About the Convent – CONVENT AND CHAPEL

Garden Renewal

Published on September 2, 2020 by conventandchapelLeave a comment

The front wall is looking bare but has lovely plants in it. Weeded, fed and about to be mulched, it should spring back to life soon.

It’s been eight years since I first discovered Kandos and the Convent and nearly seven years since I moved here permanently.

The first thing I started on, before even moving a stick of furniture in, was the garden. Once a showplace, over the last four decades it has been stripped back to bare essentials and then left to it’s own devices. I wanted to establish something that did justice to the grand old building and its heritage. However the last year or so has seen lots of challenges – including a long period of drought and ferocious local bushfires. Combined with what has become a thriving business with my wool shop, the garden has taken a back seat.

This central circular garden bed is a constant battle with couch grass however when at its finest, it looks beautiful.

It doesn’t look much now, but this bed is usually awash with towering colour from the Mexican Sages

Time for some major love, particularly if this poor garden ever has aspirations of participating in another Kandos Gardens Fair! This year, feeling that it’s a time to be motivated rather than allow the lull of COVID to take over, for the first time, I’ve called in help and hired someone to help clean out some of the garden beds. My original thoughts that once the garden was established, it would be less work were surprisingly naive. Every year there’s more to prune, feed and weeding gets harder as plants take over areas, particularly the vicious and plentiful roses. I’ve done all the pruning and weeded beds that had smaller plants that may have disappeared under an industrious outside weeder. I’m not sure what has survived the vicious last Summer and the garden is still a tad bleak from our frosts (which otherwise I love in the country).

Some heavy pruning here but this bed will spring to life – a mix of original and newer roses bedded in with Evening Primrose

There’s still a few beds to tackle but after a few weeks, we’re now up to feeding and mulching. I’ve had literal truck loads of mulch sitting on my paddock next door waiting to be spread – its time has now come. Oh, and that reminds me, I also have a paddock next door that’s in the midst of becoming an edible garden – what was I thinking!!!

The first sign of Spring – the grass is still showing the impacts of our frosts

Contemplation

Published on January 10, 2019 by conventandchapel3 Comments

There’s been a few quiet weeks here to end 2018 and begin 2019. Just before Christmas my much-loved Mum passed away.

Losing a parent is significant and both of mine have now left in the last few years. As I’ve reached 60, it’s prompted me to take a some time to reflect. For so much of my life, little seemed to change and I appeared to be following a well-mapped route. I’d grown up, married and lived in the same area for decades. I married mid 20’s, had children (the best!) and worked in the same industry with few job changes for 3 decades. There were many aspirations and dreams however dreams were all they appeared to be.

Then lots changed. And quickly. Single. Job change. Tree change. Dramatic swings over the last 10 or so years – ups and downs, but most have also brought opportunities with them.

acp_3151 — Home. I wouldn’t have believed this possible until it actually happened.

Just over five years ago, as part of exploring a long-held dream to live in the country, I stumbled across an old Spanish Mission Convent in Central West NSW. In a town I’d never heard of before – Kandos. Five years later, I’m living here permanently, am part of a warm and welcoming community and spend my working life knitting in my wool shop business.

At times life can be hard and certainly the loss of Mum is one of the hardest. However I was once told to look at my life in three stages:

First 30 years – the growing up years, finding yourself and emerging from childhood and youth to become an adult
30 – 60 – the adult years, marrying, being a mother, work. Predominantly doing for others in dutiful roles
60 onwards – the individual years – a chance to be who you always wanted to be, and at this stage of life, hopefully knowing who that person is. With the value of experience and having fulfilled previous roles (hopefully with an element of success), this is the opportunity to shine personally.

Anyway, that’s the way I choose to look at my next/current phase. I have a wonderful family with my girls, a beautiful home and garden that keeps me active, a thriving business that allows me to work at my passion and a wonderful, vibrant community to be a part of. It’s sad that I can’t share my stories with my parents any more but I’m sure they’re keeping an eye on me from somewhere.

