Bronwyn Parry – Finding the heart of Dungirri

Bronwyn Parry 1I’m very excited to welcome award winning author Bronwyn Parry to my blog today. Bronwyn was recently awarded the Best Romantic Suspense Novel in the ARRA awards. She’s also a finalist in the RWAmerica RITA and the Daphne Du Maurier Award (go Bron!).

Helene, thanks so much for inviting me to ‘visit’! It’s been wonderful being friends with you the past few years, and I love that we’re now both published in romantic suspense in Australia!

Thanks, Bron. 🙂 And can I say I love the photo of you and your dogs!

You write so vividly about the landscape and Dungirri, I have to ask are you a country girl born and bred or did you move  there from a city?

I guess you could say I’m a country girl at heart <g> When I was small, we lived east of Melbourne, at the foot of the Dandenong Ranges. These days, that’s all suburbia, but back then it was more country town. We also had a block of bushland at Kangaroo Ground, north-east of Melbourne, and, except for the bull-ants, I loved going up there into the bush. We also went camping sometimes, and on day trips to some of the wonderful places in that part of Victoria. We moved to Canberra when I was six, and although it’s Australia’s capital, back then it was more like a slightly overgrown country town, with wide open spaces, and mountains beyond the paddocks. From the house I grew up in, you can see the Brindabella Ranges, and it’s a view that still makes me catch my breath whenever I go back. We often did day trips and picnics to the Murrumbidgee River, the huge Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, and into what is now Namadgi National Park; our family holidays took us further afield, but usually into the country, and that love of exploring back roads has stayed with me. I moved up to the New England district twenty-two years ago, and haven’t regretted it for a moment. I travel a fair amount in regional NSW, and usually once a year at least we head into the real outback. We now live 22kms from town, on 100 acres of beautiful regrowth bushland, near the edge of the spectacular gorge country, and although I enjoy a visit to the city now and then, it’s always such a wonderful sense of homecoming, to wind through the trees to our place.

Your place sounds so peaceful. Lucky you having Tidbinbilla so close!  What was the kernel of an idea that started in As Darkness Falls and how did that grow through Dark Country and now into First Light.

As Darkness Falls was born in a short vivid dream I had early one morning; a young woman, in an isolate bush area, confronting an angry crowd of people she knew, trying to convince them to leave a man suspected of something horrific alone, begging them to trust her to find the truth. It was a very powerful image, and eventually became the basis for the prologue of As Darkness Falls. Of course, from there I had to work out who she was, where she was, what had happened… and what would happen next! The books have grown from there, with characters emerging and the community’s story evolving. It’s a small town, so the ties are strong and the other residents had to be more than just bystanders. Kris was such a great secondary character in As Darkness Falls that I wanted to explore her story further; Dark Country gave me the opportunity to do that! I’m currently working on First Light, in which we find out more about Mark Strelitz, who has appeared in both previous books.

I loved reading Kris’s story in Dark Country and I can’t wait to read Mark’s story in April next year! Did you set out to write stories about small towns or is that where the characters lead you?

Dungirri was born in that short, vivid dream – and immediately took on a life of its own in my imagination! A town has to have people, and their shared histories, and the classic writer’s question of ‘what if..?’ helped shape characters and the town’s story. What happens to a town when the timber mill closes, the drought dries up agricultural work, and businesses withdraw? Who stays? Who goes? What does it do to a small community when something terrible happens… and they’ve done it themselves?

How difficult has it been to keep the characters running true through all three books? Do you have a wall planner/index system with all their vital statistics? I’m guessing it’s too hard to keep all that in your head…

Actually, a lot of it is in my (overcrowded) head! Initially, I did brief character sheets for the main characters, but that was early on, to get a sense of them. I do sometimes have to flip back through the published books to see what is said about someone, because I ‘know’ a lot about the characters that isn’t in the books, and I can’t always remember what went into the final version! There are also several documents with lists of townspeople, a couple of maps, and an excel spreadsheet that calculates relative ages and who was born in what year.

