In case you hadn't noticed, I've been away.

There's a saying that absence makes the heart grow fonder. I'm not sure if that's true, but it is a nice segue into explaining where I've been. 

I've made some huge changes in my life. Once again I've left the city for a country lifestyle, but it's one with a twist. My soul sister and her hubby have leased a country pub and they've invited me along for the ride.  It's been a very busy transition from city life to country. We hit the ground running with a party on the Saturday night after we arrived. The place was packed and it served as a huge learning curve for us all. Exhausted has been a word commonly thrown around since then. Unfortunately, along with being tired as I get accustomed to the workload, there hasn't been any time for me to write. I hope to rectify that very soon as we all seem to be falling into a regular routine of daily duties. I plan on adding writing to mine.

So where am I living? Well the town is called Mendooran. It's a small town adjacent to the Castlereagh River in the Warrumbungle Shire of central western New South Wales, Australia.The town is approximately 348 kilometres west of Sydney, so I'm a long way from city life and has a population of just over 300, so when I say a small country town I mean it...lol. All of the locals have been really friendly and trying to remember  their names is a huge task, especially when in true Aussie fashion, they have a real name and a nickname. I have to say, I'm totally confused most of the time but slowly making headway remembering them.

I was a little amused to find that the pub is pink. In Australia the local pub is like a huge man cave located on the main street of each town. Some towns boast more than one pub but not Mendooran, we're the pink pub on the corner, the only drinking/watering hole in town. It's not very masculine at all but the fellas don't seem to mind. We have cold beer and good food so that's all that really matters.

The pub was also part of an artists attempt to turn Mendooran into The Mural Town of the central west. Quite a few of the buildings left in town, and there aren't many, have murals depicting country life painted on them. 

This is one of the painting on the outside of the pub.

Some of my author friends have asked if the place is giving me inspiration for new books, characters or series. I guess time will tell what sort of influence the place has on me but let me just say this, I did have a few ideas for books when I went to the yearly rodeo festival. I was very inspired by the bucking broncos and the chap wearing lovelies that rode them.