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So I had a long hard word with myself and told myself I need to get over this fear otherwise I am going to not going to make the most of and enjoy this trip.  So words to myself – You have got this and I am going out into the world with confidence to have a fun filled adventure of lots of great learning and great people.

With this new mindset, I took myself to a coffee shop and sat there drinking a hot chocolate, calmy and like a real tourist using their WIFI getting my blog post sorted and waiting for rush hour on the trains to pass.  And then I set off and found my way to Cambridge with no hassles.  I even helped a girl out who wasn’t sure which train to catch!!

Its a grey day in the UK but the fields looks awesome filled with wheat and all of the summer flowers out. And I passed through main of the towns I had been checking out for a places to stay.  The taxi driver informs me I have come on the wrong day as they have had the best summer ever.  It was funny as we drove past some freshly mown grass, the smell immediately told me it was summer.  I even made the Taxi drivers day as he had never spoken to anyone from Tasmania

Cambridge – what a beautiful town, lovely little streets and is so english.  Yes I am in England.

With a fair bit of anxiety about booking a AirBnb for the first time, I rocked up to find a very English house house with a lovely owner Helen.  I was a bit a taken back at how welcoming she was and that I was welcomed for diner and then to have some tea. I suppose thats what AirBnb are all about.

To top off the first experience, I walk into my room and I have a lovely bunch of flowers picked for me and a window that looks over a lovely english rose garden with blue bells, roses, water lilys and even some natives from Australia.

As I showed so much interest in the garden we sat outside and drank tea.  This place is my kind of place, how did I pick such a great place for my first experience?!

The garden also has an awesome pond of water lilies.  They are so vibrant in colour and just like your stereotype picture of water lilies.  and the top off there is a cool frog peaking out from under a leaf.

This has lifted my confidence going forward for sure and it just shows you what a shift in mindset can do for you.

and just few more pictures to show you how much I love flowers and gardens.  Yes I might be studying soil health but really it is all about for me growing good healthy plants cause I love growing plants!

 

 

I had my last day in the field on Friday in the good old faithful gumboots which have been with me for a very long time, since 2003 infact.  It will be nice to switch into the travelling boots and leave the Tassie winter behind for a bit.

It’s time to say good bye to Tassie and venture out into the big wide world for the next phase of my Nuffield journey! And yes I am feeling very emotional and grateful to all the wonderful people in my life. This phase is me all on my own finding answers to my Nuffield topic and let’s just say I am extremely nervous and very much out of my comfort zone. And I’ll put it out there I am full of fear!

It’s been a whirl wind few weeks at home, and my mind feels more scattered than it was when I arrived home from the Global Focus Program.  (when I find a spare moment I will post some experiences from the GFP, it was the most amazing experiences and I am feeling a lot more worldly wise now).

There’s always a crew of people behind us Scholars,  who keep the wheels turning at home, while we travel the world.  And I’d really like to take the time to say Thankyou cause everything is appreciated SO much yet I might not have shown it through this busy stressful time for me!

Thanks to Botanical Resources Australia and all the crew there who have supported me and picked up all of my work load to keep the py growing. To Ben Wilson for all the support and listening when I needed sometime to try make sense of all I have seen and about to do.  

Josh Molendyk thanks for the help when I scream out with my lack of technology questions and words of reassurance. That’s probably goes to Ben as well!  Josh also thanks for the late after noon cake deliveries when I have been working late at home.  Alchemy at Forth you make the best healthy cakes!!

Mark for dropping what he was doing on Saturday to let me in to work when I’d locked myself out. Thank goodness I had a phone!!!

The past Scholars I have reached out to Nicky Mann, Anthony Brandsema, Rob and Jane Dent, Michael Chilvers, Karon Brock and Abby McKibben when I needed some mental help, planning this trip and fitting back into normal life after GFP.  Also to all of the Aussie 2018 crew and other 2018 scholars.

Jen for putting up with the endless fashion parades and questions about cloths and Dad for that matter. Dad for all the support and believe in me and being brave enough to put his hand for a second time to look after Maggie!!!  (I know secretly he loves having her about even though she runs away, trip tramps around the house and buries bones in the lawn!!) Also the rest of my family for all of your support and believe, couldn’t do it with out you.  I know its just been phone calls to catch up but there just has not been a lot of time to fit proper catch up with anyone.

My neigbhours, for watching out for me and mowing my lawns, Gill and Chris and walking Maggie when I just didn’t have to time. Sharon and Clint you are life savers, no more broken taps in my house!! Of course these things happens just before you are about to leave.  

And Liz for your support and taking up my trousers for me when I really just didn’t have time but thought I did!

Everyone’s kind words and excitement at what I’m about to do! Even though I got a bit caught up in just all the work and pressure of it all, and forgot it was an exciting time! Yeah I know it’s going to be amazing – I just need to take a breath!