I love your secondary characters. They are all so wonderfully rounded and three dimensional. Do you have a process for that? Do they have their own story arcs?

Some of them do have, at least in my mind, their own stories. That probably helps to make them more real on the page, even if most of the detail never reaches the page. But it’s fascinating how much can be woven in to the story, in small snippets, without info-dumping or backstory – and I love it when an opportunity arises to weave in some of those snippets and add to the characterization of both the main characters and the secondary ones.

It’s the snippets that flesh them out and make them so believable. How do you approach writing? Do you have a set routine?

A routine? Hmm.. I’m not sure what this word means…. J No, I’m definitely not a routine person; writers are often advised to write every day, even if it’s only a few words, but personally I work much better if I know I have a block of time ahead of me. Afternoons and evenings, into the night, are my more productive times; there’s something about the stillness and the darkness outside that lets my imagination focus and the words come together…

Now for something completely different… I keep reading tweets from you that make my mouth water so you clearly enjoy cooking. Do you have a favourite recipe you’d like to share?

Well, it’s not so much that I enjoy cooking, as much that I enjoy eating home-cooked food! I try to avoid many preservatives and additives, so I make most things from scratch, but I use mostly simple recipes; my basic approach is that life’s too short to spend hours in the kitchen, but tasty, healthy meals and not-quite-so-healthy snacks don’t have to take hours, or be stressful. Nigella and I would get along just fine J.

A favourite recipe? An oldie but a goodie – a super-simple, super-wicked chocolate fudge:

1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1 pack of dark choc melts
Optional – half a block of Cadbury’s Peppermint Chocolate (Or you
could add other things if you wish – eg dried fruit or nuts.)

Line a baking tray (about 20 x 30cm) with baking paper. Combine the chocolate and condensed milk in a saucepan, and stir (almost constantly) over a low heat until melted and smooth. Pour into the baking tray. Refrigerate overnight. Cut into small pieces. Eat. Eat some more.

Yum, I will have to try whipping that up. I think I’ll have to hide it from GW…

So folks, we’d love to hear about your favourite winter treat! Is it a delicious pudding, a warming soup or a divine pasta dish? Leave a comment and you’ll go into the running to have your dish included in Beyond the Borders! And Bron will also send a signed copy of either Dark Country or As Darkness Falls to one lucky reader!! Look forward to those mouth watering ideas:-)

DarkCountryFrontWebMost people in the small town of Dungirri have considered Morgan ‘Gil’
Gillespie a murderer for eighteen years, so he expects no welcome on his return. What he doesn’t expect is the discovery of a woman’s tortured body in the boot of his car, and new accusations of murder.

Wearied by too many deaths and doubting her own skills, local police  sergeant Kris Matthews isn’t sure whether Gil is a decent man wronged
by life, or a brutal criminal she should be locking up. But she does know that he is not guilty of this murder – because she is his alibi .

Between organised crime, police corruption, and the hatred of a town, Gil has nowhere to hide. He needs to work out who’s behind the murder before his enemies realise that the one thing more punishing than putting him back in prison would be to harm the few people he cares about.

Kris is determined to help him, but will their search for the truth make her the next target?

Extract from Dark County:

(This scene takes place immediately after Gil and Kris have rescued the elderly Jeanie Menotti from a fire, while the paramedics are tending to her. We’re in Gil’s POV here.)

“You care for her.”

For Jeanie, Kris must have meant with her observation, but that wasn’t his brain’s first interpretation, and the words echoed in his head as an accusation.

“Yeah. I worked for her for a while.” Those few words weren’t adequate, but he didn’t know how to describe what Jeanie had come to mean to him. How she’d shown him that there was a world beyond the hell with his father. How sometimes, in quiet times, they’d talked. Or rather, Jeanie had talked, and he’d listened. He’d realised later – years later – that in her own way, in her stories of her marriage, her life and community, she’d been teaching him things he’d needed to
learn.

