It never occurred to me at the time. I thought I was set, knew it all. There was no need to change anything in my life, I was doing just fine.

I was drifting along, healthy, happy and enjoying the delights and the challenges of grandparenthood which for us had just begun. I believed that, at my age and stage, I'd learned everything I needed to know to make the most of my cruisy life by the sea in Cronulla.

How wrong I was.

Hubby was champing at the bit to get out of Sydney, after a lifetime of living there. Retirement wasn't shaping up to be all that exciting. The plan in his mind took shape: let's sell up and move to the country. Or at least, to a semi-rural place, with a bit of land to play with.

I wasn't keen. I felt that we had a great lifestyle. Besides, what would our children think of this? They'd lose their babysitters for one thing.

Compromise was the answer. I decided to give it a go, and if it didn't work, well, we'd move back to Sydney.

From the day we left Cronulla to start life again on a six-acre property on Berry Mountain, I learned so much.

I had never driven on country, or mountain roads. Ever. I'd always let hubby do that sort of driving, and yet here I was taking on Kangaroo Valley, Moss Vale and Jamberoo roads, without a care in the world. My caution in the early days saw me driving at snail pace, irritating the local tradies no end if they happened to be stuck behind me. I did pull over when I could to let them pass.

The learning curve in the garden was the next adventure. I was previously a potted colour sort of gardener. Pots and annuals were the length and breadth of my gardening, no lifting, no digging, not much of any skill required. We had lived in an apartment in Cronulla and most of my time was spent in the surf, not our postage stamp sized garden.

The property we moved into had obviously been landscaped many years ago, but the gardens had been long neglected. I learned how to use a mattock, and a whippersnipper, build garden beds, ride on an ATV, trim hedges and trees, grow an almost industrial-sized veggie garden, build a pile burn, plant, weed, and raise my own plants from seeds. We also joined Berry Garden Club and attended Garden Festivals with relish.

Because of the isolation of living up on the escarpment, I started to bake as a bit of a hobby. This led me to try my hand at cheese making, yoghurt making, bread making. I had never done anything like this in my life, and how rewarding it was. Fortunately, the effort of daily labouring on the property allowed us to eat all these baked and homemade goodies without the results showing on the hips and thighs.

And this particular learning curve led me to start entering local annual agricultural shows. Which I am still doing , here in Kiama. What joy it brings to enter a cake or a bloom into your local Show, and wait excitedly to see if you won a prize! I love it.

One of the most interesting things I learned in this period was how to cohabit with animals that were there living on my property much earlier than me. Wombats, snakes, king parrots and rats.

Wombats are delightful, seemingly slow moving until you actually see them running, and they take a path which does not divert. If something is in their path, they trample it. At least the veggie patch was safeguarded behind timber and wire walls.

Pete the python lived under our elevated bedroom, and regularly dropped his skin around the place. He kept down the mice for us, and got quite plump. One day he was curled up in an ivy hedge surrounding our little decorative pond. He looked for all the world like an old discarded tyre just lying there. You should have heard the screams when my granddaughter went to investigate! Poor Pete, we didn't see him sun baking there again.

The front step was also a favoured place for a large red-bellied black snake to enjoy some warmth. It lived in the drain close by, and emerged whenever he needed some rays. We simply put closer-knit wire over the drain, which encouraged him to sun himself further away from the front door.

Red and green king parrots regularly frequented our deck and window ledges. I suspect the previous owner had fed them, and so seed bells became an edible adornment.

The parrots were so much fun , so enjoyable. Unlike our crazy magpie from my earlier story, who lived down the paddock in a gnarled old tree and used me for target practice three months of the year.

Probably the most enriching and heartwarming thing I learned in these four years was horse and donkey behaviour.

Our property was adjoining one homing a very elderly ex showjumper named Cherry, a pony called Boston, and four donkeys, (a mum, twin girls, and a boy). We left our paddock gates open on request so these adorable creatures had more room to roam and graze.

We then added a rescue horse called Nina, a 19-year-old beauty, also an ex-showjumper. I found out horses are just giant sized dogs. Nina would loyally follow me around the paddock as I pulled fireweed, and she loved a good pat and a scratch behind her ears. She was so elegant, so graceful.

Just watching these magical animals in their frolicking was a delight. When they galloped in the paddock, it was hypnotising to me, a city girl who'd always wanted to ride but never did. Nina couldn't be ridden due to a back injury which had happened many years ago. But she could run like the wind.

Feeding the donkeys, which we often did as a favour when our neighbours were away, was a military operation. Mumma was a viper who greedily ate her hay, then kicked and bit her children in order to eat their hay. And so strategy was required, using timing and multiple buckets. We won, but it took a lot of planning.

Those years on the mountain were a time of immense pleasure and learning. We had sought out and tried a completely different type of living, and much to my surprise, found we absolutely loved it. We achieved so much in those years, learned so much, provided our children and grandchildren with a taste of country living, which they love as well, although we don't live there any longer.

The most interesting thing to me in looking back to that time is that my whole outlook on life changed for the better. I never thought it possible, but leaving the Big Smoke was the best thing we did. And I had to be cajoled into doing it. Clever hubby!

I now know that every day brings the possibility of adventure, and there is always something new to learn.