The Convent Paddock – the cook’s garden – my current project

The Convent on Display

Published on January 17, 2018 by conventandchapel1 Comment

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I purchased the Convent in Kandos over 4 years ago now. Since then, this beautiful building has seen a few changes inside and out. She’s had to become accustomed to being a home to me and has also opened her doors and garden gates each year to the public for various community events.

ACP_2897 Her next big event is the CWA Kandos Gardens Fair on 7 & 8 April and I’m already hard at work getting the garden into shape during some challenging dry seasons. Whilst the timing wasn’t perfect, I organised a photo shoot with the talented Amber Hooper from Amber Creative to take a series of shots to help with promotion (and because I just wanted to have some lovely photos of the Convent).

ACP_3189 These photos were taken at dusk just prior to Christmas and do justice to the Convent and the amazing Kandos surrounds.

Moving here has been such a fantastic experience and I wonder how many others should just take a leap of faith and discover how great a country lifestyle is, particularly in one of the smaller rural communities. Life is still busy and challenging but it’s by choice and with challenges you choose. Living in a community is so different with its own rewards and obligations, unlike in the city or suburbs and certainly focusses your priorities. ACP_3065

Four years on and this is still an adventure that I hope continues for many years to come.

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Three Years!!!

Published on November 24, 2017November 24, 2017 by conventandchapel2 Comments

It seems like a year ago, but Convent & Chapel Wool Shop has just clocked up three years since opening in November 2014. And what a great three years they’ve been, with hopefully many more on the horizon.

The before – we thought this was good

The now – overflowing with Hedgehog Fibres

We’ve met so many new people and feel like we’re establishing ourselves as part of a vibrant and thriving community. It’s been fun to look back on old photos and see how much we’ve changed. We thought we’d kicked off with lots of stock in the shop but now we can see how much we’ve expanded our range and pretty much managed to insulate the building with yarn from wall to wall and floor to ceiling.

It’s been a learning and growing experience for us, providing us with another career along with a change of lifestyle from Sydney to the real rural country at our prime. What a change from a corporate career to a professional knitter!

We’ve had lots of comments along the way:

“Why would you open a wool shop in such a small town?” Because we live here.

“It’s a dying art” – Umm, no. It’s always been really popular and even moreso now with the internet.

“I think it would ruin it for me – making my hobby my job” – We’d much rather work at something we love.

OK, so maybe not everyone would do this, but it’s working for us and we love it when visitors are surprised and delighted when they enter our world.

There’s been so many highlights, including our love for participating in Shows, with one of the best being Gemma scooping the pool at last year’s Sydney Royal Easter Show . Winning the Fine Lace category, being in the Cabinet of Excellence and taking out the Margot Chick Award, something we’ve both long coveted, was pretty amazing.

We’d hate to guess how many kilometres of yarn we’ve knitted during that time and have lost count of the Rylstone Ridge and Louee Lace scarves, not to mention Kandos Classic and Rylstone Ribbed Beanies.

We’ve also been supported by some wonderful suppliers – both locally and internationally – that we’ve formed great relationships with. We’ve been to fibre festivals, done classes and exhibitions – things five years ago that would never have been on our horizons.

As for the future, our lovely landlords (the Rylstone & District Historical Society who own the Bridge View Inn) have kindly given us permission to use part of the hallway as a gallery, so we can set up permanent exhibitions. We also have exciting new arrivals on the horizon and, of course, lots more knitting. Our list of patterns and yarns we want to try never gets any shorter.

It’s important to us and other retailers, who take the risk and make the commitment to a small independent bricks and mortar shop, that we have your support. There are lots of challenges in business today, competing with the big name retailers and small online businesses. However we believe that businesses who can still offer shopfronts and personal service have an important role to play. We also try to give our online customers a great experience and feel we know many of them personally.

So thank you to everyone who has been part of our journey so far. We feel like it’s still near the start and looking forward to every step to come.