He still had hold of Kris’s hand. He uncurled his fingers, reached inside his jacket, and drew out the photo of a young Jeanie and her husband that he’d snatched from her bedside table. The light from the moon shone on the silver frame, and the couple smiling out of it, and Kris gently took it from him.

“This is what you went back for?”

He nodded. “She doesn’t have many photos of him.”

And even fewer, now. So little to be left of a man’s life. Aldo Menotti, who’d survived war and imprisonment and made a new life in a young country and winked when he’d snuck sweets into a small boy’s hand.

That memory had stayed with Gil, but distanced, as though the small boy was someone else, because then Aldo had died, fighting a bushfire, and not long afterwards the boy’s mother had left, and there had been little kindness in his life after that.

“She’ll be grateful to have it. So I might almost forgive you for scaring the hell out of me, Gillespie.”

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44 thoughts on “Bronwyn Parry – Finding the heart of Dungirri

  1. Hey Helene… yes, what a feat it was! Plenty to share on that…!!!

    Looking forward to 5DI…

    Amanda

  2. Becky, I hope you smile when you get to the part where Lauren is stirring her pumpkin risotto!

    Amanda, no doubt you were busy polishing your 5DI manuscript! Hope you have a fabulous time and we’ll here all about it in August 🙂

  3. OMG… the things I miss when the rest of my life keeps me away from the blogs?!!!

    Can’t wait to see you both in August!!!

    Amanda

  4. Hi Becky! There is very yummy fudge plus a stack of delicious dishes I’m going to have to try.

    It’s been a very difficult choice to make so we’ve resorted to the ‘draw the winner out of the hat’ for Bron’s book.

    And the winner is Sandy!! Send your postal details and one of Bron’s great stories will head your way.

    As to the dish Lauren’s destined to eat in Beyond the Borders??
    I was all sorted then Becky dropped in and Pumpkin Rissotto grabbed me. I’ve cooked it over campfires in grungy soot stained pots and it’s divine. So thanks, Becky – Lauren’s going to have fun dishing that up for herself.

    Thanks to Bron for being such a stellar guest and a huge thank you to my visitors!

  5. Just popping in to say hi as I was told there was fudge (thanks Bron!).

    I love a good Pumpkin Rissotto with crunchy bacon bits to top it off. I also love a good Lamb Curry and Golden Syrup Dumplings… And fudge 😉

  6. Bron, thank you for being such a lovely guest! Congrats again on your R*BY nomination – I’ll be cheering you all on at the awards dinner. 😀

    And I’m waiting, waiting, waiting for Mark’s story!!

  7. I haven’t been at work, but I’ve been fixing up dog coats – our two dogs are real houndinis when it comes to getting out of their coats! However, I’ve added extra studs now, so hopefully, since it’s a cold night out there in the dog run, they’ll stay on all night!

    Sandy, I will give my characters a nice dinner together.. eventually! But first there’s some bad guys to deal with!

    Jenn, these curent two aren’t police – if they were, they’d probably be drinking coffee non-stop. But my doctor heroine in this one prefers tea. Preferably freshly brewed.

    Hello Steve! Great to ‘meet’ you! Your comment gave me a tear in my eye, too 🙂

    Thanks, Helene, for a great day visiting your blog!

  8. Hi Steve, thanks for dropping by! I hope you’re the one cooking your lovely wife a roast dinner?? If not you’ll find plenty of good ideas here to wow her with your culinary skills 😀

  9. Jenn, welcome to our favourite reviewer and writer!!

    Love the sauce recipe. I can see I’m going to need another dinner party to use up all these good ideas. I’ve roasted whole pumpkins for several sailing regattas where the soup quantities were measured in gallons – it works a treat and the flavour is outstanding!!

    And I do most definitely approve of red wine as an integral winter dinner – it’s the only time in Nth Qld that I love a big rich red!! 😉

    Bron, good to hear your heroine and hero are too busy to eat! Must mean the action is non stop!

