A time away from home is a precious thing, a time to reflect, recalibrate and live a little slower, maybe even in a more considered way. Living in a city such as Melbourne with the remnants of the last few years still so raw for many the idea of visiting a place so unique and protected from external influences as Daylesford is a treasured opportunity.
Daylesford is filled with local stories, humble makers and artist expressions that fill the storefronts. A sense of calm and pride fills the atmosphere as the community sweeps you up on your visit. Although heavily influenced by city dwellers who have moved beyond the confines of the city to settle in the slower and more charming suburbs of Daylesford it seems to any visitor that they have brought with them only the good things. The coffee, the food, the travel experiences along with subtle commerce, as a way to invite tourists and make a living. It is quiet and non-intrusive, but one cannot help purchasing things you would not consider if it was displayed in the same way on your local main street. Swept up by the wanting to support local you part with your cash to enhance the experience and to bring something back from your break. A lasting memory of soap or a candle.
I’ve often wondered if country life is for me, I enjoy and crave visiting these country towns as it is so different from my daily norms. However, would the visits lose their allure if I too had a home in this unique and treasured pocket of country Victoria? Is the attraction the sporadic nature of the visits themselves? Or would I be absorbed into a new community that I feel all would inevitably fall into? It’s a question that many have been exploring of late, hence why the housing markets in these areas have skyrocketed, but the lifestyle and the visits are very different.
Looking and admiring a beautiful garden or staying in a country chic Airbnb as we did is fabulous and relaxing, but creating that environment and tending to that garden weekly are very different propositions. We aspire towards many things in life, and once we have them, we simply move on to the next aspiration. It occurs to me, that this recent country migration might be just that. A need, an aspiration, a part of the process of dealing with the restraints that still feel so recent.
Looking around the stunning and perfectly curated Airbnb I look for a life here, a place that symbolises everything it could be, what I see is a business. Likely a very successful business, a place that captures the imagination of city dwellers and gently calms them for a few days. This incredible place is an aspiration unto itself. It's likely different from where most country dreams start, it would take years to carve out a little slice of this for oneself, as it should. It seems so easy to want the finished article. As I imagine all these pieces carefully placed to create an atmosphere of country luxury, I begin to admire the owner, she has captured a unique wonderland. As I look around more I find a book written by the owner and as my curiosity takes me on a deeper journey it seems that she has created many of these spaces using her interior background as a stable. My admiration deepens. I am immersed in her space that has captured me, her curated (the name of her book) environment did exactly as I needed it to, it calmed me, and allowed me to turn off the noise of my previous week. It soothed me.
With such incredible homes available to jolt me back to life every time I need it I do ask myself (often) if creating one of these spaces of my own would have the same pull, the same result and the same instantaneous calming effect.
Are we better to be visitors, to let the travel and the experience of someone else's space take us away from our daily grind or are we better to try to create such places and spaces for ourselves? Would the space I create for myself be riddled with me, and isn't that what I am trying to escape when I travel?
The shift we have all felt has altered something in all of us and I wonder if recreating places we are all trying to get away from is less about the future and more about erasing the past. Travel and exploring offer something very different from somewhere else to be. I hope that I can have both, but for right now being someplace else appeals more than creating someplace else of my very own.
Country life or Country visitor? Which one are you?