Jeremy and Kristen for being great friends,  helping me to relax and feeding me good nourishing food just when I needed it and making me take the time to stop.

Victa – Thankyou for every thing and just being a good friend! Fitting in phonecalls when you really didn’t have the time and trying to make me laugh amongst the tears. 

Julian  for all of the thought you have put into my project – (not many people go out and find tiny seed to see if it can be direct drilled!!) and  all the contacts you have sorted for me in France and sending me pictures of France that make me want to get there now even though I am freaking out about driving on the wrong side of the road and not having a word of french.   I can’t wait to meet your family and baby girl. 

And off course to my investors Blundstone, Bruce Wall trust, Robert Gatenby Memorial Trust, and Tasmanian Alkaloids and Nuffield Australia. Without your support none of this would be possible. Thanks so much for seeing the potential in me and giving me the opportunity for massive growth and an adventure and journey of a life time. 

Thankyou Thankyou to everyone and all those I have forgotten to mention that have helped me out and have made this possible, and for putting up with my spinning mind full of lots of ideas and the scattered and stressed out brain over the last few weeks, it’s been a whirlwind year and the adventure keeps continuing!

First stop England. Then to Europe and over to the Americas! It’s going to be a busy, adventure filled and insightful (in more ways than one – personally and regen Ag) filled 2 months.

See you all when I’m back!  You thought I talked a lot after returning from GFP, I’m sure there is going to be so much more talking when I get back from this trip!!!

Yesterday it was time to hit the next stop on my global focus program, Kelwona, Canada.  Before leaving Texas, it treated us to a beautiful sunset. I was amazed as we fly across America to Vancouver how spectacular the

Rocky mountains where.  Snow covered mountain tops, and half frozen lakes.  I was preparing myself for the cold again.  It was really nice to have a week in Texas in the heat after some chilly times in the Netherlands and Italy.  In saying that when we landed it was not as cold as I was expected.

 

While on the plane I got chatting to the guy sitting next to me, who not long into the conversation asked where I got my boots from?  …. “I have a pair of blundstone but I have never seen those before, where did you get them?!”  I proceeded to tell him the story that Blundstone are my investors for  the Nuffield Scholarship I am on, which was of great interest to him.

The guy said I will see heaps of Blundstone in Vancouver as they are a very popular boot and everyone wears them.  Although they are not popular in the work boot sense, they are a lifestyle boot that is worn around town and everywhere.  I was surprised that our Tassie boots are so popular around the world.

It wasn’t long being in Vancouver I spotted my first pairs of blundstones and then when walking to dinner in Kelowna I find this.   Yep a whole shop with Blundstone advertising.  How cool is that.  They really are popular here.  Jordan, a organic veggie grower who came for dinner said he wears blundstones too….

 

 

I have really enjoyed wearing my blundstones around the world, checking out many sites and farms.  they have gone everywhere. Even found some wild flowers in Texas. These are blue bonnets which are the Texas flower.  

And just some sites from the street in Kelowna

Thankyou to Blundstone for making my nuffield journey possible. http://www.blundstone.com.au/

Time to leave Washington DC after a very short visit to get an understanding of how agriculture policy works in the USA. 

The Ronald Reagan airport has a great design, although I must admit I am getting quite tied of going through security after lots of flights and plenty of entries into important government buildings in DC

We arrived into Dallas airport into a massive lighting storm and the airport shut down so plenty of waiting around on the plane and plenty of luck we were able to land and not diverted.

Welcome to Texas!! You would guess we are in Texas with statues like this 😉 ok so I’m getting excited, my inner cowgirl is coming out….

On issue to sort first, how do we get all of our gear into the car or should I say massive van??? The seats don’t move.

In not too long the Chile Champs had it sorted. Only option was to swap vans. And we are off to drive our accommodation in heavy rain and watching some great lightening strikes!

I’m even more excited about exploring Texas when we get to our hotel… it’s so typical Midwest country. Boots, cowhide chairs, horse shoes and cacti sitting next to the tv.

stay tuned for what I find in Texas

 

Well let’s just say the Nuffield journey has been amazing so far and I just have not had a moment to sit down and keep you up to date with what I’ve been up too. It is an intense experience throwing me completely out of my comfort zone and very little time for sleep… I am tied!

I fully intended to keep up with the updates however I have got caught up in the experience and not had time.  So far I have had two days in Canberra and then on to the Contemporary Scholars Conference in Holland for a week. The week was amazing, intense and mind blowing. I will write more at a later date. Once CSC was done it was straight onto GFP…. first stop Italy!!! I’ve titled that the culture of food tour in Italy and I will give you a full tour of the region later but for now…. a food tour of Testaccio, Rome.

piazza Testaccio square

The tour started in a square full of kids playing soccer and roller blading. It was a lovely atmosphere.