  10. I go to work and come home to find more wonderful recipes 🙂

    Carol, do you do take-aways? I’ve just eaten a very average pasta dish in the hotel restaurant and I’d kill for some Moroccan lamb…

    Bek thanks for the soda bread recipe – I’ll have to try that for Sunday brekkie next week. Yum!!!

  11. My favourite winter treat is getting the kids off to bed early, lighting the log fire and candles around the room. Soft music in the background and just the two of us sitting down to a home cooked roast meal. Its times like these you remember why you married the beautiful lady in front of you and why you love her so much xxx

    Damn I’ve got a tear in my eye.

  12. LOL – here we are talking about delicious food, and all I’ve given my hero and heroine to eat in the current book so far is toasted sandwiches and water!

    With all the murder and mayhem, they haven’t had much chance yet to sit down for a proper meal…

  13. Sandy, I think there’s something magic about the Brindabellas! And yes, I did see Helene’s blog entry about the small ton and the disaster – it moved me to tears. What a courageous community.

    I’m going to copy out your almond biccy recipe!

    Carol, thanks for the compliment about my book! Now your food offerings are adding to my hunger – and I’ve already had lunch! Mmmm… Moroccan spices are wonderful. I haven’t tried tangelo and almond cake, but I make an orange and almond one; actually, I make it as 16 muffin-size cakes, because it lasts longer that way, and make sure there’s always some in the freezer for an after-dinner dessert!

    Jenn, having done battle with peeling a pumpkin a couple of weeks ago, I shall try your method next time! And I plan to grow coriander again when we get our garden organised – maybe this coming spring! Can’t grow much at the moment, because the bunnies and the wallabies munch most of it. Thanks for the secret recipe! I’m going to try it 🙂

    Bek, thanks for your soda bread info, too – another one to add to the new recipe list!

  14. Irish soda bread is actually quite easy. Its four, buttermilk, baking soda and salt. You cook it in a fry pan till its nice and flffuy and brown.

    A lot of people over the years have added stuff to it but I say the basic is best. Straight out of the pan, slice the piece in half, smother with butter, bacon and egg,,,,, mumm making myself hungy descibing it. I’ll get the exact ingredients from the MIL ( I do the yeah that looks like the right amount way of cooking it) and post it for you

    Bek

  15. Hello my two fav authors – a winter treat in itself having you both here. Thank you ladies.

    Now to all those pumpkin soup people – a handy hint. If you don’t already know – there is an east way to prepare your pumpkin for soup. Don’t waste valuable writing time peeling the pumpkin. Just slice the lid off the whole pumpkin, scoop seeds out, and pop the whole thing (including the lid) on a baking tray in a moderate oven until the flesh is soft. Then simply spoon the flesh out and chck the skin away. Easy-peazy.

    Now for my winter treat. Coriander is a wonderful winter delight and it is so easy to grow (self-seeds in the vege patch, so you can have a fresh crop every winter.)
    I have THE most versatile recipe. Have this sauce/dressing in your fridge and use it on everything.
    • Use as a sauce (hot or cold) on baked pork, BBQ or a Moroccan-spiced chicken.
    • Use as a dressing over a Thai beef, pumpkin, and rocket salad.
    • Mix with yoghurt and cumin for a great winter dip – serve with warm crusty bread and a glass of red.
    • Spice up a sandwich or use as a sambal/side with your Indian or Thai curry and rice.
    • For a different take on Bruschetta, mix with diced tomato and Spanish onion and top with Fetta or Goats cheese – serve on garlic toast (again with a glass of red – getting the picture?? LOL

    This was a secret recipe when we owned our cafe. Here it is – just put all ingredients in a rocket blender or use a stick mixer. (Will keep in the fridge for ages.)
    2 cups fresh coriander
    40 gr sweet chilli sauce
    30 gr crushed garlic
    1 cup oil (vege/olive)
    4 tsp Dijon mustard
    4 tsp honey

  16. This conversation is making me hungry! Well done on the RITA nomination, Bronwyn – it’s a great book! Thank you for the insight to your writing process too. Now my offering for food was yesterday’s Sunday lunch for my visiting parents – pumpkin & leek soup, marinated morrocan lamb with tziziki and salad followed much later after a refreshing walk with tangelo (homegrown) & almond cake served with strawberries and cream … with lots of cups of tea! Sorry, there were no leftovers! 🙂

  17. Phillipa that does sound wonderful, but how on earth do you find the time to do all that and write such lovely books!!!