The End of Winter

Published on September 17, 2017 by conventandchapelLeave a comment

Winter here is harsh. Cold (but rarely snowing), cruel frosts but, this year, unfortunately very little rain. By the end of Winter I start to despair for the garden. It all looks so grey/yellow and bare, with little sign of life or greenery.

This little fella self-seeded and decided to stay. A welcome addition, even if unplanned and in an awkward position.

It’s now nearly four years since I moved here and this year I realised that I’ve been so conditioned to Sydney North Shore gardens that are dominated by evergreens including camellias, azaleas and all-pervading buxus hedges that the yellowness of the landscape here is still a little disturbing. Gardens here are different – more deciduous trees and shrubs, veggie beds and with the frosts, grass will never stay green.

The upside is that Winter is perfect for knitting and has a lot less competition for time, given the garden is dormant. Come Spring, the garden starts to come alive. The last few weeks I’ve been madly pruning – paying a steep price for now having over 100 roses that are doing very well at the Convent. It’s also feeding, watering and mulching time. Water is a problem given I can’t remember the last time we had decent rain fall.

Not so Tortured Filbert will have grassy green leaves soon. I’m enjoying the catkins that just keep dropping longer and longer.

It’s so rewarding to watch plants that seem so lifeless spring back – and certainly reassuring that I haven’t killed them. Many of the plants are now three to four years old and establishing themselves, which is also intriguing to watch, with a few becoming fast favourites. I bought Tortured Filbert as I was fascinated by the name and felt a bit sorry for any plant that could be called that. However he is a stunning little hazelnut specimen with an amazing twisted structure and the cutest catkins that are currently getting longer and longer.

Blue Streak Willow – just lucky with this one that it’s such a beautiful tree. Look at the pussy willows just before it goes into leaf.

Another gorgeous plant is Salix Acutifolia ‘Blue Streak’ that I bought from Lambleys, one of my favourite online nurseries. It came in a tiny tube pot and was originally planted in a garden bed. A year later I needed help to move it – obviously a vigorous plant – and it now sits between the Chapel and Grotto (not many people can use that phrase on their Blog!). It’s just displaying gorgeous little pussy willows at the moment and looks like it will explode into growth soon.

One of the first trees I planted was the somewhat Convent appropriate Judas Tree which always has lovely blossoms and pretty leaf growth. It, too is about to flower. The garden was so bare with no established shade trees so I’ve been keen for the Manchurian Pears to grow. They’ve been reliable and I think this year will hit their straps.

The pair of Wisterias have taken a surprisingly short time to get themselves in shape.

At my last home in Sydney, a neighbour had a wonderful Wisteria that was kept to a standard shape – an ever thickening trunk and heavy weeping strands of flowers. This seemed a perfect option to go under the Convent windows and break up some of the harshness of the exterior. It also seems to be working and the plants are now heavy with buds – although more endless pruning for me to keep it in shape.

Anyway, the knitting is slowing a little although shop hand knit staples (beanies, mitts and scarves) are less in demand, so at this time of the year I try and move towards more detailed lace knitting and always promise myself that I’ll get my Show knitting under control early (never happens!!!).

The two Manchurian Pears that should become prominent in the front yard are just starting to hit their straps.

The Next Phase

Published on August 17, 2017 by conventandchapelLeave a comment

New gates at each end. This is the rear of the property.

Winter has been a good time to let the garden rest and get on with lots of knitting for the shop. However it’s starting to warm up and Spring isn’t far away. Priorities are about to change!

Internal access from the Convent block through a small gate set in the privet hedge.

Over the past year I’ve been cleaning up the block next door, or “the paddock” as it’s more commonly referred to. I have just over half an acre of land that the Convent sits on and also own the quarter acre next door which has just been a rough block up until now. I’ve had it cleared of the old scrub and last week fencing and gates went up, so now it’s time to start doing some work.