To start with we headed into the cellar of a local pub, dating back to the 1200s, for a cocktail of bitter freshness. Apparently you need to start a meal with something bitter to help you digest your food.  We also learnt some Italian facts when it comes saying cheers in Italian. Apparently one must look directly into the eyes of the person you are cheersing and if you only have water or soft drink you should never touch glasses, it should be the back of you hand!It is an Italian thing to service bar snacks with your drinks, but this place puts a whole new spin on bar snacks. €10 a drink and you get to help yourself to a whole selection of foods… I would say a feast more than bar snacks.  This is only a small portion of the selection.

                             

It was then onto apertizer, deep fried veggies. Apertizer is either bread or deep fried veggies. And of course being in Italy you have to have wine with food

Cured meats and cheese are next

then main meals of pasta, Ox tail stew and an offal.  Offal is used in the Tessico area as there was a massive slaughter house in the area.  Everyday people cured at the doors of the slaughter house to get work for the day, there was no permanent positions, one had to line up each day hoping you got work for the say.

If you weren’t still hungry pizza pockets. Absolutely delicious, the dough is risen over a long period of time.  I had a chicken pizza with a cheese sauce.  All of the filling are tradition flavours from the area.

and finish of with gelati, from a shop that has been making Gelati for 4 generations and running since 1914

What a great tour and food experience.

If in Rome make sure you look up www.eatingitalyfoodtours.com and ask for Nesim Bekalti. There is nothing better than eating where the locals eat.  It was a fantastic tour and capped of the tour of Italy so well as many of the place we had seen or things we had learnt were mentioned.

Nesim with Barry.  Barry is required to travel around the world with the youngest Australia scholar of the year group, Emma is one of the Chile Champs. If you’re interested you can follow Barry on twitter @BarryNuffield.

It’s time to wonder out of the py paddocks and leave the hills of Kindred to venture out into the wide world on my Nuffield travels. Kindred really did turn it on for my last day. My office really is a beautiful place on days like this.

The time has come to join my fellow 2018 Nuffield Scholars and begin our year of travels and learning. Let’s just say I am feeling very unprepared and daunted by the whole process. It really is a big task to get ready to travel to heaps of country, knowing you will be away from home for so long, in an environment that is out of your comfort zone and will need to be completely up with technology so you can share to the world what you are learning along the way. Nuffield Scholarship is all about bringing new ideas and information into Australia so expect to see me sharing a lot as I go. And fingers crossed I can actually get over my hopelessness when it comes to technology and become a pro….. who knows it could happen?!

What a relief to be on the plane I must say, it’s been weeks of preparation to get to this point, appointments, research, organising everything at work, getting my home in order, and multiple trips of cloths shopping trying to find suitable gear. For someone who doesn’t shop or enjoy shopping it’s been a big task…. what is business formal, business casual?! I go to work in blunys, old cloths and am usually covered in dirt by the end of the day, or should I say within the first hour. I’m out of my league let’s just say that…. although I use to say I’d love to have an reason to wear business cloths one day!!! You have to be careful what you say way back when, looks like the day has come.
Oh yeah did I mention it is cold as well, they are ice skating on the canals in Amsterdam at the moment… hasn’t happened in 10years.

It has been a whirl wind since harvest time, as soon as harvest was done I heading to Wichita, Kansas for the No Till on the Plains conference. And then home for 4 weeks to prepare for this 8 week adventure as well as research. Let’s just say it’s been busy

I’d like to say Massive thank you to everyone who’s helped me get ready for this trip. I am so grateful  , I could not have done it with you.    To say Thankyou I’d like to send a virtual bunch of flowers

 

 

 

 

 

It was so nice to get a moment to myself with the flowers to create some beautiful flowers for My friends wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and I love the aisle idea by Tom.

First stop is Canberrra for the ABARES Outlook conference and briefing. Let the fun begin. And look how I found on the plane, 3 2018 nuffield scholars

 

 

 

I am very excited to announce my blog is now live…. its worth going to bed and starting again in new day

Its less than 6 days before I head off on my trip to the contemporary scholars conference in the Netherlands and then onto the Global Focus Program (GFP for short).  Very exciting times ahead.  However before the real excitement can happen its the frantic rush to have everything organised and finished …… late nights and busy days.  Lets just say there is a lot to do and my avoidance of technology is now coming to haunt me.  But yes I have a blog up an running, of a fashion.  Wish me luck as I endeavour to improve so I don’t have to ask everyone for help.

Welcome to my blog, bare with me, I am working out how to set up my page.  Please check back soon to get insights to my world and what I am up to as I travel the world in 2018 on my nuffield scholarship