    Hi Bev, thanks for dropping by!

    Sandy, food is something very dear to my heart and spending so much time away from my kitchen is torture… Happy to live vicariously through other people’s food adventures!!

    And yes, Kylie, definitely be sending all positive thoughts your way for the Golden Heart!! Yay, you!!!

  18. Ah Bron’, the Brindabella’s capped in snow! We used to be able to see them from our front terrace when we lived in Canberra. Did you see Helene’s encounter in WA about a small town experiencing an horrific accident? And their courage in coping with it.
    If I remember correctly Helene, the last blog-monster you created involved food as well. Is anyone seeing a pattern here?
    My favourite winter food – anything anyone else goes to the trouble of making for me, followed by coffee topped with a mountain of whipped cream and an almond biccy. 1 cup almond meal, 1/2 cup caster sugar, 2 egg whites, 1/4 teaspoon almond essence. Beat all the ingredients together for 3 minutes. Spoon out in heaped teaspsoon sizes onto a baking paper-lined biscuit tray and bake for 15mins at 180C.

  19. Maree, I’m going to have to get out my slow-cooker! That pork is another delicious-sounding recipe! I’m glad you enjoyed hearing about Dark Country’s background – it was a great writing experience, and so it’s wonderful that readers are enjoying it, too.

    Hi Kylie! You must be on the countdown to Orlando! I’ll be keeping my fingers and toes crossed for you. Love the potato bake recipe – might have to try that out this week!

    Phillipa, your cooking skills impress me – chicken soup form scratch, AND custard! I’ve never made a chicken soup from scratch – I must do it soon. One of my regular winter soups is barley broth, with lamb shanks – I love the fall-off-the-bones meat 🙂

    Hello Bev! Thanks for your good wishes!

  20. Hi Bek – yes, do read Helene’s Border Watch! I’m sure you’ll enjoy it! I’m going to have to try that soda bread… and yes, isn’t the food mouthwatering! It’s almost lunchtime here, and my stomach is rumbling.

    Hi Barbara! Thank you so much for your congratulations; they mean a lot, coming from a an author of your standing! I’ll have to hunt for a Cypriot baked lamb recipe – roast lamb is a favourite of mine, although we only tend to have it when we have guests…. and almost every time, 20 mins after I put it in the oven, we have a power failure!

    Hi SN! Canberra is such a beautiful city, isn’t it? When I was there last month, I had lunch with my sister and my mother at the National Library, on the terrace overlooking the lake – just a hop from the city centre, but worlds away.

  21. I forgot my favourite winter recipe – chicken soup, with a whole poached chicken, carrot, celery, pumpkin, extra chicken stock and little stelline pasta, followed by a 6 egg baked vanilla custard with sultanas. This is what we shall eat tonight and no matter WHAT I cook there is always 1 dissenter out of the four of us. So tonight the soup is for my daughter, the custard for my husband, most of the chicken meat for my son, the skin and fat for the dog, and me? I’ve forgotten what I like most … maybe the meals when no one says, ‘but I don’t like that.’

  22. Kylie and Maree, you’ve made me hungry! And as I’m sat in a hotel room I’ve got no chance of doing anything about it in my own kitchen… I think your two dishes will go perfectly together and I have a dinner party on the 26th so thank you – the menu is done?

    Dessert recommendations anyone???

  23. Hi Barbara, you write such wonderful outback stories too! Love Executive: Expecting Tiny Twins 🙂
    Cypriot Baked Lamb sounds very yummy.