The land is pretty rough – shale and clay, so I’ll be taking my time building up the soil and planting gradually. So far I’ve started at one end – lots of cardboard getting put down and mulch going on top. Given it’s pruning time, lots of light pruning and leaves are making their way to the other side of the galvanised fence. First cab off the rank is potatoes. Last year I had huge success with some substantial “no dig” beds of potatoes layered with straw mulch and a sprinkling of Dynamic Lifter. This year I have the advantage of horse poo courtesy of Poppy the horse down the road.

Some rockery beds are already in place at the front of the block from decades ago – now sans tyre plantings.

Either end of the block will be some pretties – I have roses on order that should be OK. Some of the block has some rockery work in place that should work well for the rose and perennial beds but the balance of the paddock will mainly be produce. Some bordering for veggie beds will take place shortly.

Desiree, Sebago and Dutch Cream potatoes doing multiple duties – food, breaking up and enriching soil.

The photos look pretty bleak and colourless – it’s been a very dry Winter with harsh frosts – this will green up in no time with better weather and a little TLC. Anyway, this will keep me going for quite some time.

Gates at the front of the property – the views are stunning.

Bridge View Inn, Rylstone – Our Wool Home

Published on July 13, 2017 by conventandchapelLeave a comment

about_us_29faa0a7-9afe-498b-bdfa-309a3bbdc4d9 — Early days when we first opened the shop

As much as we love our shop, we often worry about a lack of space – it’s just two rooms in an old hotel. But every time we take a good look around, we always find a few more areas we can fit some shelving space. I think we’ve added over 24 more bays since we first thought we’d run out of space, including 12 more this week. And we still think we can fit more in! Of course we also make use of our front verandah, the hallway and back courtyard – it’s all put to work.

Our shop is perfectly situated in the gorgeous old town of Rylstone, about 40 minutes from Mudgee, about 75 minutes from Bathurst and Lithgow and about 3 hours from Sydney. Housed in the historic, Bridge View Inn, it’s hard to imagine a much better setting.

Our landlords are the Rylstone & District Historical Society. They purchased the lovely old sandstone building in the 1960’s and have since done a great job in restoring it to it’s former glory. Built as an Inn in the 1870’s, it’s been home to many businesses including a popular restaurant as well as the local bank – you can still see the cement slabs that were laid to hold the safes. It’s now home to 29Nine99, run by the lovely NaLan. This has become a super popular and famous Yum Cha House, featured on Better Homes & Gardens, Sydney Weekender and Andy and Ben Eat Australia. If you’re visiting us, you must have some yum cha! We also share with a barber, upstairs is a well appointed character 2 bedroom apartment (complete with open fire) for holiday rentals, and the Cottage Museum out the back run by the Historic Society. This link gives more history about the building – just ignore the reference at the end to the Thai massage being a tenant – that’s now us! A bit of a change!

The building has so much character, including the restored mural in the dining room (that Gemma and I both think looks a bit demonic for our tastes). Our shop has it’s own charm – our “back” room is also fondly called ‘The Snug’ and was originally the Ladies Bar. It seems to be happy in it’s current role displaying wool and also houses our lovely green leather Chesterfield lounge – if we have any spare time during the day, you can find Gemma and me sitting and knitting here. The Bridge View Inn was also one of the locations used in filming ‘The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith’. Local lore has it that the film crew brought in the overmantle mirror behind our countertop as a prop and left it there. You can see our countertop and the mirror in bar scenes in the movie.

A scene from ‘The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith’ with our overmantle mirror and shop counter (with a different bench top). That’s ‘The Snug’ through the doorway.

Our shop counter has it’s own history having originally been part of the Cudgegong Post Office. Windermere Dam was built in the 70’s to provide a water supply for the area. In the making, the small town of Cudgegong was flooded and the lovely old counter was moved to our Inn.

Anyway, we’re very happy in our shop and in our town. We’d love you to drop by and spend the day (or weekend, or week) exploring our region. I’m sure neither our shop or area will disappoint. We may even have the fire on if it’s really cold!

