Today we’re escaping for the weekend with my author friend, Paula Vince, to South Australia. Paula is giving us a tour of the beautiful Adelaide Hills in the Mount Lofty Ranges. Enjoy!
By Paula Vince
It’s a pleasure to welcome people to my lovely part of the state of South Australia. The Adelaide Hills are part of the Mount Lofty Ranges, situated east of the city of Adelaide. It is one of the first areas to be settled by European settlers, probably because it is such a lush place for crops and gardens. Towns such as Hahndorf and Lobethal were founded by Germans who wished to escape religious persecution in their own country in the mid 1800s. Several of these settlers were my ancestors.
The town of Hahndorf is just a drive down the road for us, and it is full of buildings such as this old sweet shop. I have ancestors buried in the old church cemetery. My grandma was born in what is now an art academy, when it was still a maternity hospital in 1918. My daughter currently has art lessons there.
The scenery along this road is typical of the countryside around the corner from where we live. When I describe the local settings of my novels, I always say that we enjoy four distinct seasons. (Actually, we sometimes suffer them, when the weather is extreme either way, but I don’t mention that.) The colours change all the time.
In winter and spring, it’s easy to find creeks and waterfalls to hike alongside. It’s hard to believe they often completely dry up in our scorching hot summers. Between December and February, it’s not uncommon for us to have heatwaves of ten days or more with temperatures over 40 degrees Celsius.
One of my favourite parts of living in the Adelaide Hills is that we don’t have to go far to find a great view. You can tell the exact spot where the city ends and the beauty of the Adelaide Hills begins. It’s right at the bottom of the South Eastern Freeway, when we suddenly find ourselves driving uphill with cliffs on either side.
The Hills are saturated with history. We accidentally discovered this old chimney when we were out walking recently, along with the foundation of the house it was part of.
Finally, here is my younger son along one of the many walking trails in the Hills toward the end of winter. We thought this puddle looked just like a map of the whole of Australia. I hope you enjoyed this tour with me.
PAULA VINCE is a South Australian author of contemporary, inspirational fiction. She lives in the beautiful Adelaide Hills, with its four distinct seasons, and loves to use her environment as settings for her stories. Her novel, ‘Picking up the Pieces’ won the religious fiction section of the International Book Awards in 2011, and ‘Best Forgotten’ was winner of the CALEB prize the same year. She is also one of the four authors of ‘The Greenfield Legacy’, Australia’s first and only collaborated Christian novel. Her most recent novel, ‘Imogen’s Chance’ was published April 2014. For more of Paula’s reflections, please visit her blog, It Just Occurred to Me. You may also like to visit her book review blog, The Vince Review where she also interviews other authors.
You may also connect with Paula through the following.
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Paula-Vince/112910232067021
Twitter @PaulaVince1
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1111331.Paula_Vince
Her books are sold through the following outlets.
Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Paula-Vince/e/B0070PKTAY/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1411963117&sr=8-1
Deeper Shopping http://www.deepershopping.com/index.php?query=Paula+Vince&x=32&y=14&module=productsearch&_logmode=Y&querymodule=SPX
Barnes and Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s?store=allproducts&keyword=Paula+Vince
Imogen Browne longs to make up for past mistakes before she can move on. She quietly resolves to help the Dorazio family, whose lives she accidentally upset. Her biggest challenge is Asher, the one person who may never forgive her. And he is facing a crisis of his own. Imogen must tread very carefully, as trying to fix things may well make them shatter. A sensitive story about misplaced loyalty, celebrating life and falling in love. Can family secrets concealed with the best intentions bear the light of day?