    SN, welcome! British pubs do have a feel all of their own – it’s been a few years since I lived over there but going to the pub for dinner was a highlight. My sister used to live in Canberra and it always amazed me that I could be walking the streets round her house early morning and tripping over wild life!

  24. Hi Bronwyn & Helene!

    Congratulations, Bronwyn on being a R*BY finalist – I gave a big woohoo when I read your name among the finalists. 😀

    Great interview – I love reading about how characters and places come about.

    With winter settling in out here in the sticks, I love to whip up a creamy Potato Bake – potatoes, sweet potatoes, bacon, onion, cheese, a tin of cream of chicken soup, pepper.

    Slice and cook potatoes, dice & fry onion and bacon, layer all of these in a casserole dish, pour over tin of cr.of chicken soup as is, sprinkle with grated cheese & pepper. Bake in oven 30mins at 180 degrees. Can be used as a side or main. Yummo!

  25. Bron, it’s fantastic to see you doing so well — not that I’m at all surprised 😉

    Thanks so much for sharing how Dark Country came to be. I’m always fascinated to hear about an author’s inspiration for her books.

    My favorite winter dish? Pork Cassoulet done in the slow cooker. Pork, bacon, carrots, tinned tomatoes, white beans, thin pork sausages…. It’s a French-style dish which looks very fancy but is so very easy that even I can’t stuff it up. The whole family loves it but you could easily serve it at a dinner party to impress your guests. My kind of cooking, LOL.

    And now I reeeally need to go have some lunch, because all this talk of food is making my mouth water!

  26. Favourite winter treat? Who knows? I like going to a ‘proper’ pub and having the kind of (disturbingly unhealthy) hot pub food they serve up – as unhealthy as it was back when I worked in cold, rainy Britain.

    I still live with the Brindabellas as the view from the house – I don’t think people get how much of Canberra is bushland until they actually visit! I’ve never felt much like we live in a city unless I’m actually in the city centre – it’s hard to feel urban when you’ve got kangaroos jumping down the streets!

    I understand why Mark’s book was pushed back, but may I just say I’m going insane waiting for it!!

  27. Fab interview, Helene. Bron, congrats on your many award nominations. As a lover of stories set in rural Australia, I know I’m going to have to hunt down your books.
    Love the sound of your hundred acres, too. My favourite winter dish is Cypriot Baked Lamb — a Tessa Kiros recipe. Dead easy, but so tasty. I remember a dinner guest saying he “loved the wintryness of it”. I didn’t have to ask him to explain. 🙂

  28. Hi Bron & Helene,

    Bron motivated me to hop on over to this blog seeing as I’m having withdrawal symptons from Dungirri and she recommended your book to tide me over.

    I have two favorite winter recipes, well one is my husbands. Lasanga (made from scratch) and Irish soda bread. Seriously the soda is better than garlic bread. My MIL even came up with a gluten free receipe for me

    Congrats

    Bek

    PS I dont want to enter the comp but the food is mouthwatering lol 🙂

  29. Welcome Linda! Your recipe sounds divine – I could have done with some of that this morning- or even now for a mid-morning snack. Easy to justify eating yummy rich food when you’re cold…

  30. Hi Phillipa! It’s tricky, isn’t it, about how much to include – but it’s also fun, ‘finding out’ about all these characters. I’m tempted to write a book about all of them… it just might take me a few years!

    Fleur, Katherine Scholes’ book sounds great – I’ll definitely go and find it – but maybe not until I’ve finished writing the current book! Re the carrots – would he notice if you grated them??

    Hi Linda, and welcome! Helene’s blog is a great place to visit. Your potato soup is very tempting; the cafe I go to sometimes has a potato and leek soup, which is scrumptious. I love a good soup!