Another Special Weekend at the Convent

Published on April 13, 2017April 13, 2017 by conventandchapelLeave a comment

Teen’s McCarthy used the Grotto as the setting to her Bush Mary performance

It’s been so long since I’ve written a post. That doesn’t mean I’ve been quiet – just the opposite. What with the shop, the garden, local activities and managing the shop website and personal and commercial Facebook pages (oh, and Instagram), unfortunately the blog seems to fall behind, which is a pity given I can provide more detail and photos here than quick grabs on the other mediums.

Anyway, the last few months have been dominated BY the garden, particularly getting it in good condition for Cementa17, our biannual contemporary arts festival that uses the Convent as a venue, the shop which takes up lots of time, and Show knitting.

Last weekend was Cementa17 with over 40 contemporary artists displaying their works all around our small town. Thousands of people are attracted to the town over 4 days and nights of exhibitions and entertainment.

The Convent is one of the venues used for artists and this year we made the most of having so many visitors by also hosting lunch and Devonshire teas in the garden to raise funds for Kandos CWA.

Two artists exhibited – a performance of the Bush Mary’s by Teena McCarthy and a ceramics display by Paris Norton.

The garden comes up well in Autumn, which is also the time we have our local Garden Fair, the year between Cementa’s, and made a great location for those wishing to have a quiet moment sitting in the garden treating themselves to tea and scones with jam and cream.

Many thanks to all those who volunteered so willingly and gave their time to help out. It was a great weekend.

Putting the Elderflowers to Work -Elderflower Syrup

Published on November 12, 2016 by conventandchapelLeave a comment

The variegated Elderflower, nearly two years old – no shrinking violet

I have two beautiful Elderflower bushes – both very different in appearance but both vigorous and prolific. The plainer green one that suckers all over the place is about three years old and flowers madly a little later in Summer. At the moment there are no signs of flowers developing but lots of green bushy growth cropping up all over the place. The second is less than two years old, has stunning variegated leaves and a far more architectural growth habit. It’s flowering like crazy right now and last year, unlike it’s older relative, also developed elderberries.

The previous Summer, the flowers were put to use in Elderflower Champagne, which was a huge success. I recently timidly opened one of the many bottles stashed in my cellar to see if they were still bubbly and was delighted to find it even better than before! Maturing with age like some of us.

This time around I’m trying Elderflower Syrup (same as Elderflower Cordial). I’ve used this Jamie Oliver recipe that sounded interesting with the addition of honey – but it’s so simple with just Elderflowers (lots), sugar, honey, lemons and water. The first batch was doubled so I have plenty and am looking forward to using it as a cordial, fruit syrup and maybe even in some elderflower sorbet, not to mention as a cocktail with some Prosecco!

In production

Next up some more Elderflower champagne – it’s such a treat to sit in the evening next to my new fishpond with an icy glass of this drink and just chill with the dogs.

The finished product – I’m sure there will be plenty more in the future

Spring Has Sprung

Published on October 15, 2016 by conventandchapelLeave a comment

The two standard wisterias under the front windows seem to have settled in well.

The front circular bed changes with seasons. For now it’s dominated by Ranunculus. Later the new roses will shine and then the white Cosmos will fill it out.

Well at least I hope it has. Winter has taken its time departing (not that I’m complaining as a wool shop owner!) but it would be nice for the rain to ease off, winds die down and sun to show its face.

Every Convent should have a Judas Tree and this lovely plant has always been reliable.

The last week has shown some promise and the garden is starting to respond, although it seems the grass always responds first and is badly in need of mowing. This is the third year here permanently and about four years since I first set my eyes on the Convent and discovered Kandos. It’s also the first year where I can see the plants doing what I had hoped they would. Roses are bursting with growth, some of the plants that had struggled seem to have found their feet, vacant spaces are beginning to fill, trees are beginning to fill out and climbers are, well, starting their climbing journey.

These are just the first touches of colour coming into the garden and I’m anticipating some great displays through Spring, Summer and Autumn. With expanded veg patches, I’m also hoping to be well fed by my garden – the chooks are certainly enjoying spinach at the moment and rewarding me with lots of eggs.