to take some final photos of the garden, but it decided to absolutely bucket with rain (not helpful for the removalists trying to pick the truck). At least it meant I didn't have to water the garden before we went. So sadly, no parting photos.

Yesterday I did some maintenance on the vegie patch to get it ready for being unattended for a while. All the beds are mulched. The new irrigation timer has been installed and set. All the plants are looking healthy. The snow peas are just starting to reach the twine that they'll eventually climb. The broccoli heads are forming nicely. It is finally looking like a well established, mature garden. I would like to hope that it will bring joy to the future occupants.

I don't find myself missing the garden, as I've enjoyed the process of gardening as much as the end product. I would have liked to have seen the fruit trees mature and start to bear fruit. I'm looking forward to the challenge of starting a new garden in Melbourne. I'm bringing our seeds with us, many of which we've saved from what we've grown in Figtree, so it will be like bringing a bit of our Figtree garden with us.

Welcome to 2010 - The Year of the Move

Happy New Year and Welcome to 2010!

The big news in our lives is that we've decided to move to Melbourne. When exactly is "sometime this year".

Why Melbourne? Oddly enough this is part of us embracing a downsized and less complicated lifestyle. I know many people move OUT of major cities to downsize, so why are we moving from the lovely, coastal Illawarra to a major metropolitan city? A number of reasons.

Friends
Something I've learnt over the last couple of years is that a key part of a sustainable lifestyle is sustainable relationships, with your partner, your family, and your friends. Over the years, most of our close friends have moved out of the Illawarra and a lot of them are now in Melbourne. Being closer to them will greatly enrich our lives.

Functional Public Transport
I'll admit it, I'm enamoured with trams. Ever since my first visit to Melbourne, I have loved how easy it is to get around the city on public transport. Coming from NSW, the land of completely non-functional public transport, it's been a novel concept. We currently have an embarrassing 3 vehicles (the 3rd is a work car that is part of the Cunning Plans Dept's job package). I drive pretty much everywhere since my health prevents long distances of walking and there is no public transport near us. By moving to Melbourne, we hope to become a one vehicle household. A number of our friends in Melbourne don't own vehicles and are loving it. We probably need to maintain one vehicle, mainly due to the nature of the CPD's work involving site visits. We also need something that can transport to the two dogs when necessary. I'm hoping we can get rid of the current vehicles and get something more efficient an environmentally friendly. The CPD has been thinking of a DIY electric conversion for a while so that might be a goer.

Job Opportunities
This is a big one. While we've not had any problem finding work in the Illawarra, we've both hit points in our careers where we want to do something different and that something isn't on offer here. I'd like to get into government policy, especially environmental policy, and the CPD would like to do engineering that isn't coal-enabling and is more along sustainable design lines. Melbourne presents much better opportunities for both of us to end up doing something we really want to do.

And of course the is the attraction that is Melbourne itself. The number of environmental and sustainability focused groups and events is staggering.

So the plan is to think about what we want to do with our house (sell or rent), start applying for jobs, and then find somewhere to rent in Melbourne (definitely not buying while the market is this insane). It feels a bit sad to be leaving the house and the garden that we've put a lot of work into. The garden I don't feel too sad for as the joy in gardening for me has always been about the process of doing it, not the end result so much. Until we actually up sticks and move, I plan to still be gardening as often as I can. I'm excited about the prospect of starting a new garden and even the challenge of gardening at a rental property where we may need to be creative.

Bring on 2010 - Year of the Move.