  31. Hi Phillipa, I was relieved to read Bron’s comments on that. I thought I must have been horrendously disorganised and felt a bit like a guilty parent that’s forgotten their child’s birthday… Writing book two is very different to the first one…

    Fleur, it’s a shame you can’t make it to the conference, but having wandered round WA I appreciate even more what a long way it is to come – let alone when you have a farm to run! Maybe Fi and I can wear your bling for you – can’t have Bron too weighed down 🙂 And we’ll be cheering you both on!!

  32. I just discovered this blog, and I’m so glad. My favorite winter dish is potato soup. I make mine a little different than most. I take about 7 pounds of potatoes and cut them in a little less than quarter size. I boil them in salted water until they are almost done, then I add about 3/4 package of noodles ( I like the krinkly kind) and continue to boil until they are done. Then I add 1 1/2 sticks of butter and two cans of cream and bring to a slight boil and turn off to cool. It’s not diet friendly, but it’s really good.

    seriousreader at live dot com

  33. Hi Bron, thanks and right back at you!! No I think I used up all my travel points (from Anthony) when I did the tour for Blue Skies! Maybe I could send you some bling to wear on my behalf!!

    I’ve read Katherine Scholes, The Hunters Wife, it’a a very, very good book. It also had a ‘Women’s Weekly great read’ sticker, so that should tell you something!

    Lamb stew is so yummy, such a shame I have to hide the carrots from my… HUSBAND!!! You would think it would be the kids!

  34. Bron, you make an interesting point about knowing so much about your characters you forget if you’ve actually included that information in a previous book. It’s a tricky one.

  35. Hi Fleur! Lamb stew… sounds delicious! And healthy, with all those veggies 🙂

    Helene, it was 0 overnight here – but the sunshine is bright and already warming the day up! Mind you, I haven’t been out walking yet 🙂

    And congrats to Fleur on the R*BY nomination – it’s such fun being a finalist together with you and Tracey O’Hara! I don’t know Katherine Scholes, the other finalist in our category, but I’ll have to go and hunt for her book.

    I warn you, though, Fleur, I think Tracey and some others are planning a bling-off for the awards dinner in August, and she does some serious bling! Are you able to come across for the conference and or dinner? If so, fantastic – and bring your bling!

  36. Phew, just got back from my morning walk around Mascot and I could do with a cup of your lovely pumpkin soup Karly!! I’m frozen… And if your husband’s like me, there can never be enough pumpkin soup 🙂

    Fleur, I have to laugh at you slipping the goodies into the stew! And camp oven cooking is gorgeou!

    On another matter – Congrats to you and Bron for your Ruby nominations – you must both be so thrilled!!! Go girls!!! My GH 2008 buddy Tracy O’Hara is in the same category so I’m optimistic I’ll be able to claim the winner!!

  37. Fantastic blog, girls! I really love hearing about the way everyone else writes,

    My favourite winter dish is lamb stew made in the camp oven (so it has a smokey flavour) on top of my tile fire. It has celery, corn, sweet potato, pumpkin, broccoli, beans and if I can slip so carrots in without Anthony noticing, I do that too! I then make breadrolls, by hand, prime them on top of the fire and when it’s all ready, a glass of white (not a red girl, I’m afraid!)

  38. Hi Karly! Yes, it is a beautiful part of the world – I’m so lucky to live here! And pumpkin soup is a winter staple, isn’t it? I made pumpkin, carrot and ginger soup recently, and still have some in the freezer – great with wholemeal bread for chilly winter days! My DH isn’t keen on pumpkin soup – but that means all the more for me 🙂

  39. HI Bron and Helene, I’ve been waiting to read this blog ever since Helene advertised it was coming!!!! Love hearing about your process Bron and your property- no wonder you love getting back to it, it’s a beautiful part of the world.
    My favourite winter dish is pumpkin soup- (actually it’s the ONLY thing I can really cook!) I put bacon bits in it and have made three pots in three weeks… I’m waiting for my husband to stay ENOUGH pumpkin soup already!!! but hasn’t happened just yet.
    Thanks for the lovely interview Helene!
    Karly.

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